 | | RISC OS enthusiast
The art of Simon Smith
From an artist's point of view it can be highly satisfying to use a minimal set of tools. For some, being restricted is frustrating and limiting. For others, being cornered and trapped becomes a challenge : What is possible from within claustrophobic worlds ?
For an audience, knowing the handicap under which the art was produced adds to the appreciation of what has been achieved. Take RISC OS artist Simon Smith. Incredibly, he has produced a lovely composition using Draw. Draw is good for producing simple technical diagrams, but not art.
Simon's inspiration has been one of China's foremost abstract painters of modern times, Ding Yi. Photographs of Ding Yi's works are readily found on the internet. If you look up a few you will quickly realise that the repetitive use of the symbols + and x across a grid is a recurring theme in his work. You'll also find out that to buy his art you'd need to be rich. What fascinated me most about Ding Yi's work is that he developed his ideas before computing became widespread. Yet, as Simon has realised, the use of a grid to which symbols are attached is precisely what the RISC OS Draw software is good for.
In Ding Yi style, here's Simon's masterpiece:
Having looked at a number of Ding Yi's works, I feel Simon has captured the master's style, whilst producing an original work of art.
I asked Simon for detail of his Ding Yi style composition. He told me that, initially, he kept the Draw grid lock on and placed plain square blocks of colour across a 1cm grid. From that simple idea, came this:
For the second 'layer', as Simon calls it, he took the grid lock off and placed each square's edge line reasonably accurately by hand. However, if he made a 'mistake' a self imposed rule was to NOT go back and change it. Simon explained; "The idea was to accumulate placement errors and so give the work a 'human' feel". As you ponder the next image, keep in mind that Simon selected each and every line's colour, from within Draw, by hand.
With each square's bounding lines in place, Simon started to add in the crosses, some as plus signs, some as multiplication. The expression "labour of love" sums up the endeavour. Many, many hours later, with the third layer in place, as you can see from the next image, the work is well advanced.
Look carefully. At first glance this seems finished. In fact, a considerable amount of detail was added to this before Simon considered his version of 'Appearance of the crosses' complete.
For more art, visit Simon's website.
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