Question to the moderaters

[Ian]

Why is it-that i always seem to have Howard telling me off. Does he enjoy it or do you have some sort of rota? This is a genuine question-i'm not trying to be irritating

[Dunc]

While you ponder this - just what was it that Howard said that (1) you didn't understand, or (2) you think he wasn't entitled to say? Regards / Dunc

[Ian]

Nothing at all of course. It just always seeems to be him, i was simply curious

[Harry R]

He's just more diligent than the rest of us.

Harry
slacker

[Ted]

And who are we kidding? He loves his job.

Ian - just keep your head down.

Ted

[SarahJF]

Haaaaaaaaaaa!

Hi Ian,

Howard M[SIZE=1]2[/SIZE] is God. In other words, I don't laugh, I actually respect what he says (and listen, which, honestly is rare -sorry).

I could possibly give him a run for his money during a discussion of the various attributes of art materials, but that's about it, really, and I doubt that he'd be interested in discussing the relative merits of acrylic and oil.

I have a feeling he gets quite genuinely annoyed when people misuse/talk rubbish. In this, he's a damn good pattern-card of why poetry is important, in my mind. Because it is, y'know - and without the Howard M[SIZE=1]2[/SIZE] 's of this world, we'd all be churning out horrible drivel every bloody day.

I do wish I could skip the size formatting of his name, though. I've been brought up that you have to formally address someone until one has been introduced. And the bloody sizing is narking me.


Sarah
(who has had two glasses of wine, which was a mistake, sorry)

[Harry R]

Originally posted by SarahJF
(who has had two glasses of wine, which was a mistake, sorry)

Don't apologise!

Harry
who has had the best part of a bottle and a half, and is feeling Zenner by the glass

[Rachel Bunting]

Oh, I do love it when you all post after drinking.

Not to say I haven't done it myself, but I'm still at work, and haven't yet had the pleasure of wine today.

[amaranthus]

Originally posted by Harry R
Don't apologise!

Harry
who has had the best part of a bottle and a half, and is feeling Zenner by the glass


Was that Zenner or Zinner?

[Harry R]

Zenner.

as in 'more Zen'

Harry

fettucine al funghi, anyone?

[amaranthus]

Ah, a white wine then.

[Kim]

I'd give my left . . . well, let's just say I'd give a lot for a glass of wine and a little fettucini al funghi and a little adult conversation right now.

Kim
bad
day

[HowardM2]

"I doubt that he'd be interested in discussing the relative merits of acrylic and oil."

I'm married to an artist who, because of chemical sensitivities, recently had to change (with much verbalized soul-searching) from using oils to using acrylics. I know everything there is to know about them.

At least, I've heard everything there is to know about them; how much I retained and understand is a whole other issue.

[Scavella]

To Ian:

Because you posted the same poem here (http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23564&poems), and here (http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/showthread.php?s=&postid=149192), and here (http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/showthread.php?s=&postid=149200).

This tells us that you did not go here (http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/faq.html) before you began to post.

Your bad.

[Ian]

ITS TRUE-I CONFESS!!! Please be merciful-particularly you drunken lot.

Ian

[Harry R]

Originally posted by Kim
I'd give my left . . . well, let's just say I'd give a lot for a glass of wine and a little fettucini al funghi and a little adult conversation right now.

Kim
bad
day

Have some cantuccini and a glass of Vin Santo to dip it into.

hmmmmm....

Harry

[Donner]

How come Howard is the only one who gets a question? I can be just as officious.

Donner,
sulking

[earthshoes]

Note to newbies:

[SIZE=4]Please refrain from buying drinks for the moderators.
It only makes them meaner.
[/SIZE]




Now Donner, I hear she's different--Rumor has it that Godiva Chocolate will get you the key to the lounge.

[Barbara Jean]

yeah, give a mod a drink and pretty soon there will be lipsdick everywhere!


lipsdick (http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23602&poems)

[SarahJF]

Ha! I woke up with a headache this morning. It's defn a baggy t-shirt and jazz day.

