Paintings and other art by Kim Mobey.

The Ghastly Tyranny of Time

2012-01-12T04:53:00.000-08:00

I still cannot get blogger and my Bugberry to agree on anything. I'm thinking of putting one of them on meds.

What I'm trying to say in my obscure little way is that I am running out of time here at the internet cafe so I'm basically just posting as many images as possible with the intention of blogging about each one later. Some are works in progress, some are completed, they're in all sorts of media and all sizes. I'm barely even proofreading this post.

I promise there's a bloody FASCINATING story behind each one and I'll tell you one day. Soon. No, really!

Please forgive my lack of blogging stylistic consistency and stuff. I know I am a bad human being.

*sigh*

Here goes:

Adrienne

2012-01-12T04:41:00.000-08:00

This is a portrait commission I did on heavy bamboo paper. I will never, ever use bamboo paper with watercolour again. Gah! Bamboo paper is amazing to draw on and it's like the bastard lovechild of a roll of toilet cheap paper and an ink blotter as soon as water comes into the equation.

That said, Adrienne is gorgeous and this was a pleasure to draw, even if adding the colour made me want to use the paper for kindling.

I have minimal time to actually blog today as blogger and BugBerry and Telkom are conspiring to make me pay lotsa money for very little result these days. PLEASE stalk me on Facebook for now as all my work ends up there almost as soon as it's done. I even upload work in progress

Prolonging the Agony - and the ecstasy too, for that matter...

2011-12-05T03:16:00.000-08:00

My Exhibition will no longer be ending on the 10th of December this year but rather moving into a beautiful, contemporary space for the duration of the festive season.

Um, YEEEEHAAAA!! :D

*ahem*

The Pieter Wasserman Architecture and Design studio is a gorgeous, light-filled space in the center of Leisure Isle on the Knysna Lagoon. It's also right opposite the Leisure Isle Gallery and coffee shop so I'll be exposed to a wonderfully qualified audience of art-lovers, all in a chatty, going-for-coffee kinda mood!

My poor sister in Cape Town is going to kill me for thwarting her Christmas plans but I'll just have to make it up to her by writing her some more lyrics.

If I Give You the World this Christmas...

(watercolour post-card)

Now my only thought is: do I dare attempt another opening night, or will that melt my brain entirely?

Commissions! :D

2011-12-02T01:38:00.000-08:00

I must apologise for the quality of this photo. I will replace it with a better one soon, I promise.

One of the biggest payoffs of having my exhibition is the amount of PR it has generated and the number of commissions have resulted.

This is a preparatory pencil sketch for a painting but the sketch has turned into a stunning piece in its own right.

I love working from beautiful photographs, especially when the photographer is also the client. The challenge is to produce a piece of art that compares and complements the photograph (which is also a work of art) while also being new and fresh.. The photographer is also very intimately familiar with the subject matter and I feel that I really have to up my game to feel worthy of the trust placed in me.

I do love a challenge! ;)

I'll post the oil painting when it's finished. I'm busy with the underpainting now and it still looks like an amorphous lump.

Alysa on the Beach

(graphite pencil on 200gsm paper - A2)

The Restaurant with the Big Wine Glass

2011-12-01T05:38:00.000-08:00

This painting didn't make it to the exhibition because it was bought before the paint was dry by the amazing owners of Chef Alma's at Groenvlei in Sedgefield where I had my studio in the run-up to my exhibition. :D

Needless to say I was chuffed beyond chuffed and I will be making a longer post with all the photos of the studio they let me set up in their conference hall as well as some images of Alma's epic food. I just about lived on her chicken salad for the month of September.

Om nom nom nom....

I See Myself Reflected
(1.5m x 1m)

Anywhere but here

2011-12-01T03:52:00.000-08:00

So this is the story, not all of it (because I need something to write in the rest of the new posts I have planned and also because it's a loooong bloody story) but enough to partially explain my unexpected silence for such a large portion of this year.

I am divorced. Believe me, nobody was expecting this less than I was but there it is.

The basics are that I left Clive in the middle of the night, ran away to Cape Town because my car broke down and my sister offered to take me in, lived in various friends' homes for 2 months with no income and no clue what to do, stayed in a homeless shelter for a night, got put on anti-anxiety and ant-depressant meds, eventually got the courts to help me get back home and (after a legal wrangle) ended up divorced. All within 4 months.

I am grateful that it was quick.

During all the moving around and paper-shuffling that goes with this type of thing, I lost my ability to upload stuff to my blog, which is probably just as well considering my psychological state at the time (nobody likes a 30 year old emo kid).

Today I logged back in for the first time in a very, very long time and the paintings you see here are just 5 of more than 50 pieces I have on show at the Knysna Art Gallery for my first solo exhibition.

You can bet I'll be uploading more very, very soon! ;)

One thing divorce does, aside from stealing all your time, energy and sanity, is to provide almost limitless material for desolate, angsty paintings. I'm sure you can see this in the works below.

As a result of a very tight deadline and repeated studio relocation, my style has simplified, my subject matter has expanded and my working time has decreased by about 90%. All these are good things. Most of what has happened in the last 6 months has resulted in good things and for that I am also truly grateful.

Was it worth the pain?

I'll let you know when I know.

For now, I'm exhibiting, selling and trying to find stability. So far, so good. :)

After the Fall

Oh, Girl

Sharp Turn

The Haven ( Night-Shelter)

Self-Portrait from Life

My Prolonged Absence - Totally Worth It!

