[Drawing] “Venus entering her bath” sketch

The 2-week study break that ended on Mon didn’t last long enough. As always, doing nothing feels tremendously good. Which means I had a very happy, sloth-like first week after I completed my Audio & Drawing deadlines.

The second week? I was trying desperately cling on to the sloth-skin that was shedding me and pushing me back to the reality of 6 more projects waiting. Did it work? Maybe.It did push rather hard. But for most of the time I was happy to play the Ostrich-in-the-sand that week.

Now, coming back to that drawing deadline…

Drawing always fills me with ambivalent feelings. On one hand, it frustrates me that I’m not a natural drawer, which leads to me struggling through my assignments; on the other hand, if I didn’t struggle that much, I wouldn’t be so relieved and proud of myself after I complete each drawing assignment. Thus, I’m still working out whether I like drawing or not.

I definitely do like looking at drawings though. Looking at the work of talented drawers consumes me with envy sometimes. The good part is that after that green-suffused stint is over, I usually feel the need to strive harder. Which I do. (At least until the next season of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER comes along.)

So. We were given a foreshortening drawing assignment about month or so ago. By any fine-art student’s standard, it’s probably a simple task. We didn’t have to draw from an actual sculpture/painting, we were allowed to copy from a photograph. I guess the teachers realised there was a ceiling to the amount of progress our drawing skills could make, since we only had 1 month to learn all the drawing basics.

I chose my sculpture from the Louvre collection – there’s a book on them in NLB. It’s a marble statue by Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain (French, 1710–1795), his most famous work in fact. Called “Venus entering her bath”, or sometimes just “Bather (La Baigneuse), it was presented to Madame du Barry by Louis XV in 1772 for her Château de Louveciennes.

It’s a lovely piece which I wish I could do more justice to, particularly around her torso area (okay, and I admit, I think I gave her too small a foot..) but I think I tried my hardest and that’s all that matters to me in the end when I try to sleep at night. I swear when I don’t, I just end up staying up all night thinking what I should have done better. It’s a pain and hurdling sheep don’t work. Despite the long hours, I did start enjoying myself a little – perhaps after I’d listen to the same CD 7 times over and was in a trance – and am thinking I might just try doing it again. For another sculpture or drawing. I’m really looking forward to the day when I can do this better and in half the time. Like cooking instant noodles.

20-20-1: digital photography lesson 2

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Verner Panton: I like you.

5 reasons why I like this Mr. Panton:

1. His use of colour, colour, colour.
2. During the 1950s, he customized a Volkswagen into his mobile studio.
3. The Flying chair & the Living Tower.
4. When he was a kid in his tiny village of Fünen, he wanted to become a artist, despite being not very talented at drawing/painting. 
5. They called him an enfant terrible.

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Went for the Verner Panton exhibition last Saturday at the National Museum of Singapore (NMS.. I always get it wrong and type NSM..never mind) with Sharyn.

We were invited for the curator’s tour  and having a curator  - Hwei Lian, in our case – sure saves you a lot of reading. It’s rather fascinating. They’re walking, talking, breathing encyclopedias. How they manage to store that many dates in their memory beats me. Then again, I was never a history student. And then again, Hwei Lian might be an exceptionally good curator.

Anyway. Coming back to the exhibition:

[In a nutshell]

• Big? Not really.
• Comprehensive? Pretty much.

They had sections on his furniture, lighting, interiors and textiles/pattern.

• Worth the money? For $6, yes.

Especially if you’re a furniture or pop art/op art fan. I felt like I wanted to run out to buy everything on display and redecorate my room. And I would. If I could.

FlowerPot Lamps

I liked the exhibition. I suspect it has to do with the colours – which explains why I loved the Christian Lacroix exhibition too. Me, I’m easy to please. 

Plus I feel you’ve got to hand it to Verner Panton for sticking with his ideas of bright, imaginative furniture and interior decor, particularly when he hailed from a Scandinavian region (Denmark, to be exact). I’m guessing he had his fair share of detractors when he started out since Scandinavia Design was/is known for its minimalistic and functional style. The world sure benefited from him believing in his designs and letting his creativity romp free.

The Panton Chair

Panton often incorporated playful and futuristic elements into his designs. He took legs away from the chair when he designed the Panton chair, choosing to form it from a single piece of plastic. He designed full fantastical interiors of buildings, such as: the Spiegel Publishing house in Hamburg (1969); his own villa in Basel Binningen; and of course, the Phantasy Landscape shown in the ‘Visionary 2′ on the Bayer boat, which is the backdrop for arguably the most iconic photo of Panton’s work.

The Phantasy Landscape, Visiona 2 (©Panton Design, Basel)

I agree with Ingrid that it would have been wonderful to have been able to wander through rooms after rooms filled with Panton’s work, which was what one exhibition overseas had done. However, that apparently was done when Panton was still alive and able to oversee it, and I guess we all know it’s hard for traveling exhibitions to be as lavish, given how tedious/painstaking it must be to bring over originals that run the transit risk of damage. Perhaps the owner museum or collector couldn’t bear to loan them out. Or perhaps there were budget constraints.Whatever it is, I’m just glad NMS is holding more diverse and to a certain extent, ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the big exhibitions used to come once or twice a year, and now, there’s always at least 1 ongoing.

(Yay, museums.)

