Abstract Art: Linde Martin

Linde B. Martin describes herself as an innovative abstract & modern artist. She works in oils on linen. In this video she talks about the philosophy behind her work, while we watch her technique with various large palette knives.

Beethoven's Fifth

And Now for Something Completely Different.

I was searching for information about Beethoven's Fifth Symphony when I found this delightful little animation and decided I wanted to share it with you. It's not quite in keeping with the topic of this blog, but I do think it is quite creative and worthy of a mention.

Flexible, folded-paper surface

Here is a video showing a piece of paper being folded into an interesting textured surface that is quite flexible. It looks interesting to play with, and I wonder how big a surface one could make. I'm also asking myself if several of these surfaces could be used to make a large abstract sculpture of some sort. Maybe some sort of kinetic art? What if the paper was reflective? Or coloured using the polymorph technique used in Rainbow Rhythm? Lots of possibilities, so take a look and let me know what ideas you have!

Rainbow Rythm

Rainbow Rythm is a Polymorph by Yaacov Agam. In this technique an image is presented in triangular relief, and depending on the relative position of the viewer, different images are presented. The viewer has to move position to see the whole artwork.

Hewing logs; east or west?

Robin Wood, who we saw carving spoons a while ago, compares two methods for hewing logs into square beams.

The German way:


The Japanese way:



I would definitely be wearing safety shoes for that job.

Pool dyed batik

Batik Artist Jane Downer demonstrates the Batik technique of isolating "pools" of fabric with wax and applying colour directly within those pools.

Polymer clay inspiration

Laura Curran, polymer clay artist, shares her inspiring jewelry, dolls, and books.

Forging Blacksmith Tongs

Blacksmith David Robertson demonstrates how to make bolt head tongs. The curved jaws of these tongs are handy for holding curved shapes that can stick out the side of the jaws. He uses a variety of tools and techniques, including bending forks, swage block, riveting and twisting.

Blackboards, chalk, pins and paper tags

Blackboards, chalk, pins and paper tags sound like an unlikely combination for making art, but here is Leslie Atik talking about her 2007 show, Marking Language. She says it is about the deeper meaning of language. Grammatical elements are physically marked on handwritten text, revealing patterns evocative of sheet music, and establishing a visual vocabulary.

Stone Balancing

I'm not sure if this is craft, meditation, performance or art. Either way, this interview with Adrian Gray, stone balancer and photographer, is well worth a look. It was filmed at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2007, with Billy Bragg performing in the background.


Another rock balancer, Bill Dan, maintains a blog "The Rocker : World wide phenomenon" featuring photos of balanced stones from around the world.

Not to be outdone, nature has already provided us with examples of balanced or rocking stones, such as the Logan Stones of Dartmoor, Balance Rock at Lanesborough and Balanced Rock in Arches National Park.

Glass blown lighting fixtures

Glass blowing is believed to have been invented by the Phoenicians over 2000 years ago. A ball of molten glass is inflated by blowing air into it. While still hot, it is shaped, either free-form or by molding.

Three kilns are used, one for the molten glass, one to reheat the glass while it is being worked, and one to slowly cool and anneal the glass when it is finished. A number of hand tools are used, including the blowpipe, the punty (a metal rod used to pick up and carry molten glass), marver (a flat metal plate for cooling and shaping glass), tweezers, and shears.

This video shows glass artist Sharon Gilbert of Talisman Glass making two items using some of these tools.

Making a split oak basket

This video shows white oak being split and weaved into a basket:



For more information on split oak basketry, see "Oakwood Baskets".