Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Figure Sculpture Week 9 (7 photos)

The first four photos are taken with a Canon 60D, 50mm lens, and no idea why I then started snapping with my iPhone5S. Promise not to in the next two, and, gasp, final weeks. Nowhere near done!

Also, I asked the instructor to cut the arms on my figure without offering any direction as to where. This is big on the agenda for next week's session - fixing those stubbs, either to look better at the length they are, or to elongate somehow. Photographing the figure with the arm stubbs is when I switched to the iPhone's camera.









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 brendaclews.com

Monday, November 18, 2013

Figure Sculpture Week 8 (11 photos)

Week 8, and I took in a Canon 60D with a 50mm lens (which made it easy to carry) to photograph the strangeness better. The images are sharper, and there is more bokeh going on in some of them.


The instructor enlarged and adjusted the head on my sculpture, which it needed, but in the process wiped out the face for the second time, making this is the third go at the face. It doesn't quite work, maybe next week will be a better session. Only 3 sessions to go - I'm sure I could work on it a year and still not be finished.



The chin is a bit too long - I was working from the front and trying to get that chin bone, which is smaller than an uncooked grain of rice, and ran out of time before I could move around the model to adjust the proportions of her profile. The photographs help me to see that adjusting her profile has got to be first next week. 



Shhh... hot lady (she is, but doesn't look so much like it in my sculpture). Somehow I have aged her quite a bit. Odd how that occurs, and how you consciously have to head back into a more youthful version.







Snapped in storage. Quite beautiful, huh. I will reveal all details on where, what and who when the session is over.

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 brendaclews.com

Thursday, November 14, 2013

La Vie de Jolie Jade (painted in ink) @Lizzie Violet's Cabaret Noir


... was messing around with some brush pens that I filled with different coloured inks... the sketch I did of La Vie de Jolie Jade on Aug 11th at Lizzie Violet's Cabaret Noir was what I found when searching for something to apply a new technique to.

(8.5"x11", 130lb art paper, mixed media.)

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 brendaclews.com

Monday, November 11, 2013

Figure Sculpture - week 7 (9 photos)

Perhaps you're getting bored, but I continue with posting, now into week 7. Only 4 more weeks to go! I worked on the face (re-done twice, so roughed in) and the hair (roughed in). I also took some video but think I will wait to see how the sculpture goes over the next month before posting anything along that line. Even though I am very new to sculpting -this is my first time ever working on a figure- in the 2nd photo surprisingly there is strange resemblance to the model's personality, something in the face.











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 brendaclews.com

Friday, November 08, 2013

Exciting News: Solo Show at Urban Gallery in January!

It's official. I signed the contract today. I'm having a solo show at Urban Gallery in Toronto in January, and maybe February. The Opening party is slated for Thurs January 9th 2014 from 5-8pm. During the time my paintings are up, Luciano Iacobelli will host a performance poetry event; Nik Beat, a poetry and music night; and Banoo Zan will host a poetry event. I am thrilled. The winter just got a whole more fun!

http://www.urbangallery.ca/

And the lady who is responsible for this turn of events is Mary Lou Patchell, who owns He and She Clothing. She told Calvin about a lady who danced poetry in masks that came out of paintings and he told her to tell me to get in touch with him. We (Calvin & I) met in September, and I thought, that was nice, what a lovely man, and nothing of it, and then got an email a week or two back and am finally able to burst with the news.

Today I was in Lou Lou's store, and she dressed me up a little bit. I did buy the top, and maybe will the shaped leather mask (which fit perfectly) later on if I can figure out a poem for it and how to use it in a poetry performance... (She also laced me into a corset, a purple and black one (that is definitely for performances), and it is now tucked away in my drawer.) She took this photo and I really love it even if I think I look too thin, but then again, I didn't in the others she took, so it's just the angle. She kept saying, 'You look so different in that mask... another side of you.' Something to ponder... what is a normal self? And why should a simple eye mask change the perception of this elusive concept?



After my last meeting with Calvin Hambrook, one of the owners of Urban Gallery and Urban Catering, I took some iPhone pics and videos of Lou Lou's store. Plan to go back sometime to draw those mannequins!

direct link: He and She Clothing Store

The video was a quick patched job of iPhone video and photos, but today am considering making it a videopoem with a voiceover, so that might happen, who knows. It's been awhile since I made a videopoem- it might be fun.

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 brendaclews.com

Monday, November 04, 2013

Figure Sculpture, week 6 (5 photos)





decided to leave the tool marks, to make a calligraphy of them all over her body




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 brendaclews.com

Friday, November 01, 2013

A Vampire Story for Halloween @ The Beautiful and the Damned


direct link: A Vampire Story.

Looks like this video received a 'naughty' rating. Delighted!! (And it ain't the outfit. lol)

One of my stories about a vampire, told on Halloween 2013 at The Beautiful and The Damned, a poetry event in Toronto, Canada, hosted this month by Lizzie Violet.

Many thanks to John Oughton (one of the features of the evening, terrific poetry on time, memory, Honest Ed's and many other surrealities) for kindly videoing my open mic.

Looks like I now have a 4th performance piece to add to my growing repertoire (of now 4 pieces, with their own rudimentary choreographies, costumes, mannerisms, the speech patterns of poetry and prose clusters) . :)

Also, this is the first time I have worn a corset in my life. Don't ask. It wasn't uncomfortable.

I did forgot one of the main punch lines, but we won't mention that. Sheesh.


The Beautiful and The Damned Halloween 2014 -photo of the hostess of ceremonies, Lizzie Violet (taken by moi).


The Beautiful and The Damned Halloween 2014 -photo of moi, with thanks to Lizzie Violet who posted it on Facebook.


The Beautiful and The Damned Halloween 2014 — with Lizzie Violet, Brenda Clews, Philip Cairns and Heather Babcock,  at The Central in Toronto. Photo posted by Lizzie in her Facebook album for the evening.


The Beautiful and The Damned — with an enmasked John Oughton reading at The Central. Photo in Lizzie's Facebook album of the night on Facebook.


 psst. from the video above).
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 brendaclews.com

A Pulsing Imagination - Ray Clews' Paintings

A video of some of my late brother Ray's paintings and poems I wrote for them. Direct link: https://youtu.be/V8iZyORoU9E ___