It’s just a selection of stills taken of me painting a portrait in acrylic on canvas. I was trying out some techniques I’d not used before – like a mid grey undercoat as Holbein used when painting The Ambassadors. I thought I might try letting the base coat show through in some of the highlighting. But as it turned out I painted over practically all the surface.

Also I’d been looking at polychrome work and Estofado – the process of layering of gold leaf and then paint particularly on sculptures made of wood. They would reveal the gold leaf by scratching the top layer of paint off. The polychromer can scratch or scrape the design off the reveal the gold underneath.

As well as scratching it off I’d heard the gold leaf was used under paintings to help make the painting itself glow – especially the flesh tones. So I  tried that too. I think it did work. There was a finish to the facial area that felt more vibrant.

Music: Daydream by Danny Sharp

Tell me what you think.

Brilliant opening sequence by PolitelyHomicidal. It features Roy Lichtenstein’s comic strip works, of course Andy Warhol portraits, and others from the Pop Art movement, but also the much overlooked Richard Hamilton’s Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?

I like that way he links popularist images and icons and moves the ideas on to what is important, today.

You can catch the video here.

“Cameras, by their basic-machine-nature, are very good at capturing “images”, lines, shadows, shapes — but they are not good at capturing a scene the way the mind remembers and maps it. When you are actually there on the scene, your eye travels back and forth, letting in more light in some areas, less light in others, and you create a “patchwork-quilt” of the scene. Furthermore, you will tie in many emotions and feelings into the imagery as well, and those get associated right there beside the scene. Now, you will find that as you explore the HDR process, that photos can start to evoke those deep memories and emotions in a more tangible way. It’s really a wonderful way of “tricking” your brain into experiencing much more than a normal photograph.”

Click here to visit Stuck In Customs.

Trey has range of cameras he recommends for this sort of work. He’s a bit of a Nikon man. He starts with  the Canon G11 and then works up through an increasingly more expensive but beautiful selection of Nikons, ending with the model he uses. If you want to see the full article and why he likes them, click here. The cameras  themselves can be seen below if you fancy buying one.

After the earlier image faded, the artist could remove the canvas from the camera obscura and continue his work. Caravaggio converted his studio into a kind of darkroom by filtering light through a purpose-made hole in his ceiling, using a biconvex lens and a concave mirror to reflect the image he planned to paint directly onto the canvas.

The use of a camera obscura to sketch the subject was not a new technique among artists, having gained prominence thanks to Leonardo da Vinci’s writings.

The device works by projecting reverse images of outside objects onto the flat wall of a closed box through a lens in an aperture. By attaching a mirror to the apparatus, artists were able to trace the exact dimensions of the image onto a piece of paper.

Caravaggio spent months refining his technique, adjusting the light and the size of the models.

However, by turning his entire room into a camera obscura, Caravaggio found himself working in the dark.

The experts believe this led him to create his own version of the faintly luminous, lead-based paint.

But the technique could sometimes give rise to distortion, said Grundy. ”In ‘Boy with a Basket of Fruit’, photographic discrepancies emerge with the lengthening of the subject’s head and neck as a result of the projection,” she explained. The size of the area being projected in the paintings depended on the size of the room, and Caravaggio was able to paint his subjects from ”far away” by altering the mirror and lens arrangement.

The many techniques pioneered by Caravaggio (1573-1610) have confirmed his reputation as one of the most revolutionary artist of his time, although he is probably best known for his mastery of chiaroscuro lighting.

Painted in 1963, it shows one of Warhol’s favourite female icons of that time, Elizabeth Taylor after she had suffered from a major illness. He was fascinated not only by the glamour of Taylor, Marylin Monroe and Jacky Kennedy but how that was juxtaposed with loss and death. He painted Monroe after her death and Kennedy after her husband’s assassination. There were only two paintings in the series where Warhol added violet to her eyes, a personal touch, which has no doubt added to the interest in this particular piece. She did have violet coloured eyes, something that would not have been seen in her earlier black and white films, but with colour and her recently starring in Cleopatra, this would have added to her allure and appeal.

This painting celebrates this film icon using silk screen over sprayed silver background – the shallowness of the painted image completely changed the genre of portraiture. And this series encapsulates all of Warhol’s ideas about fame and celebrity and the symbol of feminine beauty.

It was the first exhibition of female Pop Art and is now to be seen, I believe, at Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, although I can’t see it on their web site as yet.

This Times Square inspired ‘Ampersand IV’, is a stylized neon ampersand in a Plexiglas cube by Chryssa, one of the first artists to utilize neon in her work in 1965.

