The Marquetry Shack

As part of a contemporary baroque approach this picture is something I had not tackled before - a picture based on a 360 degree panoramic night view by acclaimed US photographer Joe Reifer. As you will see from his site ( www.joereifer.com ) Joe specialises in amazing panoramic night views usually of desert scenes or abandoned places. You can actually click on his subjects and take a tour around them! I was attracted to the Desert Center Gas Station and Joe kindly let me have a high def image to work on it. Here is the end result: 

Joe has produced a brilliant blog about the picture so please check it out here:  http://www.joereifer.com/words/2014/03/14/marquetry-artist-ian-smith-360-night-panorama-made-of-wood/   And you can't buy this picture because Joe has already bought it, though I am happy to do you another version!I have been inspired to work on another of Joe's pictures so look out here for the car forest! 

SOLD

 And here it is! The photograph is part of a series Joe took at the amazing International Car Forest of the Last Church in Nevada. This is a place where around 40 cars are buried nose or tail down for the benefit of artists and photographers to do their own work, so I just had to do it in wood. It is an incredible project that has been going on for years. Check it out on facebook! 

Cost £850

 One day I am going to finish doing a series of ten pictures based on the ancient Persian poem "the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam", translated into English in the 1890s by Edward Fitzgerald. It has over a hundred verses and is very fatalistic, showing the transience of life. The pictures are based on the art work of Robert Stewart Sherriffs, an English artist and cartoonist (1906 to 1960), who illustrated the copy in an old book I have. If you haven't heard of the poem you will certainly know some of the lines from it. I have placed the verse for each of these three under the pictures. 

Cost of each: £340  all 3 £900

The moving finger writes,  and having writ, 

Moves on: nor all the piety nor wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,

Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it. 

Ah love! could thou and I with fate conspire;

To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire,

Would not we shatter it to bits - and then

Remould it nearer to the heart's desire!

A book of verses underneath the bough,

 A jug of wine, a loaf of bread - and thou

Beside me singing in the wilderness - 

Oh, wilderness were paradise enow!

 When I was in Sarasota in December for the American Art Marketing show I took a series of photographs in Siesta Key for use in some pictures. This was taken at sunset. I just love the way the happy couple look completely relaxed and at one with the sunset. Once again ebony makes an ideal veneer for silhouetted figures. 

Cost: £240

And this is the next in the series. I took the photograph at the same time - in fact within a minute and if you look to the right you will see the couple in the picture above this one. Although it is my own pic I owe gratitude to Sean Looney for his inspiration and example in developing this style of sunset photography.  

Cost £400

I am really pleased with this picture. It is based on a photograph from an old magazine and the original photo was about 2 inches square and very faded so I had to do a lot of adaptation. It works for marquetry because of the silhouetted figures as well as the direction of light. 

Cost: £390

This picture is based on one of my own photographs. It was taken in Key West Florida as we followed the local tradition of toasting the sunset on Front Street with mojitos! The grain and whorls in both main veneers mean there is no need to add anything else but the sailing ship 

Cost: £230

This is a Dutch landscape with a difference - it is based on a modern photograph by acclaimed Dutch photographer Ron ter Burg. Ron's brilliant work can be seen at http://www.ronterburg.com 

SOLD

This is the first of a series of three pictures all based in Italy and all from photographs I took on a trip there in June. It is entitled "Chefs take a cigarette break, Venice 2014".  The alley ways of Venice and the impact they have on light, along with the contrast with the canals and buildings make Venice a great subject for marquetry. The next one is set in Florence.  

Cost: £490

This picture is based on a photograph I took heading to an apartment I was staying in in old Florence, late one night. To achieve the composition I got rid of a row of cars and moved the scooter more into the foreground. I like the contrast of the young lovers and scooter and the rickety old buildings in the narrow street - and yes I did show them the photograph and explained what I wanted it for. They were very happy to be immortalised in art!  

Cost: £380

This third picture from Italy is of the head of Dante, the Italian writer. It is based on a photograph I took of the statue of Dante in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, created by the sculptor Pazzi. I knew I had to do this picture but put it off for a while as it seemed an impossible subject! However I have to confess that I am really pleased with the end product - in fact for technical and artistic reasons I feel it is my best yet!  I just hope noone wants to buy it! Just for comparison here is the original photograph (taken at night time to get the moody effect): 

Cost: £1100

This is based on a famous black and white photograph taken in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl in 1936 by Arthur Rothstein so what is it doing in a contemporary exhibition? Having spent time in recession hit areas of the USA (as well as the UK) I was conscious of history repeating itself and saw many similar scenes so decided to update it. 

Cost £370

This picture is based on an archive photograph, this time by Dorothea Lange. Again I have adapted it to make a comment about the impact of the economic downturn on ordinary people. Originally there were two men in the picture but I think this tells a better story. 

Cost £400