2014 April | The Daily Norm

Apr 30

Semana Santa: Norms attend a Procession

In 2012, I embarked on the ultimate of Norm sketches, when I set about working on this extra large sketch of Norms attending one of Marbella’s Semana Santa processions. After much labouring on this sketch which is some 4 times larger than the scale I usually work to, I declared the sketch complete, but was never overly happy with the results. For me, the proliferation of white and pale tonal shades meant that the details were getting lost – the main parading figures at the centre for example couldn’t be all that easily distinguished from the crowd collected around the parade.

Two years later, and having expanded into the use of a greater range of grey tones starting with my Nativity Norms and then extending into my Norm Saints collection, I decided to go back to this sketch and give it a whole new tonal overview. So taking the sketch carefully out of its frame, I set about adding new shadows, colouring the sky and the ground, the tunics of the Nazarenos, and even adding touches of gold. The result in a sketch which I am so much happier with. The tonal contrast now encourages a greater narrative of the procession, and focuses the audience first on the parading figures, and only then the watching crowd. The use of darker tones on the ground means that the figures are now much more distinguishable, while the use of varying colours on the buildings does likewise with the crowd.

Semana Santa – Norms attend a procession – the 2012 original (© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

Semana Santa – Norms attend a procession – the 2014 revamp (© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)

It may have taken 2 years to get right but hey, the result was worth the wait!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown’s new solo exhibition, When (S)pain became the Norm, will be at London’s Strand Gallery from 13 – 18 May 2014. For more details, click here.

Apr 29

Marbella Medley | Folio 2 – Semana Santa

Heading to Spain for Easter is often a risky business. Far from providing the wall-to-wall sunshine much promised of the tourism posters, my experience of the country at this time of the year has been that rain falls more widely than just the plain, and for more days than the tourist board would care to admit. And this Easter was no exception, with the Spanish skies tipping it down for 3 out of the 6 days I was on holiday there. Unfortunately, what this seasonal capriciousness also means in that the Semana Santa (Holy Week) parades, which are otherwise the other big certainty of a trip to Spain at Easter, will likewise be cancelled. After all, local churches cannot risk the damage which might otherwise be done to their priceless statues, many of which are centuries old, whose procession in the open air is central to the Semana Santa parades.

Happily, this year, save for the unfortunate cancellation of the big climax to Marbella’s Semana Santa festivities – the Easter Day parade – I was able to see a full set of stunning processions on each of the evenings when I was in town. With their military bands and mighty golden tronos, their multiple rows of candle-bearing conical-hooded nazareños, and collective of local dignitaries, these parades are full of all the pomp and traditional ceremony that a Spanish town or city can muster, and represent the centrepiece of a year’s religious celebrations.

As I have said on this blog many a time before, these parades are totally inspirational to me, and cannot help but move me, even though I do not share in the religious sentiment behind them. So even though this year must have been the 10^th or 11^th time I have seen the parades, I could not help but chase them all around town, taking photographs of each detail as I went. The parades, which largely run at night, are nevertheless notoriously difficult to photograph, and the set I am sharing today have their fair share of blurring issues. But I kind of like this, because in the blur you get a sense of the mysterious and solemn atmosphere which is created when you see the flickering candlelit tronos emerge from around a street corner, seen through the puffs of incense and candle smoke which are so characteristic of these parades.

Special mention also has to go to the military sheep who was perhaps one of the more unique aspects of one parade. Appearing to be some kind of military mascot, the sheep did a sterling job, joining in the parade for the full 4+ hours of its duration. With its tilted hat and little Spanish flag ankle cuffs, this sheep was fully dressed for the occasion and is so endearing that I have given him two photos in this collection – it’s only what he deserves.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Apr 28

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Matisse at Tate: Colour Cut-Out to a Career Climax

The new Matisse blockbuster at London’s Tate Modern is a show of inexorable joy: of that there can be no doubt. With its whimsical vivid colouration, and playful motifs of sea algae and birds, dancers and blue nudes, it is an exhibition which is full of the happy spirit of the Mediterranean. And yet all of this was created during and immediately after a time when Europe was caught up in the ravaged turmoil of the second world war. How Matisse then managed to create such spirited works, not only during a time of such cataclysm, but also when he was himself frail and confined largely to his bed or to a wheelchair, is one question poised by this exhibition. The answer? Colour was Matisse’s escape from the horrors of war, and cut-outs the vehicle with which he entered the last great hurrah of his groundbreaking career in art.

