By Duncan Hopkins on December 19, 2011
A new project; started on the 19th Dec 2011, on the verge of the Winter Solstice. A daily documentation of the day; the objective – a photographic image as a momentary reminder.
http://www.duncanhopkins.net/portfolio/photographs/
Posted in Current, Process Blog | Tagged blog, Cornwall, digital, figurative, gallery, illustration, landscape, marine, perception, phenomenology, Photography, photoshop, seascape, shamanic, shamanism, studio, walk, wood
By Duncan Hopkins on January 29, 2012
I will be exhibiting a selection of primarily figurative paintings at The Cafe, Truro Arts / Royal Cornwall Museum, River Street, Truro, Cornwall, TR12SJ.
Exhibition runs from 14 February- 01 March 2012.
Continue reading “Paintings in Truro”
Posted in Current, Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Cornwall, exhibition, figurative, gallery, Painting, shop, Truro
By Duncan Hopkins on January 28, 2012
I have renamed my music project hypertheta, and developed new artwork based on recent photography and areas of research. The work, along with examples of sound ideas for installation are now on Soundcloud.
You can listen to the tracks on the music page of this site >
View the artwork >
I have dabbled in digital music a few times over the years, mainly in 2004 and 2009. Some of this originated from playing in orchestras as a teenager, then discovering the ability to create the whole spectrum of bass, treble, melody, distortion and percussion via the wonderful world of home computing. And some of it emerged from the need to create original soundtracks to video work. This work has been personal, and I’m not making any claims about it.
Posted in Current, Process Blog | Tagged consciousness, digital, music, Photography, print design, shamanic, sound
By Duncan Hopkins on January 22, 2012
Update* Feb.2012: This post was the result of a phone call I received from the organizers. Since then, I have received an email saying I didn’t make it through to the next stage! I put on my best phone voice, obviously I said or didn’t say something – at least I don’t have to fund trips to London now, or get a haircut for tv… To me it shows that it isn’t the work that’s important, it’s personalities for tv, and so I’m happy to be out. Still, for me anyway, it’s the work that is important.
I have been shortlisted for the first stage of ‘Show Me The Monet‘, the BBC2 series! I am one of 300 selected from 3000 entries. The next stage is having to go to London for a short interview with the production team! How funny, how strange… better polish my boots. The things we do for art…
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged blog, exhibition, press
By Duncan Hopkins on January 19, 2012
I am in a place. I sense the place, myself within the place.
What is the place?
What is my connection to the place?
My body is in that place; through my sensual faculties I begin to comprehend the place and my place in it.
This is the process of perception.
I hear any sounds. I may smell smells. I can feel my feet on the ground. I may feel external qualities against my skin. I look at the place and begin to see things.
These sparks of information infiltrate my brain, information is gained and communicated, and pushed back out onto the place.
What is this information? How does it compute? How does it define itself as comprehension?
This is the process of cognition.
I want to begin to become active in the place, beyond the slow movement of being in the place.
I must make a choice of action.
What purpose is the action I take? What is the reasoning behind that action, beyond the primal biological and unconscious needs to function within the place?
I move my body, my arms, my eyes, my legs. I breathe deeper. I breathe shallower. Then I do not notice my breath, it is functioning as primal connector. It is clearly dependent on an external matter. I move my eyes, my legs, my arms, my body.
I choose direction.
The place defines direction by the objects and spaces within it. I am a transient object in space, a 3-dimensional form moving within the 4th dimension of time. I am partially conscious of all this.
How is the awareness defined? How can it be described?
This is the process of consciousness.
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged abstract, blog, cognition, consciousness, landscape, perception, phenomenology, shamanic, shamanism, statement, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on December 22, 2011
22.12.2011
(Footage: 12.2010, Cornwall, UK.
