BEAUTY: Painting--Jonathan Wateridge

Here is some art to celebrate the waning days of summer. Jonathan Wateridge was born in Zambia but now resides in England and his memories of his childhood home with a pool forms his narratives around the ideas of affluence and leisure. Most fascinating is the fact that he built a life-size model of the backyard and pool in his studio in order to capture images to paint.

He told FAD Magazine:
"My process for each project has been pretty similar for a number of years now. After a period of research and reflection on what it is that I’m trying to address with the work, I choose the location in which to set the paintings. That site is then constructed as a large scale set inside my studio. Actors are cast, costumes sourced and a film shoot is organised so that I can stage the performers or improvise with them in order to build up a body of reference imagery, from which the paintings are then developed.

Two main factors contributed to the origins of this current exhibition, Enclave. The first grew out of a previous body of work called Monument, which was exhibited at Wilkinson Gallery in London in late 2014. The show was a response to a few months I spent in Los Angeles and included a number of paintings of what I viewed as ‘symbolic surfaces’, such as driveways; gates; or a security lit suburban lawn. These paintings alluded to issues of exclusion and access; and also the public and the private.

I subsequently realised that some of my fascination with these parts of LA was because they reminded me so much of areas of the city I grew up in – Lusaka, Zambia. I’ve never been particularly interested in addressing my own biography but I found myself thinking more and more about this connection. The other factor was the growing tragedy of the migrant crisis over the last couple of years, and more specifically the sense of collective amnesia in the UK as to how these issues had reached this point. I realised that depicting elements of my own past could become a way of tangentially dealing with a wider set of issues concerning the west’s relationship to the post-colonial world. The environment seen in the paintings is a set based on my childhood garden in Zambia. It had an open breeze block perimeter wall, a style which was very common at the time. It soon occurred to me this could be a subtle but resonant motif to run throughout the paintings and that the garden itself could act as a metaphorical site."

Top to bottom: His Long Day In The Sun; Late Swim; Leviathan; Patio; Petrol Blue; Red Suit; Reflecting Pool; Swim; Swimmer; View

https://www.jonathanwateridge.net/

It's Pool Weather!

Digital artist Massimo Colonna has revisited his past swimming pool series with some views of fanciful Brutalist architecture. There's been a renewed interest in this style of construction and these images are enticing...I think I want to take a swim in the second image down. I like the palms and the steps into the water.

https://massimocolonna.com/

Prints of these images are available exclusively through The Cool Hunter.
https://thecoolhunter.net/brutalistpoolseries/

The Waning Days of Summer

Only 37 days left until the first day of Autumn.

BEAUTY: Painting--Laurence Jones

It seems like summer has only just started here in Northern California--it came late this year, with a few false start heat wave days, but late none the less. So in these glorious, waning days of summer (already!), I am loving these twilight images of swimming pools at famous Mid-Century Modern homes (including the Stahl House!) here in the west by Laurence Jones.

Top to bottom: Black Palms; Infinity Pool (Night Scene); Liminal Framework (With Matisse Sculpture); Night Pool2; Night Pool; Palms At Daybreak; Pool Study; Resort Simulation; Twilight Interior; House With Succulents

https://laurencejones.com/

Happy Summer Solstice 2019!

Happy Summer Solstice 2019!

The longest day of the year. Enjoy.

After today, the days grow shorter as we begin our descent into autumn...

SAJIII Cabana and Pool

For a family's vacation home in San Juan de Alima, Michoacán, Mexico, architecture firm CDM|Casas de Mexico created an amazing pool and accompanying cabana. Built to look like a natural tide pool nestled among an original, existing outcropping of rocks, the pool looks out over the Pacific Ocean. The pool house is 1,474 square feet with a single grand room integrating living and dining with a kitchenette. And the roof doubles as a balcony and platform for viewing nighttime skies...

Just stunning.

http://cdm.la/proyecto/sjaiii/

BEAUTY: Photography--Christy Lee Rogers

The photography of Hawaiian photographer Christy Lee Rogers is immediately arresting. Floating bodies, swirling and twisting fabric, and chiaroscuro lighting give her astonishing works the feeling of a Renaissance painting. Her work is all the more astonishing when you understand that she creates her artworks underwater!

She says, "My purpose behind the work is to question and find understanding in the craziness, tragedy, vulnerability, beauty and power of mankind."

Her website bio speaks about her process.
Christy Lee Rogers is a visual artist from Kailua, Hawaii. Her obsession with water as a medium for breaking the conventions of contemporary photography has led to her work being compared to Baroque painting masters like Caravaggio. Boisterous in color and complexity, Rogers applies her cunning technique to a barrage of bodies submerged in water during the night, and creates her effects using the refraction of light. Through a fragile process of experimentation, she builds elaborate scenes of coalesced colors and entangled bodies that exalt the human character as one of vigor and warmth, while also capturing the beauty and vulnerability of the tragic experience that is the human condition.

Top to bottom: Apparition; Awaken; If The Heart Could Fly; Imagine; Our Hopes And Expectations; Rhapsody; Shine; The Gravity of Water; The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter; The Innocents; The Unending Journey

http://www.christyleerogers.com/