Monotony

Here in the UK it feels to most of us that the restrictions and lockdowns are going on and on forever. It can seem as though all the days are merging together and a lot of people are getting rather bored and fed up. So here is my artists take on a few suggestions of things to do to break up your day, inspired by some of my paintings.

The Night Garden

We have had some very varied weather recently, to say the least! So going out in the garden – especially at night – might not be top of your list of activities. But there is always something otherworldy about places at night time. Our gardens, so familiar in the daytime can look completely different after dark. Wrap up in a coat and blanket, take a hot drink and a folding chair, and look at the stars, or watch for animals, or just observe the light from a full moon. It’s not exacly a week in the Algarve, but at this point I’ll take what I can get! This link will take you to a list of more night-time inspired art: https://www.darksky.org/7-pieces-of-art-inspired-by-the-night-sky/

Still Life

Interior With Mirror, Dye and acrylic on canvas, 113 x 100 cm

Create a still life scene. Whether you are an artist or not, drawing from a still life can be a very meditative process. As a painter it is important to keep practicing those observational skills, and drawing or painting everyday objects…… It can also help us to see the mundane from a new perspective and appreciate the small things in life. Don’t worry if you’re not an artist, you can give it a go anyway; it doesn’t need to be a great work of art! Or take a photo if that’s more up your street. There are lots of drawing tutorials doing the rounds online at the moment, but I was quite taken with the photographs taken by a travel photographer in lockdown.

Collage

Calypso, Mixed media on canvas, 163 x 154 cm

The painting above was created using sections of other canvases. So if drawing is really not your thing, but you fance doing something creative, collage can be a very accesible medium, and gives great results. You can use unsuccessful paintings or sketches (perhaps from the previous activity!); old fabrics from torn clothing; magazines, old notebooks or any other bits of paper; anything you can find really. Cut them, or tear them up randomly and arrange the pieces before sticking them down. For inspiration I recommend the great Matisse of course, Kurt Switters, and Anne Ryan.

Window With Landscape

With your new found creative skills, you could try creating an observation from your window. One of the lasting impressions of this time is being inside looking out, and a picture of that view could be an interestig record of this time – because as far off as it may feel right now, one day we will be looking back on this time as a memory! It needn’t be a realistic drawing, the painting above is an abstract interpretation of a view from a window, using the basic shapes and colours as a starting point.

Gallery Wall

More of a patron than a painter? Buy some paintings or prints from an artist you like (ahem!). You could spend all the money you saved on that trip to the Algarve supporting the arts. From local artists to National Galleries, all could use a few of your coins right now. Instagram is a great place to find undiscovered artists, or websites such as Saatchi and Rise Art. If your walls already look like the RA Summer Exhibition, maybe have a rehang. Take all of your pictures down , get them dusted and cleaned up, and then try them out in different positions. Channel your inner curator and maybe hang some unusual or juxtaposing pieces together. This may take all day, but when you’re done you can have a large glass of red and admire your handiwork. Now at least you will have something new to look at while you sit indoors twiddling your thumbs!

Listen to music

Catedral Listening to Bruckner, Dye and acrylic on canvas, 180 x 127 cm

After all that hard work you’ll be in need of some rest, so put on your favourite music and put your feet up. But music can be a great inspiration and motivator too. I often listen to music while I paint, and many of my paintings have been influenced by pieces of music, or composers. Abstract art and classical music, for me are the only two mediums that are able to transport the viewer or listener beyond the concrete world. They say things that cannot be expressed in words, and transport you to another space. You can take a look through the blog category titled Music Box to see some examples of my musical inspired paintings. One of my favourite composers Schubert, inspired me to create a series of illustrated books, based around his three song cycles.

I hope that helps somewhat – or at least kept you entertained for the past 5 minutes! Stay safe and good luck!

Die Schone Mullerin

I have just completed the third book of illustrations based on Schubert song cycles. Winterreise was the first Schubert book I created, followed recently by Schwanengesang. This third book reflect Schuberts first song cycle Die Schone Mullerin based on the poems by Wilhelm Muller.