So, if you’re keen to take a walk through the partial section of the Fantasy Landscape they’ve recreated here and see his works in person, the Verner Exhibition is on till the 12 July 2009, at NMS. Ticketing details are here. There are also 2 upcoming curator tours on the 12 June & 3rd July.

By the way you’ll have to take off your shoes for the Phantasy Landscape. And yes, that’s the only interior that’s been recreated. But at least there’s one. They’ll give you blue, disposable feet-shoddings (okay, I couldn’t think of any other term) so you can feel like a smurf while you pad through a room you only thought you’d experience in your weed-infused mind.

Yup, that colourful. And curvy-wurvy. And aaahh.Nice.

click here for more photos

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resources……..

Verner Panton
The official reference portal. Full of visuals of his work and a timeline on him.

Design Museum Collection
Interesting write-up on Verner Panton

Colour-Lovers
Photographs of the spaces/interiors that Panton designed. You won’t see them recreated at NMS, but you’ll recognise a number of the lightings and seatings. 

20-20-0: digital photography lesson 1

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For my digital photography class last Thurs. We had to bring in any 20 photographs of ours. He trashed most of our photos.. only about 4 – 5 passed muster. Well. Will work harder. Next time. Like the Duracell Bunny.

Flea-tique: Night Edition

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[what]     FLEA-TIQUE: NIGHT EDITION
[where]   Singapore Art Museum
[when]    27th March 2009

Lost our flea market stall virginity! And had bucketloads of fun while sweating bucketloads of er, sweat. Man, those spotlights shining down on our stall were deadly.

Sold hand-made rings, pre-loved clothes and illustrations. Sharyn made all the rings, the clothes were Nab&ours and the illustrations: Ali J’s greeting cards, my Sally-Sue postcards and free postcards sponsored by different illustrators via the wonderful Pikaland (thanks Amy!).

We mainly wanted to see if Singaporeans were up for illustrations/illustrated goodies. So far, not too bad a response… It’s such a pity there isn’t much of a platform in Singapore for illustrators to showcase their artwork and creativity. Double that sentiment when there are so many good local illustrators here. We’re looking to change that, but plans are still in the pipeline…

Disposable Cynicism

Up There

What do you think about when you’re swinging so high?

The Search is On

Rene Gruau, fashionillustrationgallery

I love my childhood stories.

Those class periods we got to go to the old library in St. Maur  were my favourite. I remember walking in through the wooden frame door – straight towards the librarian’s desk, then turning a sharp left and then left again into the carpeted children’s corner.

It’s funny the things you end up remembering.

I have no clear recollection of what the librarian, the other parts of the library, hallways of the elementary school or class rooms looked like, but I can remember where the library catalogue was located, how the cards looked and the top of my desk in my homeroom.

I can also recall perfectly that one morning when I was in first grade and I picked out this fantastic children’s book about a woman in New York.

I was facing the shelves and rows of thin hardcover books, when I decided on a spur of the moment to pull out a book from the left end of the 2nd bottom-most row.

It was slightly taller than the rest and the title wasn’t about bears or a naughty girl….which is probably why it piqued my interest.

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16 years later, I can’t (for the life of me) remember the exact plot or the author  – actually, I probably wasn’t even interested at that point in time – all I can remember is this one delicious spread when the lady, all wrapped up in her mink or fur coat getting out of the car, and a silhouette of Empire State Building in another of the pages.

The illustrations were done with bold strokes of  – if I remember right – mainly crimsom red, black and white. The period was 1920’s/1930s and I was blown away by the newness of it all.

At the same time, it also scared me a little. It was a stark difference from the soft pastels of naturalistic landscapes depicted in most children stories.

Come to think of it, don’t the colours, style and period remind you of Cruella de Vil…

Anyway, the fashion illustrations by Rene Gruau (above) are the nearest I can find to it, but still there are some differences.

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I think about this book here and there on some restless nights before I fall asleep, and on other days when I’m spacing out on the train ,and I keep wondering: WHO IS THE ILLUSTRATOR???? WHAT WAS THE BOOK ABOUT???

I can’t take it anymore. I need to know what that book is.

Yes. The search is ON.

Peter Callesen’s Papercuts

How do you visualise the pattern of an intricate 3D model on a blank, white sheet of paper?

I have no idea. Origami may have been my forte when I was 8 years old, but that’s not the same. The work Callesen does? Serious eye-opener.

Just take a look at this castle (that I would very much like to live in, but alas, no rich prince):

It’s intriguing in its idea of simplicity married with complexity.Simplicity in the medium of plain A4 paper and the raw purity of white; Complexity of the entire design and folding.

You also get to see both the start and the end – the cut-out blanks and the finished model – which appeals, as the process is always captivating. It’s like peeking behind the scenes and that great feeling of learning more about the effort and thought that went behind end product and feeling more connected to it. ( Well. That’s me waxing lyrical on a late night. )

Big hugs to Jac for letting me know about this!

My favourite out of his papercut works:

Distant Wish

früjch me baby one last time

The last poster I did for früjch. Feeling the definition of bittersweet. Always thought it was a sappy word, but am feeling it now…Sappy me.

This poster began as wanting to do something colourful to cap off the final day of früjch and being visually-loud enough….

(…)

Ah yes, the title “Früjch Me Baby One Last Time” is courtesy of JonnyBaBonny once again, from the ever-surviving (what did Shal say Trent called her again?….Ah yes,) Brit-Brit.

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