Music: ‘Winter Solstice’ by Thema [© D.J.Hopkins 12.2009])
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Cornwall, digital, music, Photography, sound, Video, walk, wood
By Duncan Hopkins on December 17, 2011
I have been shortlisted for the first Door Prize for Painting, which will be held at Centrespace Gallery, 6 Leonard Lane, Bristol, 17-28 March 2012. For more information about the shortlisted artists and the Prize, view their website: http://thedoorprize.co.uk/
THE BOOK OF STORAGE DEVICES / Oil on canvas / 100 x 70cm / 01.2011
A short article in AN magazine, Feb 2012 issue: http://www.a-n.co.uk/an_docs/a-n_magazine_1202.flip/#/20/
Posted in Current, Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, art fair, artists, Bristol, business, drawing, exhibition, figurative, gallery, landscape, Painting, perception, phenomenology, shamanic, shop, The Door Prize
By Duncan Hopkins on December 15, 2011
RED STARS / Oil on canvas / 100 x 50 x 2 cm / 10.2011
Painting selected for the St. Ives Society of Artists Christmas Open, Crypt Gallery, Norway Square, St Ives, Cornwall, TR26 1NA. Exhibition runs from 7 December 2011 – 9 January 2012.
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Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged artists, Cornwall, exhibition, figurative, gallery, landscape, Painting, shamanic, St. Ives
By Duncan Hopkins on November 29, 2011
Some new and older paintings on display at the Courtyard Deli, 2 Bells Court, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 3AZ. Great food and drink. Many thanks to Phil Rushworth for curating the hang.
Some of the works in situ:
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Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Cornwall, Courtyard Deli, exhibition, falmouth, gallery, landscape, Painting, seascape, shamanic
By Duncan Hopkins on November 24, 2011
New work is available to see at 2 locations in Penzance, nearby to each other:
A
Mounts Bay Contemporary is showing 5 MA paintings from this year, plus a selection of linocuts, as part of the ‘Arts And Crafts For Winter’ show. The gallery, located on the seafront, sells a wide variety of crafts, cards and local artwork – ideal for Christmas presents.
The gallery is located at: Mounts Bay Contemporary Art and Craft Gallery, 30 Cornwall Terrace, Penzance, Cornwall TR18 4HL
B
The PZ Gallery Winter Show is running from the 25th November and represents 12 painters and photographers. This large art-deco space by the famous Jubilee Pool and seafront, is holding it’s Private View on Friday 25th November from 6pm, all welcome.
The gallery is located at: 7 Coinagehall Street, Penzance, Cornwall, TR18 48Y
MAP: Distance 0.4 miles
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Posted in Current, Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, exhibition, gallery, landscape, Mounts Bay Contemporary, Penzance, PZ Gallery, seascape, shop
By Duncan Hopkins on November 20, 2011
NOSTALGIA, Camden Collective Gallery, 37 Camden High Street, London, NW1 7JE
16 – 28 November 2011
Some of the work, Pre-Private View, 18th November 2011:
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, exhibition, gallery, landscape, London, Painting
By Duncan Hopkins on October 26, 2011
Duncan Hopkins is a visual artist, based in Cornwall, South West UK. He is a 2011 graduate in MA Fine Art: Contemporary Practice from University College Falmouth.
His primary media is painting. Drawing on notions of Shamanism and Phenomenology, he questions preconceptions of landscape painting, and asks how a predominantly rural landscape can be portrayed in context of historical and contemporary events, and personal knowledge. The work is not overtly environmental or ideological, but is more concerned with perception and senses of being embodied and detached from place.
Source material is collected through walking, driving, sketches, memory, meditation, photographs, video and found images. The paintings, understood as a process of autonomy and continuous mystery, evolve through material application and the development of symbolism. Esoteric influences may surface from paganism, Buddhism or existentialism. There is a distinct surrealist edge to some of the work, implying transformation and alchemy. This questions ideas of the nature of realism and artifice; the mental / mythic overlay and the hunger for images to query and explain.
He is also exploring the use of digital media and temporary 3D / installation materials as a means to expand these ideas, in relation to paintings and spaces.