In bringing together this show of over a hundred of Matisse cut-outs, Tate has managed a real coup. For these works, which dominated the last period of Matisse’s creative output, are merely gouache-painted paper, brought together with paper, sizzors and glue. The result are pictures which retain the same vibrancy that they had when they were first made, but are nevertheless so fragile that few ever leave the national art galleries which they now call home. Yet here they all are, together, many for the first time since they were created.

The result is an exhibition which can not fail to please. Starting with the original artwork and resulting first edition of Matisse’s best known artist book, Jazz (which I often paused over in Chelsea’s Taschen store but never purchased before they stopped the reprint, much to my regret), the exhibition moves onto what is essentially the genesis of what is to follow – the Oceana works. With one of the vast works, which originally acted as wall decoration in Matisse’s Paris apartment, featuring figures of the sky, and the other of the sea, these works were inspired by a visit to Tahiti 16 years before. But more importantly, the sea work was pretty much the first time that Matisse used the cut out image of coral, an image which was to become iconic of much of his cut-out works thereafter.

Oceana

That coral is indeed prevalent in the works that follow, as are the vivd range of colours cut from sheets painted by his dedicated studio assistants. I loved room 5 of the exhibition, which attempts to recreate Matisse’s studio in Vence in Southern France, whose walls were decorated, floor to ceiling, with cut-out works. Seeing the cut-outs grouped together like this makes them come alive as a collection. The variety of colours and shapes and sizes make the corals almost vibrate with the energy emanating from the collected cut-outs, and together the colours sing like an hallelujah chorus.

Coral cut-outs

As satisfying as these collected colours undoubtedly are, I could not help but admire Matisse’s famous blue nudes, all four of which are brought together for the first time. Intrinsically simple in both colour, and the seamless way in which they are cut from a single sheet of painted blue-paper, they really are images to be admired – and as a set they never worked better.

The exhibition ends with Matisse cut-outs on a grand scale, from Tate’s famous Snail (which was the closest Matisse comes to abstract, and in my opinion perhaps the least successful because of it), to The Mermaid in which Matisse intended, through use of bird, coral and fruit motifs, to bring the outside into his studio, something which he surely achieved with all-encompassing effect.

I wasn’t expecting to love this show. I’m not a huge fan of Matisse’s oil paintings which too often appear to me badly executed and fussy. But the simplicity and vibrancy of the cut-outs really appealed to me. It demonstrates the power of composition and the effect which simple colours can have when laid alongside each other. Many have criticised the cut-outs as mere child-play. But that’s a very easy observation to make when the idea has already been generated and all the behind-the-scenes work and planning exhaustibly executed. Masterpieces, perhaps, these works are not. Some may even pass them off as mere wall-coverings. But as a collective they are full of an inherent and enticing energy and joy which fewer more “masterful” artworks will ever be able to generate with such consistency or strength.

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs is on at Tate Modern, London until 7 September 2014

Apr 25

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Marbella Medley | Folio 1 – Ripples and Raindrops

Regular readers of The Daily Norm will know that in December in Venice (rather appropriately) I became quite obsessed with ripples. Not so much the kind that occur in the round when you drop a pebble into the water, but the transient unpredictable kind of ripple that forms in a reflection on water, and distorts that reflection into the realms of pure abstract. What followed were various photos in both Venice and Naples, some gouache paintings, and even a woodcut.

So it can be of little surprise to you that when in Marbella last weekend, I hunted around the harbour edge like a magpie to gold in search of those same watery miracles. And I certainly found some. On a day so stunningly sunny it felt like the summer, we took the little tourist boat from Marbella along to Puerto Banus, and in the marinas of Marbella centre and the more famous dazzling port of Banus, I found sufficient ripples to keep me satisfied until my next encounter with the watery wonders of rippledom.

