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Posts from the ‘Norms do…’ Category

Jan 23

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Norms do… Hopper’s Nighthawks

The streets of the city are deserted. Not a soul stirs, even the birds have gone to bed for the night. The roads are traffic free, and the shops are shut up. But turn the corner and a strange glaring light bounces off the blackened windows of the building opposite – it is the light and the long shadows, cast like a jarring artificial human invasion upon the darkness of nature’s night time veil. This is the intrusion of the night cafe, the all night American diner, hangout of the lost and lonely, last retreat for those Nighthawks who are unable to sleep.

In Normies diner, three enigmatic norm figures sit at an otherwise deserted bar, served by the one lone bar tender who has drawn the short straw of the night-shift. Their stories are a mystery, their relationships even more so. Do these Norms know each other, or is it a coincidence that three such Norms should stare, so passively into the night, caught in the confines of their own introspective imagination. Are they in trouble? Why can’t they sleep? They’re questions which will remain forever unanswered as we glimpse, unbeknown to the Norms, into the world of their solitary nighttime shadows.

The Nighthawk Norms (after Hopper) (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

The Nighthawk Norms (after Hopper) (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

This Normy scene if of course based on Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. With its enigmatic narrative and uncomfortable conflict between darkness and light, Nighthawks is easily Hopper’s most famous painting, and one which I was delighted to have met face to face at the recent Grand Palais exhibition in Paris. Now of course the Norms are inspired, and it’s only reasonable that they should want to recreate Hopper’s most well-recognised image.

(Upon creating it, I (the Norms’ illustrator) soon realised just how complex this painting of Hopper’s is – full of steep angles, and a superb perspective, I had to work hard with my pencil and ruler before I even got started on this one – so many straight lines to map out, so many angles to get right. And then there were the shadows and his excellent contrast between lightness and dark – difficult to achieve in black and white pens, although not impossible – Hopper’s own lithographs and etchings, also on show in Paris, demonstrated that much. I hope you enjoy the result.)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

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Dec 30

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2012: the Norms review their year

It’s been one hell of a year for the Norms. One could almost call 2012 the Year of the Norm, except to do so would be to presuppose that no subsequent year would be equally as Normy, something which, the Norms anticipate, will certainly not be the case. 2012 has nevertheless been a year of great Normy prowess and adventure. Why 2012 was the year when the Norms headed to Italy, to Spain, to Portugal, to Holland and to France. They sailed down canals, they took part in Easter Parades, they cycled over Amsterdam’s bridges and boarded Lisbon’s famous trams. In Paris, the Norms explored the sculptures of the Musée Rodin, while back in London, they milled around in the National Gallery, became covered with Yayoi Kusama’s polka dots and ran from a fly attack in Tate’s Damien Hirst exhibition. Oh yes, those Norms are cultured little blobs, but they proved themselves to be great sports-norms too, partaking in London’s hugely successful Olympic and Paralympic games, as well as mustering the energy to stand in crowds waving the flag for Queen Elizabeth Norm’s Diamond Jubilee. So you see 2012 really was the year of the Norm, and although you may have seen them all before, here is a little review of some of the sketches which captured the Norm’s adventures throughout the year.

But that’s not all. 2012 was also the year when the Norms entered the history books, having themselves repainted in the image of some of the world’s most famous paintings. From Norms in the image of Manet’s Dejeuner sur l’herbe and, minus an ear (not that Norms have ears), in the guise of Van Gogh, to the Norm with a Pearl Earring, and the Norm with an Ermine, the Norms have recreated artistic greats such as Da Vinci, Frans Hals, Valezquez and Goya with their characteristic glowing blue complexion and their wide captivating eyes. What better time then, than at the end of the year of great Normular artistic endeavours, to take a look back at some of those paintings that made the year so artistically fruitful.

