Open Exhibition Invite - People and Portraiture

Painting the frame

Matt's bodged together a frame for tomorrow and we're painting it in Laura Ashley pale duck egg blue which was used on some of the walls in the house by the previous owners.

Forthcoming Exhibition

Matt and I have been invited to do an exhibition in August - which is a surprise. So I'll be inviting everyone to that shortly. After we've cracked on with some serious work I guess. First I must prepare the frame for tomorrow's hanging at Oxford House in the Open Exhibition.

Day of the ducklings

Faure's Requiem at St Paul's

This is where Matt and I have been tonight. It was lovely. Also Bach, chorales and solo violin

Illustrations with slippery meaning

Getting really into illustration / painting with slippery meaning. You draw roughly. What you draw looks like something else. You change it to emphasise the thing you didn't intend. You continue that process ... you decide when it's done.

Imaginary bible scene

Spacebird

Aha - the website is finally happening

I've just managed to install Indexhibit on my webhost, so there will be an arty Jude Cowan artist/writer/musician website coming soon at www.judecowan.com

I'm terribly terribly pleased this is finally happening and that I'm organising and crafting it myself. It looks pretty crappy at the moment, but you're welcome to pop over any time during the next couple of months before it's ready to properly launch.

Lamb & Tyger - the Commune Album

Just received the album fresh out of the studio from Wim Oudjik!!! It's bloody marvellous even though I say it myself. Soooo excited!!!!

News! Painting News! Ta - rah!

First oil painting what I ever have done, Mr Placard Man, has been accepted for the Open Exhibition at Oxford House. I have to hang him on 1st July at 4.30pm. Sorry for inconsequential detail. I am, rather delighted.

Jude and Richard are Foulkestone ... at Scaledown 71

Jude - I am Foulkestone!

Jude and Richard - We are Foulkestone! At Scaledown 71

Imaginary estuary

Thoughts of train over bridge

Sunset river scene ... in alternate universe

Mythological tree

Latex stop out and watercolour. I haven't bothered peeling the latex off this one as the way the watercolour has stayed on it makes an intriguing eye - now I think this tree must be a person tree of some type.

Playground on the edge of another world

Estate, latex stopout and watercolour

Blanaid's A level Photography

Autobiographical painting - Broxbourne

Children's book illustration - spread

Oil painting - pool

Not quite sure what I'm going to do with this beginnings of a classic pool folk-art painting. There's an owl snake in the tree ... it just looks like an owl with red eyes at the moment but it's going to become an owl-snake shortly. There's a burning bush under the tree. I quite like oils now I'm getting used to them. I did an oil Reuters this morning for the first time - will post later ... about a dying plane.

Animals at night

I can see a UFO in this painting too. I think this is an animal village where animals live in the houses. It's somewhere in Africa. I think that's the brown and black colours with the white dots making me think that.

Matt in the garage

with a beer

at Bark studios

Barking Day in Walthamstow

A great day in the studio today with Brian in Walthamstow. Matt came and joined me. We made some lovely music, well we enjoyed ourselves.

Imaginary characters in landscapes

I've been working on some textured colourful backgrounds in watercolour, latex stop out and oil pastel - I'm just starting to put characters in. Going to work on surreal beasts, mixtures of creatures and situations ... trying to feel it all intuitively rather than coming at it with an initial idea. I work better that way and I think a lot of people do. Practising my imagination.

Polar bear sunset

Slug and Tornado

Russian watercolour

Swiss Church Sound Art

On Thursday I went to the Swiss Church on Endell Street in Covent Garden for a free Sound Art do. Was very nice. I was particularly interested to hear the take on Purcell, which was supposed to see his timbre and type of music mixed with other sounds.

David Toop was the main man of the evening and I did like the way he had a little microphoned board for sticks and stuff. I think I would like one of those for going out and performing, makes you feel like a cook.

Lore Lixenberg was the main vocalist on the Purcell part. The room had an incredible reverb. Terrible for speaking but very easy for a vocalist to play with. I like the idea of doing experimental baroque and want to explore this area myself which is why I was particularly interested.

Time to record another World News Vision radio show this morning!!! Before the gang get up ... especially noisy doggy.

Purcell and Tallis

Have heard our next choir concert is Purcell and Tallis - and in the beautiful church in Greenwich where Tallis is buried ...

Blanaid's display

We met Blanaid on the gravel path and passed over the photos for her photography display. Lovely day.

Painted my first successful oil painting, on a small plaster on wood panel. And submitted it for the Oxford House Open Exhibition. Crossed fingers. I think this may be a way of approaching the autobiographical sketches in a more substantial way. Have to prep up a few more small boards.

I really enjoyed the concert on Saturday and am hoping to take a few serious lessons with one of the sopranos who soloed. Quite excited about what I might be able to achieve with a bit of guidance and help. Maybe a solo with the choir one day.

Blanaid's A level photography

Waiting, with bated breath, for Blanaid's parcel of photos to arrive from Photobox, then going to run it up to her school for her end of year display. These are the good days.

