This Kick-About nearly didn’t come to anything as I became so frustrated with my attempts of portraying the Sputnik satellite!  Then, I remembered Laika, the first living creature sent into space.

Head on over to Phil’s blog and see what others have presented there; here is the link:

https://wordpress.com/reader/feeds/105453159/posts/5720829722

Here are a few of my scruffy sketches:

I must have binned more than 50 such drawings before realising that there was another story to tell, one about a dog called Laika: the real Dog Star! She must have died in so much pain and for what? Why do we treat animals, sentient beings, in such an exploitive way?

Ashley

The Kick-About prompts from Phil Gomm’s blog at Red’s Kingdom, are an amazing way for me to explore my own visual creativity.  For too long I have ignored the artistic side of who I am, and so the K-A is helping me recover my art……..literally!  On and off throughout my adult life I have tried something to launch into the visual arts but nothing has worked until now, and the K-A is helping me!  The work below is something I did over 20 years ago on a weekend printing course in Wells-next the Sea!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells-next-the-Sea

The latest K-A prompt was Lee Krasner, a female American artist involved in a movement known as Abstract Expressionism.  The quote below comes from internet searches and I think it also perfectly fits my own point of view:

Abstract Expressionists value the organism over the static whole, becoming over being, expression over perfection, vitality over finish, fluctuation over repose, feeling over formulation, the unknown over the known, the veiled over the clear, the individual over society and the inner over the outer.

That was written by William C. Seitz, an American artist and Art historian (1914-1974).

Head on over to Phil’s blog to see this submission and the work of the other amazing artists, such wonderful ingenuity and creativity. Here is the link:

Ashley

It’s been a really busy time, and we’ve also been on holiday (more later) so I’m pleased to say that I was still able to take part in the latest Kick-About.  This time the prompt from Phil was the artist James Turrell.  Please follow the link to see my work there along with what others have submitted.

The Kick-About #133 ‘James Turrell’

Here is a preview of my submission:

When I was opening the vertical blinds in our sunny bedroom, the effect of the bright sunshine streaming through the blinds triggered something in my memory of one of Turrell’s artworks.  That was my starting point, although something else I’d read about his work also slipped subconsciously into my own artwork.  For decades, Turrell has been constructing a “naked-eye” observatory………..in an extinct cinder cone volcano!

Turrell has been called the “master of light” and I cannot ignore what was going on musically in the 1970’s with one of my favourite rock bands, Electric Light Orchestra.  The song Mr. Blue Sky was originally released in 1977 but here is a brilliant and colourfully illustrated video from 2019.

Ashley

Another in the Kick-About series of artworks.  Below is a link to Phil Gomm’s website where I and others were challenged with the title Semper Augustus.  Head on over and see what we’ve come up with:

The Kick-About #132 ‘Semper Augustus’

Here is a preview of my own artwork and short verse:

Flowers, tulips,
Always uplifting;
Wonderful.

If you are not familiar with Semper Augustus, below is a link to the Amsterdam Tulip Museum which explains the story: