Two of this month’s daily prompts: 17, MATERIAL WORLD (as a pattern), and 20, LINE, found their way into the same artwork this last week.
The image of the sea was taken here at the coast, then combined with a pattern from the interior of our car. Layered together, the crinkled, patterned surface of the plastic became the texture of the water. Both beautiful and toxic at the same time.
The resulting image I have named: The standard (automotive-grade) plastic sea.
This work is a demonstration of how you never quite know where creativity will appear. Work through the prompts and inspiration finds you.
Join in at #COLCP26 and check out the prompts here.
As the heat builds and summer arrives, it felt like the right moment to re-share two older pieces from the COAST of LIGHT collection, Zahara de los Atunes, down the coast from Cádiz.
Zahara is a small fishing village known for its long, wild beach and its history of tuna fishing using the ancient almadraba technique, still practised along this stretch of coast today. It’s one of mine and Anna’s favourite places in the province, and Anna’s favourite place for a swim over the years. The water is just different there.
The first artwork looks out to sea: the sand, the ripples, and the colours of the sky blended together. The second looks back from the beach towards the village, in the same style. Both images created by simply layering photos, the natural colour and light of Zahara doing the rest.
Different views of the same place, capturing the simple beauty of Zahara.
Both available now in the shop, in sizes to suit any wall. https://coastoflight.etsy.com ___ A medida que el calor aprieta y llega el verano, me pareció el momento adecuado para volver a compartir dos piezas de la colección COAST of LIGHT, Zahara de los Atunes, costa abajo desde Cádiz.
Zahara es un pequeño pueblo pesquero conocido por su playa larga y salvaje, y por su historia de pesca de atún mediante la antigua técnica de la almadraba, todavía practicada en este tramo de costa. Es uno de los lugares favoritos de Anna y mío en la provincia, y el lugar preferido de Anna para bañarse a lo largo de los años. El agua allí es simplemente diferente.
La primera obra mira hacia el mar: la arena, las ondas de la marea, y los colores del cielo fundidos entre sí. La segunda mira hacia atrás desde la playa hacia el pueblo, en el mismo estilo. Ambas imágenes creadas simplemente superponiendo fotografías, dejando que el color y la luz natural de Zahara hagan el resto.
Distintas vistas del mismo lugar, capturando la sencilla belleza de Zahara.
At a recent Create & Connect art session, we completed the Wartegg Drawing Completion Test, devised by psychologist Ehrig Wartegg in 1934. The idea is simple. A series of lines and shapes. You complete them. You reveal yourself. You can read more about it here.
What emerged from it, after sitting with the drawings for a while afterwards, was a need to write it all down, what were the drawings telling me about myself. The result is this poem. It is called The Aesthete (due to a different personality test) and explores my needs and identity.
Needs Analysis of The Aesthete
I need space, to process internally. I need emotional space: emotionally rich, but not emotionally loud. I need to express my emotional movement. I seek beauty. I seek new and different. I seek the wonders of the world around me.
I need clear and defined. I need reliability, clarity and low drama. I need emotional distance. I seek positivity.
I need focus, discipline, and a sense of forward movement. I need a system of structured freedom. I need fairness, rules, or strategy. I need a few rules I can break. Are you bored reading this yet? I seek art forms that reinforce my optimistic outlook.
I need well-matched. I need grounded expression and balance. I seek sound. I need to be quietly fulfilled. I seek colour.
I need peace, perspective and possibility. I need quiet happiness, nature and imperfection. I seek to wash away the dust of every day life.
I need real and alive. I seek real and alive. I feel real and alive.
The image attached to this post came later: a wall by the bus stop, a face emerging from the cracks, and written in someone else’s hand: En esta esquina, grita conmigo, que haya paz en el mundo. On this corner, shout with me, let there be peace in the world.
It felt like The Aesthete had found a wall to live on.
Words By Clarence Greenway for Heronbam Books. Image created by Coast of Light.
As the temperature rises, some recent photographs have found their way into this new piece, a first swim at the beach, and a dried flower I passed on the way there. Layered together onto a Jasmine White background, the result feels very much like the area right now, especially in the early morning, when the light is soft and the beach is still yours alone.
A medida que suben las temperaturas, algunas fotografías recientes han encontrado su camino en esta nueva pieza, un primer baño en la playa, y una flor seca que encontré de camino. Superpuestas sobre un fondo Blanco Jazmín, el resultado evoca muy bien el ambiente de la zona en este momento, especialmente por las mañanas, cuando la luz es suave y la playa todavía es tuya.
JASMINE WHITE: the background, the space between things. COASTAL STRAW: dry grass in the heat, the colour of July arriving early. MAR ESMERALDA: the sea on a clear morning, deep and still. ALMADRABA, warm terracotta skin, the ancient tuna fishing grounds of the coast.
Use them however you like. A wash of background colour, a single brushstroke, a filter, a frame. The prompts this month and every month can be found here.
