technically inept socks-and-sandals-wearing uncle on Bognor Regis beach, they are actually extremely layered images that contain political statements and comments on society. He isn’t just pointing the camera in front of him and hoping to capture an old lady eating an ice cream at a funny angle: his eyes are constantly searching for a comic story to tell and explore, something that will give more than just a giggle or a repulsed glance – something that will resonate. And, in a sense, he is also managing to bend the truth of an image to make it suit his own storyline, which is impressive as most people consider it true that a photograph cannot lie: it is a total and resolute truth that your eyes can validate. There is far more going into his images than is immediately obvious – he is a very clever photographer. In the afternoon session we were treated to a crash course in digital iPad finger painting by Roz Hall, an IT technician who used to be an artist and painted on his Apple devices in his spare time. We could even live- tweet along to his presentation and ask him questions online afterwards, according to the first slide in his presentation that was proudly branded ‘#ROZHALL’. I thought this was very forward-thinking and modern, and also slightly funny. Hashtag Roz was a very interesting speaker, making the case for digital painting as an art form that could be something quite relaxed and chilled while still retaining integrity as a medium. could be something fun and relaxing done on a train or in the car, that doesn’t require expensive paints or a canvas or result in mess. It opens painting up to a new more casual and experimental audience to explore what they can do in their free time, and still teaches the fundamentals of how to paint a picture. At the end of his talk, Robbie went up to talk to #Roz and get a photo taken with him. Robbie said he would then use the photo as the base for a painting he would do on his dad’s iPad and then tweet it to #Roz, presumably using the #Roz hashtag. Rob never got round to it, so I put the photo into PhotoShop and added a paint effect filter that does roughly the same job. I’m sure it’s what #Rob would have wanted. process He explained that up until recently it has easily been dismissed as something vapid and improper, but once artists like David Hockney adopted a love for stroking iPad screens it has gained some cache within the art world. Hashtag Roz told us about submitting work to galleries and not telling them it was done on an iPad until after they accepted the work into the show, which he felt had helped challenge many traditional preconceptions, as the art was first judged as painting and not as work done in an odd, new way. I am not much of a painter myself, but #Roz showed me that with an iPad and a suitable app, digital painting
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