He does not describe his work in terms of ‘abstract’ or ‘figurative’; he feels that these are redundant categories of easy history and academic undertaking. Contemporary painting can draw from these Modernist references, and expand on those experiments; and can also look at the purpose and multiple making of images throughout cultural histories.
Duncan has a background in Graphic Design, and is aware how, in that practice, every detail of an image is carefully considered for its persuasive and demographic effect. Through fine art, he is trying to promote less clarity and a more personal, interpretive sense of visual meaning.
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged biography, blog, statement, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on October 11, 2011
That evening, unexpectedly, I suddenly noticed that one of my paintings had been selected for the ‘Art Of The Day’ by Saatchi Online…
11 Oct 2011
To view: ‘Art Of The Day’
To view my Saatchi Online page: http://www.saatchionline.com/duncanhopkins
Saatchi Online Blog
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged artists, business, digital, exhibition, gallery, press, websites
By Duncan Hopkins on September 29, 2011
Cornwall, 28.09.2011
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Art, blog, Cornwall, drawing, landscape, perception, walk, wood
By Duncan Hopkins on September 24, 2011
I will be showing 2 video works in this event. There will also be some video work by other recent Falmouth MA Fine Art graduates, including Ann Haycock, Paul Farmer, Nathan Sealbarrow and Daniela Palimariu, who will also be using her Platform. I hope some of you may be able to make the day-long event, or attend in the evening, to experience and enjoy its diversity and international flavour.
www.cazart.org.uk
www.da2011.i-a-m.tk
For more info email Ian Whitford: info@cazart.org.uk
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, Cornwall, exhibition, festival, gallery, MAFA, Penzance, Photography, Video
By Duncan Hopkins on September 24, 2011
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Art, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on September 22, 2011
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Art, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on September 21, 2011
This performance is a brief improvised event. It is the dystopian rave. It is the fixed grin of the cordoned-off fool. It is the confinement of the village idiot, and every village needs that freedom fighter.
Son Of Light from Duncan Hopkins on Vimeo.
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged digital, perception, phenomenology, shamanic, Video
By Duncan Hopkins on September 20, 2011
Painting is not about enjoyment or relaxation. It is not the hobby of sensitivity.
It is the drip, the snake, the smear and loss of colour in the twilight of Autumn. It is the exorcism and embrace of your inner saboteur. It is neurosis, knowledge, loss of knowing, the need to know.
It is not the servant of ideology. It is detached from consensus. It is being pressed tight to the hard edge of your glass skull.
It is not figurative, or landscape, or abstract. These are redundant categories of easy history and academic undertaking. It is the translation of dyslexic eyesight, awkward hands and a jerking body. It is the decline of realism and the subjugation of sense.
It is a simple idea overcomplicated.
It is the silence of someone shouting, someone who wants to shout things that shouldn’t be said, of things that lack importance.
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Art, blog, manifesto, Painting, perception, writing |
By Duncan Hopkins on September 17, 2011
Temporary new studio space at home which has useful access to the front door, and is ideal for storing the lawn mower too.
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Art, blog, drawing, Painting, studio
By Duncan Hopkins on September 9, 2011
MA Show 6 – 10th September 2011, Lamorva House, Woodlane, University College Falmouth
New States Of Alignment
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, business, drawing, exhibition, falmouth, figurative, gallery, landscape, MA Show, MAFA, Painting, perception, phenomenology, shamanic, shamanism, shaped canvas, studio
By Duncan Hopkins on September 8, 2011
NEW STATES OF ALIGNMENT
Sometimes, when I am unsure what to paint, I walk with no defined destination. I follow predetermined paths and ‘desire’ paths. This is, in a sense, an attempt to have a two-way responsive interaction with an energetic environment.
We can be aware of our existence within two simultaneous landscapes – the conscious, daily solidity, and the deepest terrains and swells of the Unconscious. This can be perceived physically, energetically, psychically.
