Matthew Couper Studio: TRAVEL

Showing posts with label TRAVEL. Show all posts

MARTES, EL SIETE DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-DOCE
screen shot of the Las Vegas episode of The Ethical Hedonist. Presenter Bob Kelly came to Las Vegas to not only check out the casinos but to see what type of art is being made here. He visited Jo and I in our studios and then we took him around the local 'Arts Factory'. The photo below was part of the filming at Blackbird Studios.
From the website:
'Las Vegas: Bob Kelly time in Las Vegas starts by experiencing some of the hedonistic highlights of the city: incredible hotels, swim up blackjack, huge trampolines, big shows and helicopter rides over the nearby grand canyon, before meeting up with some true Las Vegans and going out to a local burlesque evening. It is then time for Bob to start giving back so he offers himself for a day volunteering with international organisation, Habitat for Humanity, who build low cost housing for families in need. Being a big fan of golf, Bob then arranges a round with members of the local Native American nation, the Paiute, at the course they own where he learns more about the current state of their culture. Bob is lucky to meet Oscar B Goodman, the ex-mayor and ultimate spokesperson for Las Vegas, and spend some time following this charismatic gentleman to his appointments and engagements. Finally, he is taking a helicopter ride out of the city for the day to fly over, and land in the Grand Canyon. Duration: 60'

MIERCOLES, EL CATORCE DE DECIEMBRE, VEINTE-ONCE
I'm stealing these pics straight from Jo's art blog (as I'm in one of them) on the Miami Art Fairs. We've been away for two weeks in Miami, and then onto Texas (Houston, Austin and Fort Worth) to check out galleries and specific exhibitions, such as the Caravaggio exhib at the Kimbell in Fort Worth.

DOMINGO, EL VEINTICINCO DE SEPTIEMBRE, VEINTE ONCE
four years apart, first in 2004 with my friend Matt, then in 2008 with Jo. In the Brancacci Chapel of the basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Masaccio and Masolino's fresco cycle of the life of St Peter, executed in the 1420s.

SABATO, EL SEIS DE AGOSTO, VEINTE-ONCE
(left) Lorenzo Monaco 'Man of Sorrows with Instruments of the Passion', 1404, tempera on panel, Accademia, Florence, Italy, (right) Matthew Couper, 'After Lorenzo Monaco's Man of Sorrows', 2005, pencil on paper, 7" x 4 1/2".

I did this drawing while doing some relief teaching for a friend who'd broken both wrists in a bike accident. I'd come across a black and white reproduction of the painting and really liked the relationship of the figures in the shallow space compared to the apparitions of the symbols of the Passion, more so than my other favourite of Fra Angelico's fresco in San Marco. I finally got to see this painting in the Accadamia, Florence in 2008

MIERCOLES, EL QUINCE DE JUNIO, VEINTE-ONCE

VIERNES, EL QUINCE DE ABRIL, VEINTE-ONCE
detail from Bosch's 'Death of the Miser' in the Nat. Gal. Washington DC.
I've seen this work before in the flesh, but hadn't studied it long enough to notice the pencil marks outlining unpainted forms on the shelf depicting part of the miser's material wealth. The rest of the painting has many initial sketchmarks, showing a longer arrow as held by death, the volumous toning for the curtains and some minor compositional changes. I haven't read much about the 'plastic' aspects of the painting, but it's quite odd to see so much sketching and thin paint layers remaining on a 'finished' Bosch painting, especially in comparison to his impasto paintwork on the works I've seen in the Prado. Anyway, what was interesting was that I started noticing pencil marks in a few other paintings, most noticeable in Raphael's small Cowper Madonna, where he's redrawn the position of the shoulder and veil.

MIERCOLES, EL TRECE DE ABRIL, VEINTE-ONCE

DOMINGO, EL DIEZ DE ABRIL, VEINTE-ONCE

SABATO, EL NUEVE DE ABRIL, VEINTE-ONCE

VIERNES, EL OCHO DE ABRIL, VEINTE-ONCE

JUEVES, EL SIETE DE ABRIL, VEINTE-ONCE
in Washington DC:

SABATO, EL VEINTISEIS DE MARZO, VEINTE-ONCE
A great little ex-voto that piqued my interest in Albuquerque at John Isaac's Antiques store in the historical area. It's got everything, aesthetically, that I like in an ex-voto, the pinky/cadmium scarlet floor, the soft blue sky and the beautifully crafted vision of Christ.
Things have been a bit hectic at my end due to several things need attending too, so that explains the lack of posts. Once cleared, I'll post the offending pieces here on the blog to catch you all up!

SABATO, EL DIECINUEVE DE MARZO, VEINTI-ONCE
The photo, top-left, is a corpus-arm of a Crucified Christ statue that used to hang in the east chapel of the San Xavier Mission in Tucson, AZ. This is all that is left. It interested me as the rough wood skeleton is covered in canvas, then gessoed and polychromed. I knew that this was part of the process of making santos, but it's hard to see on complete forms. The saggy, torn canvas brought back memories of the skin surface of one of those bodies found in the bogs in a museum in the the UK. I also remembered a sketchbook drawing and a failed sculpture that I had made in preparation for my show at the Sarjeant in Whanganui in 2007. I had tried to recreate an arm out of cardboard and hot glue, nailed to wood with an ex-voto hanging off it. It didn't work, so I moved to casting in plaster, and the bottom left photo was the outcome. With molds, you can cast and recast, so I did a few variations on the dissected hand, looking at galvanisation, the power of the symbol of the hand. All these pics besides the San Xavier arm can be seen on the MOIV website here:
http://moiv.mattcouper.com/graveyore.html