Fixing the friable
Happy to be working with Gavin McClafferty again (who built the furniture for the installation at Waterhay last year). This time we are trying to work out how best to fix the chalk drawings […]
Ehux, a marvel of…
If there is something of a celeb in the coccolithophore world, then it seems to be Ehux (Emiliania huxleyi), the one named after Henry Thomas Huxley. The coccoliths that make up […]
No.4 with gold
Last one this week: here is the beginning of the 4th chalk drawing in the series. I am looking at including gold leaf (that a small square of the stuff to the […]
Knowing when to stop
Ah, the chance to revise, what a double-edge chalk. One advantage/disadvantage (circle correct word) of working on a series of drawings is that you can go back and modify an earlier attempt in the […]
Drawing your way forward
Some days, the only thing that makes sense is to draw. The rest of the world is too complicated. I am getting into this series of drawings now: working on No.3 […]
Back to art school
All the life drawing classes I have attended in the past (models of various sizes in various poses, the odd mix of people behind the easels), making a painting of a mackerel for […]
Parabolic incision
Today, in the studio, working on ideas for three chalk boulders, each incised with a golden parabola.
“Between the comet and the chalk”
This short film has just been released about my time in the Observatory. It was an interesting challenge to try and condense all that has gone on there into just […]
My harmonograph wall
My time in the actual Observatory is now over, so the work continues back in the studio, where I have put up all the harmonograph drawings that I made at the […]
Out of the box
Today is my last day in the Observatory. It has come to feel a little like home. My time there has initiated masses of ideas for new work, which I […]
Philae talk now online
The research talk I gave recently in the Planetarium at the Winchester Science Centre is now online. It is about 35 minutes long. Thank Phil for filming this.
Kepler Orrery
A recent Horizon programme took a look at our latest understanding of how the planets circle our Sun. Away with the old idea of fixed orbits, and all those mechanical […]
The colour white
I have been wanting to experiment with chalk drawing for some time, so sitting here in the Observatory on the South Downs seems like a good time to start. Drawing […]
Headlost Walkfound
I took a walk up onto Cheesefoot Head early this morning, to see if I could clear my head from all that I have unearthed during this residency so far. […]
Romantics in space
I don’t know about you, but when I am putting on a talk I have to run through it again and again until I feel it is inside me; that […]
Simon Ryder 