There is a human ability to construct realities, and to overlay the physical landscape with mental mapping. This creates ‘conceptualizations of consciousness’ which can take form in art, myth, symbol, or structure.
These interactions of mutual consciousness, between our cognition, sensory awareness, and the indeterminate world become significant reference points for active perception.
However clear or disconcerting, these multifunctional connections are a primary stimulus for painting. My art can be a translation of these meeting points.
When I am painting and drawing an interdependence develops between my activity; my gestures and decision processes; the materiality and behaviour of media and surface; the subject (whether predetermined or evolving); and unseen phenomena.
These marks then become a language. Signs, fields and energies of form.
I am searching for a sense of the embodied within the activism of painting, within the image, and within the places that pictures occupy. This takes form in the sensations of space; in dimensional journeys; in the reality of shadows; and in the hermetic haven of art.
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged biography, blog, exhibition, landscape, MA Show, MAFA, phenomenology, statement, walk, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on September 5, 2011
This Will Make You Human: MA Graduating Show – Private View
Tuesday 6th September, 7-9pm: More info
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, business, exhibition, gallery, MA Show, MAFA
By Duncan Hopkins on September 5, 2011
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, business, exhibition, falmouth, gallery, MA Show, MAFA, Painting, studio
By Duncan Hopkins on August 7, 2011
The UCF MA Show website is now live. I have designed it to showcase each graduating student, and the graphic design will be echoed in the catalogue and other publicity material.
View at: http://www.thiswillmakeyouhuman.co.uk/
http://www.thiswillmakeyouhuman.co.uk/ - homepage
Continue reading “MA Show website live – “this will make you human””
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, business, digital, falmouth, MAFA, Painting, user interface, website design
By Duncan Hopkins on August 4, 2011
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged landscape, MA Show, MAFA, Painting, perception, phenomenology, shaped canvas, studio, walk
By Duncan Hopkins on August 1, 2011
The UCF MA Show website is a comprehensive introduction to each of the individual artists involved in the show, and with details of the event and location.
Design: Initial prototype design, developed into final install. I designed the logo, fonts and colour scheme, and these were echoed in the catalogue and other publicity material developed by other team members. Group consensus through design process.
Specs: Custom install of WordPress; customised theme using Php, Html, CSS & Flash. Incorporating images, text, video and sound files.
View at: http://www.thiswillmakeyouhuman.co.uk/
http://www.thiswillmakeyouhuman.co.uk/ - homepage
Continue reading “UCF MA Show – website design (08.2011)”
Posted in Branding, Graphic Design Projects, Website Design | Tagged digital, falmouth, Flash, MA Show, MAFA, print design, sound, user interface, website design, websites
By Duncan Hopkins on July 29, 2011
“In primordial perception, Merleau-Ponty writes, subject and object, noesis and noema, are blurred to the point of disappearing into one sole “intentional fabric,” namely, the “flesh of the sensible.” Rather than claiming that the body extracts the emotional essence of things, we should instead speak of a single reverberation out of which perception, gesture, painting, and speaking emerge.”
Ted Toadvine, ‘Singing the World in a New Key’ 2004
I have submitted my final essay. It is 4300 words plus extensive support footnotes, appendix and bibliography. I wrote, then designed in InDesign for publishing as a softcover 40 page 10 x 8″ book. Initially I have had 2 copies made, but will consider having more made in the future.
"Flesh of The Sensible" - front cover
"Flesh of The Sensible" - full cover
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, biography, books, digital, falmouth, illustration, MAFA, perception, phenomenology, shamanic, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on July 28, 2011
After crit and time spent with work and potential layouts, narratives and relationships, I start to hang work that has more space between it. This allows each work to take on more significance.
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, business, drawing, exhibition, falmouth, festival, gallery, landscape, MA Show, MAFA, Painting, perception, phenomenology
By Duncan Hopkins on July 26, 2011
Given MA space on July 25th. 6 weeks to work and plan the final show. Private large, light space. Spent couple of days moving work around, testing layouts. Is the display to be selected, or a visual overload? There is not room for most of the work. Is it just a display of paintings, or am I looking to create a more immersive, embodied environment?
