Surface, Structure, Stitch at City Lit Week 8 (and February Journal Quilt )

   CQ JQ  Feb20   Mussel Holes 

   Week 8  of Surface, Structure, Stitch  and  the start of our 5 weeks working on our own project .  Each person shared their ideas and I showed  my 'homework'  from Glenthorne

 When I was talking to  Louise ,  we looked  in particular  at the multiples I'd produced  ( the stack of colour catcher shapes disintegrated   as she handled it as I hadn't  secured it sufficiently, beads everywhere! )  suggesting overlapping strings of them, perhaps using  an acrylic box from  Muji  to display them. I went at  lunchtime to have a look , what an array of  possibilities.  

 I put together more ' sandwiches'  of  indigo fabrics with bondaweb between  but then  started playing with the 'holes '  leftover  from  cutting them out , putting together  9 inch journal Quilts  using denim from jeans in the scrap basket.   

 The  stack of colour catchers with holes in was particularly  exciting  and Louise had some ideas about  stitching them  together. Many people weren't familiar with the potential of  used colour catchers ( or what they were )  but I've been using them for years including  the start of daily drawing practice in 2013 ( tho it didn't get too far )  

  I've even used the holes before  in this  Journal Quilt  from  2009 

 I was also reminded  how much I like the shapes  and limited colour palette  in Paul Feilers work 

  Back at home,  I followed Louise's  suggestion of  quilting from the back with  a heavier thread in the bobbin

 Now I just need to  sort out what I'm doing in tomorrow's class....

Drawing Tuesday at Tate Britain

 First  impressions on arrival  at Tate Britain yesterday  for ' Drawing Tuesday'  was  of very high levels  of  noise from excited children. They were visiting in groups  to see the Steve McQueen Year 3 Project and take part  in  a range of linked activities. Art works in various galleries had   notes  next to them  to encourage questions   and thought which was great to see.  But  actively encouraging the children to shout and scream   at the top of their voices was overwhelming ,  they could be heard some distance   away, I wish I'd brought earplugs with me !

  Usually  when I visit the  Tate for 'Drawing Tuesday' sessions ,  I either do several  colour  sketches of work that interests me or  more recently,  draw from sculpture.  

 After wandering   for a while around  the ' Walk Through British Art" galleries   concentrating on the 20th Century and contemporary work,   I kept coming back to  this wonderful  wooden sculpture ' Johanaan'  by  Ronald Moody ( interested to see that he too was inspired by work in the British Museum ! ) 

  It was the way he'd  made  use  of the grain of the wood to suggest contours which fascinated  me  and I tried to   capture that using  calligraphy  pens with graphite  over the top  to suggest  the form.

  It reminded me  of some of the drawings of tattooed  figures and masks from the Oceania   exhibition.  After lunch  I came back  and did a larger drawing  of  an ear.

 Some of the paintings  etc that caught my eye : 

 Textile piece by  Alice Channer 

 Deanna Petherbridge 

Vicken Parsons 

 Wilhelmina Barnes- Graham 

 Peter Lanyon 

 Roger Hilton 

Terry Frost 

Ben Nicolson 

Winifred Nicolson 

 Paul Feiler 'Morvah'  

(  looking for an image  of this online  I found the  work below , stunning!) 

Paul Feiler ' Crossed Forms' 

EDAM Term 3 : Further thoughts on 'Meanwhile...', techniques and artists to explore

 During the course  of 2 terms of EDAM I've been pushed well out of my comfort zone in the variety of  drawing techniques. Now in Term 3,  when we're working on our own projects, I need to consider which of these  will be useful for  me to use to explore the theme of ' meanwhile...' ( initial thoughts here )
 Large scale drawing with Tony Hull, starting with  object, blind drawing, mark making with long stick. wrapping object ,  inserting sheets of paper to disrupt composition , making linkages across surface,  layers, responding to what's there.

 Bookmaking , copies of monoprints, change of scale,  formats, concertina
 ( also ideas  from   monoprint  sketchbook project -  backs of work different to front, interaction of pages,, juxtaposition ,

 Paper manipulation and stitch - lots to explore here, take on idea and try different methods: pleating, distortion , ripping layers , stitch on acetate

Space and Light with Anne Teahan, feeling the form

 Lessons from 'Large Scale Sketchbook' :

 Interest in layers - in cloth, excavating old  quilts, what's beneath , how to  try this in paper?

Some  first thoughts on artists  of relevance:

Michael Buthe 

 Junko Oki ( Looking forward to  going to see her exhibition in Brussels in a couple of weeks time !) 

Paul Feiler - I spent some time looking at layers and composition at the Redfern Gallery 

Julie  Mehretu 

Guillermo Kuitca

 And 'mining'  my  own blog for artists that have influenced me over the years - interesting to make connections.
 Richard Long
David Nash  Tree  Quaryy
David Nash Cork Structures
David Nash
Sue Lawty
Cornelia Parker 
Tania Kovats 

Our homework  from the first  class was to read an article from Contemporary Drawing 1960's to now by Katherine Stout and research  ' expanded notion' one of the themes 

We started  the  next session  looking  at  artists using these different methods :

 Alison Wilding 

 Jenny Saville 

 Claude Heath 

 Frank Pudney 

Kirsten Elswood

Gerhard Richter  ( overpainted photographs at Gagosian) 

Stephan Talasniek

( for his use  of frottage, monoprinting  'activating the surface' 

 Helen Scalway 

 'Psychogeography'  writer ( well worth downloading the pdf's) ,  ' Travelling Blind'   shows  fascinating interpretations of the tube.  

Cosmopolitan city  shows different scales ( above) and I like' patterns and perspective' ( below) linked with her essay on ornament and memory

 Nancy Spero  for her use of text 

 William Kendridge' s interdisciplinary  work covers so many different media , it was a privilege to see the rehearsals for the 'Head and The  Load' last year . I  have a copy of his  '6 Drawing Lessons'  somewhere, must track it down.

My own  research, linked to my interests in  mapping walks,  was in ' walking as art' ,  so I was interested to find the catalogue for exhibition ( which can be downloaded on ISSUU)  

 Walk on-WALK  celebrating 40 years of 'art walking' 

Those that caught my eye  were  Tim Knowles ( whose '7 walks from 7 Dials, Covent Garden' is featured  in the inspirational 'Drawing Projects' book 

 Also Jeremy Wood  who pioneered  drawing  with GPS ,the  3d physicality of his piece  ' White Horse Hill'  I found   exciting.

"We cannot understand where we are on the ground without first looking up at the stars. The chalk figure from the Bronze Age was made to be seen from the heavens and today we use space age technology from the heavens to tell us where we are.

The Uffington White Horse was chosen for its mysterious dialogue between the ground and the sky; a relationship it has in common with the magical properties of satellite navigation technology.

The original shapes have eroded over time along with their meaning. They are signs, not entirely visible from the ground that are projected towards the skies like symbols on a map to be seen by the gods."