But there's still left-over feta cheese, olives, nice bread, salad and garlicky marinated sun-dried tomatos and ginger in the fridge. We were all set for a civilised lunch in our newly planted garden.

Shame it's raining, really.

(I should have known that HowardM

[SIZE=1]2[/SIZE] would know about oils and acrylics. How's your wife getting on with acrylics? I have to say I like acrylics because I enjoy working fast (I do most of my preparation in sketchbooks), and I find that when I'm using mixed media, such as dyed fabric squares - I do a lot of that sort of stuff, acrylic is fine - cheap, and versatile.

But then I was brought up with acrylics, and my oil experience is very limited. When I've experimented with oils (unsucessfully, in the main), the texture of using it is what's struck me. Gorgeous, gorgeous texture -like painting with butter. It can't have been easy at all to have been forced to swap from oil to acrylic.


Sarah

[Andrea345]

Originally posted by SarahJF
(I should have known that HowardM

[SIZE=1]2[/SIZE] would know about oils and acrylics. How's your wife getting on with acrylics? I have to say I like acrylics because I enjoy working fast (I do most of my preparation in sketchbooks), and I find that when I'm using mixed media, such as dyed fabric squares - I do a lot of that sort of stuff, acrylic is fine - cheap, and versatile.

But then I was brought up with acrylics, and my oil experience is very limited. When I've experimented with oils (unsucessfully, in the main), the texture of using it is what's struck me. Gorgeous, gorgeous texture -like painting with butter. It can't have been easy at all to have been forced to swap from oil to acrylic.


Sarah

Actually, what he won't talk about are ceramic glazes. Amazing stuff. Working with 'em is like working blind. You won't see what you're getting until the firing is complete. Then the "complete" surprise could be spectacular or truly horrendous (yes, 800 tiles in beige when they were supposed to be white was not a happy year in my house).

Howard, she might want to try mixing her own oils. I grind my pigments & clean m'brushes with walnut oil. Great stuff. It does have a slower drying time than linseed oil, but then, I work slow anyway.

Sarah, as soon as I get my "new" floor in, my studio will be open for painting for the first time in two years. Check out this technique (http://www.brigidmarlin.com/Pages/Mische.html) - a mixture of egg tempera & oil - it ain't fast, but I can't wait to see the results in "real life." Got the panels gessoed & ready to go.

Sinopia (http://www.sinopia.com/geninfo.html) here has the most amazing French chalk for a gesso. They do have a recipe for making acrylic paints. I only use those m'self when doing architectural work. Oils are just so much fun.

[SarahJF]

Oooh, ceramic glazes. I’ve a very limited experience of them, mainly in my foundation year, where, like it or not, we had to do a 3D ceramic module. Aargh. You mix up your white gloops, and, huzzah, a dog-poo brown lumpen thing masquerading as a pot comes out. Actually, much to my shame, I only passed the 3D bit of the course by doing (ahem) a fabric coil pot. Yes, I was so atrocious with clay that the only way I was ever going to get through was to make lots of fabric sausages, somewhat in the manner of an infant rolling play-doh, and then sew the b’s together, having decorated the concoction liberally with beads, rather like a deranged infant set loose in a haberdashery department.

I’ve a friend who does gorgeous things with greens in the glaze line, though – although she has disasters from time to time, too (I’m so glad I’m not a potter. Months of painstaking design, modelling, propping up, firing, colouring, glazing, and then the thing breaks at the last minute).

Did you hand fire all your tiles? I’m deeply impressed if you did – beige or not beige. Bet that was a nasty moment when they came out of the kiln. I’m left wondering whether they were all the same shade of beige, or whether they varied!

Oooh, and the tempura is yumptious. That blue stage. OOOoh, god, how lovely.

I couldn’t do it, though, I know – I haven’t the patience, nor the planning ability. I’d have a flash of misguided inspiration at the last minute and wreck the whole thing. The colours she shows there are so totally wonderful, though. That yellow. Ooooh – and, actually, the red at the start is rather gorgeous, too. Do you know what subject you’re going to be putting on yours? When are you starting it? I’m going to be incredibly nosy all over the place now, and ask what kind of architectural work you do, too. Murals? Ceilings? You design buildings?