So that’s it – it was a year of fantastic Normic success, both in colour and black and white. Here’s to 2013, for a year of great creativity, activity, and a continuously abundant imagination with the power to carry both me, and the Norms to new and undiscovered heights. Happy New Year!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

Nov 29

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Norms do… Gauguin

In the same way that an inquisitive child may like playing dress up in the clothes box of his or her parents, so too do the art-loving Norms love to emulate the works of the great artistic masters. In the past on The Daily Norm, the Norms have brought you Frans Hals, Van Gogh, Degas, Picasso, Klimt, Da Vinci and Vermeer to name but a few. Next in line to receive the Norm treatment is none other than the post-impressionist master, Paul Gauguin himself.

Gauguin, master of colour, and leader of the movement out of impressionist naturalism into the more expressionistic unreality, he is famous for his vibrant images of the Pacific island of Tahiti, and perhaps infamous for the rather suspect love affairs he had while on the island, allegedly with underage girls.

It is undoubtedly one such girl who is the subject of one of Gauguin’s most famous paintings, Nevermore O Tahiti, which today enthralls audiences at its home, the Courtauld Gallery in London’s Somerset House. With its striking bright yellow pillow, its richly coloured background, and the mysterious and melancholy gaze of the nude stretched out before us, it has long been one of my favourite paintings, not just by Gauguin, but in the richly constituted Courtauld collection.

It is hardly surprising then that the time would come when I could resist painting a Norm version of this enigmatic masterpiece no longer. So without further ado, I give you, Nevermore Norm…

Nevermore Norm (after Gauguin) (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas)

Nevermore was painted by Gauguin in 1897 in Tahiti, the Polynesian island which the French artist made his home in the latter years of his career. The painting is highly enigmatic both in image and title. Asides from being painted onto the canvas, the title is potentially an allusion to the idea of paradise lost (Milton’s epic poem, with which Gauguin would have been familiar) but more likely refers to the poem by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven which Stéphane Mallarmé, a French poet, is said to have recited at the Café Voltaire around the time when Gauguin left Paris. In the poem, a man imagines that a bird flapping at the window repeating the word “nevermore” is the spirit of his dead lover. Hence, perhaps, why Gauguin, in his work, has painted the raven stood on the window sill of this colourful Tahitian room.

Nevermore O Taiti, Paul Gauguin (1897) (Courtauld Institute, London) (Source: wikipedia commons)

As for the rest of the painting, its meaning is less certain. The picture is dominated by a full length reclining Tahitian nude.  Her attention seems to be turned towards the figures and the raven in the background. She appears almost to be listening, bitterly aware that the two are gossiping maybe, or conspiring against her, but unwilling to rise from her repose and confront the pair. But could they, on the other hand, be figments of her imagination, together with the almost dreamlike two dimensional blue sky and yellow clouds, and the patterned walls of her home which feels and looks almost like a temporary stage set?

Whatever the meaning behind this elusive piece, it is characteristic of Gauguin’s pursuit, post-impressionism, not of reality, but of introspection. It was in fact Guiguin’s pursuit of inner vision, rather than external reality which led to his quarrel with Van Gogh in Arles which in turn culminated in the latter’s infamous ear-cutting incident. In Nevermore, we see Gauguin at his introspective, expressionist best, fabricating an image from a sense of unreality, while hinting at the tropical bounties of the lush Pacific surroundings in which he was painting.

While Gauguin’s time on Tahiti has since been revealed to have been littered with sexual controversy and even a defamation wrangle with the governor of the Marquesas Islands, it is certain that the works he produced during his extensive stay on the island are amongst his best. Vivid, exploding with colour, as blue skies, tropical plants and the bronzed tones of his beautiful Tahitian women fill the canvas and make the viewer yearn to leave Europe, and its watery impressionistic landscapes behind forever. That is, in fact, what Gauguin did, dying not in his native France, but in Tahiti, of syphilis, alcoholism and all manner of other health problems. But what he left behind was an amazing collection of paintings which have since served to capture Tahiti in the hearts and minds of art lovers across the world.

Here are just a few to feast your eyes upon…

Paul Gauguin, Tahitian Women on the Beach (1891) (wikipedia commons)

Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, (1897) (wikipedia commons)

Paul Gauguin, Tahitian: Te aa no areois (The Seed of the Areoi) (1892) (wikipedia commons)

Paul Gauguin, Manao tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch) (1892) source: wikipedia commons

The question now is, who will the Norms set their sights upon next?