2011-01-28T00:44:00.000-08:00

Self Portrait - chalk pastel on watercolour paper

As you may have gathered from the last post I made, my invasive neighbours and clueless land-lady were getting to me a little bit. As a result, Clive and I went to lawyers, told them they were in breach of contract and law and joyously cancelled our lease.

After a bit of running around, we found a tiny farmhouse and moved to Elandskraal, 10km inland from Sedgefield. It is so beautiful here I want to cry! There are horses. There will be pictures.

Unfortunately I have almost zero internet access. I can check one of my email addresses on my phone and I can access some parts of Facebook. Since the internet is my only news source, I didn't even know about the protests in Egypt or Nelson Mandela's hospitalisation!

I will be trying to upload images and get everything up to date as best I can whenever I can get to a real, grown-up internet connection. For now, Enjoy this pastel self-portrait taken from a photo of me when we were still living in Muizenberg. I did this the other day and it was supposed to be a light sketch to be used as the basis for a watercolour painting but it just turned out so damn well that I'm keeping it as is.

This piece may be included in a group exhibition I'm doing in March/April this year. I'm going to be exhibiting a whole bunch of my latest nudes (which I will also post here when I can).

As always, feel free to comment here, message me on Facebook or send me an email with comments/criticism/flattery/marriage proposals.

Alla Prima vs. the Neighbours

2010-09-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Rondevlei Church School
(Updated 26 Sept -This is the completed painting)

Distractions KILL creativity. Seriously! None the less, I am very pleased with my apparent come-back.

I was unable to paint for about 2 weeks prior to starting this piece (with the exception of a small watercolour cymbidium for the recent orchid show). There was an unpleasant incident where a certain neighbour broke into my property, leading to a very loud shouting match and pretty consistent insomnia for the last month.

Needless to say, my work suffered and I've been a bit distracted.

Latest Painting Technique

My technique has been heading in a direction that both intimidated and stifled me. Photo-realism is all very well but when I tried adding the Flemish technique to get 3D effects I turned each painting into a monumental task. Not only did I have to find the perfect model, the perfect lighting and the perfect theme, I had to be utterly faithful to what I saw and keep everything utterly unmoving for... I'm getting bored just describing the process!

Yuck!

That is why I'm painting alla prima for the next few months. I need to shake off this obsession with glazing and perfect representation of my subject. To that end I just read a fantastic book by watercolourist Alex Powers. Take a look at his work and you'll see the direction I'm heading in.

My Painting Style

I doubt I'll ever settle into a single, clear style as I really believe that each subject demands it's own treatment. do, however, believe in mastering my tools, and style is just another set of tools that I can use as and when I see the need.

Late Night Post - Alla Prima

2010-09-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Halfway done

I am really far too tired to be making any kind of blog post so I'll keep it brief for now and elaborate once I've had sleep and coffee. Forgive grammar, continuity and logic errors, please?

I bought myself some particle-board (at least that's what I think it's called) and primed it. It cost next to nothing so I'm more likely to be willing to experiment and try new things on it

I did a lovely boat painting when I tried alla prima last time so I've decided to complete this entire piece without allowing the paint to dry. Above, you can see what it looks like after about 4 hours of work and 2 layers of paint.

Laying turpentine washes over wet oil paint is a VERY interesting and risky procedure. I've pretty much restricted myself to lots of dry-brush and scumbling with single brush strokes of wash in strategic areas. I then wait for the turps to evaporate (about an hour) before working over that area.

The first layer

More to follow later.....

ZZZzzzzzZZzzz....zz...

Sodding Easel

2010-08-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

My old, portable tripod easel

I've built an easel! I've named it the Sodding Easel - for good reason.

The Old Set-up
I've been painting on a delicate, watercolourist's easel for almost 7 years. It can't hold anything bigger than an A3 canvas with any stability so I've either had to paint on the floor or use a lot of press-stick. My other easels are even smaller, although I do have a broken children's chalk-board tripod that I stole from my little sister when she was about 8 years old (sorry Claire). It holds A2 canvasses but its front legs are about 10 cm long and it has no back leg.

I really needed a new, grown-up, studio easel.

Preparation
So I got all fired up and bought some wood. 4 pieces, 3m in length. 2 wide, 2 narrow) and hauled them off home for assembly. I had no design in mind, I figured I'd easily find something simple online. I wanted something that was easy to put together, strong, required no fiddly, patented thingamajigs and I wanted it to be easily upgradeable, so I can attach new parts and features as I need them.

Google showed me many lovely easels but not many free designs for adults (loads of free, simple plans for short people and kids though and lots of complicated, look-how-clever-I-am plans for master carpenters), and EVERYTHING was measured in inches and feet. :(

So I got bored of research, jotted down a basic H-frame shape and started measuring. No problem. Everything fit and there would be wood left over to give my poor stolen tripod a back leg. I had some big, old, rusty hinges that I covered in Q20 and worked loose with pliers and I had a bunch of screws, bolts and the drill-bits to match.

Then There Was Some Bad Language
Let me start by mentioning that I don't have my big g-clamps anymore. They were given away to some friends who ran a restaurant and needed clamps to hold up the bar. The patrons at the establishment in question were disinclined to hold up the bar in the traditional manner as they were a strangely sober lot - except for the wife-swapping police-man, but I digress.

My beautiful mitre kit was a gift from the wonderful Clive. It handles any angle, it clamps and measures, its blade is amazing but... ...I don't have a stable work bench or desk, or counter (except the one in the kitchen and Clive says I'm not allowed to drill into that, even to secure my precious mitre box). But I am brave and innovative: I sat on the floor, holding down the mitre box down with my feet. I am very glad that Clive did not take photos.

