I have been very neglectful of this poor blog. Been too active elswhere and too caught up in a singular activity. Time to break out and get some fresh air. At least I have started some new work and been doing a bit of teaching. Unfortunately glandular fever has taken a hold of me yet again and it has crushed my energy systems and left me very little to play with. Short bouts of activity only can he do.

Here is another entry into Illustration Friday. The topic for this week is Voice and these two characters are voicing their opinion on something. Unfortunately I only have a small jpg of this illustration. The original is now living in the US.

I think its been almost 4 years since I last entered into Illustration Friday. This being Good Friday I thought it could be a good time to get back into it. This week's brief is 'Vocal'.

Ink, gouache, gesso and varnish on illustrattion board

I am being a little naughty and cross posting between my blogs. The rather short, short story below was posted on my, well one of my other blogs. I have re posted here for two reasons. I have nothing else knew to post [some sketch book stuff coming soon though] and the other reason is that I have been neglectful of this blog for too long. So a compromise. Hope you don't mind.

p.s. I did change the photo, so its almost new.

David clipped in with his right foot and rolled gently down the newly paved driveway and turned right. The air was chilly but the morning held a promise of warmth later. It really was a  beautiful morning for a bike ride.

All to soon the tee junction appeared with its abrupt announcement that Aldgate Valley Road was now at an end. Decision time presented itself and begged the question, which way to go today? Mt Lofty was the logical choice, and then? He would choose when he got there. For now, there were wonders to discover and plenty to enjoy before the day took it all away.

At about the same time that David rolled down his driveway, Tom clipped in with his left foot and hurried along his concrete driveway, losing control of his bike and over shooting the footpath. Cursing the cold and executing an awkward, clumsy left hand turn onto Military Road, simultaneously and unsuccessfully attempting to clip in his right foot. Not bothering to look where he was going and totally unaware that a black four wheel drive failed in its attempt to run him down.

David was in no rush. Deliberately riding slow just because he could. He had only recently discovered slow cycling, a simple pleasure like no other. One that was enjoyed only by the knowing, privileged few who were acutely aware of its addiction.

He was now leaving Aldgate which would transform into Stirling in a blink of the eye. No need for haste today. Monday meant a free day in Daivid’s world. Everything looked wonderful to his eyes this morning, his senses alert and attuned, seeing everything and missing nothing, taking in the details with an unquenchable thirst.

Tom was always late and always in a rush, only half prepared and often leaving his spare tube and food behind on the kitchen table. Today was no exception.

The morning itself seemed to take affront to his presence and dismissive attitude towards its beauty and kindly introduced a head wind as a just reward for his ignorance.

David turned away from Stirling happily rolling on towards Lofty. Taking his time and stopping every now again to soak in the wonders that opened up before him. He sincerely wished the morning would not grow up to become day, breaking the magic spell that had engulfed him.

There always seemed to be a head wind when you rode a bike, thought Tom. Punctures also were par for the course, he always managed two on every ride while everyone else seemed to escape the curse. He could’t work that one out.

He was in a mad rush to get to Outer Harbor in time to catch the fast bunch that met there every Monday morning and hammered all the way to Glenelg. They didn’t stop for anyone, not even traffic lights, gave way to no one and showed no respect for any other road user. Driven by a futile and ill considered notion that this form of ‘effort’ produced ‘results’ and made one a superior athlete. The only product of such activity however, was to produce a real road menace and give every cyclist a bad name. Tom thought it exciting, it made him feel like a real cyclist in his mind, which when translated, meant a fast cyclist.

It was getting warmer, not by much, but noticeable, thought David. A signal that the day would eventually become very warm by mid afternoon. He had the day planned for once. Arrive at the gallery by 11.30, then a long, hot shower, change into the new clothes that Annie had bought him in celebration of a recent large sale. Some small talk catching up on the latest news doing the rounds of the galleries, then lunch at the State Gallery before seeing the recent acquisitions and the exhibition of contemporary Australian craft that Annie had been eagerly waiting for. David was not that interested in ceramics or jewelry, but he did have a curious interest in what Annie found so fascinating about Stephen Bird’s naughty and witty Adam & Eve I & II. Annie was also interested in seeing the work by a group of Adelaide ceramists Gus Clutterbuck, Stephanie James-Manttan and Maria Parmenter.

With no interest in anything other than his own whining, paying no attention to what was going on around him, Tom once again failed to notice a black car approaching him fast down a side street to his left. If both continued on their current course they might well reach the junction of the two roads at the same time.

The car had no intention of stopping, for it too was in a hurry and full of intent. The same black four wheel drive that almost collected Tom when he left his house 45 minutes ago. Tom just caught the car out of the corner of his eye and pulled hard on both brakes, locking up his back wheel and squealing to a very unsteady and awkward stop . It was close again, very close.

‘You fucking moron!’ He screamed at the car. ‘Why don’t you watch where your going, you fuck wit!’ He yelled loudly while gesturing with some vigorous hand and finger waving. The car continued on as if nothing happened. But Tom was very angry. Still swearing loudly as he began to ride faster, adrenalin now pumping through him. Tom noticed that the black four wheel drive had stopped about a kilometer down the road. He smiled to himself and decided to catch up with the driver and let him know just what a real bastard he was.

