A neat iPhone app, 360 Panorama, that takes, and stitches together, 360° photos. From one taken last night, and another today, you can see I work in a very small space  - my studio, study, meditation space, recording studio, sewing nook, sleeping space (for both person & doggy).

360 View: http://360.io/zaFDum


Nighttime shot.


*Note, to better see the whole photo below: Click the minus or smaller ' - button' to decrease the size of it in the panorama view. (Just don't do it on drugs.)


360 View: http://360.io/Myhzfh


Daytime shot, no it's not that disorganized! It's positively hallucinated in this surround photo! I love it! My room never looked so good!

The room is very organized - two huge baskets of sea-grass hold many journals, smaller baskets tucked in the shelf hold paints, finishes, varnishes, jars hold brushes and pens; always some lidded filled small water jars nearby for quickly working; various easels, boards and larger papers stored between desk and wall; and a large tray with A4 Moleskine notebooks, water-based oil pastels, watercolour pencils and a dozen jars of ink sits on the desk, and so on. My desk is my studio, but it can turn quickly into a study or a sewing nook. ::smiles::

Wishing so desperately to work on larger paintings I finally hit on a potential solution. Room is too small for comfortable easel painting. Ended up here when my kids moved back with me. It's ok, no complaints. I love them dearly.

Anyway, I purchased a 24" x 18" canvas pad of triple-gessoed canvas. To buy a strip of gessoed canvas from a roll would have been cheaper, but that's only single-gessoed, and not stretched. Couldn't deal with stretching - it's a humidex of 40° in this apartment! The pad has 10 sheets, which will last years at the rate I work, and if faster, hey that's great.

So I taped it to a light board, and you can see the blank canvas sheet in the 360° photo. I was inspired by Robin Mead's experimentation with water-soluble pastels that she posted recently. She was wetting them and spreading them as background (I think). I've had mine for some years and never thought of doing this.

Anyway, it was much harder than I thought it would be. The water-based pastel does not adhere that well to triple-glazed gesso. Any drops of water took the colour out leaving a white splotch. It all took far longer than I had anticipated. I had to work over it a few times. I gave up on doing the fairly even patina I had originally planned and went for more of a flow approaching a marbling perhaps - though this morning it looks more like a Monet water lily (!). But it is so delicate, I'm not sure how it will hold water-soluble oil paints (all I use) or inks. I've sprayed it with a matte fixative. No idea if that will work to hold it or if there'll be problems with inks and paints adhering.

Anyway, here's a photo taken in the sunlight just now of the background I prepared last night. I want to draw on it, etc., in a free, imaginative way and not worry about where it's going. Learning my way in to this.


background, 18" x 24" canvas sheet, water-soluble oil pastels.

Barry Gross from damian fitzsimmons on Vimeo.
A mini-documentary on the painter, Barry Gross. Directed by Damian Fitzsimmons, produced by Tyler Ford. A Blue Hour Films Production.


Self-taught, Barry Gross has followed his muse all his life. A unique, intimate and finely done video of the artist showing a moment in time of the way he works and his work. Watching, and listening to him talk, I realize how visionary his art is. This video's a beauty.

direct link: Parchment Figures: Doubles, Doppelgängers, Clones

A painter on painting. Or, I'm painting again! Yay!

Wasn't a planned video, rather, thinking, many artists are showing themselves painting on-screen, let's put the camera on and get some footage, but I got talking, you know how it is, at night too though I managed to boost the light when I edited it, and now it's a bona fide video.

Enjoy. Hopefully you will find inspiration here for your own art, and might consider posting your own video.


Note: click on the base of the slideshow
to start the slideshow (or in the middle to
go to Picasa and see larger images).