I did all my drilling the same way, on scrap planks on the floor, except the holes in the ends of 4 pieces; those I did with the wood firmly clenched between my knees, like a good girl practicing the penny-trick.

You'd think I'd have lost a finger by now.

Anyway, after all that sitting around in my own saw-dust, I finally got to put the thing together. I did a dry-run, just to make sure everything would fit before I made a mess with the glue. Turns out I didn't have enough screws. (Insert snide, crude comment here.)

I happened to be passing a hardware shop in Knysna so I bought screws there. Checked the sizes and everything. Perfect.

Bah! Tell me: who thought it would be a good idea to put little square holes on the tops of screws where the slots or stars are supposed to be? When I got home I popped one in a likely-looking hole and was rudely confronted with a neat little square hole and the fact that I had found the only packet of square screws I have ever seen. I certainly don't have a little square screw-driver (who does) and none of my alan keys fit either. I improvised with a little computer screw-driver I stole from Clive. (So, in theory, he helped me with the screwing, like a good husband. ;D )

I had to re-drill all the holes as the stupid square screws were also just a fraction larger than my original, sane screws. not a propper half mm bigger, just a re-drill-with-the-same-bit bigger.

It shouldn't have ever worked. I should have lost an eye, or a tooth. There really should have been blood, or at least a minor fracture.

Instead, here is my Sodding Easel, in all its wrong-alan-key-rusty-hinge-dust-on-everything glory. How smug am I feeling? :D

The Sodding Easel

Thank you Rowena!

2010-07-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

The Gift
My beloved mother-in-law, Rowena, gave me an exquisite little moleskin notebook for Christmas last year. It's A5 200gsm, CP, 25% cotton rag. It fits in my bag, my pocket and I can even hold it securely in just one hand. I love it, and her, dearly.

I've been a coward about using it up till now because the paper is just so divine and I couldn't bare to waste it on bad drawings (and pencil sketches get smudged so quickly in my bag). I finally got myself a good, pigment ink calligraphy pen and now I just cannot resist the feeling of the chiselled nib on rough, sized paper and the sight of pure black ink crisply sullying the rich white surface. It feels... decadent :D

The Other Gift
13 years ago I met Rowena's eldest son, I married him 5 years later. I have been trying to draw my husband's face since our first kiss. I've never succeeded.

There is something exceptionally hard about drawing people who are close to you. I struggle to bring my mother's face into my mind with any accuracy. I think we place excessive emphasis on certain features when we know someone well and we don't "see" the spaces and shapes between those features anymore. We can't objectively judge the shapes and values that make up the face.

The New Gift
Finally though, FINALLY, I have drawn an accurate, if mildly unflattering, portrait of my beloved husband! I am finally a portrait artist in my own eyes :D

I caught Clive while he was working on his laptop and therefore oblivious to me and my workmanish stare. He seems happy with it too, although he did ask me "Do I really look that angry?" He really does, at least when he's coding. It usually means he's happy. ;-)

On Display

2010-07-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

Newly mounted and packaged, en route to the Knysna Gallery

Paulo's perfect framing :D

As I move back into the world of art galleries and exhibitions I'm being forced to comply with some conventions: signing my work, compiling strong portfolios and framing. Galleries just won't take a new artist unless the pieces are "right" for that gallery and decently framed; so I'm slowly working through all my finished pieces and getting them "gallery ready".

Garish vs. Eye-catching

As you may have noticed by now, my work often tends to be a bit in-your-face. I like to think of my style as "bold" or "daring" but it can be garish and overwhelming if let myself get carried away.

This has lead to problems when it comes to framing and displaying my paintings: I had one particularly strong painting of an Islamic burqua in a Cape Town gallery a few years ago and the gallery owner ended up hiding in the back room because it just took over every wall she put it on. She loved the painting, everyone did, but it was just impossible to display alongside other artworks. If I can find a photo of the painting, I'll blog about it properly (and soon).

I'm working on refining my technique somewhat to make better use of focal points within each piece, rather than trying to make the enire piece into a focal point. I've had to seriously review some of my old pieces and consign a few to the "archive" shelf. Those that are still interesting to me may need a bit of touching up, even heavy reworking.

Not that I dismiss my older pieces or cringe from bold painting, par contre, I've just realised that not every piece needs to be utterly overwhelming and sometimes the strength of the work can lie in its subtlety.

All Professional & Stuff!
Since moving to Sedgefield, just about every artist I've spoken to has told me to take my work to a framer named Paolo. Given the overwhelming pressure from all quarters, I finally took 5 of my best watercolours to him.

What a difference! The pieces were quite good to start with but seeing them all perfectly mounted, sitting there so prettily in the Knysna Gallery, made me feel like a real artist for the first time in years!

I've just taken a whole lot more work to Paolo to mount and frame. The painting of the fishing boat above was one of the first oils I got back from him. In'nit pretty? ;)

Winter of discontent

2010-07-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Male Torso Study - Chalk pastel on paper

This is one of the few recent pieces that I managed to get onto my computer before everything went pear-shaped. It's a work in progress and I'm not very happy with the light and shadow on the neck and face so I'll fiddle with it a bit and see what happens.

It has been a VERY long time since my last post and I apologise.

My excuses are as follows:

Moving house hurts :(
Stupid local internet providers (Klear Internet Solutions) are arrogant, incompetent jerks! Uploading images is near impossible and even logging in to my blogger account is slow and painful. *grrr*
My phone no longer talks to my PC. This means that all the luverly photographs on my phone have to stay there until I can get a memory card.
My camera went missing, then the batteries went missing. I've finally located both, at the same time! :D
My HP scanner/printer died a miserable death.
Firefox hates me so I've finally (much to Clive's delight) moved to Chrome.
I'm very lazy.

