beautiful summer morning here in terra australis
a sky including many blues
soft clouds seem to graze up there
from my window i see the palms n pines moving
i see the red roofs light up as the sun reaches them
eve kilbey silently slides out of bed and begins some homework
aurora kilbey the human bunny sleeps on
scarlet kilbey is also out for the count
looking like shes been king hit
and her mum sleeps next to her
gently breathing in a deep rhythm
on the drawing board is elektra
whom im doing a painting of
yes
i certainly have 5 gorgeous daughters
the sort of girls i always was hoping to meet myself
kind intelligent n pretty
but fatherhood is fraught with little traps
not too much one way or the other
or you’ll lose it
you gotta take the middle path
just like old buddha used to say
an even keel
eve comes in looking for a lead pencil
i got red white black metallic n pastel pencils
but no lead….
aurora gets outta bed wearing a cartoon expression of dismay
aurora….what you looking like that for?
eve answers for her: she was tired!
aurora sits glumly sorting thru a huge box of buttons (!?)
it 5 to 7 in the morning
i hear a bus groan past up the street
so
yeah
i’m working on a portrait of elli
usual procedure
paint the white sheet black
someone said why not buy black paper?
you cant buy this paper in any other colour than white
besides i like the interaction sometimes …
i used to find drawing faces was hard
i was concentrating on lines to enclose spaces
thats not how real life looks
real life is shapes n surfaces in relativity to each other
not lines enclosing n defining spaces
but when we draw onto white
we try n represent it thus…which is hard
i try to forget its a face
and i look at all the planes and the way the light falls on them
so what i start with is
a general mass to represent the face
and where the light highlights features
let it all remain as abstract patches related to each other
elli has very regular features
ive found her very easy to “nail”
sometimes it takes a while to “nail” someone
that is
before you capture some essence
of what makes their face so recognizably them
i have found that perfect young faces
are easier to paint
than
ugly old faces
for many reasons
(tho not always as interesting)
beauty is a funny thing
it IS in the eye of the beholder
yet
there is also classic beauty
ie that that michaelangelo strove to capture
the mimesis of the greeks
the statues of the gods
apollos straight nose
and his huge perfect eyes
his sweeping jaw
his broad brow
his long muscled neck
his curly blond hair
he is a classic handsome bastard
he would be ..in any age or any place
i believe these proportions are easier to capture
than that of less perfect subjects
whose forms are more elusive to get down
elli is all tanned …almost the same colour as her tawny hair
and she has an enigmatic look on her face
a half smile that could become a sneer or a grin
depending….
nk points out that she looks a bit like that moaner liza
yeah
wonder if elli ‘ll end up in the loo-ve tho
there is a wonderful thing about being a human being
that is
if you do something often enough
you start to get better at it
now i been painting hard for 5 years
lots n lots n lots of paintings
the payoff starts to happen
jesus i’m starting to become a real bleatin’ artist
just because i persevered all that time
just like yoga
if you hit something everyday
eg
a language
an instrument
a discipline
an endeavour
eventually
you’ll get better
suddenly in leaps n bounds
one day
you just go from ok to good
like suddenly figuring out how to ride rollerskates
or realising how to swim
or kiss
or kick a football….
so the rewards of perseverance
give us something to look forward to
eg
i am getting older n uglier every day
but my yoga n painting are improving
actually now that they are improving
i care less about being fucking fifty four
than i would if i wasnt getting better at something
it excites me to paint because i dont know what
i might come up with now
now that ive put all the hard work in
people
i urge ye again n again
begin something
practice something
learn something
it will offset the passage of the years
i’m sitting here going
ok the bad news
in ten years time i will be 64
(will you still love me?)
which is olde beyond olde
yet
imagine how good my yoga n painting will be then..!
so its like…not so bad
however
if i was just learning doing practicing nothing
then in 10 years time i’ll just be bloody older
n all those tv shows i watched
(instead of actually doing something)
will avail me of nought
so thats my plan
take on a load of things
and time can be yer friend
as well as yer enemy
(tho he’ll get ya in the end)
you can either go out
an old master
or an old couch potato
really
the choice is yours
im an overachiever by nature
and i produce a voluminous amount of stuff
you could too in yer spare time if you wanted
you do it for yerself
and if you dig it
others will too
if you dont
why wood any one else?
eve kilbey is getting real good at drawing
she should be
shes been going hard at it for about 6 years
so the rewards are starting to kick in
her pictures are grand in scope
and shes always inventing new flourishes
aurora k does complicated cartoons
of bunnies
living in hive like conditions
all with speech bubbles telling the story
on the fridge is the picture which tickled rickys fancy
the bunny band
the lead singer :” in the meadow where its green”
backing vox bunnies :” green green green”
all this practice the doodles have been (unwittingly) doing
their whole lives
will one day pay off
when they miraculously discover
that theyre really good at something
without realising its the years n years
they put in as kids
drawing bunnies n mermaids n fairies n horses
my kids experiment with making up songs too
auroras taking flute lessons
there should be no distance between them n creativity
evie especially entertains no doubts about herself
she expects to be able to do
whatever artistic or physical thing she wants
and lo she can
everyone reading this blog is interested in creativity
how to harness it
well
the answer is the same
as last time i was trotting out this rant
now even more emphatically
PRACTICE!
even if you cant draw or play an instrument
then write
its as easy as listening
to that voice in yer head
and writing it down
who knows?
you could be an absolute fucking genius
i know times are hard
believe me
i aint got a wardrobe full of new shoes
i got a blown up car n a debt to the A T O
i gotta dirty half dead laptop most basic old model
i got a little tv doesnt get most channels
i got a messy room full of junk
but
art
yoga
music
these must needs be our consolations
and thru them
perhaps a way to our creator
if you believe in that sort of thing
dont despair
you dont need that fancy stuff
there is no where i’d rather be
than at home
painting a picture
list’nin’ to music i love
better than restaurants n niteclubs n whatever
create or be damned then
or sit on the couch n watch telly
see what satisfies ya the most………