And this is the view that cyclists know all too well, 4 hours of looking at this, I think it’s time I shaved them? Don’t you:-)

The little Ixus is really versatile, very basic but tiny and so versatile.

I have found this second inspiration piece to be a real challenge. My friend Elisabeth chose this quirky and challenging painting by Scottish artist Gerard Burns. I didn’t know anything about Burns, but have since learned that one of his paintings hangs in the First Ministers office in Holyrood. (Scottish Government). When I look through Burn’s work, I am struck by how realistic his brushwork is. His paintings are disturbingly real, causing you to check whether there is a photographic element to them. That’s not the only disturbing thing, he mixes a sense of the fantastic and dramatic with people who you feel familiar with. A child, who looks ordinary, familiar, stands with two enormous wolves in one, in another a girl walks in a familiar, perhaps Glaswegian post-industrial landscape with a menagerie of creatures, including two doves accompanying her. I find his work brilliant and challenging, mixing the ordinary with the dramatic and the wonderful; as though he challenges us to see the same in what’s around us.

He isn’t beyond some humorous and wry comment either. The piece that Elisabeth chose seems an amusing metaphor for me, and in a time of such instability and fear in the financial and economic world, this seems an appropriate painting. For me the businessman is reeling backwards under the inexorable pressure of the money swirling around him, doing what money does, oblivious to his attempts to control the environment. It could depict the moment he realises that he isn’t in control. For those who are interested in chaos theory, markets may exhibit chaotic behaviours when the predictable and smooth patterns of economic transactions suddenly break down and become an unpredictable storm. In other words, it may be impossible to ever truly be in control of economies!

Gerard Burn’s website. The galleries are fantastic.

My response:

The almost photorealistic quality made me wonder whether I could try something similar, although the sheer quantity of cash swirling around meant that I couldn’t envisage technically (or financially) how I could reproduce it. I settled on a more modest collage in which I photographed a “businessman” my ever obliging friend Martin, reeling under the onslaught in his battle with the financial flow. The bananas are just my way of making clear it’s a joke and a metaphor; the man is in a fight without any useful tools. Does he himself understand this?  I photographed the falling money separately but on the same background using flash and the highest shutter sync speed available, 1/250th on the 40D. I have recorded here before how little I love using photoshop, but using the layers functions, I built up the “cash flow” over Martin, trying to get a sense of the notes flying towards and around him. One of the reasons for starting this new “26 artists” project is to learn, here I have learned about a brilliant artist, and as a bonus I have moved out of my comfort zone a little with photoshop and developed those skills a little. I hope you like the result, which I have titled “Cash Flow” in homage to Burn’s own shocking pun title of “Prophet and Loss”:

And so to C. Watch this space.

Last weekend I went on a walk from Howwood where I live to Newton of Beltrees. Photographically it was hard to find good landscapes. When I saw this tree on a rise with some nice cloud behind I thought I’d have a go. The picture is nice enough and has classic and simple composition, but when you click the shutter on a great picture you just know; and I just knew it was ordinary. So why am I sharing it with you? When I looked more carefully at the picture I realised that the cloud has a magnificent shape looming over the tree. Basically I’m posting a Rorschach ink blot test.

Scroll down to see what I think it looks like:-)

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Wasp

a) Still have the finale of the firebird suite playing endlessly in your head.

b) Know what the young musicians said about how brilliantly John guides and supports them.

I wish you could have seen the performance, oh, and in case it isn’t obvious, he has a sense of humour too!

Busy day today I’m afraid, so no great art photography! Instead I hoped you might share my amusement at the modest claims written in bizarrely varying sizes down the left hand side. I passed this today while visiting the island for my work. This quaint and slightly old-fashioned approach can be found on the Esplanade Hotel, Rothesay, Isle of Bute, Scotland. Just for the record, and in case anyone might think I am slighting Rothesay, I actually love it’s slightly faded charms.

I wish I could stay in a “smart room”!

You can just see me with my shoulder bag reflected in the window with my hood up against the rain.