All that aside, I've been working like crazy on my new studio, portraiture and watercolours. I am pleased to announce that I have produced several portraits that bear no resemblance to Picasso's later work (although they bear little resemblance to the people I was trying to paint either).

I will upload and post as much as I can in the next while to make up for my unintentional sabbatical.

Boats, Wood, Canvas, etc...

2010-04-14T23:04:00.000-07:00

My lovely cousin asked me a very interesting question on Facebook and I thought I'd post my answer here. The prices and shop names I mention may not be valid internationally but the general technical info remains the same no matter where you're from. I've even included my latest oil sketch (incomplete) to back up my claims on the validity of Masonite as an alternative to canvas - at least for informal pictures and sketches.

(Most of this info holds true for all mediums but some applies only to oil paint)

Question:

I want to paint again. Do you know where I can get good but cheap canvases in CT [Cape Town]?

Answer:

I've heard rumors of a place in Observatory that sells amazing art supplies for factory prices but I didn't get a chance to check it out before I left so not sure where it is :(

The cheapest option though is actually to go to a hardware store and buy pieces of "Masonite". I just bought a bunch of 40cm x 40cm boards for R8 each. You'll want to put on a few coats of white acrylic (student or craft quality will do) before you start painting as it's dark brown and too absorbent in its default state.

The board has a similar texture to canvas on one side and a very smooth surface on the other so you can choose what you like. Sand the smooth side a bit before you prime or the paint will just come off again.... See more

I've seen Masonite boards used by artists in quite a few galleries and they should hold up well for about 50 years if you prime them properly.

Cheap canvas these days is REALLY cheap (as in 'nasty') but you can get all the smaller sizes from CNA. You'll have to re-prime them with acrylic if you're using oils as the primer that's used on them is way too porous and icky. Most of them are made in China and I don't think the 5-year-old kids who work in the factories there know much about pigment vehicles and sizing....

Anyway, you're looking at between R30 and R70 for CNA canvas boards, slightly more for stretched and mounted canvas.

I have no idea what canvas costs in the rest of the world but I'd welcome info or comments.

In My Experience...

I've tried stretching my own canvases and had some success and some miserable failures so here's a word of warning: NEVER try to paint anything decent on calico, nylon or acrylic fibers or un-primed anything!

Calico and other fine cottons are way too soft, weak and many have actual holes between the threads so your primer goes through to the other side and builds up unevenly in little beaded blobs. Also, it cracks and warps and even tears if you so much as look at it wrong.

Non-natural, or non-plant-based fibers are hopelessly unpredictable. Some will stretch when damp while others will shrink. The thread configuration of some fabrics, such as denim or satin can pull the fabric along the diagonal over time if conditions are not absolutely optimal. Unless you're a fabric painter, never, ever, ever even look at anything that's designed to stretch!

Lastly: Anything un-primed is a waste of your precious paint. Oil paints and solvents can severely damage most fabrics, making them brittle or even rotten over time. If you're painting on wood, paper or board, your oil will sink through the surface, leaving you with dull, flaky, chalky pigment that loses integrity and color in no time. In short, your painting will fall apart.

The other danger with un-primed surfaces is that any chemical, resin, solvent or stain that is present in the surface will end up coming through your paint and damaging the image. This is especially true of knots in wood as they usually contain large amounts of resin which is released as soon as oil or turps gets near it.

Priming

Priming is traditionally done by soaking the canvas, or surface with rabbit-skin glue (eeeew) and then painting several thin layers of gesso over that, sanding lightly in between. New technology allows us to use acrylics which, as long as they have a reasonable quality vehicle (the binder or glue that holds the paint together), should last at least as long as the best prepared traditional surface.

Of course, the best practice would be to prime both sides of any canvas, linen or board to ensure even waterproofing and structural integrity.

Wow! I do waffle on, don't I?

Lumpiness

2010-03-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

Sedgefield is not as flat as Google says it is. It also has a highly trained legion of ninja-mosquitoes; and spiders; and suicidal cyclists.

To be fair, I was warned about the spiders, the rest came as a rather unpleasant surprise – especially the mosquitoes (which I react to very badly). Eventually I succumbed to the human default of killing the little things and I have finally had a few full nights of sleep. I’m still covered in enormous red bumps though.

My studio was overrun with spiders and mosquitoes to the point where all I could do was set up the basic structure. Sitting still for long enough to paint was to invite anaphylaxis or anaemia :(

Fortunately it seems that most carbon based life forms feel a certain aversion to mineral turpentine so as soon as I get some decently noxious fumes going I should be fine ;D

I did manage to join a group of locals for a life-drawing session at the Sedgefield Classic Cars yard in town. (“Town” meaning the 1km stretch of the N2 highway that runs through the town and has shops along the side). I arrived late though so, although I met some great people, there’s not much to show for the experience. I was given paper and loaned a good pencil and eraser by a generous member but I failed to return them and now I can’t for the life of me remember who I’m supposed to return the borrowed items to. (Yes, I just ended on a preposition :P)

The landscapes in this area are unutterably beautiful. There are steep hills and lush valleys, picturesque farmland and golden beaches. There are huge brown moths with mirrored spots - like flakes of sliver-leaf reflecting my face in pieces.