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, drawing, exhibition, falmouth, figurative, gallery, MA Show, MAFA, Painting, phenomenology
By Duncan Hopkins on July 25, 2011
A photographic documentation of my studio space at the original 110 year old Falmouth Art School, home to MAFA. Used until July 25 2011, before moving to final MA Space.
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged falmouth, MAFA, Painting, studio
By Duncan Hopkins on July 5, 2011
Playing with ideas of a 3D representation of old paintings; as object / sculpture / satire.
- painting pile (mock-up)
- painting pile (mock-up)
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged abstract, exhibition, gallery, MA Show, MAFA, Painting, perception, shaped canvas, studio, wood
By Duncan Hopkins on July 3, 2011
Designed a demo potential website for MAFA Show in September. To be developed through consensus and design process.
Artwork & Design © D.J.Hopkins 2011
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged MAFA, websites
By Duncan Hopkins on June 28, 2011
Exploring, photographing, experiencing and sensing energetic nature of place. Ancient village on moors above Penzance.
View Larger Map
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged drawing, landscape, perception, Photography, shamanic, walk
By Duncan Hopkins on June 28, 2011
Went to Penzance to submit for Jerwood Drawing Prize. A reductive drawing in acrylic. Got obsessed by ghillie suits as transformative costumes. Not selected.
SECRET GHILLIE / Acrylic on watercolour paper / 51 x 73 cm / 23.06.2011
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged art fair, drawing, exhibition, figurative, gallery, Painting, shamanic
By Duncan Hopkins on June 16, 2011
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, drawing, exhibition, falmouth, gallery, Infinity Landscapes, landscape, MAFA, Painting, perception, Photography, The Poly
By Duncan Hopkins on June 15, 2011
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, blog, exhibition, falmouth, gallery, Infinity Landscapes, landscape, MAFA, Painting, perception, Photography, The Poly, Video
By Duncan Hopkins on June 14, 2011
Posted in Exhibitions, Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, exhibition, falmouth, gallery, Infinity Landscapes, landscape, MAFA, Painting, perception, Photography, The Poly
By Duncan Hopkins on June 3, 2011
I pick flowers
in the dark
like a child
who has lost
imaginary companions
this night
swollen dark
deep blue night
deep black night
soft
stars shun and plot distances
I hear
you in the leaves
they rattle like old friends
like new bones
I sense you |
in gaps
between sounds
I am held
in boundaries
and air
and earth
in these sudden choices
no expectation
animals snarl at me
tear pieces from me
a rabid fire
has already consumed me
and dark pools
are for drinking from
this ritual unlearning
I wear bedraggled grey
impossible feathers
I carry brittle stalks |
© D.J.Hopkins 03.06.2011
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged writing
By Duncan Hopkins on June 1, 2011
winter storm
dark grey lingering
transfers presence
onto canvas
through mesome slow sustained
flash of sunlight
Spring day
my head
illuminates insidebirdsong scribbles
visible sound waves
there
top right-hand corner
my imagination |
secret woodland
teasing geometric complexities
brazen growth
challenge me
recreate itselfdrawing and paint
pictures
processes
in my mind’s eyes
I work to allowthe image’s
surfaces
image will surface
give me answers
give me questions |
© D.J.Hopkins 06.2011
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged writing
By Duncan Hopkins on May 25, 2011
Do not use maps until your journey is over.
How To Find A Painting - post-walk map
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Art, blog, digital, drawing, landscape, MAFA, perception, photoshop, walk, wood, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on May 25, 2011
Day 1 – 25.05.2011
Walk
Voice Recorder 25-05-2011 PM 02-16-30
Walk away from this chosen track. Do not use any maps. Follow your intuition. If you know an area well enough, see where your feet will take you. Become focussed and open-minded. Let yourself be guided by the light on a leaf, the sound of a bird,… (indecipherable sounds). Watch out for fast vans in narrow lanes.