Sinopia looks good. Nice clear instructions, too. I used to use Russell and Chapel for materials when I was London-based. They’re pretty good, although their website isn’t great. I’ve used pure pigments, but mainly as dye-bases. I mix up colours, then dip-dye (for varying times, in various ways) threads and silks to use. The actual ‘painting’ aspect of my work varies– but then I’ve a problem with working at the moment anyway, because I was in the middle of working on a new portfolio when I realised that most of what I was doing stank. I’ve spent too much time trying to /having to sell work, and too little time actually engaging my brain and thinking about it. So bad habits have just crept in all over the place, and it’s just horrid, what I’ve been doing recently. Unforgivably, unintelligently horrid. Getting the balance between saleable work, and interesting work, seems impossible sometimes. Bah.

Bet you’re looking forward to your new studio! How’ve you managed for two years without one?


Sarah

[Andrea345]

Naw, I didn't mix my glazes or make my tiles. There were two sets I did work with. I bought the made-by-hand bisque fired then made a stencil & glazed. After that, the firing was done at the local pottery supply place. I did buy clay & build some tiles (anyone want 75 lbs of red clay?), but the sheer amount of space it took to set up production just bogged me down. The supplier of the hand-made tiles finally got off the stick (in the nick of time) and came through. The white tiles were bisque & it was a bad glaze lot. Tried scrubbing the ones which hadn't been fired, but then the glazes crawled. Ended up buying some 4x8s. I hate clay too, although I love good pottery. Working with the stuff is just tiring though. Ida know. I, too, have tried, but it's never really been a good medium for me.

Yep, I do know what my subject is going to be. It's gonna be a portrait. I stink at portraits, so I'm hoping this whole process will just slow me down so that I work out the painting. My sketching's not bad, but when I take a portrait to paint - erg! It just goes flat all the time.

As far as architectural work - no murals. I simply don't enjoy representational work enough & I'd have to kill myself if I did large scale stencils of "the garden scene" or "a Tuscan hillside" or "swimming with porpoises." I create stencils or do free hand, decorative borders, done a lot of glazing on walls, done plaster work (11 times around the room, but by god I got a Chinese red room), & lots & lots of striping. I'm just beginning to work on a friend's house for wall treatments, so most of the work has been in my own home. While I was volunteering at a community center, I got 'em to do an abstraction of the Seattle skyline across plywood done in stains. We used primary colors & dripped the stains to work 'em in a marbling technique. After that, we projected the skyline & traced it in black paint. It was kind of cool. My day job is a systems engineer, so I get to spend my time experimenting.

Check out the Robert Massey book, Formulas for Painters (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0823018776/102-4520620-5399334?v=glance). I've had even better luck with his recipes. Thanks for the Russell & Chapel info. Hadn't worked with them before. I'll enjoy checking them out

because I was in the middle of working on a new portfolio when I realised that most of what I was doing stank. I’ve spent too much time trying to /having to sell work, and too little time actually engaging my brain and thinking about it. So bad habits have just crept in all over the place, and it’s just horrid, what I’ve been doing recently. Unforgivably, unintelligently horrid. Getting the balance between saleable work, and interesting work, seems impossible sometimes. Bah.

Bet you’re looking forward to your new studio! How’ve you managed for two years without one?
Sarah [/B]

I know exactly what you mean. But it wasn't that my studio was shut down, I've just been working on other stuff in there which made it impossible to bring out the watercolors or the oils b/c the place was wrecked with clay & then plaster dust. I've just gone & given it an overhaul. Cleaned up the last of the plaster spills & put away the clay & glazes. Last weekend, I pulled out my old work & had the same reaction. Not only that, but the last work I did before I gave everything over to the remodel were commissioned pieces. ugh! I don't have to sell b/c of the day job & I don't want to. I like experimentation too well. I spend ten to twelve pieces investigating a method & then I move on. The final pieces are always the best, but by that time I'm bored out of my silly mind. I don't want to replicate after that. Not in theme, not in technique, not in media. Then, someone comes along & says, "I want one of those but with [fill in the blank]". I've done it, but I don't enjoy the piece. They have to catch me while I'm excited about a) the technique, b) the media, c) the theme.