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

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Nov 26

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The Lisbon Sketch II – Norms on a Tram

It’s another busy day in Lisbon’s Praça do Comércio, bustling central square of Portugal’s capital city, and transport hub for the  many passing rambling little trams from Lisbon’s pre-war era. Here in the square which was the site of Lisbon’s former palace before revolution in 1910 made it the centre of the new Republic’s administration, Lisbon locals, business Norms, and tourist Norms alike mix, mingle and meander against the backdrop of the square’s vast geometric cobbled paving and its impressive triumphal arch.

But for these Norms, there is little time to gaze in wonder at the palatial surroundings. For now it’s time to board the number 83 tram which will take these little passengers straight along the coast to Belém, under the gigantic Ponte 25 de Abril and past the little residential districts sprawling in its ample shadow. It’s a busy day and there are plenty already on board, as as these Norms are about to find out, it doesn’t take much to fill these cute little vehicles. Best let them get on with it…

Norms on a Tram in the Praça do Comércio, Lisbon (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

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Nov 23

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The Lisbon Sketch – Norm Monument to Discoveries

If there’s one thing that Norms do really well, it’s make a good old discovery. Why, only the other day, Henrique Norm discovered that he could eat 5 blackforest gateaux in one go, while Françoise Norm discovered that if she bounces really hard from Les Champs des Mars, she can make it almost as high as the first floor of the Tour Eiffel.

Of course Henrique and Françoise are not alone in the fascinating little discoveries made amongst Norms all over Normland every day. But the same too went for their ancestors, and it was in celebration of some of the great discoveries of the Portuguese Norms that at the beginning of the last century, the Norm Prime Minister of Portugal decided to build a great monument paying homage to their discoveries for all eternity. Why, up there on the “Padrão dos Descobrimentos” (as they call it) is Pedro Norm, who discovered that combining some eggs, pastry, sugar and a little cinnamon makes the most delicious little pastries, not to mention Bonifácio Norm, who single handedly circumnavigated the globe in search of exotic flavours for his favourite jellied desserts.

And here it is, the Norm Monument to Discoveries – discover it for yourself…

The Norm Monument to Discoveries, Lisbon (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

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Oct 31

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The Daily Sketch: Prepare to Scream… It’s Normaween!!

The full moon is out, and gliding past, the menacing silhouette of a Witch Norm casting a midnight spell. Beneath the moon, the creepy dilapidated outline of a once glorious house, now abandoned, boarded up and left to decay and ruin comes into view. Within the dark echoes of its now empty chambers, something is stirring. A momentary white flash, a flutter in the breeze, the creak of a lone shutter moving in the wind. In the overgrown gardens, the century old tombs of the long dead previous occupants are starting to move. At the strike of midnight something quivers through the ground. The large, rusty Victorian gates swing open, the stone demon gargoyles upon the plinths come to life, the heavy tomb lid begins slowly to shift and at the window of the house, the previously dark interior is replaced by the screaming wide eyes of a Norm devastated by fear. All around the old mansion, Norm ghosts begin to waver and whir in the wind, moaning and howling at this witching hour, and amongst the graves below, the Vampire Norms awaken, eager in their hunt for their fresh intake of sickly sweet blood.

Norms at the Halloween House of Horrors (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

Are you scared? You should be. For tonight is Normaween, the night when the Norm dead come back to life, when no Norm is safe from the razor sharp teeth of the roaming Vampire Norms, and every little Norm will cower under his or her bedsheets as the screams of the Norm dead pierce their ears and bring the horrors of the underworld to life.

Keep your lights on, don’t dare go to sleep. Just prepare to scream – for tonight is Normaween!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

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Aug 30

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The Daily Sketch: Pharaoh Norms return to the Louvre

London’s Paralympics have begun, and peoples from around the world have drained away from their home cities and headed for London, newly reappointed centre of the world. In fair Paris, with the August absence of the Parisians still conspicuous, and a raft of tourists headed North over La Manche, a group of strange looking Norms have taken advantage of the silence descending the city, and arrived at the famous Musée du Louvre in search of something which they think belongs to them.

