|
News
2002
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Spring
2003
|
 |
|
|
Modern art fit for your lounge - or pocket
By Igsaan Salie
 Why didn't I think of that? That's the question that will be on your lips when you see Richard Scott's latest artwork, all drawn on his cellular phone.
Scott, a Hout Bay artist, has used the phone screen as the canvas for his painting to create simple naive pop art drawings that are attracting mixed responses from art circles.
He is vying for an award in the New Media category of the Brett Kebble Art Awards. Scott draws and colours the pictures on his cellphone and then e-mails them to his printer's computer.
The printer then makes a Giclee print of the emailed picture, which is specially coated cotton paper using light-fast inks. These reproduce the continuous tone characteristics and colour saturation of the original artwork.
Scott said he had been drawn to his mobile digital canvas because he was looking for something unique to set him apart from other artists.
"This is great; you can paint anywhere you want to, in the toilet, in bed and in the dark," he said.
Scott is relatively new to art circles; he started painting only about two years ago when he sold his Internet company to paint full time.
After exploring different art forms, mainly painting and sculpting, he found his feet relatively quickly and submitted a sculpture for the Brett Kebble Awards last year - to come second in the sculpture category.
His background of technology and computers made the combination of art and technology an obvious one. What started as a doodle on his phone inspired the artist to explore the medium further.
One of the challenges is the limitation of the cellphone screen which has only 16 colours and a limited amount of capabilities.
"Mobile phones are not designed to be canvasses for artists. I just had to fine-tune the idea and hold on tight," he said.
He doesn't allow any manipulation of the product when on the printer's computer and insists that all the imperfections have to remain.
"The imperfections are important, the blue of the lighthouse came out slightly purple in colour and the breaks in the lines and the chunkiness of them was what I wanted," he said.
He has presented seven pieces to the Brett Kebble Awards and prints of the pictures went on display this week at the VEO gallery in De Waterkant, Green Point.
The winners of the various categories will be announced in October. The seven works will be sold with the same type of phone used by Scott to draw the art pieces, at a price tag of around R12 500.
The phones will have the works on them set as screensavers and saved in a non-editable version, while there is another version saved where art lovers can add their own flair to the drawings.
This article was originally published on page 21 of The Cape Argus on July 31, 2004
Click Here for Photo
|
|
