From The Vaults is Live
It is done!
Excerpt from a recent blog post, dated 2nd September 2023.
Back at the end of March this year, a few of my prints were seen on a restaurant wall, luckily there were numbers left in the print run, so I was able to fulfil the subsequent order generated by the sighting.
I remembered them although created several years ago. I was very happy that prints I thought had long been forgotten, were still on walls and being sought after. The interaction prompted me to post my thoughts on adding a new page on my website, dedicated to earlier artwork & prints. I set about building the page to make it more than just a thought.
It's taken a little time, in between spraying surfboards, collage, photography and life. But I got there! As suggested in March, I have titled the page, ‘From the Vaults’.
Stoked to have made the new page, creating a place for them to be.
Having made the effort of collecting and organising my previous fine art prints, I also created a new board on Pinterest for them to have even more room to breathe.
TWO DAYS IN TEIGNMOUTH
For a break from Newquay’s mid-summer tourist froth, Hannah and myself took a brief sojourn to Teignmouth, Devon. The weather was patchy but the place is wonderful, sleepy compared to Newquay in the height of silly season, even though, unknowingly we were there for the Teignmouth Carnival.
It started as many small seaside town carnivals do – dance groups, walking bands, floats and street vendors that amble along the main roads. The two of us ducked into a pub for food and a couple of pints as dusk fell, the day had turned to night by the time we left pub, and the family entertainment had swivelled to a street piss up!
It was amusing for a while, but I have seen and done it all before, so a few side streets took us back to our seafront B&B. Not getting tangled in the main throng allowed for a good start the next day, and a chance to look around, take a ferry, visit a beach and look out to sea on the south coast.
SHOOTING WITH 1:1 ASPECT RATIO ON MY CAMERA
Doing this has really been enjoyable. Below is an excerpt from my blog.
On occasion, here and there, I have used the 1:1 aspect ratio on my Fujifilm X100F, which I have owned for a few years now. It's a lovely camera and using the square, 1:1 ratio, was just a way of exploring different settings without any idea to use or print the images.
For a long time I have been a fan of Vivian Maier, an American street photographer whose work I can just stare at and admire, page after page. She primarily used Rolleiflex cameras that produced 1:1 aspect ratio (6cm x 6cm) photographs.
Recently I found some of my earlier experimental (1:1) images and remembered the fun I had with an alternative approach and framing images differently. So now, rather than just running through the camera settings for the sake of it, I carry two cameras and have set the X100F to 1:1 and Monochrome permanently, and kept my X-Pro 3 to 3:2 aspect ratio and colour. This allows me to delve further into the approach while enjoying something new.
This, I must point out, is in no way my attempt to produce photographs as good or similar to Vivian Maier's work – I would think that impossible, her work is so sublime. I just find it quite natural to see images and frame up photographs using the 1:1 ratio. I don't see it overriding all my work, it's just very rewarding to have the camera all set up and ready to go when the moment presents itself.
A FEW DAYS OF SUN FOR NEWQUAY
I really haven’t been out with my camera as much as previous years this summer. The weather has not been good, but that is no real reason to abstain, the Great British seaside and the summer season continue come rain or shine. It could be argued that a photograph of a family on a beach, huddled together behind a bending windbreak and clutching at anything to serve as a rain hat, is as good of an image to capture the essence of a British summer day as any.
Nope, I shan’t try and work out this years reluctance, I still take my camera with me everywhere I go, the amount of outings has just eased off. It will come back.
That said, the sun came out for a couple of days to save a dreary August, and so I went out to use the light. I like to shoot in just about any light, and am not really a fan of clear blue skies, from a photography point of view that is. But, I have been admiring the work of Polly Rusyn and the way she shoots with high contrast and bright colours, I notice her photographs often have clear skies in them. So out I went!
I also continued to shoot with 1:1 aspect ratio, but in colour. I don’t have a favourite, and I doubt 1:1 will override all my work, it is just really good and refreshing to frame things differently now and again.
Just added this because I like it! One of my first shots with the Canon 6D.
SURFBOARD TIME!
Of course extravagant visits like the two days in teignmouth need to be paid for. So luckily there are plenty of people who like their surfboards to have some colour. That’s when my bat phone rings and I get busy at the Ocean Magic surfboard factory.
It has been quite a colourful month!
We had friend, surfer, shaper Mark Phipps return to shape a few. His visit to Newquay coincided with the Boardmasters event, in which his son, Jay Phipps won the Junior Open.
Richard ‘dodo’ Dodd ordered a new board, brightly coloured and inspired by the iconic spray work on Town & Country surfboards. Always good to get stuck into a multi-layered art job on a surfboard, time consuming, yes, rewarding, YES! And getting a chance to do something that resembles a board from the legendary ‘Town & Country’ surfboard company, is a good thing.
Stage 1) Foam spray, bright colours & fade
Stage 2) Sand coat (checks & pin lines) spray
Among many sprays, but one of note, there was this camouflage spray on a Pyzel board. At first I dreaded it, there is so much cutting to do with a camouflage spray, but with good help from Clive laying down the unruly wide tape, progress was made. The reward of the final outcome is enough return for (tedious) cutting shapes slowly with a scalpel.
A short reel of the camouflage spray surfboard being worked on can be seen on the Sleepless ink blog.
On another Pyzel board there was the chance to use my overhead projector, I’m guessing something not used since the 90’s. The amount of dust blown off it suggested the estimation was not far away from being right. That thing got hammered in the 90’s, surfing and subsequent surfboard demand went almost above supply, and there was a thirst for bespoke colour and design. That’s when the OHP got the call. My 12th August blog post has a short reel with it in action.
Following the lines from the OHP
NORTH SHORE, OAHU
Just to end the bulletin and see August out, I’m going to rehash a couple of photos from my visit to the North Shore of Oahu in Jan/Feb of 2023. My time there is etched onto my mind, it was such a privilege and stoke to go there. Yes, I would go again!
1) Sunset Beach car park
2) Looking up and inland, Haleiwa
Until next time, take care.