Attracted by the familiar shape of the Louvre’s huge glass pyramid, now the iconic symbol of a reimagined contemporary Louvre, designed by I M Pei, and made all the more famous by the conspiracy theories of Dan Brown, these Norms emerge from the ancient land of Egypt, brought back to life from deep within their gilded tombs in search of the historical artefacts ravaged from their burial places and placed in grand museums such as the Louvre. Yes, the Pharaoh Norms have returned to the Louvre, in search of their birthright heritage, and yet dragging with them a Mummy Norm, just in case they change their mind and decided to make a new donation to the French collection… (they’re rather capricious, these ancient Egypnorms).

Here we join them as they formulate a strategy for their great heist of the Louvre’s Egyptology galleries. They’ve found the pyramid, but the glass has confused them. Is this witchcraft which has made the pyramid appear before them and yet not? There’s much to muse over in this brave new world around them. I think we’ll leave them to it.

Pharaoh Norms return to the Louvre (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

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Aug 9

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The Daily Sketch London 2012 – 100 metres at the Athletics Stadium

It’s the race that everyone wants to see. It’s over in less than 10 seconds, and yet it’s one of the most watched televised events when it occurs every 4 years in the Norm olympics. For the London games, there is no exception. As the huge multi-petal copper cauldron burns on, and the chants of the massive Norm crowd are roused to an almost deafening volume, the Norm athletes prepare themselves for the race of their life. There is no running in Norm-land, only bouncing, but boy do these Norms bounce fast. Blink twice and you’ll miss it. So hold tight and keep your eyes wide open. Get set, ready – it’s the Norm 100 metres – GO!

Norms in the Athletics stadium (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

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Aug 5

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The Daily Sketch London 2012 – Normington v El Normo at Wimbledon

It’s match point and Norm Normington, representing team GB is serving to win gold in the London 2012 Olympic tennis finals. However it’s not easy. Against him is world champion winner of various Norm Tennis grand slams, Norte El Normo, representing Spain. El Normo doesn’t just bounce around like a normal Norm tennis player would do. He can do backflips and high jumps and all sorts of distracting but spectacular moves which make him a real contender for the gold. Despite this, Normington, every the English gentlenorm, polite in his play but devilish in his super-fast serve and quick-fire backhand, is out on top, spurred by the proudest of all home crowds, rousing him to success with their roof-raising cheers and their chants of “Go Normington, Go!”. They’ve even been partial to the odd mexican wave or two during today’s match, which is most unusual for the reserved Englishnorm. Just goes to show how the Olympic spirit is lifting us all, and brining all Norms together as a single Normular nation under the sporting flag. But when it comes to victory, it’s nationality that counts. The question now is will Normington do it for team Great Britain?

Normington v El Normo – Tennis Final, London 2012 (© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown 2012, pen on paper)

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Aug 1

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The Daily Sketch London 2012 – Norms at the Olympic Park

The London 2012 Olympic games are well under way, and seeing as the transport system seems comfortably empty (I actually managed to get a seat on the tube to work today – miracle) and the streets eerily clear, I’m assuming that the rest of the city must be hanging out in the stunning new Olympic park down at Stratford in the once dilapidated, now sparkling clean East London borough. The Olympic park is really a triumph. When you consider just how grotty that sight was a few years back, the park has surely reinvented this area for the future – let’s just hope it stays that way and, like the Athens park before it, doesn’t become a deserted shanty town, home to squatters and the homeless.

The Norms have no such worries. They are a highly civilised group of little blobs, who look forward to using their Olympic park for bouncing competitions, jelly wrestling, one armed swimming and all other manner of Normular sporting activities for the years to come. But for now it’s all about the excitement of the inauguration games ahead. Here are the Norms soaking up the park before them, complete with the huge athletics stadium, the aquatic centre, the pringle-shaped velodrome and the vast, spiralling Anish Kapoor Arcelor Mittal Orbit sculpture. And, perfectly offsetting the hard architectural edges, there’s even a bank of wild flowers for the Norms to enjoy. Who said the Olympics is all about the sport?

Norms at the Olympic Park (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

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