But even as the weather turned from glorious sunshine to rather depressing rain, the wonders that nature creates with water were still plentiful, and out with my camera I returned, to capture the beauty that can be seen in raindrops on flowers, and the dazzlingly abstract stripes created by raindrops running down a window.

The photographic results of all these quests can be seen in the pictures shared on this post. And just in case you wanted further confirmation of what magic can be created when a little water is involved, there’s also a shot of a fountain drop, and a magnificent mammoth bubble just to wet your fancy – ooh, see what I did there?

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Apr 24

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Norms: The Saints Collection | Saint Sebastian

Next up in the fast growing Norm Saint’s Collection is Saint Sebastian. Famed for being the martyr who was martyred twice (once when he was shot with arrows, and second when, after that didn’t kill him, he was pummelled to death), Saint Sebastian is the saint whose writhing naked body, filled with arrows, has become as popular a gay icon as it has a symbol of religious devotion and a great favourite of artists through the ages.

My Norm Saint Sebastian is only the latest depiction of this saint to join the mass of works executed throughout art history by famed artists such as Titian, Botticelli and John Singer Sargent. And like many of those which have gone before it, my depiction shows this poor arrow-riddled saint tied roughly to a tree, while behind him, a beautifully bucolic background gives otherwise irrelevant depth and magnificence to the scene. Meanwhile, a host of dear little Norm angles are doing their best to try and save this most suffering of saints, by pulling out the arrows from his tender skin one by one in an attempt to save him from inevitable suffering and death.

Saint Sebastian Norm (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen, ink and gold paint on paper)

Happily, as the story goes, Saint Sebastian did not die from his arrow wounds – miraculously he was nursed back to life by Saint Irene, only to be finally condemned to a more violent end when he taunted the Emperor Diocletian for not having killed him properly in the first place. Some might say he should have learnt his lesson from the first occasion he spoke up against the Emperor a little too loudly. But then he wouldn’t be a very good martyr if he didn’t suffer for his cause.

Up next: Saint Jerome.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown’s new solo exhibition, When (S)pain became the Norm, will be at London’s Strand Gallery from 13 – 18 May 2014. For more details, click here.

Apr 23

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Musing on the Magic of a Marbella Morning

I’ve often thought that the true magic of a town happens not in the bustling middle of a day, but first thing in the morning, when the first rays of sunshine hit deserted squares, when workmen and women head quietly into the streets to prepare for the visiting masses, when cafes start to open up for business, and when the squares and fountains and pavements are scrubbed clean in readiness for another day. In Rome I remember savouring the view from my hotel window in the Piazza Della Rotunda at 6am, watching the elegant fountain being scrubbed clean in front of the Pantheon before the tourist masses descended. In Krakow likewise I would be mesmerised watching the cleaners out on the streets first thing in the morning, while from the Mariacki Basilica the Hejnalista trumpeter would play his mournful tune.

Marbella, one of the gems of Andalucia, is no exception when it comes to the tourist crowds. And while I often find myself becoming vexed at the sheer number of visitors who clutter up the streets of the city’s old town, which I am lucky enough to call my second home, I cannot blame them for wanting to visit. For Marbella’s old white washed streets and cobbled squares are amongst the most beautiful on Spain’s Costa del Sol. But for me, they never look better than first thing in the morning, empty and in the first sun rays of the day.

So when I headed out to Marbella this Easter, the first thing I did on my first morning when, accustomed to rising early in London, my body clock got me up early, was to stroll out into the deserted streets of the old town to enjoy these rare quiet moments of having the town almost to myself. The shop shutters were still closed, and the postcard stands hadn’t yet made it out onto the streets; the rising sun was casting long shadows over the cobbled squares; and the only people around were those few taking equal advantage of these quiet moments: to head up a ladder to change a light bulb in a street lamp, to mop the patio in front of a cafe, to quickly walk the dog before work.

