Skot Marshall ~ Featured Artist

Skot is another artist found through DeviantArt where he goes by the name Lord Hoki, living on Austrailia’s East Coast Skot works in a variety of media creating a range of drawn, painted and sculpted objects.  Much of his DeviantArt account is taken up with his Hoki range of work such as those pictured below:

Above is just one of a wide range of character sketches featured in Skot’s DeviantArt account.  Aside from the sketches there are also fully worked up paintings (see below) in what is probably best described as, full 21st century technicolour:

I really love the blending and highlighting used in this painting, the background providing a wonderful richly textured contrast with the smooth features of the the face itself.  It could be that I’m attracted to these works thanks to the eyes – eyes being something of an obsession for me – and what eyes these are!  I almost feel like I could fall into them, a real focal point of many of these Hoki works.

If you like these characters painted, then you may well like them painted on t-shirts (below), wear an original work on your chest … I’d pay for that!

It only seems right that the Hoki’s be brought to life in an altogether more 3-dimensional fashion, and so it is we discover Captain Hoki:

The Captain here is a sculpture in papier mache that really fits in with it’s 2-dimensional forebears, the nose and eyes being the main feature with colouring and details in keeping with the designs I’ve already featured here and the others in Skot’s gallery.

Given what’s gone before you may well be forgiven that Skot is something of a one trick pony, yet nothing could be further from the truth and so, before I finish this post I’d like to share a few of Skot’s other works with you.

A pencil sketch entitled “My Dad”, we presume it is … his … not mine!

A couple of bird boxes made from reclaimed and recycled materials … makes me think that the birds we get around where I am are a bit rubbish.  Having said that the Buzzards, Grouse and Barn Owls are pretty cool … oh! and we don’t get deadly spiders, snakes or other nasties!!

As ever I can’t recommend enough that you check out this artists gallery which is available here.

In the eye of the beholder …

Painting, or more specifically, what constitutes a ‘good painting’ is something that has no doubt been contested since the dawn of time when man first began daubing paint on cave walls.  You can almost discern, through the mists of time, the first critic carefully contemplating some abstract image of a hunting party bringing down a mammoth, I  wonder how long he paused before delivering his verdict with the business end of his wooden club … and creative types think the critics now can be harsh!!

Jolene and I spent the day yesterday wandering around the Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Museum, a long day with kids in tow but well worth it for the fantastic range of arts and crafts from across time from Egyptian artefacts, to Scottish pre-history through to reflections on modern society.  The Art Galleries have an extremely fine selection of paintings, not least of all one of Jolene’s favourites, Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John on the Cross, and my own personal favourite, Van Gogh’s, A Portrait of Alexander Reid, pictured below:

Jolene and I actually decided to buy a small framed reproduction of this painting from the museum shop, although we weren’t necessarily so keen to be hanging Jolene’s favourite Dali anywhere in the house!

Coming back from the galleries, and having enjoyed a quiet dinner down at the pub, we came home well fed and well motivated, if for no other reason than it can be difficult to wander around any gallery now without looking at some of the exhibits and wondering just how some of the items can be considered to be art, let alone of high enough calibre to be hung in a prestigious gallery.  Faced with paintings that you feel your three year old could produce given half the chance it’s difficult not to think, I could do that!

So we did!

Jolene started it when she began slapping red paint onto a canvas (7″ x 9.5″), and to be honest I thought that that would be that, I had already named it ‘red paint on canvas’ … a masterpiece to behold and clearly befitting of any up market gallery.  Alas there was no stopping her and she carried on initially by gluing on a foreground and then over-painting this with some actual subject matter, by this point she had already made some of the ‘modern art’ I’ve seen elsewhere look amateurish and so it was she ended up with the picture above.

Meanwhile, I wasn’t about to be outdone by Jolene and had made a grab for my own canvas (12″ x 12″) – typically for me it already had some unfinished rubbish on it – following Jolene’s lead though it wasn’t long until I too had daubed over the canvas with red, indeed I had already named this one too, ‘even more red paint on canvas’ … genius, eh?!

