pals pals pals

Hey pals. I'm posting new work all the time over the internet, check out my tumblr page (http://www.robhodgson.tumblr.com) for the most part. I thought I'd post up some newer stuff here too, so here we go-

  

Also I started a blog to post up some of the images I've collected over the years. Hopefully some folks will get something out of it. http://milkroute.tumblr.com

 

milk maketh the man

City (after Klee)

Boop

 

Card designs

Woodchopper

from a book I'm working on

francais

 

Hi folks.

This spring I've been in France. I went to Paris which was fantastique. I'd never been before. I stayed round the corner from Picasso's old studio in Montmartre.

There was this big Matisse exhibition at the Pompidou, which was amazing. His paintings are always smaller than I imagined, and the paper cuts were a lot bigger. There were a series of photos showing the progress of one painting over a year- what a worrier! I love Matisse, but the vibe of the exhibition was that of an old master, someone becoming antiquated. I'm excited for new pictures more than ever.

 

Then I travelled south and saw some real mind blowing stuff. Real out in the wop-wops France. I was in the Lot valley, which is the home of the truffle pig. My basic philosophy in life is that of the truffle pig, so I felt I was in good company.

It's where a lot of cavemen used to live. I saw some real cave paintings from 20 thousand years ago. There aren't many caves you can go and see anymore because they're trying to preserve the art. Across two walls were drawn in reds and blacks, mainly line, but some shapes, mammoths and horned animals layered on top of each other. Very spontaneous and vivid. Not stylised in any way, except in some drawings the contours of the cave depicted line and shape.

Also mind blowing was an 11 Century mural I saw in a church showing the 7 deadly sinners being led into the mouth of hell. I don't know how it's still there because it's just painted right there on the wall at head height. Really earthy palette. It was a beautiful thing, almost childlike, but the church was the ballast to keep it serious. Architecture has a lot to do with how you look at pictures.

Something else that really struck a chord with me were the textures of the buildings down there. I took a lot of photos of doors and wooden buildings. Lots of weathered materials. Really amazing colours.

Anyway, lots of fun was had. Ate a lot of nice food. Listened to a lot of Johnny Cash. Lots to do now. Moving house.

Stumps, mixed media on paper, 16"X20"

when the springtime comes again

When the springtime comes again, cut paper collage

Venturing down some new roads blog pals. When I'm back on track in the UK this summer I'm going to take some ceramic classes and see about furniture building too. My grandad was a furniture maker, and his dad built printing presses. I want to get a bit more hands on. 

I sometimes have nightmares about losing my hands. Once I had this nightmare about being on a gameshow where when I lost (naturally I did) they cut my hands off and all the audience were cheering. Then the gameshow packed up and all the cameras went and I was left in the studio.

I want to do more collaborations too, try some fabric printing. Generally branch out, it all feeds back into making pictures. I've also got the hankering to do some more studious drawing again too. See where it all goes. This is a cut paper collage.

the green man/newness of the new

the Green Man

The computer is an interesting print making machine, there are things it can and cannot do. What the computer is especially good for (apart from this) is sucking in shapes and lines and textures and letting you change the composition, scale and colour. Combine an a3 monoprint with a 1 inch painting, if you like. You could not do this 20 years ago, not even 10 really. Potential with processes I think is really inspiring. Here is a quote from John Lasseter, from Pixar,

the art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art

 Some recent things

Rumpel

I read Rumpelstiltskin a couple days ago and I've been thinking about it since. The imagery is so weird. I was really into the last scene where Rumpel rides off out of a window on a ladle! But then I remembered Hockney's etchings and found them all in a book. He already nailed it so hard! But these are a couple I did, there is Rumpelstiltskin and the gold thread he weaves.

Tin jug

Tin Jug, 2012, acrylic on paper, 204X107mm

Seek and Ye Shall Seek

 

 Hey all, here is a new pamphlet I have out. It's called Seek and Ye Shall Seek and features 21 line drawings (mostly new) from my sketchbooks. They are all drawings where the hand and the idea are working together. I included this Picasso quote in the intro,
 

“Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He copies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line. He’s convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.”

Available for a short time over here before I go away.

infinity

List for 14/3/12

-sun
-numbers can be space
-infinite hotel
-skulls (real ones)
-obtain real skull from dartmoor
-wild swimming (back on yak)
-framing devices (curtains, perspective, stages, sets, boxes in boxes)
-slide paintings
-botanical part 2
-have exhibition in a greenhouse

Dem Blues

Took a couple days away from the city. This is out the train window. I don't know much about the surrounding area of Bristol despite having lived there a year, but I know it's very flat. 

Made a painting of something that's been in my sketchbook a while. This guy is kind of like the other portraits I've been doing, kind of archetypal figures. I love all those delta blues guys, Bukka White, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson. Feels good to make some paintings again, and to be standing up while I work!

Found this guy. It's a book of drawings I never got round to finishing. I thought it was stupid how the other drawings showed through on the paper I had gotten for it, but now I see its charm. Might finish these off before I go away.

Bonjour!

Hello Blog brothers and sisters, I am offering a crazy discount of 25% on everything in my online shoppe! Simply use the coupon code BONJOUR

Why am I so kind?
1. I am naturally kind
2. I am leaving England/work/life/everything next month and going to France for a while and so thought I could send some art into the world, and raise some more funds. Just think, each purchase of a print could pay for some pomme frites! and une bière!

To go to the shop follow this link here

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paper bag makers

Here are some buildings from my neighbourhood here in Bristol. I live south of the river where there are a lot of old factory buildings, and I'm really into them. I wanted to show where I live right now because I'm moving next month and doing some travelling.

I've been getting into architecture a lot lately in a really broad sense after the mural I did in Plymouth. I've been reading this book, the Architecture of Happiness, which is kind of similar to Ways of Seeing, but with more fluffy writing. Here's a quote I like from it where De Botton's talking about a painting-

Behind wanting to own the painting and hang it where we could regularly study it might be the hope that through continued exposure to it, its qualities would come to assume a greater hold on us. Passing it on the stairs last thing at night or in the morning on our way to work would have the effect of a magnet which could pull to the surface submerged filaments of our characters.

oranges

Hello all, I made this desktop wallpaper for Bobby over at the Fox is Black. You can read what I said about it and get it all the sizes over here.

paradise piece

Paradise Piece

trudgy pudgy

Things-

- Trudgy pudgy

- Last month and a half in Bristol (weird vibe)

- Meet your death before you die actually

- Favourite old things becoming favourite new things

- Stupid things not heavy things

- Interview I did

- Space/space/space

- espresso the new wunder drink

- Beach baby (aka the sand in my shoe)

- the wonder of which we are apt to overlook from familiarity