Mother nature again responded to this unpleasant disruption to the morning by strengthening the head wind.

When Tom reached the car, he was out of breath and out of luck. No driver to be seen anywhere. ‘You bastard!’ He was so furious as he rode off he dragged his house key along the side of the shinny black four wheel drive.

Thirty seconds later the black car moved away from the curb and slowly followed Tom from a discrete distance.

David hadn’t made much progress. Too much to see and absorb for a creative mind. He loved the Adelaide hills and saw masterpieces of art everywhere while he recorded quick sketches in a Moleskine sketchbook.

Tom was still in a hurry with no concern to the world around him nor did he recognized the beauty he rushed past. The black car had kept its distance, waiting patiently for the right moment. Then the car accelerated alarmingly, unnoticed by Tom, or anyone else and was now speeding straight towards the back of the solitary cyclist. It hit him at well over 100kph and didn’t stop.

It happens all the time and we hardly notice. When it affects us directly we tend to have an inkling of it but subtle change is happening all around us all the time. It gets lost, like I am now. Anyway, Apple has pulled the pin on iweb so that means I had to find a new home for my portfolio website. Because I already have some blogs on wordpress and it is relatively simple to use, it made sense to go there. Particularly because I didn't want the stress of building a new website, nor do I have the energy or time. So grahammcarthur.com is now up and going but without a portfolio in the usual sense.

Reason being is that wordpress is terrible for portfolios. In fact their portfolio template is crap, ugly and a watse of time. Which got me thinking that maybe having a portfolio is...a waste of time, and so I am happy to say that no more portfolio. Yah, more time to do reall work and less time on administration duties. Actually if you do visit grahammcarthur.com you will see a menu item called Portflio. Its really just an archive of blog posts that have been labeled portfolio. So all images can be found there, but you have to search by name and not thumbnail. I don't mind as it keeps the site clean and neat. Plus all the ugley images are tucked away out of sight until you click on a name. I think its cool and its easy for me, but I imagine a pain in the arse for a visitor or viewer. Sorry, but change is change, and well, get used to it.

More of a pain is that twitter has bought out posterous. Some think this is wonderful. I am not so sure, but kind of expect this sort of thing to happen in todays unpleasant world where the 'entrepeneur' waits until someone builds a good product then moves in with their greed for power, control, money and a lust for tramping on other people, and simply take them over. Make some quick cash and then let the product rot away and go find another. Twitter has a history of this, so not surprised. The good news is that change will take them eventually, so lets just keep our mouths shut, enjoy what we can when we can and move on. If I get too concerned I will become an even more grumpy old man - some things never change.

I am rather surprised. Requests for more? This one in called Miron, but be warned its a bit over 17 minutes long.

Not too sure if I should post about it, but I have just finished putting together my first CD titled: A Necessary Condition. Front cover of the CD is shown above and the first track can be found below. Electronic Ambient is not to everyone taste, but this short track is not too hard on those who may not be familiar with this type of music. If you like it, let me know and I will post another track.

The album consists of

1 Alfirin  4:25

2 Miron 17:35

3 Terra Ingonita  7:34

4 Koora  5:15

5 A Necessary Condition  28:40

I will be giving two calligraphic workshops in May on Roman Capitals for the Calligraphy Society of Victoria. These will be conducted concurrently on Saturday & Sunday just two days each and two weeks apart, if that maks sense. A workshop for beginners that introduces the classical Roman letterform to the beginning calligrapher will be on Saturdays 5th & 25th May, 2012, and the second workshop will be for the more experienced calligrapher on Sundays 6th & 26th May, 2012, inwhich we will be looking to adapt the essential qualities of these forms for contemporay calligraphic work, particularly work of an expressive and abstract nature (but not necessarily pure abstract).

The image above is the cover of the small booklet I am producing for the workshops that contains some notes and guidelines for the writing and drawing of these letterforms as well as exemplars and examples of the lettering in use.

It is impossible to cover the subject in two days, so for practical reasons these two workshops will just cover the bare basics. Lots of homework will be required in the two weeks between them, so no slacking off the workload. The beginners workshop will be 100% lettering, nose to the paper, inky fingers and a mountain of paper. Also lots of demos and lots of homework.

For the experienced it will be about 85-90% lettering with demos and some theory/discussion thrown in to test your ways of seeing and thinking. First morning will be a very quick over view of the two days plus revisiting of the key elements that make Roman Capitals special. We will spend some time striping the flesh off the classical form and really looking at proportions and weight. As you may be aware, when you srtrip away the clothing what is revealed is often surprising. A lot of work on the technique of drawing the forms in pencil and with broad pen and pointed pen. No time to explore the brush unfortunately. Perhaps another time. Home work will include (along with lettering work) the preparation of a ground for completing two finished pieces in the class room on the second day. As this workshop is for the more advanced student these two pieces will be small and not require much time to complete, but they will be quite technically demanding on both your lettering skills and also your creative thought processes. But they will also be fun to do. As with the beginners class there will also be lots of demos and also some discussion on the creative thought process.

Should be fun.

As the dates draw closer I will post bits and pieces from the class notes/booklet from time to time.