Voice Recorder 25-05-2011 PM 02-19-05
Feel the colour from the light, listen to the sounds, the sounds, what do they mean? what could they mean? They are just flirtations of wind amongst the leaves. Escape from the conurbations. Head towards the woods and the hills and the streams. Follow the rocky walls. Glance at the light on the leaves of the trees, and the ferns, and the shrubs. These weeds are your friends, you do not need to fear them. That blackbird is your friend, it does not need to fear you.
Voice Recorder 25-05-2011 PM 02-21-29
Paths, paths, the endless paths, where do they go, nobody knows… (indecipherable sounds). You may think you know your destination, but it can’t be predicted, it’s only a possibility.
Voice Recorder 25-05-2011 PM 02-22-52
Drawing and walking is difficult, that’s why I take photographs instead.
Voice Recorder 25-05-2011 PM 02-23-05
Changing, changing, constantly changing – landscape, perspective, movement of where you are changes. You are changing. You are here, now I’m here. I am here. Now I’m here. But I was there. And there was different to here. And here will be different to there when I get there. (birdsong)
Voice Recorder 25-05-2011 PM 02-23-41
And there will be here, and there will be another there to go to.
Voice Recorder 25-05-2011 PM 02-24-51
I can’t go two ways at once but sometimes I don’t mind a threeway.
Continue reading “TO FIND A PAINTING (walk 25.05.2011)”
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged drawing, landscape, shamanic, sound, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on May 25, 2011
Woke up this morning and my woman was gone.
My head ached and my chest pounded.
(She was using Facebook in the other room.
Last night I drank too much wine
and smoked too many cigarettes.)
I sit in the garden.
The rain has stopped and some brief, gentle sunlight
illuminates the back fence, a random blue boundary
between me and the hedges, fields and trees.
Magpies make harsh chatter, small birds have bright talk.
A chainsaw snarls off in the distance.
Now all the leaves are out, I can hear them mingling
with the sound of a neighbour’s washing machine.
In the beginning was coffee, then nicotine.
Brambles, ferns, old bluebells and daisy rings
pioneer this early summer space.
As the morning silvers, I sense the lure of the artist and explorer.
Soon this work will begin…
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Art, blog, Cornwall, drawing, landscape, MAFA, Painting, perception, phenomenology, shamanic, sound, walk, wood, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on May 24, 2011
Essay Draft 1 - cover
SYNOPSIS 24.05.2011
HOW TO PAINT!
Issue 1 – The World Is Not As Solid As It Appears
The essay will document the making of one painting from conception to possible completion.
The essay will follow the processes of idea, preparatory work and image sourcing, canvas / surface making, use of materials and the various stages of image / painting development.
The contents of the essay will be synchronous with the progress, difficulties and solutions, successes or failures of that piece of work. Because there is an element of improvisation within the making of many of my paintings, the work may be produced very rapidly, or may go through various stages and reworkings to arrive at a satisfactory or compromised solution.
Continue reading “Essay Synopsis Draft 2 – “How To Paint””
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged Art, artists, MAFA, Painting, perception, statement, writing
By Duncan Hopkins on May 23, 2011
sunlit evening
you make me
ache
© D.J.Hopkins 23.05.2011
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged writing
By Duncan Hopkins on May 22, 2011
Synopsis – draft 1 22.05.2011
THE WORLD IS NOT AS SOLID AS IT APPEARS
Why do I make paintings?
Painting as a core of my identity, even through long periods of inactivity and work in other areas. Making pictures as enjoyment, communication or secret codes. This MA has brought the emphasis on painting to the forefront of daily practice.
Continue reading “Essay Synopsis Draft 1 – “The World Is Not As Solid As It Appears””
Posted in Process Blog | Tagged drawing, landscape, MAFA, Painting, writing
