About bonesthewebmaster

Artist, secular humanist. Contemporary oil paintings referencing renaissance methods. Style is allegoric/political, I take commissions for portraits.

River Wye. Brits live in their own shit

The river Wye was once a pristine waterway, stretching 150 miles. Previously a clean, clear watered river, it is still a source of great pleasure but sadly in the same moment, it is heavily polluted and dying a filthy, green death. In addition to the untreated sewage released by water utilities, phosphates are released into the river by deregulated, post Brexit chicken farming on its banks. Since Brexit, the government and it’s not fit for purpose Environment Agency, have seized the moment to surround Brits with their own shit. From the river to sea, the waterways are polluted; in another case of unregulated raw sewage discharges (dangerously so) surfers at Lime Regis will ingest E. coli if they surf there. There is so much more to be said. The best longer term solution is to renationalise the nation’s water and simultaneously heavily fine and/or imprison the C.E.O s and boards of the water companies and also the farmers blatantly ignoring regulations for profit.
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Belarusian flautist silenced

Maria Kolesnikova is currently incarcerated in (probably) a Belarusian jail, she was ‘sentenced’ to 11 years for criticising, along with many others, her country’s politics and the harsh censorship there.
It pains me that a fellow artist is so cruelly treated. Belarus is little more than a Kremlin satellite state, a pariah state that serves Putin well. All we can do for the moment is protest in our writings

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Samuel Paty

It is with great sadness that I comment on this issue.
The trial of six teenagers has opened in Paris because of their alleged roles in the murderous beheading of school teacher Samuel Paty in 2020.
Murders happen everywhere, everyday but not like this one. This is another murder pererpetrated by a deranged religious cult member on a secular society. Why are religious people so afraid of having their views challenged, surely their gods and priests are open from time to time to reasoned debate, especially in the classroom?
But no, and the outstanding exception to this challenge is Islam and it’s dusty, old unchanging book the Qur’an.
For as long as this book holds sway over human beings there will always be atrocities and wars in this world. The Qur’an will always be out of step with the world. It might be the final word for Muslims but it might also turnout to be the final solution for mankind.
I hope France sticks to its separation of church from state, the moment that it doesn’t, the moment that it lets it’s guard down, that’s the moment when religion will ruin French society completely.

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Palestine_2

So typical of their unwavering support of the Israelis, the horror continues, with the UN’s request for a ceasefire vetoed by America.
I can see where this is going, when the slaughter is brought to an end, at the very least, Israel will seize as much land as they can from the Palestinians.
This is a form of ethnic cleansing, a land grab, there is so much death and slaughter of women and children, make no mistake, this is genocide.

Where are the Palestinians going to live?

The Israeli ‘solution’ is to ethnically cleanse Palestine, to degrade and reduce the population and to kill or displace as many Palestinians as possible.
Is the world really going to stand by and watch this happen? The creation of the Israeli state was a huge mistake, how much longer must the Palestinians pay with their lives for this? The religious hatred here, Jew against Muslim and vice versa, Islam against all others. These bigoted, intolerant religious dogmas are going nowhere but the sewer and we all pay the price. Religion is truly the cancer at the heart of mankind.

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Palestine

in hospital for a long time now March to December 2023 and still not out. French health care system treats disabled people really badly. Not the point of this post however, just a brief post on the genocide currently taking place in Palestine.
The worlds ‘leaders’, cowards if you ask me have just watched, acquiescing to the slaughter of 15,500 Palestinians by Netenyahoo’s IDF. If you think that a just response to Hamas’ awful slaughter of 1200-1400 Israeli’s with more than 240 hostages taken at the pop festival on the 7th of October, is to effect genocide on the Palestinians and is in anyway a just response for the Israeli deaths, then you are part of the problem. Even worse, more than 6,000 of the deaths are children, this isn’t a war it is a slaughter of the innocent by Zionists who see the Palestinian civilians as less than human.
I don’t see this continuing indefinitely as the IDF would like, a combined united voice will be brought to bear upon the Israelis or there will be a change of government in Israel. A more centrist government will be voted in and the massacre will end. Even if either of those things don’t happen Israel canot eliminate Hamas, it is an ideology and furthermore they are physically backed by Iran, who are armed to the teeth and pissed off with this conflict.
All land stolen by Israeli ‘settlers’ needs to be given back to the Palestinians and with the aid of American dollars, Palestine should to be rebuilt into a modern country, able to exploit its natural gas fields for the good of the reborn nation of Palestine.

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Ukrainian musician killed for refusing role in Kherson concert

A leading and much loved Ukrainien conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko has been killed by Russian forces. It is believed he was killed sometime in September by occupying Russian soldiers in Kherson. He is one of many killed by the murderous Russian invaders but as a life long artist his death is particularly poignant for me. There is no time for fine feelings in war, it is a time to survive and to fight the oppressor, from France I feel hopeless but I will remember this brave man who refused to cooperate with the Russian death machine.