Below are a few of my paintings, accompanied by excerpts of the text, translated by Celia Sgroi. You can also read more about my process in creating the paintings for all three books here.

David Armitage The Beautiful Miller’s Daughter Die Schone Mullerin

Wandering is the miller’s joy,
Wandering!
A man isn’t much of a miller,
If he doesn’t think of wandering,
Wandering!
1. Wandering

Did she send you to me?
Or have you enchanted me?
I’d like to know,
Did she send you to me?
4. Gratitude to the Brook

Now shake off the veil of dreams
And lift yourselves fresh and free
In God’s bright morning!
The lark circles in the sky
And sings from the depths of its heart
The sorrows and cares of love.
8. Morning Greeting

What is the hunter doing at the mill stream?
Bold hunter, stay in your forest preserve!
There’s no game here for you to hunt,
There’s only a doe here, a tame one, for me,
And if you want to see the dainty doe,
Leave your rifle behind in the woods,
And leave your barking dogs at home,
14. The Hunter

Oh green, you hateful color, you,
Why do you keep staring,
So mocking, so proud, so pleased by my pain,
At me, a poor pale man?
17. The Hateful Colour

And when love frees
Itself from pain,
A little star, a new one,
Twinkles in the sky;
And three roses spring,
Half red and half white,
That never wither,
From the thorny stem.
And the angels cut off
Their wings
And every morning
Go down to earth.
19. The Miller and The Brook

Die Schone Mullerin will be available soon and will join Winterreise and Schwanengesang on my online shop, where you can also purchase original paintings and prints.

If you are interested in a particular work, please contact me.

Below is a short excerpt of Schubert’s Die Schone Mullerin, performed by Thomas Quasthoff at the Verbier Festival in 2009

Puppets Series

These works represent a lifelong fascination with the powerful imagery of puppetry in all it’s manifestations. It started when I began working in the theatre at the ripe old age of 22. The puppet shows were, and still are, an international creation, wonderfully rich and varied throughout its long history. Another world.

Puppets from Giordano Ferrari in Parma, Italy

Puppets can at once be joyful, humorous, dramatic, dark, and even sinister. From shadow puppets to marionettes and a huge variety of other forms, puppets and puppetry dates back thousands of years and across many different countries and cultures.

They also have a place in art history, with puppets created by artists such as Paul Klee and Kurt Schmidt.

Puppets by Paul Klee and Sasha Morgenthaler

In these strange times, restricted, quarantined, we are trapped, full of life and yet unable to move freely. There is also an air of surrealism, not only in the context of this pandemic, but in politics and society as a whole.

Below are some of my recent works, completed during isolation, but they are part of an ongoing body of work featuring puppets and masks, and sharing some commonalities with other bodies of work such as my Victims series and Shrines series.

Shadow Puppet, Acrylic and dye on canvas, 100 x 75 cm, David Armitage, 2020

Warrior Rod Puppet, *Acrylic and dye on canvas, 120 x 75 cm, David Armitage, 2020*

Hanuman, rod puppet (wayang golek), West Java, Indonesia, early to mid 1900s, wood, cloth – Fowler Museum – University of California, Los Angeles

Bride, *Acrylic and dye on canvas, 100 x 75 cm, David Armitage, 2020*

Puppet Theatre with Child, *Acrylic and dye on canvas, 100 x 75 cm, David Armitage, 2020*

Victim, *Acrylic and dye on canvas, 100 x 75 cm, David Armitage, 2020*

Child with House, *Acrylic and dye on canvas, 100 x 75 cm, David Armitage, 2020*

Cat with Hat, *Acrylic and dye on canvas, 100 x 75 cm, David Armitage, 2020*

Falstaff, *Acrylic and dye on canvas, 100 x 75 cm, David Armitage, 2020*

Uncertain Times

Firstly I hope all of my followers are safe and well at this difficult time and I wish you all the best.