I’ve actually developed a problem with driving here, especially in the hours around dawn and dusk. If I look away from the road and actually see the hills and forests I’m driving through, I get very unfocused and I become a road hazard. It’s reached the point where Clive will tell me “don’t look left” so that I can avoid looking at the scenery and probably interacting with it at high speeds.

Anywhere But Here - Groundless

2010-01-29T01:42:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure where its piece is going. It's taken from a small sketch I did on a scrap of paper about 6 years ago. Somehow the concept was compelling and I kept the paper scrap all this time.

It's pretty big, 1000 x 600 cm so there's lots of space for me to explore but I'm not sure that I'm in the right space for this painting anymore.

You see, I started to paint this (and 2 other pieces) a few days before we found a house in Sedgefield. I was feeling trapped and stuck but all that's changed. Now I feel unstable and groundless. I'm really looking forward to the move on a personal level but, like any move, it certainly has affected me psychologically and that directly influences my painting.

I think that if I try to merge the concepts of groundlessness and stagnation I will either end up with a vacuous waste of canvas or a work of aching brilliance.

I should probably just pack it away and only work on it again once I'm settled in Sedgefield but I'm compelled to keep looking at it, thinking about what goes under his feet, in the sky above his head and what the sun/moon behind him sees.

Portraiture is a Bitch

2009-12-27T05:05:00.000-08:00

The Instigator
A stunningly beautiful girl is the subject of my latest project. Her name is Ronell and she has kindly allowed me to use her as a model for a large canvas.

The problem with this is her face: She is gorgeous and I don't seem to have what it takes to create a reasonable likeness of an actual person.

Why I'm a Useless Artist
This has raised the rather frightening realisation that I've never really worked at portraiture. It's always scared me because I feel like there is so little margin for error. I always make the nose too long, the eyes squiff or the mouth too small.

I was starting to really get comfortable with beating myself up for my incompetence when I suddenly realised that my "problem" was precisely what caricature artists abuse to create exaggerated likenesses of their subjects.

Ergo:
I have decided on my latest artistic experiment: I am learning caricature and cartooning. I don't see this as an end in itself but I think it will make an invaluable weapon in my arsenal of super-cool art skills.

My poor friends and family will just have to get used to the idea of being drawn with embarrassingly large heads, ears and noses.

Open Studio - 22 and 23 December

2009-12-19T04:36:00.000-08:00

Drop in for a glass of wine and a look at my latest work - finished and unfinished. I will be in my studio, painting and chatting with anyone who decides to visit.

Some of my finished work will be on sale if you're looking for a particularly special holiday gift ;D

A small requested donation of R10 will help me cover the the wine and nibbles. You're not obliged to give me money but it makes me deeply happy when you do :D

I'm leaving Cape Town for Knysna at the end of February 2010 so this may be the last opportunity for you Cape Town dwellers to visit my studio for quite some time. More on that later ;)

How to get here

You know where Muizenberg is, right? You know that big pavilion building with the huge red roof? Well, my place is just across the road from that. It's the building with the pharmacy on the one corner.

To get to my flat, call me on my cell when you're in front of the Balmoral Building (that's the entrance next to the Balmoral Restaurant and Rustenberg Pharmacy) There will be a sign in the window with my phone number, just in case you forget it. You can also email me for more details. My address is Kim at Mobey dot co dot za. Or call

The latest version of "Self Portrait LEarning Kshanti"

2009-11-25T11:16:00.001-08:00

Almost Done!!

On each side you can see the photos I'm working from. The painting in the centre is definitely looking good.

The colours in the painting will theoretically end up being slightly stronger than the photograph as the lighting was very poor when Clive took the shot. The Flemish technique is also making the painting look a lot deeper and more realistic than the photo. It's as if the blanket pokes out of the canvas and I can touch it.

The duvet under me is currently transitioning from blue to something else. I'm not sure where I'm going with it yet though.

Curled Male drawing

2009-11-02T05:16:00.000-08:00

This little charcoal sketch was lying in among a bunch of other drawings and in a box that I dug out of my cupboard recently. I really want to make a partner piece for the pink Curled Female painting but I'm hestant as I've go so much on the go at the moment.

I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to trust the gallery system again. Having had so many of my paintings stolen while they were in galleries, sometimes even stolen by the galleries themselves, I'm hesitant to submit myself to the snobbery, profiteering and general risk I run by allowing other people to take control.

For now, I'm very happy to have an open studio and allow people to come and view my finished paintings and my works-in-progress. I feel like it helps people to connect with the art and it adds value to the work itself, not to mention that I get to control storage, transportation and distribution. It also means that I can set my prices based on my own criteria, rather than overpricing works and not moving them fast enough to make space for the new stuff.

Along the same lines, I've started participating in some of the local art/craft markets since it's nice to get out a bit and hang out with arty people. I'm selling quite a few things including prints of my paintings and some of the smaller watercolour, ink and pastel works. I'll post a few pics of all that stuff in my next blog entry.

So far I've been to 2 markets and covered all my costs, and made a small profit, despite the season being unusually slow (or so the other stall-holders have told me). The Obs Holistic Fair was a really nice environment and I had a great day; selling stuff, chatting to other stall-holders and artists and even getting some painting done in between!

I also learned a lot about what I need to set up for the next market, especially if I'm unfortunate enough to be given an outdoor stall space in the nightmarish Cape Town wind!

Lots to do now so I'm off to take photos for my next post.

The Blond Ponytail

2009-10-12T14:58:00.001-07:00

The scan of this postcard-sized piece came out better that the painting itself, although my version of "better" may well differ from yours ;D

I've been trying to assimilate info about painting in watercolours for the last while and my mom brought me the most exquisite catalogue of paintings of Venice by Alexander Creswell who had an exhibition at the Portland Gallery in London last year. Looking through the catalogue, I must have spent about 10 minutes staring at each painting, trying to assimilate the details, understand the brushstrokes and masking techniques.