So as Marbella gradually opened up for the day, I took a seat in the Plaza de Naranjos at the heart of the old town, sitting in one of the only spots being hit by the slowly rising sun. And with the square’s cafes only just beginning to open up, with chairs being unstacked and umbrellas gradually opening up around me, I gave the first order of the day to an open cafe’s lone waiter: churros and coffee, to be sampled slowly while watching the world around me awaken.

Now that is the magic of a Marbella morning.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Apr 18

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Norms: The Saints Collection | The Crucifixion

It’s an image which is famous around the world; a depiction full of pathos, tragedy and the pain but glory of salvation: It is the crucifixion of Jesus, the event which sits at the centre of the Christian religion.

In depicting lately a series of Norms based on the art historical tradition of religious-themed paintings, I could not pass by the opportunity to create a Norm version of this crucial Christian scene. With its dark skies and bleak landscape, it is an image which evokes the full drama and horror of one of art’s most famous portrayals, while the hope of salvation which the event brought Christian believers everywhere is symbolised through the presence of angels. One in fact is charged with gathering up the blood dripping from Jesus-Norm’s wound; a representation of the fact that intrinsic to the core belief of transubstantiation, his blood becomes the wine of the Holy Communion and vice versa.

To his right and left, the two convicted thieves who died at his side are present, one depicted, as per tradition, as the good thief seeking salvation from Jesus, while the other is depicted as the bad thief, mocking Christ for giving into his fate. Meanwhile at the foot of Jesus Norm’s cross are the figures who consistently feature in depictions of the crucifixion – Mary his mother, Mary Magdalene, and St John the Apostle.

The Norm Crucifixion (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen, ink and gold paint on paper)

For anyone religious looking at this work, take note that this is not an attempt to dilute the sanctity of this religious festival, but rather, as is the central aim of my blog, to reference and reinvent art history and the most popular depictions in art. There is no greater scene than the crucifixion to get across the Christian message in art, and my Norm version has to be amongst my favourite of all my Norm sketches. Happy Easter everyone.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown’s new solo exhibition, When (S)pain became the Norm, will be at London’s Strand Gallery from 13 – 18 May 2014. For more details, click here.

Apr 17

Norms: The Saints Collection | The Last Supper

It’s Maundy Thursday, and all over the world Christians will be marking the 5^th day in the Holy Week calendar, which is the day on which Jesus is reputed to have held his final dinner with his 12 apostles before his death by crucifixion. It was at that supper, so it is said, that he first broke bread and offered it as a representation of his body, doing likewise with wine, something which has since formed the scriptural basis of the Eucharist (also known as the Holy Communion). It was also at that dinner that Jesus predicted both his future denial (when the cock crows three times…) and his betrayal (by Judas). And it is precisely this moment of universal consternation around the table when the news of his future betrayal is unveiled that Da Vinci portrayed so famously in the most well known portrayal of the Last Supper in the world.

Da Vinci’s masterpiece may be dramatically crumbling away from the walls of the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, but back in Norm-world, the brilliance (and some say significance) of its composition has been apt inspiration for the Norms to re-enact their own version of the Last Supper for this year’s Maundy Thursday celebrations.

The Norm Last Supper (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen, ink and gold paint on paper)

Perfectly accompanying the Norm Saints collection which has gone before it, the one arch frame of those renaissance style Norm altarpiece devotional images has been expanded to three arches through which the whole table of the Last Supper can be seen. It’s a happy coincidence that this expansion to three reflects the innumerable references to three (and therefore to the Holy Trinity) which runs through Da Vinci’s original, from the triangular shape of Jesus’ posture, to the grouping of apostles into threes: (from right to left) Bartholomew, James (Son of Alphaesus) and Andrew; Judas (who has spilt some salt – a sign of his betrayal), Peter and “John”; Thomas James (the Greater) and Philip; and Matthew, Jude and Simon.

Of course readers of the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown will probably know why I have placed “John” in inverted commas; for rumour is rife that the suspiciously feminine features of the apostle to Jesus’ right are actually those of Mary Magdalene rather than John, and that she represents the true Holy Grail, that being the bloodline of Christ. That, says Dan Brown, is the reason why there is no other chalice on the table, and why there is a prominent “V” formed by the empty space between Jesus and this disciple (V is the symbol for sacred feminine). It’s a theory which is reflected in my Norm work with the help of an ever so feminine look to my Norm – or should she be called Normette?