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Attack on Salman Rushdie

It’s awful news about the attack on Salman Rushdie. Once again a religious bigot has injured (possibly fatally) a man who has sought to expose the violence, ignorance and arrogance of Islam. For years Salman Rushdie has lived under the shadow of such an event occurring and now that it has we can reveal that Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey has manically knifed Salman in the neck and the liver.
Matar who I am assuming is a Muslim terrorist, has clearly been indoctrinated into the cult of Islam, I can only hope that Salman, a 75 year old survives in a fit enough state to enjoy his remaining years and that he’ll continue to live a peaceful and productive life. Maybe education can penetrate the thick skull of Islam, at this point in my life, I doubt it, the only hope I see for progress in Islam’s relationship with the secular world, is that the internet will continue to dilute the controlling power of their ‘book’ over the lives of the young. And that in generations to come Islamic clerics will have a more liberal approach to the dictates of the Qu’urane.
As to Matar, lock him up for the rest of his life, he’s too dangerous to be amongst us, it’s as black and white as that for me. Give him access to a library which initially has no books likely to further indoctrinate him in the ways of Islam.
I’ll be thinking of Salman and hoping that he can be made comfortable in his hospital bed.

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Instagram’s confused operation.

So, I’ve had an Instagram site for some while, not very active on there, just a way to keep in touch with a few people and enjoy content that I like, mostly fine-art and music. For the the third time now my site has been blocked and all the posts that I spent considerable time on have been removed. The content of four of the posts concerned four of my most recent and most pro-justice, anti-misogyny and anti-religious painting.
No coincidence. I think that some pathetic religious snowflake has been ‘offended’ and knows that a complaint to Instagram will probably be effective in removing the ‘offending’ items as Instagram is firmly in the grip of American Evangelical bigots.
Fill your boots bigots I’m not going to waste my time fighting corporations who are on your side. If you wish to align yourself with Fox News, Laura Ingraham, Hannity etc. feel free, I view you as child like in your thinking, indoctrinated sadly from birth into the ways of your religion, you haven’t developed critical thinking skills and any challenge to your book is answered with belligerence, intolerance and now a complaint to Instagram. You’re weak and pathetic.

As for Instagram, I guess the powers that be there, in order to avoid litigation coming their way have to toe the line to their powerful backers and American right wing politicians. It’s all about the dollar, little else.

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GOD SLEEPING

Well it’s been a while since I posted anything here, a combination of illness and the ensuing lethargy has sometimes meant my candle has burned less enthusiastically. However, I love ‘however’, it means ‘ok let’s get to it’. I’m saddened by the world as it is, yes if we look at things through the venerable ‘rose tinted spec’s’ we might as well have put on a blind fold. Everywhere and I mean literally everywhere that we look, our planet is being destroyed not little by little but wholesale. In Brazil the rain forest is being shredded so quickly that it physically hurts me to hear news of the destruction. The same thing is happening in Indonesia and wherever the destruction of great forests will allow the growing of crops and the grazing of four legged burgers!

So the Americans have left Afghanistan’s people in a state of fear, at least those who had adopted a more Western life-style, in America itself the injustices of prejudice and low wages continue as rich politicians on the right preach against necessary vaccine mandates. In Europe, every time that there is a large enough problem the continent lurches RIGHT. Right into the hands of the likes of Boris Johnson and the Tories who have crashed and burned into law – in England, a Brexit that has made trade and travel difficult, when previously both things worked seamlessly, worse still relatons between the political leaders of some European countries has worsened to the point of no return. We need unity as countries, not division, created by xenophobes.

There is all of the above to make one feel shitty enough but also I fear the ignorance of politicians who have no grip on science and show it. There is currently a move to end the reign of the ICE engine and move as quickly as possible to battery powered vehicles. Whilst there maybe a place for battery power, it is unachievable (especially in the time span allotted) massively destructive to the planet, because of the need to produce vast quantities of electricity, maybe from coal in Asia, the manufacture of the batteries and the need to mine materials needed for the batteries such as lithium. All current battery technology uses materials that have finite reserves and there just isn’t enough of these materials to power the world’s automotive batteries.

‘What’s the solution ‘clever dick?’ I hear you ask. In a word HYDROGEN, Hydrofuckingen! When two of the finest automotive engineering firms on the planet know that batteries are not the solution, then the world’s politicians should take notice. Both Toyota and Porsche have developed extremely successful road and racing hybrid cars. Toyota are proposing a hydrogen powered future for the planet, clean, cheap, safe and plentiful, with relatively small modifications needed to engines.