So, I don't know that I'll ever "get good" at any one thing. I enjoy studying the craft so much that I always just want to move on - another application catches my eye.

But I'm fresh now & just itching to get back to my oils. It has been tooooo long.

[mindsweeper]

I don't know that I'll ever "get good" at any one thing.

Well you're a great help. Here's me trying to convince No 1 son (age 27) to stick at one thing and excel. Yeah, he's too bloody good at everything he turns his hand to. Draws and paints and does wood carving and cabinet making and book binding and home made fireworks and fire eating and twirling fire-sticks, and you name it, and all with well above average ability, but can I convince him to get real and think about earning a living? (Long term, that is, not just enough to buy the next pint). And there you are, living proof, that he ain't going to grow out of it. Does that mean he'll be around my neck for ever? I despair.

Ruth

[Alasdair]

Originally posted by mindsweeper
Draws and paints and does wood carving and cabinet making and book binding and home made fireworks and fire eating and twirling fire-sticks, and you name it, and all with well above average ability, but can I convince him to get real and think about earning a living?
Sounds like a cross between an artist, a carpenter and a circus performer. He could start an organisation for teaching practical skills for failed circus performers: "How to go from the high wire to hardware in five easy steps".

Good luck!

Oh and as for why Howard is the fastest Mod on the block? As has been previously established, he has perfected the art of human cloning and at any one time you have:

HowardM1: Mars and star gazing
HowardM2: Teaching class
HowardM3: Being a good husband
HowardM4: Kicking PFFA ass

The other Howards just use the HowardM2 name to try to keep the secret from the world, but the truth it out there.

Alasdair

[Andrea345]

Originally posted by mindsweeper but can I convince him to get real and think about earning a living? (Long term, that is, not just enough to buy the next pint). And there you are, living proof, that he ain't going to grow out of it. Does that mean he'll be around my neck for ever? I despair.

Ruth

Weeell, Ruth, I was 30 before I started my "day job." I did the "smattering" of this 'n that through my twenties, but I lived on my own & paid my own rent. Money from m'parents was not an option.

[size=1]although the sigh of relief when I got the *real* job could be heard across the continent[/size]

[mindsweeper]

[QUOTE]He could start an organisation for teaching practical skills for failed circus performers: [/QUOTE

Yeah, he could call it "Clowning Around".

[Ian]

Its fun too see how we got from a simple question on Howard hating me-to Mindsweeper's son setting up "an organisation for teaching practical skills for failed circus performers."

Hahaha.

[Dani B]

Originally posted by mindsweeper
Well you're a great help. Here's me trying to convince No 1 son (age 27) to stick at one thing and excel. Yeah, he's too bloody good at everything he turns his hand to. Draws and paints and does wood carving and cabinet making and book binding and home made fireworks and fire eating and twirling fire-sticks, and you name it, and all with well above average ability, but can I convince him to get real and think about earning a living? (Long term, that is, not just enough to buy the next pint). And there you are, living proof, that he ain't going to grow out of it. Does that mean he'll be around my neck for ever? I despair.

Ruth

I thought cabinet makers could make a crapload of money (??) One of my girlfriends out here almost was hired to build harps--maybe that would be up his alley.

Or, he could become a traveling carpenter, and wear those cute black jumpers and wide-brimmed hats--the ones I met in Thailand were just dolls. He might not make much money, but he'd be out of your hair. I hear Germany has an apprentice shortage for 'em now, by-the-by...

cheers

dani

[mindsweeper]

Or, he could become a traveling carpenter,

Maybe he could travel to the US and learn a thing or two...

I just watched a tv prog about a couple who imported a timber frame house from the US. The British carpenters were told that it should take only four weeks to erect the shell. It took them twelve weeks. Maybe he should go and learn the American way and then come back here and show the Brits how the job should be done. Timber frame houses are only just beginning to take off over here so there could be a future.

Anyone in the timber frame house business......??

Ruth