Month: May 2015

Richard Vyse

Richard Vyse: Watercolors and Ink Drawings on Paper

Internationally collected artist Richard Vyse has shown at galleries in Manhattan and Honolulu. He has studied at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and taught at Pratt n Brooklyn. Vyse’s art has been featured in many art and literary arts magazines. His artwork is in the collection of the Leslie+Lohman museum in Manhattan.

Eric Bishop-Potter, “Dear Popsy”

Photographer Unknown, (Leather Jacket)

Eric Bishop-Potter is a former journalist for the Press Association and the author of three books – “Jimmy, Mrs. Fisher and Me”, “A Ruined Boy”, and his most recent book “Dear Popsy: Collected Postcards of a Private Schoolboy to His Father”.

His book “Dear Popsy” tells of the decadent goings-on at St Cloud’s, an exclusive public school where the boys prefer rouge to rugby and bondage to Bunsen burners. Michael Palin, known for his work in Monty Python, said of it: “…very, very funny…carries on where Decline and Fall left off… I think I am jealous.”

“Do you ever wear leather?“ the guy asks.
“What?”
“Leather. Do you like leather?”
“It doesn’t exactly wipe me out.”
“I like to see boys in leather.”
I look at him cool. “Okay,” I say, “what is it you want and how much are you willing to pay for it?”
“I’ve got a leather jacket upstairs…Would you put it on?”
“Just put it on?”
“I’ll go and get it.”
He leaves the Horror Hole and returns a few minutes later holding a leather flying jacket with a lambswool collar. There are tears in the jacket’s sleeves, and the lambswool is yellow with age. John Wayne could’ve worn it in one of those crappy war films he made. “Put it on,” the guy says.
I give him a spiky smile and put on the jacket. “Okay, where’s the plane, and what time’s take-off?”
“Drop your jeans and turn around.”

-Eric Bishop-Potter

Thomas Eakins

Thomas Eakins, “Wrestlers”, 1899, Oil on Canvas, 123 x 153 cm, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California

“Wrestlers” is a name shared by three closely related 1899 paintings by Thomas Eakins. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art owns the finished painting and the oil sketch of the same scene. The Philadelphia Museum of Art owns a slightly smaller unfinished version. All three works depict a pair of nealy naked men engaged in a wrestling match. The setting for the finished painting is the Quaker City Barge Club which once stood on Philadelphia’s Boathouse Row.

On May 22, 1899, Eakins had two wrestlers pose in his fourth-floor studio on Mount Vernon Street in Philadelphia. Sportswriter Clarence Cranmer was there to give advice about positioning the wrestlers. Eakins painted the works from the live models and from a nearly identical photograph, most likely taken that day.

Eakins painted the finished “Wrestlers” for the National Academy Museum in New York as his so-called diploma painting when he was inducted into membership in 1902. It was acquired as a gift by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2006.

 

Andy Scott: The Maryhill Footbridge

Design for the Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland Footbridge by Andy Scott

This £4.5M landmark footbridge will incorporate a major piece of public artwork from local artist/sculptor Andy Scott.  All aspects of the structural engineering have been undertaken by Glasgow based civil engineering firm, Halcrow.

The sculpture will appear to lift the bridge and support the central “hub” above the canal.  It has been calculated that to perform this function adequately the Bigman will have to stand around 30 metres tall from water level.  The sculpture will therefore become a very prominent and striking feature on the skyline, as well as performing the engineering role required of him.

We commissioned local artist Andy Scott to design a new bridge for Stockingfield Junction. The Bigman is a sculpted steel feature that will appear to lift the bridge up from the banks of the canal. Illuminated at night, the statue will be a striking landmark, embodying the spirit and resilience of Maryhill and the city.

The project has been developed in response to the recognised need for a crossing and improved environmental design around the Stockingfield Junction of the Forth & Clyde Canal.