New Work

New Year, New Work

Loved styling this Woodland story - really let the imagination run wild!

Full story here: www.josie-harris.com

Monet's Girl

Comparisons between art and fashion shoots aren't always obvious, or even evident at lot of the time, but every now and then a really good one comes along to enjoy.

 I just saw this shoot for December's issue of German Vogue, and was instantly reminded of Monet's paintings of his wife Camille, particularly the ones painted on the beach

The Beach at Trouville, 1870 

Monet painted this in the open air, proof of which is in the sand stuck in the paint. The composition is thought to be extremely unusual for the time, due to its tight crop and lack of symmetry.

 

On the Beach at Trouville, 1871

 

Camille Sitting on the Beach, 1871

Fashion by Christiane Arp

Shot by Giampaolo Sgura

Vogue Germany 2014

Friday at an Exhibition

It seems that I am making a habit of spending part of Friday at an exhibition. At the end of last week I made the journey over to the Tate Modern to see the vast display of Yayoi Kusama's work. Unfortunately the glorious weather of Thursday hadn't stretched itself to morning of my visit, although the mist and clouds over the Thames really did seem to have a silver lining

Most people who take any interest in what goes on at the Tate will probably have seen images such as these below to advertise Kusama's show

And rightly so - these two rooms are amazing. Absolutely disconcerting but thrilling. A weird psychedelic disco. I loved it. Dots are repeated again and again throughout the exhibition, especially in the final rooms: 

'My desire was to predict and measure the infinity of the unbounded universe, from my own position in it, with dots - an accumulation of particles forming the negative spaces... I wanted to examine the single dot that was my own life.'

But I also really enjoyed the first room of Kusama's early work too. These were beautiful drawings in improvised materials (she was unable to get hold of oil paints, so mixed household paints with sand and used seed sacks as canvases), often odd but delicate and intricate.

 

Top: Leaves, 1954

Bottom: The Germ, 1952

I liked this one from her 1970s NY years too

Man Catching the Insect, 1972
Quite like that this one is stuck on a page in my scrap book with a £2,430 pair of shoes - coincidentally the exhibition is sponsored by Louis Vuitton....
As a new week starts I am buoyed by Kusama's statement of unquestionable girl power 
'Bring on Picasso, bring on Matisse, bring on anybody! I would stand up to them all with a single dot.'

Boris

James and his flatmates have rescued a stray kitten. Its called Boris, and despite really not bring a cat person, even I find him incredibly sweet. He is looking pretty suave here matching Tessa's dress.