I was kind of perturbed when I saw that Jolene wasn’t going to be content with slapping some paint on the canvas and that I might actually have to put some thought in to what I was doing, I ruminated a some ideas many of which I had to discard as they were too involved, beyond my ability to execute or clearly plagiarised from somewhere else and instead I ended up with this (below).

It’s funny though how ones attitudes change to art as you get older, there was a time when I couldn’t understand how someone might stand and look at a painting for any more than a moment, yet when you actually see some of the true masterpieces in person there is so much to see beyond the bigger picture that it can be difficult not to look at them with a more discerning and focused eye, you don’t need to like everything you see, but you should be able to decide what you like and why.

Just from a general interest point-of-view I thought I would just upload a couple of the other paintings we have hanging around the house.

We were gifted the painting above by Jolene’s mother and father who brought it back from a trip of a lifetime to Nepal.  The one below was picked up during our Holiday last year in Wester Ross from a lady who ran a small shop out of a shed selling soap, her son was the artist and he had produced a few of these paintings featuring a central Celtic Knot design.

It’s a bit like the Hitchcock classic around here

Hitchcock’s, The Birds, was one of my favourite films as I grew up, the eerie notion that birds of all shapes and sizes should be overcome with an insatiable lust for human flesh, attacking young and old alike without provocation and otherwise simply sitting and waiting on some playground climbing frame for their next unsuspecting victim …

… actually, no, it’s nothing like that around here … although we do seem to have an increasing number of slightly suspicious looking birds sitting in the windowsill!  And so it was that I finished my latest papier mache birds.  My latest obsession.

In terms of scale the one in the middle is a tad over 6″ tall at it’s tallest point.  I decided to render these ones in shades of green with the now familiar pattern of white dots, I’ve got a couple more under-way as I type this, although I imagine it’ll be a good few days before I finish them – other commitments such as life tends to throw at you … like blocked drains … ugh!

As ever, these are available to buy from our shop.

No place like home

We were recently gifted this painting by my mother who, after a long period of abstention, has finally lifted a paintbrush again.  Jolene and I were delighted to receive it, not least of all since it’s a painting of our (and our neighbours) house, it’s based on a photo from a couple of years back and features one of my nephews a long with our wee lad and lass.  Of course, all we need to do now is find somewhere to hang it which, given the state of disrepair our home is currently in is easier said than done!!

Typically, the photograph has washed the colours out and no amount of fiddling in the photo editor, with my limited skills, was going to fix that I’m afraid.  Still it was a lovely gesture and Jolene and I will be delighted to hang it … just as soon as we have somewhere to hang it!!

more bonnie birds … an obsession in papier mache!

It’s funny how an idea can sprout wings and take-off (dreadful pun entirely intended), such as it has been with these bonnie birds.  It’s rather refreshing to have something I can make out of papier mache that doesn’t take forever and a day and that isn’t a bowl!  Aside from this pair I’m hatching three more and they should be fully fledged in the next few days (and yes, that was a couple more of dreadful puns that were entirely intended).

This pair seem to be diametrically opposed in terms of form, one’s short and fat and the other a bit leggy with a great fan of a tail, the tail’s something I can see me repeating and refining on future versions.

Of course, like all birds that flock, it doesn’t take long for them to catch-up with more of their own kind …

… I imagine this flock will be growing as they, ahem, get to know each other better … well, it is almost Spring!!

All of these birds are available for sale in our shop.

wise little owls

I made some more little owls for a commission (actually for an old school friend of mine).

These are made from ecospun felt.  I found that wool felt is too thick and it made them a funny shape – it’s probably just me, but it does feel good to make something nice from all those nasty plastic bottles.

Anyway, these are destined for a group of nursery children and I really do hope that they enjoy playing with them as much as I enjoyed seeing their little characters emerging.  Looks like the start of a beautiful owl relationship to me.