It is looking likely that my next exhibition, due to hang at the end of May will be postponed. I hope to have more definite information soon, and will keep you updated. In the meantime, here are a few paintings which I hope will be in the exhibition WHEN it happens!

Also I have a new item in my shop – my latest book Swanengesang. More on that later. Please do keep following my blog and instagram, where I shall try to give you beautiful things to look at. Art can be a great comfort and fulfillment for the soul as well as keeping the brain active, so I shall try to do my part the best way I can.

Gethsemane, Dye and acrylic on canvas, 160 x 140 cm

Transfigured Night, Dye and acrylic on canvas, 162 x 140 cm

Refugee, Mixed media on canvas, 100 x 75 cm

Illustration from Winterreise, Mixed media on paper, 36 x 55 cm

Pigeon Post, Illustration from Schwanengesang, Mixed media on paper, 27 x 76 cm

Still Life with Ginger Plant, Mixed media on canvas, 100 x 76 cm

Archipelago, Mixed media on paper, 38 x 28 cm

Past Controversies!

‘Those paintings, how they arouse people’

Back in 1973 I won a prize at the North Shore Arts Festival in Auckland. My painting was considered by some to be quite controversial at the time and it has certainly been eye opening (and perhaps shocking!) for my assistant who has been reading and copying the old newspaper clippings and articles from that time.

As yet I have been unable to locate a colour image of the painting, but the colours would be similar to those in this blog post about some other works of mine from that period, which are still in the collection at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki

Below are a few of those newspaper articles and clippings which I have kept in a scrap book for many years, but which my assistant insisted must see the light of day – she seemed to find it fascinating and thought others would too.

Note the wonderful composition of this photograph with the head of Festival President Ron Forbes covering the ‘offending’ area!
The article is from the North Shore Times, February 1973.

It seems I caused rather a stir, some of the opinions written in to the papers are hilarious – or infuriating – depending on your viewpoint.

This – signed ‘Not a Prude’ – is a particularly ugly example (the original clipping is rather damaged so I will quote a section):

Two ugly, course, grotesque figures, sprawled out, one in a most disgusting attitude, and not in any way pleasing to the eye…. why not paint two nice young girls (nudes, if he likes) with lovely long flowing hair, throwing a beach ball.
From the opinion s section of the North Shore Times Advertiser,
February 1973

I feel that the author of this letter has said a lot more about himself than the painting – and not in a good way!

Here is a more positive one though:

In fact there were many positive responses, and the painting was bought by Grahame Chote, collector and director of the International Art Centre, Auckland. I recently got in touch with his daughter Fran Davies who is now the director, and she was able to provide me with this image of the painting in their downstairs gallery in the early ’70’s.

Image supplied by International Art Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.

The following article is Grahame’s response in the Auckland Star, to the controversy surrounding the painting.

And from the newsletter:

He was not the only interested party:

I would love to know who those ‘American tourists’ were! [Ed.]

However, the controversies continued:

You never would have thought I was such an enfant terrible in my youth… would you??!!

Transfigured Night

This painting is titled after Schoenberg’s entrancing chamber piece, composed for six strings, and inspired by the poem by Richard Dehmel.

This is a wonderfully atmospheric evocation in which a woman shares a dark secret with her new lover as they walk through a dark moonlit forest.

Could be mawkish, but isn’t.

Transfigured Night, Dye and acrylic on canvas, 160 x 140 cm

The painting responds to the ambiguity and mystery of a moonlit landscape/ garden with the tonal and sliding colour modulations reflecting the rich chromatic language and the implied narrative in the music. A painting is a painting, music is music, but more often than not, I find it hard to separate the two. But, why should I?

Arnold Schoenberg “Verklarte Nacht” (Transfigured Night) Op. 4 for String Orchestra
Chamber Orchestra Kremlin; Misha Rachlevsky, conductor

In recent years the music has also inspired a dance piece choreographed by Rambert dance company.

