Last week I showed you my oil painting, Blue Man and this week I fed the image through Kooleido, a kaleidoscope app on my iPhone. I love the religious overtones of mandala-style psychedelic images, and I’ve found the movement of a kaleidoscope quite hypnotic (Believe! Believe!) The result is almost like Dutch Delft ceramic tiles, although with sprawling knots of naked men. Imagine that…
Blue Man by Mark Wallis, 1999 oil on canvas. Click on image to enlarge
Oil paint is the most fantastic medium, versatile and rugged. The smell of linseed oil, the rolling of sleeves and the dirtying of hands are my idea of painting. Mistakes can be moved or wiped and the colours can be propelled around the canvas with as much passion or restraint as you like. Most artists I speak to are afraid to use them, but the rich, deep colours last for ever and the results speak for themselves.
Blue Man was my first attempt at painting in oils, and although it’s 13 years old I’m very proud of it. That and the fact that it sold before it was even completed. It’s a bold image which reflects how I felt at the time which was a bit frayed around the edges, and like early Hockney I based the painting on a photograph from an adult magazine. This particular image appealed to me enormously as it smashed the myth of men and their emotions. To see a big strong man in such a vulnerable pose was enigmatic and inspirational.
I still can’t do feet…
Me on Baker Beach
The sun burning off the fog on a Sausalito hillside
Fog poem on the beach near the Golden Gate Bridge
Dusty backroad, Sausalito
These are warm hazy memories of my trip to San Francisco, where the fog hid from us during an October heatwave in 2007. The dusty sunshine in Sausalito was idyllic, as we had breakfast with bears in an old wooden cafe and explored the Marina. I really appreciate these pictures as Manchester is lashed by rain for the third month running… and I wonder, where is the sun?
The Marina, Sausalito
Sunset on the Haight
The Palace of Fine Arts
The sun setting behind the trees near the Golden Gate Bridge
Karma. The image of Buddha, sleepy eyes and a secret smile, universal force of balance. Benevolent and omnipotent. Or is Karma actually an angry gargoyle, spitting poison? Looking at these guys in Manchester’s Albert Square, a monument to Queen Victoria’s beloved, I wonder. They look so efficient, like Karma’s been upgraded.
Because I’ve noticed it works so much quicker these days…
This is Northern Flower, a shop in the Northern Quarter of Manchester. I did this digital painting as part of my Tour of the Northern Quarter series back in February, when the store had no signage. Since then, a rather cool Gaudi-style mosaic has appeared, so I’ve done an update because it’s such a great sign. Below you can see my source picture, which is a bit grumpy and grey…
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© My artwork, photography and music are copyright Mark Wallis 2015
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