This piece is a scrap compared to the magnificence of Creswell's Venice but it's a big step forward for the Kim-ness (who has struggled to even paint a sphere in this medium until very recently).

I'll be selling this painting and others (possibly including some oils and prints of some of my bigger work) at the 350 drive hosted by the Communitree creative group on Palmer Road in Muizenberg on Saturday the 24 of October. I'll also be actively painting there for most of the day, so come down if you want to watch me make an oh-so-pretty mess!

Facebook Censorship of my Painting

2009-09-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

In an interesting and aggravating development, someone who works for Facebook has added this blog to the Facebook pornography blacklist and I'm no longer able to post links to blog updates. They also deleted Look at Me from my Paintings album without notice, meaning I lost all the lovely criticism and commentary I'd received on the piece.

There was an official looking message stuck to the top of my home page for a while, warning me that I was not allowed to post "pornography or nudity" because there were "children" on Facebook. The huge notification box had a little check box I was obviously expected to submit to acknowledge that I'd read their ignorant, arrogant little message. Of course, I refused to acknowledge it and it went away by itself :D As far as I'm concerned, if any child reaches the age where they're using Facebook and they have not yet seen an oil painting of a nude human, their mind has already been cruelly abused by the knuckle-dragging neanderthals who call themselves mom & dad!

The thing that really got my goat is that there are several full-frontal nudes on Facebook that were uploaded to several art groups including Michelangelo's David and several rape scenes by Peter Paul Rubens. I spent an evening looking through all the big art groups and "reporting" works by famous artists like Picasso, Dumas and Da Vinci for nudity/pornography. It made me feel a lot better (since I know even the most primitive WOW addict can't get away with censoring Picasso) but my own painting is still gone and the valuable comments have been forever lost. The officious little box disappeared but I have yet to receive any form of apology from the ignorant plebs who censored the painting.

Anyway, here she is in all her finished glory.

I will try to post a link to this blog entry on Facebook and report back here to let you know if my blog is still blocked

Self Portrait, Learning Kshanti

2009-09-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

This is my latest work in progress.

The word "Kshanti" means "patience" and is a part of the Buddhist teachings on The Six Paramitas (Perfections). Learning to meditate requires one helluva lot of it!

"Learning kshanti" is also a snide remark on my own imperfect self image; something about learning to be patient with my body as well as my mind. I think that's the primary reason that this had to be a nude.

Screamer

2009-09-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is an older piece from 2004 or 2005. Only A4 in size.

Curled Female - now complete

2009-09-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

Remember what I said about my sore hand?

Right!

I'll add tons of fascinating info when I'm not in agony.

(She's so pretty though, don't you think?)

Corvid - now complete!

2009-09-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

The crow is done!

I'm not able to write a decent post at the moment as my right hand is totally buggered :(

I hope it's just a sprained wrist!

Shadowed Torso

2009-08-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

This A4 sized piece was painted somewhere around 2001. It was painted over an even older picture (I can't remember what the original pic was), possibly making this one of the first canvases I ever owned.

This image was sourced (I think) between 1994 and 1996 from old Playboy magazines that my neighbour used to keep piled up behind his house.

He was media director for a large advertising firm so he would get sent free copies of almost all the magazines printed in SA at the time and just pile hundreds of them on the paving under a section of roof that jutted out over a corner of his garden. I'd nip over the fence after school and plunder the piles for usable pictures. I was 15 and I was just damn lucky to have access to free nudie-mags since I was highly unlikely to be allowed access to any nude models besides my mom (whom I never asked to sit for me).

This particular piece was one of the first I had accepted into the galleries in central Cape Town. I painted a partner piece for it which sold very quickly but, frustratingly, this piece was almost sold enough that I eventually just took it home. After all, what's the use of almost selling; besides wasting gallery space and distracting people from my other work?

The joy of a blog is that I have infinite gallery space and I can now show her off to my little heart's content :D

PS: Cape Town photographer and poet, Arno Breedt, asked if he could use this piece to illustrate a poem on his new site. Arno is a fresh creative talent with a blog dedicated to creatives from all fields. My Afrikaans is pretty abysmal so you'll have to tell me what you think ;-) Click here to see the poem on Arno's blog.

My studio wall

2009-08-22T12:44:00.000-07:00

I like keeping my work on the wall when I'm actively busy with it but if I'm really sick of a piece I'll hide it away somewhere, let my brain work on other things, then take it out weeks later. Usually this method lets me see any major flaws I've missed as well as fresh solutions to problems that baffled me during the first round.

It also stops me from snapping brushes and putting sharp objects through the more disobedient works.

I have no doubt that as time goes on my studio wall will be a lot more... busy... than this. Hopefully not so abused that I have to repaint the lounge though ;-)

Curled F

2009-08-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

The painting is actually called "Curled (female symbol)" but I'm too tired to figure out how on earth to get the symbol thingies to work in Blogger.

Something I've been delighted to discover is that taking photos of my work gives me a huge perceptual advantage. I almost get to see the entire work anew since I'm looking at it in a completely new medium. This lets me find technical faults very fast.

Looking at her again I can see that her feet are way too small and her shoulder just looks wrong (although Clive pointed out the shoulder thing already). I can also play around in Photoshop/Gimp etc. to see how I can fix her without ruining anything .