Transfigured Night performed by Rambert dance company

See more of my paintings inspired by classical music in the Music Box category

Oxford Exhibition August 2020

UPDATE

This exhibition will now run:

31 JULY – 18 OCTOBER

I am pleased to announce the new exhibition dates. This will be the first exhibition for the re-opening of the gallery after lockdown, and will now be an extended exhibition of more than 10 weeks.

This exhibition will feature a full range of my work, from book illustrations up to my large abstract paintings. The catalogue is now available, which you can view / download via the link below, or message me if you would like a hardcopy sent to you.

Click here for more details.

Please see the gallery website for opening times. https://www.thejamfactoryoxford.com/

catalogue_2020-1 Download

Collections

The wonderful Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki still has a few of my early pieces in their collection. Nice to know someone still loves me!

Table and mirror and a green interior, 1973, Dye on canvas, 1785 x 1632 mm

https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/s?keywords=david+armitage&reference=artworks

Iris, 1972, Acrylic on canvas, 1756 x 1422 mm

Interior with chair, 1970, Dye on canvas, 1829 x 2159 mm

Girl on a bed, 1973, Acrylic on canvas, 1855 x 5025 mm

https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artwork/12652/girl-on-a-bed

Earth Watch

My latest series of paintings, inspired by landscapes and our precious planet Earth. Semi-abstract, giving an impression or an unconventional view.

These paintings are created on paper, utilising techniques which I have developed in both branches of my practice – painting and illustration.

Inks, watercolour, dyes, acrylic and a form of monoprint are combined to give depth and rich colours. High quality aquarelle paper in the perfect base to absorb and hold the vibrant waterbased inks and paints.

My native Tasmania and Australia are still a strong influence. The baked landscapes, colours and forms crop up again and again. The land will remain forever in my blood.

Obviously Sussex, and the landscapes of the South Downs National Park have also been a strong influence. And those who have visited may recognise the looping curves of the Cuckmere.

All of these paintings are mixed media on paper, and can be purchased framed or unframed. A selection are currently on display at Studio+Gallery in Seaford, June 6 – July 7. They are also available individually or as a set for loans or exhibitions. Please contact me for further details.

Seaford Exhibition June 2019

Many thanks to all those who have already been to see my new exhibition, over in Seaford, at the brand new Studio+Gallery. Below are some shots of my paintings in situ at this lovely exhibition space. All of the paintings are relatively new, mostly created this year, and include work from both the Earth Watch series and the Still Life series.

Left to right: Orange Handbag, dye and acrylic on canvas, 100 x 76 cm; Provnece, mixed media on canvas, 30 x 30 cm; Handbag, mixed media on canvas, 30 x 30 cm; Schubert’s Bed, dye and acrylic on canvas, 100 x 76 cm.

The gallery is a beautifully renovated space, with crisp white walls and professional overhead spot lighting, which habits the ground floor of a lovely old town house in one of Seaford’s oldest streets. The scale of the space demonstrates how well my work can sit in a more domestic setting.

On the left work by Abigail Myers. One the right two pieces from my Earth Watch series: Estuary 2, and Meander, both mixed media on paper, 38 x 28 cm, and framed in a float mount frame.

Endurance, mixed media on paper, 40 x 30 cm

The float mount used to frame these works on paper, really sets them off perfectly. It’s lovely to see the naturally ruffled edges of the high quality aquarelle paper that I use for these paintings. I also love it against the rough brick wall behind!

Left: Church Window, mixed media on canvas, 30 x 30 cm; Right: Church Window 3, mixed media on canvas, 40 x 30 cm.

Two little stunners, proving you can still get all the colour, depth and interest in a small package. Even in a small space either of these would light up the room.

The exhibition is open Thursday through Sunday up to the 7th July, 11am – 5pm. There are also two artists Q&A sessions, see their website for details.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the work, please contact the gallery.

Studioplusgallery.com