Toyota Mirai

This solution would mean that the current infra-structure of petrol stations could be converted to hydrogen and vehicles could either use a ‘hydrogen cell’ or a hydrogen tank with the hydrogen being available for filling up as needed at current petrol stations. I favour the hydrogen tank method as it requires less finagling – we could move to a hydrogen cell in the future, if it offered benefits. For me wholesale use of battery technology is a stupid unscientific approach to less tricky problem than first thought. Also I would love to see Tesla, the leaders in the battery approach fail and go bankrupt. 🙂

Porsche with their impeccable and incredibly successful motorsport heritage have a different approach which is worth considering. The technology that they are following would mean again that an ICE engine is still used but it would be powered by wholly synthetic fuel. This is no longer an ‘idea’ for the lab, it is up and running and tested in relative secrecy.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry-news-environment-and-energy/porsche-begin-producing-synthetic-fuels-2022
The Porsche approach is first and foremost to enable the continued use of performance ‘sporting’ vehicles (historic and modern) on and off road with the sounds associated with such vehicles. The point is that it is a scientific approach coming from – like Toyota – credible engineers and scientist and to whom the world’s politicians must listen.

So enough of all that, I’ve bored myself.

‘God Sleeping’

is partly a fun painting, anyone who knows me, knows that I am a humanist and of course that embodies atheism but much as I detest the negative influence that religion has on the world, particularly the world’s poor at the hands of Catholic nuns and priests I can’t deny that it gives up a wealth of subject matter that is skewered into the consciousness of man. There is no escaping the icons and images of religion, we see them everywhere on a daily basis, at least if we’re paying attention. So ‘God Sleeping’ can be viewed as always in anyway the viewer wants but a few pointers from me. God according to the BABBLE created all we see – but I think then – tired and bearing in mind, also that time might be very different for man – an hour for us, a millennia for her. She created everything and promptly fell asleep! 🙂 She’s still sleeping and we are one of her dreams. I think that’s ‘a ‘fun’ idea, another point to note is that God is black and female, she looks a little Egyptian, I hope this idea offends some Christians who believe Jesus and hence God (how does that work and don’t forget the ‘Holy Ghost’) are white and long haired. This is renaissance Catholic mythology and ridiculous if you actually believe the Biblical nonsense. There’s much more there, the foetus in the background is relative to mother earth and creation and veers towards pantheism and a sort of ‘Universal’ religion.
But anyway I wanted to create a beautiful lush, rich scene worthy of a God of the universe and I think that I’ve succeeded. Her shawl is dripping with gold and her gold crown

is a simple highlight for her colourful ‘cornrows’. At a distance the painting pulls you towards it, it definitely has that ‘wow’ factor.

I laboured long over this painting, again new things have been learned, I’ve used tube ‘gold’ paint for the first time made by Schmincke/Mussini, it is no. 862 and contains bronze. A slow drying ‘gloopy’ paint, it is quite wonderful and mixes particularly well with Venetian Red to produce lovely rich tones. I created some of the fibres of the shawl by dragging a wedge shaped hog bristle brush downwards. Had I used this ‘gold’ paint before I would have ‘built up’ the places where I applied the gold with a mixture of chalk and sun dried flax oil that I make here in the summer in France. The mixture is in effect a mastic that stays put – and I, along with others believe Rembrandt used it and then glazed over it with several layers of colour. His faces in particular are so much more than real, there is this ‘trickery’ going on there, I’m sure.

More technical stuff. I’m continually disappointed with the surface finish of my paintings. For this painting I sealed the canvas with P.V.A. from Gamblin and then put on a white primer from Winsor and Newton, this seems to have sealed the painting well, too well maybe, the canvas does not like taking oil when I oil out, the oil doesn’t necessarily bead up but areas of canvas are left seemingly oil free!? It is truly ‘non-absorbent’ and maybe I need to try a ‘semi-absorbent’ ground. You’d have to see it to advise me I think, this is where, even with the help of the internet being an auto-didact is not helpful. I may contact Gamblin and have a chat, they know what they are doing maybe I don’t.

Thanks to my friend Lionel Roper for fixing my easel, the fact that it can turn through 360 degrees causes problems that need attending to over time. And while I’m on the subject of easels, how do companies arrive at the ridiculous prices for ‘Studio’ models $5,000 being a not uncommon figure. Pieces of furniture they maybe but artists are going to coat them in paint and oil and all manner of messy substances, yet another example of the rip-off of artists by artist suppliers et al.

To end, I feel better for having written this.

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Catholic-humanist?

I just have a short question, can someone explain the paradox in the pope’s position? From the text of the article, you would think that Pope Francis is a humanist. Yet he is the pre-eminent Catholic, the boss of the religionist’s ‘cosa nostra’. Catholics worldwide, are whenever they get the chance, still spreading indoctrination of the poor, fighting to overturn a women’s right to decide what is best for her body, by seeking to change laws that protect women’s rights to bodily autonomy. I think that for years, he has been on a daily basis questioning his faith, just like the sad old saint, Mother Teresa and agressive, grumpy Catholic ‘leaders’ like B.D.

Catholic-humanist?

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