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' 

Drawing Tuesday at the Petrie Museum

 After drawing in the African Gallery of British Museum  in the morning, I spent last Tuesday afternoon  drawing pots at the Petrie Museum as I have many times before! I still get overwhelmed by the amount of  objects stuffed into the cases and deciding what to draw  always takes a while. In the end it  came down to sitting at a convenient table with a chair  and drawing what was in front of me !  

UPDATE :   As  Margaret Cooter notes  in her blogpost on our visit,  such delicate drawings are difficult to photograph  well, the marks get lost on the page. I   scanned in the drawing, , increased  contrast in Photoshop and printed out a copy , drawing round the  shapes with a large Pitt  marker in sanguine.

Drawing in the British Museum African Galleries

Last Tuesday   we were meeting up at the Petrie Museum  at 1pm  to sketch  but  I still  caught my usual 8.59  train  and headed  to the British Museum  beforehand . Fortified by a coffee and pastel del nata  in the  Members Room  , I spent an hour in the African   Galleries .

 I've drawn the knives before  but its always the pottery  than inspires me.

 A couple of quick drawings  then a wander around.

While I love seeing the shadows of the El Anatsui  work, it was good to remind myself of  his   wooden  ' Kente Cloth' ( below)

 I loved this drawing ' Tree'  by Ibraham Mohammed El Salahi  based on the 'jibba' worn by sufi brotherhood.  I missed this exhibition at the Tate, looks amazing 

  My lunch of soup in the members room was cut short   by  an evacuation of the building  ( fire sirens  went off , they initially said it was a false alarm but then we were all told to leave ) We were directed through a  side entrance  through   what looked like the boiler room.  We were out there about 20 mins , no point in returning to my soup so collected my bag and coat from the cloakroom  and headed off to the Petrie. There was strike   and demonstration going on outside UCL ( on  outsourced staff rights)  so  respecting  their wishes  not to cross the picket line, had to make  a detour. My geography of the area is getting much better!

1000th Blog Post : Studios; quilts; doors, ceramics, travel; plants; drawing, Kew; museums, City Lit; stitching

 My 1000th  blogpost had crept up on me unawares! While I haven't been blogging so much of late ,   using Instagram and Facebook more for sharing what I'm up to, I still find it a useful tool as a 'reflective journal' when I've been doing courses to  record my thoughts and investigations.

 I decided to look back  in an organised  random way ( if that makes sense ! )at what I was  doing on 100th, 200th etc   and actually the main themes  of  what interests me  ( plants, art , textiles, travel)  all come through  even in a relatively  small selection.

My first post in August   2007 was on moving from Ealing to Brentford   and showed the studio space I  was leaving behind so it seems appropriate  to show my current studio arrangements  for the 1000th.  I would never have anticipated the traumas of losing my job and moving  to a new town  and life but after nearly 4 years I'm more settled and  revelling in the opportunities it has given me. Enjoy!

 Post 1 :magsramsay.blogspot.com/2007/08/sewing-space-old-place

Post 100: magsramsay.blogspot.com/2008/07/100th-post-labyrinths-and-elements

Post 200 :magsramsay.blogspot.com/2010/01/tunisian-shop-advertising

 Post 300:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2010/11/ancient-shards-new-materials

 Post 400:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2011/10/deductive-monotypes

Post 500:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2013/02/cherubs-at-haberdashers

Post 600 : magsramsay.blogspot.com/2014/05/across-foot-of-mount-oxa

 Post 700: magsramsay.blogspot.com/2015/08/sketching-ceramics-at-V&A

Post 800:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2016/12/drawing-tuesday-keys-and-kew

Post 900:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2018/03/contemporary-collage-week-9-cubomania

 Post 1000:  I still haven't worked out a  decent  design wall space ( I currently use  to top landing - Ian's claim I'm taking over the whole house is not without foundation ... )  but I really like my studio space with its cutting  table raised on sand castle buckets and the combination  of wall and trolley storage.

 Most of all I love my 2 sewezi tables : 1 currently has my Bernina  sewing   machine set up on it and the other with a wooden insert in  by the window I use for hand stitching ( when I'm not sewing on the train ) , looking out over the green,