I think I should also play with the previous painting on the computer, just to figure out what I can do in the boobs vs jaw tussle.

La Petit Mort

2009-08-17T16:53:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know the name is passé but it's late and I needed a title for the blog post. If you have any fresher ideas for a name, please leave a comment or go to the contact form on my copywriting site and crap me out for being unoriginal. (http://www.mobey.co.za/contact-me.html)

This is a work in progress so it may change substantially before I consider it "done". To start with, I need to do quite a bit of restructuring as far as perspective goes. I love the light and the emotion of it but I think her chest is too close and her head is too far away. also, I have yet to include any hint of a face besides the jaw. A hint of cheekbone and brow/nose may fix the perspective problems.

What's slowing me down the most with this piece is the black paint. I'm using "lamp black" which gives a pure, deep black with even the thinnest coat. It also has a wonderfully high permanence. The problem is that the stupid stuff takes forever to dry; I'm talking weeks here! In the mean time this little piece is sitting on one of my prized dust-free drying shelves, taking up space that could go to other, more compliant paintings.

It makes me grumpy.

Corvid

2009-08-17T16:44:00.001-07:00

Another work in progress: the feet are missing and I need to add some fine detail to the feathers and beak.

Here you can also see my current method of working. I've been out of practice for so long that I'm giving myself a head-start by using a very fine grid to work in. (Each block is 1" x1") I'll use bigger grids by next month and by Xmas I should be rid of the crutch completely.

I want to do a series called "The Flight of Crows" but this first one is a small piece dedicated to a beloved, friend.

Yes, you know who you are ;)

That which Fails to Thrive

2009-08-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

The name of this painting turned out to be oh, so ironic.

At the time I painted it I was living in Sea Point, broke and experimenting with media, especially new types of paint. I stretched a piece of light calico and primed it with PVA. I painted in this "canvas" with student acrylic. I know, I really should have known exactly what would happen.

So, what did happen?

Utter failure :D

Barely 4 years later and look at the pathetic state of the poor thing:

Here you can see a detailed shot of the inherent cracks (as well as some damage wrought by the stupid storage company).

I've tried several experimental canvasses and had great successes with some. A few turned out to be utter failures and still others never made it past the "I wonder what would happen if I..." phase.

Fortunately I can now afford the lazy option of buying ready-made canvasses from art shops. I'm sure some brands are inferior to the best canvasses I've stretched myself but all of them are pure gold compared with the poor, dead thing that this piece turned out to be.

Chapman's Peak Drive

2009-08-11T07:38:00.001-07:00

This piece was done just after I got back from Italy and London. Once again I chose a rather dark subject for this ink painting: the sun setting behind Chapman's Peak Drive, the notoriously dangerous but gorgeous road carved into the mountains between Noordhoek and Hout Bay in Cape Town.

Positano Hotel

2009-08-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

This A4 sized piece was one of my earliest attempts at ink on paper, as you can see from the manic fussiness. I'm still prone to over-controlling inks but I guess that serves me right for painting mainly in oils.

My trip to Positano with my mother was an amazing experience and had some amazing experiences there.

The reason for the trip? My beautiful Australian cousin decided to have her dream wedding, which involved Italy, a tiny chapel on a cliff on the Amalfi coast with an awe-inspiring view out over the Mediterranean and 2 yachts racing into the sunset - kid you not! It was utterly stunning and I still feel so lucky to have been there. During the wedding itself I was very dignified until the musicians played Saint Saens"La Cygne", at which point I blubbed like a 4 year old! (It is, after all, the most beautiful piece of music in the world.)

While I was in Italy, in between acting like a bond-girl and fighting off getting felt up by every Italian male who could sneak close enough, I took some wonderful source photographs which I've been slowly turning into ink paintings. In the beginning I was very clumsy and rough but I rapidly warmed to the medium. I'll never be a fantastic watercolourist but some of the paintings I turn out are quite acceptable.

Thank you for the feeedback!

2009-08-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

Since this blog went live and I posted the announcement I've had some really useful crits and a whole load of support and encouragement from some pretty fabulous people. (you know who you are!)

I'm so sorry that comments on my blog posts are restricted to openID users but I'm more than a little spam-phobic. Please feel free to send me a message on Facebook (just search for "kim mobey"), or you can email me at the email address hidden in this picture of my studio.

Did I happen to mention that I'm spam-phobic?

OK, look at the time on this post: it's almost 2am and I've just started to get my sleeping pattern normalised!

bed time!

Thank you again everyone. Please keep the feedback coming if you can find time to let me know what you think.

*addendum: Blogger seems to automatically change the time of the entire post every time I so much as proofread the damn thing. I promise this post was originally written at 2am.

Studio shot - Exterior

2009-08-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a shot of my studio from the outside. It's just a separated space in my lounge but it serves its function and it has a semi decent view. It isn't a patch on some of the great spaces I've set up and worked in before but I guess that serves me right for neglecting art for so long!

Yellow Droplets

2009-08-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

This falls under the definition of "Ooooh, fun!" As long as the light is coming from the right direction, the droplets look wonderfully realistic. I painted it as a bit of a practical joke but liked it so much that I've kept it.

The first time I passed it to Clive I held it carefully and pretended to "spill" it; geeky amusement ensued!

Red City

2009-08-08T15:18:00.000-07:00

Somewhat abstract and somewhat political, mostly just enormous fun with a pallet knife ;D

"She smells like angels ought to smell"

2009-08-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

This chalk pastel painting is a tribute to Sin City, one of my favourite movies of all time. At some stage I would really love to paint tributes to Fight Club, Serenity and a bunch of my other favourites.