Madrid Shop window ... another one!

Madrid shop window - Sarah kept taking these

The last choir concert (not ever, but the one before the Baroque one yesterday)

Sarah also gave me some pictures from the last choir concert we did in Chiswick - I think this was of us singing our 'English Renaissance' repertoire - Vaughan-Williams, Britten et alia. Nice church, nice audience. The children's choir were excellent too. It's such fun watching Russell conduct them. Is it less fun when he directs us? Hmmm, it's tougher.

Madrid pictures

At the concert my good friend Sarah Clarke gave me some pix of her trip to the capital of Spain with me this February. We mostly went round art galleries and to cute little cafes. Here's me sketching a Goya etching ...

Lovely concert

That was a great concert at St James's Piccadilly by the Collegium Musicum of London. Loved it. The highlight was the Lotti! Matt recorded it on my Tascam and we listened to it coming home on the train, sounded great.

Another from the river walk

Flats and boats

The red hoop bridge

This picture is taken standing on the red hoop bridge at Hackney Wick, near the Olympic stadium.

More river pics

For my boating-interested chums, here's some more pics of our walk to the river the other evening.

This is close to the Olympic site along the river. The red hoop bridge is a really striking bit of architecture. Has already begun to attract graffiti around the base.















And here's a shot of earlier in our canal walk, of a rather imposing boat moored closer to Victoria Park. What a prow! It's a good word as it sounds 'proud'.

Pharmacy of Stories - Deer Picture

Here's the picture Brendan McIntyre did for me at Pharmacy of Stories. He wore a deer mask with antlers. I recommend it for all men wanting to pull, as my chums Katja and Joanna were interested in what he looked like underneath the mask. I wasn't but then I am interested already in someone who is currently sorting out a canvas for me to do my next painting. Hullo there in the garden! Thanks Matt.





http://www.brendanmcintyre.net/pictotronic/index.html

A boating life for me

The engine's hum - moving the boat, taking some foties and doing some work for entering the Oxford House Open Exhibition. Both Matt and I are to enter - for an adventure! We met and walked down the canal the other day after my work was over, took some pictures. Now we need more! Here's one boat we passed, looks a bit dilapidated - you don't mind me saying that do you, person who owns it? But the willow gives it a lovely air of Gothic decay.

Exhausted weeding

It feels like it's been such a roller coaster doing the Sound Art radio session even though I recorded it some time ago. Relaxing this morning by getting back to the earth with a little light weeding. What a beautiful garden we have!

The wonderful wonderful Sound Art Radio

Thank you so much Sound Art Radio for hosting the first ever World News Vision hour! Matt is setting up my studio so I have a good working area for the next show, which I'm going to record - Thursday maybe? This time I might record it in two halves as one hour is an awful lot of stamina - but then there's something good about that - I think - the natural rhythm of an hour's improvisation ... running out of stamina is a bit like a long breath in Gaelic whistle - when you run out of breath but keep blowing the note wavers and breaks beyond human control, giving a frailty to the sound which is very attractive to me.

Sound Art Radio - debut show at 8pm, Tuesday 7th June

At 8pm BST tomorrow it's my first hour long radio show on Sound Art Radio.

www.soundartradio.com

There's a little 'listen live' button on the top left of the home page - hope you'll tune in.

Pharmacy of Stories - Hello Stranger opening

A lovely evening was had yesterday at the opening for Hello Stranger, the show Tina Bueno has created at the Pharmacy of Stories.

My friend Joanna McCormick has made a mermaid song scroll, which you can twist to see the story and I had my song about a cheeky convict playing through a beautiful pair of vintage headphones hanging over the door.

Thank you to Tina and all the artists and people who worked together to make such a beautiful, delightful and intriguing and intelligent exhibition.

Richard Sanderson's solo melodeon CD

Enjoying the places this is taking me to this morning.

Review - perfect with coffee and homebaked scones (so long as strawberries are straight picked from the garden).

Jude cowan - World News Vision - Marry a Rich Man with Umbrella Ghost

Layout of children's book

Right - gearing into action this morning, post-class, for my book layout for the Solly children's book. I'm going to do 11 - 12 spreads, a front and back page. It's going to be much more simple than I'd originally thought, and set in the garden without the walk up the hill to the horses. A 32 page book.

Improv Friday - new contribution

I got up early and did my Improv Friday contribution first thing - really enjoyed it. I played electric guitar (which I don't normally play anymore and did a meditation on the Christe Eleison fugue in the Lotti I'm singing with the Collegium.

If you're interested, the Improv Friday page is at http//improvfriday.ning.com

Victorian book

Practice sketches of lions and ships ... they seem rather Victorian ... it's fun doing this book because I get to draw other things in a slightly different style

Tea at choir rehearsal

We always have tea during choir rehearsal. Sometimes we really need it. Mona usually makes it but today Liz did, as she has laryngitis and couldn't sing.

Elephants and shadows

I did some more work on the Victorian girl story on the train this morning - it features elephants and shadows, and the themes of memory and mortality.