Conspiracy theories asides, reflecting Da Vinci’s great work in this Norm re-enactment was a joy to create and a great addition to my sacred Norm collections of late. But there’s something even more special on its way tomorrow.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Nicholas de Lacy-Brown’s new solo exhibition, When (S)pain became the Norm, will be at London’s Strand Gallery from 13 – 18 May 2014. For more details, click here.

Apr 16

WW1 Centenary | The Dead Stretcher-Bearer

This year marks the centenary of the start of the First World War, and there will no doubt be a series of events commemorating the start of the Great War as the year goes on, especially towards the end in the months when the actual conflict began. One of the first events to mark the centenary in London is the latest temporary exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The Great War in Portraits looks at the war, not through the more typical Nash depictions of ravaged landscapes and desolate trenches, but through portraits of the people who began the war, led the armies, fought and, all too often, gave their lives.

The exhibition is a small but perfectly formed homage to this most terrible of conflicts, which ranges chronologically from the period immediately predating the conflict (in which portraits of the relevant royals of Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia are on display, as well as Frans Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary whose murder precipitated the whole war) and continues into the conflict, right through to the end when artists used their skills to depict the horrific injuries inflicted upon soldiers, and struggled to find a way of expressing the true horror of the conflict through creative means.

But one artist who certainly didn’t struggle to depict that horror, and who created what for me was the star painting of the show, is Gilbert Rogers. In 1919, when the general censorship on morale-destroying honest depictions of war had slipped away, and representations of its true horrors began to surface from beneath the censors, Rogers painted this work, The Dead Stretcher-Bearer, which represents the horror and futility of war with unflinching directness. Doing what the title of the work suggests, the painting shows a stretcher-bearer dead on the very stretcher which it was his duty to carry, probably killed in the course of trying to rescue another injured soldier.

Gilbert Rogers, The Dead Stretcher Bearer (1919)

The paint has been applied coarsely and liberally without too much detail – instead the application of white to mark the shine on the masterfully conceived folds of the tarpaulin covering the soldier’s body attracts all of the viewers attention, focusing our mind at the very heart of this tragedy. Meanwhile the muddied colour palate and the pools of water demonstrate in simple brushstrokes the horrific conditions of trench warfare, while those limited colours are interspersed with dashes of red, the colour which has later become such a hallmark of the conflict.

This painting is but one brilliant canvas in this moving and enthralling show. To see the works yourself head along to the NPG – The Great War in Portraits runs until 15 June. Admission is free.

Apr 15

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Spring has arrived! – Vol. 2

Only two weeks ago I enthusiastically published a set of photos which warmly welcomed the arrival of Spring. When a few days after posting it, temperatures turned towards winter again, I feared I had been hasty in making my salutations to the season. But happily Spring has arrived all over again, the temperatures are back up, Londoner’s white legs are starting to get an airing, and the flowers which were mere buds when I had photographed them but two weeks previously had now burst open into the most stunning kaleidoscope of colour.

The photos below were taken in some of London’s most beautiful open spaces. In St James’ park at the front of Buckingham palace, the sea of daffodils which I shot a few weeks back has dwindled away, only to be replaced by a stunning range of vividly coloured tulips. Similar flowers also grace the flower beds of the Embankment gardens, which I am lucky enough to pass through on my way to work.

The colour kaleidoscope of London’s parks

Meanwhile, in the elegant streets of Chelsea, the start of April had brought about the reopening of the Chelsea Physic Garden. This garden, set on prime realty just round the corner from Gordon Ramsay’s flagship Chelsea restaurant and alongside the Thames is a perfect solitary spot, where the chaos of London’s streets immediately dissipates as soon as you walk under the trellis-covered gateway. At this time of year, it’s early days for these neatly tendered flower beds which are packed with specialist medical plants from around the globe, but in these early weeks of the summer season, the garden is resplendent with blossom, with newly shooting exotic plants and a pond full of quivering tadpoles. Bliss.

The Chelsea Physic Garden

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2014 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.