Sparks on train tracks

I love drawing parallels between my art work and real life. Today i was looking out of the raindrop covered window on the top of my route 337 double decker bus. I noticed a train speeding down the wet tracks coming out from the bridge the bus was going over, and the spectacular array of bright sparks that eminated from what looked like the wheels. When i got home i found out what was going on (see quote below)

"The London Underground uses a 4-rail system in which the electrical return is isolated from the running rails (the rails used by the trains wheels). Sparks are quite normal and occur when the electric power collection "shoes" of a train that is motoring (i.e. drawing power) reaches the end of a section of electric power rail."

It was interesting to think how often these miniature firework-like explosions must occur, and even more interesting to realise that they had been represented without intention in a piece of work i did last year:

Pretty nice connection in my opinion!

Motivation and Ideas

Cy Twombly is like marmite, you love him or you don't, but whatever category you fall into, you can't deny that he is a beautiful mark maker. His most recent work captures my interest the most, with pieces like those of the Lepanto series. I find it somewhat romantic how he lets his liquid paint tumble down his canvas, and i am visually ensnared when faced with an image as eye catching as this:

Purely from an aesthetic point of view i draw heavy inspiration from works like this from not only the deliciously warm and mellow colour scheme but the passionate and energetic handling of the paint. Some of my recent work is beginning to draw parallels with that of Twombly's:

Notice

I'm going to try and start getting people to look around them, even in the most unlikely situations.

Looking, Vlaminck, Art and Inspiration

A friend was once telling me a story about how she was confronted on the street by a stranger. To her surprise he stopped her and sought conversation, and doing the normal thing she felt uncomfortable and started to question the true intentions of the unknown man. But all he had to say was to stop looking at the ground. He told her that there is so much to see in life that if you walk around looking at the ground, you'll miss half of it. I know i'm guilty of staring at the ground as i walk and hearing this made me think for quite a while.

Maurice de Vlaminck was a big, 6ft tall muscular man that used to paint in the suburbs around paris in the early 1900's. He recalled:

"One afternoon in 1905, i was in Argenteuil and had just painted a scene of the seine with barges and the surrounding hillsides. The sun was scorching hot. My colors and brushes put away, I took my canvas and entered a small restaurant. A group of bargemen and stevedors were at the counter. While i drank a refreshing glass of white wine and soda, i noticed on a shelf - among bottles of Pernod, anicette and curacao- three African statues, to of them from Dahomey painted over in white and yellow and red ocher. The other from the Ivory Coast was all black. Was it because i had been out in the sun for two or three hours or the particular mood i was in that moment? Maybe it coincided with certain ideas i had been mulling over for some time? The three statuettes impressed me greatly. I instinctively sensed their inherent power. They revealed African art to me... I asked the owner to sell them to me. At first, he refused. I insisted, but after much hesitation, unwillingness, and apologies, he finally gave them to me under the condition that i would pay a round of red wine to everybody here; and i so left with the three figures."

This result of in a sense "keeping his eyes open" and not looking at the ground, looking around, absorbing all the visual information around him led Maurice to aqquire posessions that not only he loved, but influenced his work. Looking further than just the normal and noticing incidental details of my surroundings is an idea that helps me to draw inspiration in my art from everyday life. Althought libraries, art galleries and the internet are very good resources that I frequently use, the chance meeting of my friend and the enlightened stranger has allowed me to draw inspiration from everything around me. A drip running down the window of my bus has become a motif that has enriched my current artistic direction to an amazing degree.

My advice to everyone is the same advice the stranger gave my friend. Don't look down, look up and around you, absorb your surroundings, look even further.