I loved Sin City and Marv's description of Goldie played in my head like a mantra while I worked on this piece; his gratitude and utter loyalty to her after her one small act of kindness. She was never anything less than a goddess in his eyes, even when he learns the whole truth about her, he still loves her.

It's a very tragic and very human story about two unimportant people who somehow change their world, even though it brings them no salvation.

Step Carefully

2009-08-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

This tiny painting feels both hopeful and sad to me. There is the determination of the individual who placed the rough planks for a dangerous crossing over the ancient structure, the beckoning call of the road ahead and the pink sky that could easily be both dawn and dusk.

study in red

2009-08-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

I can't settle on a name for this chalk pastel figure. He's very beautiful and a little bit sad, or possibly just tired. He seems a bit to primal to be a religious figure and a bit too incomplete and contemplative to be an object of lust.

Deep Shade

2009-08-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

This was one of my first ink pictures, done after a trip to London to visit my mom. We went to visit a friend in the South Downs for a day and took a trip into the picture-perfect countryside.

Ripped

2009-08-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

"Ripped" is a pun: his stomach is already and his pants soon will be!

;P

Curled

2009-08-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

I love the "curled" theme and I plan to do many more pieces exploring the way the human body folds in on itself so protectively.

Anywhere but Here

2009-08-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

This is a recurring theme that I keep coming back to in various formats and styles. "Anywhere but here" is one of my favourite concepts and I have several paintings that I just couldn't call anything else.

Unfunny Valentine

2009-08-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

Actually, it is kinda' funny. I painted this when Clive and I were in a very good space, happy and very much together. I did paint it for Valentine's day though, inspired by all the angst I saw around me from single people who were otherwise the picture of happiness.

Somehow when Valentine's day rolls around, anyone who's single seems to go on a bender, either angry, defiant or just tearful, Valentine's day seems to mean a lot more to those who aren't sharing it with someone.

Since I painted this, Clive and I have boycotted Valentines, wearing black, acting grouchy in public and generally trying to diffuse all the commercial "romance" generated by mass media.

I think of it as a sustained piece of performance art ;)

Elephant Mother and Child

2009-08-08T11:57:00.001-07:00

This piece has a history!

My wonderful baby sister gave me a canvas as a birthday gift when I was in high school and I was utterly chuffed. Tried several times to make something beautiful happen on this particular canvas as I felt it was really special. Unfortunately my adolescent skills weren't very 1337 and I just ended up painting a dull picture of some squash and a butternut. Not that there is anything wrong with still-life in general, but my rendition, in this case, sucked!

The painting languished in the back of a closet for several years until had a flash of inspiration and a dire need for a fresh canvas. Yes, I painted over the butternut. *shock, horror*

The piece as it stands now was originally painted as part of an exchange with a friend who designs jewelry. she gave me a gorgeous necklace and I agreed to do a painting of elephants for her sister who'd just had a baby.

I found the old canvas with the beleaguered butternut and plopped 2 gorgeous elephants over it... then my heart hit the floor. Once it dried the top layer of paint refused to adhere to the initial painting.

A few months before I'd lost my biggest and best painting ever to another stupid technical mistake. A few months before that, several of my best paintings were taken by gallery owners who decided to close up shop without bothering to return my paintings (all of which were on consignment so I made not a penny). All of that had made me very despondent and I'd already decided to give up on painting for a living and get a "real job".

Now came this horrid sinking feeling as I easily scratched away a patch of paint at the top of this beautiful picture. I couldn't bare to tell my friend and we just lost contact as I'd moved to Muizenberg in the mean time.

After about a year in Muizenberg, Clive and I moved to a much smaller place and I put almost all my art in storage, including the Elephant Mother and Child. After about a year of paying a fortune to the storage people and worrying about all the books and paintings they had, We decided that we'd had enough and Clive went to haul all our stuff back home. We figured we'd make a plan and find space for everything eventually.

We were right to worry: The storage people sucked! Dents, mildew, crushed corners, battered boxes and ruined paintings... I was livid. Fortunately this painting only had some minor stretching to the canvas, quickly fixed with steam. I happened to look more closely at the scratched area of paint and was chuffed as all hell to note that the two paint layers seemed to have finally made friends with each other. I still don't trust the integrity of the piece to last 300+ years (the expected lifetime for a well executed oil painting), but I'm sure it will handle about 100 years before it gets recycled.

The end of the long and convoluted history of this piece is that my friend noticed it on Facebook and is still willing to take it and forgive me for my idiocy. I truly hope that her sister and the new baby will like the painting and enjoy it for a few decades at least.

Look at Me!

2009-08-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

Isn't she just too beautiful? I was actually quite shocked while painting her at how much I seem to have learned while not painting over the last few years!

As you can see this is a work in progress: her arms and shirt are very roughly sketched in and her face looks a bit too much like a Barbie doll to be a real girl.

I just love how bold she is, revelling in her own beauty ;) It's a sight that evokes both lust and jealousy as well as my protective instinct; keeping the whole painting nice and complicated despite the simplicity of the composition.

Starting a Dancer

2009-08-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

I finally set up my little studio in my lounge. This has nowhere near the equipment and storage place I've been used to when painting but that serves me right for not painting for so long!

It's been over 3 years since I seriously took brush in hand for the purposes of creating art. I've turned out a couple of promising paintings in isolation but never had the courage to set up my studio after all the shit that went down with my paintings in Cape Town in 2005 and 2006. More on that later.

For now, I'm going to start adding more shots of my precious new art space here on the beach-front in Muizenberg!