Mara McAfe’s ‘Marvelous Modern Mechanical Men’ harks back to Art Deco.

But I think my favourite is Black Rosie by Niki de Saint Phalle. Eight foot tall, this colourful, lumpy, playful figure glorifies woman’s roles without the usual half naked predilections.

This example, ‘Early Man Goes To Market’  appeared in The British Museum in 2005 and wasn’t noticed until Banksy announced it on his site. All credit to the Museum staff in recognising man’s base need for making marks andhoping the largest possible audience will see them. It is now in their permanent collection.

I’m sure this drew a wry smile from the artist him self.

I wonder if the recent reversal of fortunes of Banksy’s work from Art Republic did the same. Probably did. Two limited edition framed prints worth £16000 were stolen by a man and woman from the shop in central London. And this is not the first time this has happened from the same company. Apparently, 10 prints were stolen from  the same company, only in Brighton. Tut, tut, Art Republic – very clumsy.

The police, who of course adore Banksy’s work, are investigating  and are hard on the heals of the culprits, issuing these telling images of the couple they wish to question.

This is all so gloriously ironic.


And it goes on. Here are some other ludicrous incantations ….

• London Banksy poster ‘removed after halo added’ – People spending time in London hotels may have noticed a Banksy poster at London Bridge station recently, but the artwork has now been taken down after it was.
• Free: Banksy Poster | FADWEBSITE – Banksy releases new poster entitled ‘Forgive Us Our Trespassing’ Photo: LILY PAD PR Almost a decade since his last Don’t Panic collaboration during which time he has risen from street artist to cause célèbre, Banksy is back with a new …
• Banksy poster “re-worked” on underground – Never defeated by the institution eh? The Banksy artwork, ‘Forgive Us Our Trespassing’ was transformed into a poster for London underground, but they denied the addition of a halo round the little boy’s head for fear of “inspiring” …

His friend, Georges de Selve, a bishop of Lavaur in southwest France, apparently made a secret appearance at this time. And how better to celebrate a secret meeting, “which was no small pleasure” to de Dinteville, than to have one of the most iconic images of the time painted in its memory. (Well, perhaps.)

Hans Holbein (the younger) was a man for gadgets and symbolism, and such a subject as requested by de Dinteville, must surely have been God sent – in more ways than one. How many messages and hints can you cram into a seemingly simple portrait? Two men, eager to demonstrate their wealth, learning, statesmanship and prowess, flanking an unusually high table on which are displayed all the latest high tech gizmos: items for telling the time, a terrestrial globe (which also indicates the location of de Dinteville’s chateau – where the painting would hang), a book on arithmetic conveniently left open on a page entitled “Dividirt” (divide) alluding to the various forms of political and religious division in Europe at that time.

There is also a lute, normally a symbol of harmony, with a broken string, next to a text revealing the Ten Commandments interestingly translated into German by Martin Luther (first published in 1529).  This is all hot off the press stuff. The expensive celestial globe, made of brass and embellished with starry constellations, reflects the skies of 12th July in Rome’s latitude, not London’s. Henry was excommunicated from the Holy Roman Church by Pope Clement on 1st of that month. Interesting, isn’t it?

But of course the most famous detail is the slash of the skull across the center foreground. Why? He must have been showing off, knowing that this painting was going to be seen by some of the most influential wheeler-dealers of the age. The skull is a symbol frequently used to indicate mortality, how long we have on this mortal coil. From Medieval time onwards, they tell an illiterate audience that the crucifixion took place in Golgotha, the hill outside Jerusalem. But here its use is mystifying. It’s so out of place with the rest of the scene. Is it a cry for science and new ideas?

In order to paint in the detail that he did, with such photographic precision, did Holbein use his own state of the art technology, the camera obscura, with the crafty use of lenses? The foreshortening and mathematical contrivances that went into creating this anamorphosis causes audiences to wander back and forth trying to ‘get it’. I have to admit that I did guide some poor souls to the position they needed to be at in order to ‘see’ the skull. The painting is hung on the equivalent of a chimney-breast, and this is so that you can walk to a line along side the painting and stare at it from the side. Right side’s best.

But despite all the intellectual wealth and science on display through the subjects and the technical virtuosity of the artist, there’s that little detail, almost hidden behind the edge of the richly embroidered curtain. It’s probably the most intriguing revelation. When one of your star subjects is a bishop, experienced diplomat known for his views on reforming the Roman Catholic Church, why hide a little crucifix? These men are bound to spot it. Aren’t they? So, is this a sneaky declaration of Holbein’s, or is it done with their approval inferring that the Catholic church is being deliberately pushed to one side?