I am more than happy to make more of these to order…you can buy them through the shop.

Bonnie Birds!

I’ve been watching Jolene create her fabric finches for months now, I suppose it was inevitable that I would end up taking some inspiration from them and feeding it into what I’m doing myself … indeed, Jolene alluded to as much here.  The WIP previews she gave there though have long since been finished, and discarded on the basis that they were, well, rubbish!

I’m rather proud of the these ones though, the refined and finished product if you will.  Being me, they’re predominantly papier mache with a bit of wire and armature thrown in for good measure before being finished in acrylics and a tough high gloss varnish.

The design is based on some rather fabulous silk that Jolene bought from a seller in India for another project that she’s working on, also from discussions with Jolene about Paisley pattern – a very simplified tear drop has been adopted for the wings here – and I’ve also been listening to some Deva Premal which has no doubt fed in to the general feel of the pieces … although I’ve no idea where she’s from!?!

OK, google sorted out the latter one there … she’s from Germany and wiki says:

is a musician known for her meditative spiritual New Age music, which puts ancient Hindu mantras into atmospheric, contemporary settings.

Am I becoming an old hippy?  Actually never-mind, people were accusing me of being an old hippy before I was even 20 … actually I think the term they used was “weirdo”!!

These Bonnie Birds are available to purchase in out Coriandr shop.

Vintage Button Pendants

I’ve been busy making layered button pendants today from some of my vintage button collection.  These buttons have been collected from various elderly relatives over the years and there are some amazing buttons within that collection, some of which make great pendants within themselves.

I’ve not even scratched the surface of the buttons I have, which makes it really time consuming to come up with combinations.  There must be millions of possibilities.  Here are a few that I’ve made this morning that are now dry.  There are others just waiting for the glue to dry.

All but the last one are available in our Coriandr shop.  I’m not at all happy with the quality of the last one…you can see the glue under the heart button.

Gruber ~ Demon in a waistcoat

I had promised to have this finished by April 2009, so obviously I’m delighted to have finished it before it goes a full year past my own self-imposed ‘due date’!

Like most of his erstwhile and largely forgotten friends Gruber is keen on world domination, although it’s perhaps telling that he and his cohorts are largely forgotten given their compete ineptitude when it comes to matters of actually achieving world domination.  Indeed his most well known cousin, Gravalash, was defeated by his inability to get off a high shelf and whilst such trifling difficulties are unlikely to be of much difficulty to this fellow the complexities of reaching the door handle have limited the range of Gruber and the fulfilment of his innocuous plans.

He dreams of breaking loose and running free as he once did, although he is still haunted by the nightmare of attempting to cross a field of snow that proved to be too cold for his tippy-toes, alas what else is left for him other than to stand at the window and wave at the post lady …

Gruber stands at 18.5″ / 47cm tall, is 16.25″ / 41cm from the tip of one horn to the tip of the other, and is approx 11″ / 28cm deep.

He is available for sale, to a good (and secure) home in our Coriandr shop, here – additional images are also there.

a new bird design

I made a new bird.

The process has been somewhat arduous and there have been many poor deformed creatures along the way.  It’s taken me such a long time of thinking before I finally plucked up the courage to create a new design.  It seems so silly now but I was so pleased with the original bird design (for the fabric finches) that I was scared I wouldn’t be able to produce anything even approaching the quality and that would be a waste of my limited time and materials.

I finally arrived at a flying bird that I am reasonably happy with.  It’s supposed to be a goose but the kids think it looks like a seagull.  I’m pleased that it even looks like a bird at all!

I’m thinking about making a mobile with a whole flock of them.  I think that would be cool.  I say thinking but there’s always a huge gap between thinking and doing so please don’t hold your breath.

Meanwhile, Alasdair has been busy and has been making some very funky paper and wire birds; more on those when they’re finished but in the meantime a picture of them drying following the first coat of paper.