Back to the The Old House

On the one side of the road leading to Zennor is the former home of Patrick Heron, artist and print-maker based in Cornwall until his death in 1999, like Deryck Jarmans house at Dungeness, you still see curious pilgrims seeking the artists places of inspiration. checking out any remnant of the stimulation that Heron found there and in St,Ives in the heady days of the "artist colony".
On the other side of that same road the footpath leads up onto the moors to Zennor Carn, the terrain turns into heather and bracken with drainage gulleys and vorrs which double up as footpaths when not used as gulleys for rainwater.
At the summit of this gentle rise theres a great view and it is'nt uncommon to meet the hardened walkers or photography bitten wildlife enthusiast, I mention this to illustrate the wilderness credentials of this otherwise lonely place, down behind an unfinished summer residence commonly referred to as an artists abandoned cottage there lies a ruin amidst the bracken and walled moorland granite perimeters, a hearth is just discernable and in the summer the bracken totally conceals this eroding monument to someones life.
2010

Back To The Old House

Detail of Back To The Old House, showing stitched details and paint surface.

Back To The Old House
detail of stitching and paint surface

Back To The Old House
detail of hearth and bracken.

Back To The Old House

Sunspot Activity

Discobohm
multiple frottaged image in Caran D'Ache on machine paper

Discobohm ll

Discobohm lll
Yarns and Acrylic Gesso on calico panel.

Fresh sunspot activity after a decade of calm - whats about to occour? Meanwhile, the Discobohm continues to orbit the blogisphere, this one rendered in Blue Caran D'Ache on machine paper.

Back to the Old House

The Ripple

detail from
COTT VALLEY CARN

Rerequiem Drawing Multiple
red Caran D'Ache
1220mm x 660mm
machine paper

Cott Valley Carn
660mm x 900mm
(Gotland DK natural pure wool - farmed and spun in Cornwall)

BACK TO THE OLD HOUSE
(inprogress)

I would rather not go.....

In this work, ten years after which switching attention from Figurative Drawing, Pinhole Photography, printing techniques and installation I have combined painting, drawing and embroidery, based pretty much on drawing but all tangled up in the time honoured chaos of ritual - my ritual as well as those commonly considered to be public displays of amelioration.
This use of the stitched line extends the execution time considerably, the amount of work depends upon the degree of detail and the guage of the yarn. Using organically produced woolen yarns sourced within Cornwall creates an additional hurdle, not just the cost and the sourcing complications but actually crewelling the yarns through the panel, much easier with acrylic yarns or even the Oakum, jute like yarn for caulking wooden boats, I used Oakum for the Ripple Lugger, an image of the Cornish Lugger.

Tarred Marlin is purchasable from London firm;
flintsmarine.co.uk
The difference between this medium and painting is not that different except that the stitching seems to go on and on forever, the paint is acrylic gesso, like traditional gesso but with higher quality pigments and easier to use layering or lake effects - a technique I adapted from experience working with scenic artists. This extensive process is time sapping but it effectively allows far more of a "layering" effect, which is why I mention the use of Lake colours or transparent watercolour. Techniques with paint tend to over complicate the vital schism that combining quite polarized "crafts" create. Oil paint is often associated with high art whereas embroidery is a craft - low art , decoration. Oil painting never really imposed itself into many of the regional cultures of the United Kingdom, the English were not exactly regarded for their oil painting rather more was made of watercolour .

watching stuff fly into the artbin

There was a strong feeling of anxiety which might have been eminating from the many recognisable artists and curators at the South London Gallery opening of Michael Landy's ArtBin, a Matt Collishaw photograph had smashed down ontop of Pete's Horse, Peter Blake was looking concerned, a Damien Hirst skull painting remained recognisable, other work landed face down annoyingly, perhaps this was a positive aspect, yet another obscure element that amalgamated creating a feeling of excitement, loss, regret, optimism, anarchy, carnival and weightlessness.

The Artbin is a very odd experience, it's difficult to just let something go if your unacustomed to keeping complete artwork to yourself.


BACK TO THE OLD HOUSE

Scillycam: scilly snow

Scillycam: scilly snow

Frottaged images of the Ripple

The Rosebud PZ 87 done in frottage and seen here against the original using red polyethylene fishing line, heavy duck sailcloth on panel with acrylic gesso.
There are more "print-off's" of the Rosebud 260mm x 360mm approx - 32mm x 42mm Oak Frame glazed. PZ 87 Rosebud has been quite a popular image. either 07904276693 or email jonathan_polkest (at)hotmail.com or contact via http://www.axisartist.org/artistid/jonathanpolkest

The Ripple is available in charcoal, Caran D'ache or graphite in A2 cartridge paper, fixed using a neutral ph balance in an Oak Frame 520mm x 720mm glazed for £175.00



Ripple Image; The Lugger transformed by John Lambourn in Newlyn, now an object of beauty to be seen around the Mounts Bay in fine weather, the distinctive rectangle of blackest black velvet in the tarred hull and the earth red terracotta sail lugg-rig bring an aesthetic sublety to a pragmatic world of tradition.
I'm making some frottaged images at size A2 of charcoal renderings of the Ripple being refurbished using Gorse Charcoal I retrieved from a big gorse fire on Cudden Point about fifteen years ago, the characteristics are explosive and erratic since, unlike willow the gorse can harbour a nut of compressed carbon in the otherwise smoothly burnt wood leading a long continuous line into an abrupt ending of blankness or a visable splot of charcoal.
This unplannable dimension helps to offset my willful insistence towards figurative perception, bringing an element of disruption, ambiguity and converting the "thin air" of concentrated observation or design into more of a struggle between the qualities of the paper or the drawing material, the two worlds of the subject and the outcome, the first being a mere starting point for the latter.
The original work rendered in printed flax, black woolen yarns with armenian bole measures 600mm x 600mm and a greeting card image of the original at size A5 is available

Consciousness Land and textiles by Jonathan Polkest

Caer Gybbi - Holy Mountain,
Ynnis Môn
Multiples and textile

Rerequiem