Daily Drawing: November

 Daily drawings  from November, my favourite  is  from 28th,   2 takeaway little  sourdough cinnamon swirl buns from the 'Hot Tin' , delicious with coffee  ( I must confess I'd already had one in the morning  when meeting up with friends there ) 

 This months selection is a  mixture of observational  drawings/watercolour paintings ;   copies of drawings from ' Drawing Tuesday' expeditions; inspirational photos ( my own)  and scraps of fabrics  and stitching 

Painting Studio Time 1

I was unable to get a place on this terms 'Contemporary Painting Studio'  class  at City Lit and in any case I'm  already doing a collage class starting 22nd.  However Lucinda put together a 2 week class in a free room to fill in the time before CPS started  and I was very happy to have the bonus of an additional couple of painting days.  There's 10 of us plus Lucinda who is  working on her own paintings rather than teaching  but as ever,  seeing what other people are doing and asking/receiving advice is invaluable.

I thought about bringing in the large painting I was working on before Xmas but without the big screens to pin it  on  I decided to return to the  preliminary sketches I'd made of  Iron Wharf  in

Week 1. I also brought in  a couple of the prepared newspaper collage backgrounds  to work on 

Focusing in on a detail of the awning I  used transparent glazes to build up colour so the textures were still  visible . It's not finished yet , I need to make further changes to the composition and to details such as the ropes . 

Lucinda had brought in some cardboard so I put together a quick newspaper collage background, painted it with gesso and carried out a quick painting sketch. Not sure about the 'frottage' of paint over the corrugations   but  it's given me ideas about how I might use that effect to best advantage.  

As I've now used most of my newspaper collaged  backgrounds , with access to large quantities of PVA , I used up 2 copies of the days Metro in preparing some more. 

 On our walk on Boxing Day along Faversham Creek at low tide , I took some photos of the sun on the mud(! ) and the boats  and will make a start  in tomorrow's class about developing these into paintings. 

Exhibition Catch-Up

Rachel Whiteread 

I've  been in hibernation over Xmas  and New Year.  Apart from going out for dinner on Xmas day and the visit of some friends on 28th ,  we've been taking advantage of being well stocked with provisions  and not had to venture out in the horrible weather. Just as well as I've been fighting off the lurgy, going to bed early, getting up late and watching daytime TV ( loved Paddington!)  

I've been stitching on the piece ' wind me in the sea ' I started last January  (it is now a very large loop) and thinking about what I intend to do as a daily(ish) project, gathering collage  materials together, reviewing what I got out of the art courses last year. 

While excavating my studio, I realised I hadn't got round to reporting on some of the exhibitions I'd  visited.  On 12th December, on the way to Upper Street to collect my quilt after it had been returned from its travels with Knit and Stitch shows , I finally made it to Tate Britain to see the Rachel Whiteread exhibition, a fascinating exploration of negative space given form and substance. I particularly liked the works on paper, seeing how she develops her ideas and the 'bookshelves' with the details of the page edges recorded during the casting process.  

While I was in the Tate , I had a quick whizz through the 'Impressionists in London' . While it was interesting from a historical point of view, most of the art wasn't to my taste  although it  was great to be reacqainted with some of the paintings from the 'Turner ,Whistler, Monet' exhibition . 13 years on and pre-blog it remains one of those memorable exhibitions that changed how I look at thing.

The surprise was at the end - a selection of vibrant  paintings by Andre Derain paying homage to Monet  choosing the same motifs . I'll definately go back to have a closer look , I remember being blown away by his paintings  at the Courtauld in 2006 

Andre Derain 'Barges on the Thames' 

Thames barges mean so much more to me now having lived in Brentford   and seeing them on the Thames  and now with 'Iron Wharf' for inspiration. I made quick notes in my sketchbook, I particularly liked  the use of primary colours  and how the mast/ sail changes from red against blue to blue against red . 

On 5 December, I combined  a ' Drawing Tuesday' visit to Tate Modern with seeing ' A Sense of Place  by View Seven at the Menier Gallery 

I particularly likes the work by Susie Koren  ( above)  and Claire Benn - I'd loved her work at FoQ in 2016  and  it looked even better in this venue . 

 Back at Tate Modern, I had  quick look round Ilya and Emilia Kabakov -' Not Everyone will be taken into the future'. Not an exhibition I would have paid to go into but  being a member of the Tate  means I try out  things outside my comfort zone 

The installations  were interesting and  thought provoking ( 'Labyrinth(my mothers album')  was quite haunting , with the collaged family photos  and  songs ) What I found most inspiring were the large scale paintings based on collage - gave me ideas about scaling up of marks etc 

This Friday, I'm making a return visit to the Scythians at the British Museum ( another exhibition I went to when I should have been drawing  at Kings Place...)

The size  and intricate workmanship of the gold belt buckles  are indeed jaw dropping  but it is the  fragile objects  including textiles  found in remarkable state of preservation in the permafrost that I'm looking forward to seeing again .

Contemporary Painting Studio weeks 1 & 2

I'm getting back into my stride now on the second week of 'Contemporary Painting Studio' at City Lit with Lucinda Oestreicher, picking up where I left off on 'Ways into Abstract Painting' .  

The piece above  used one of the newspaper collaged backgrounds I'd prepared,  with brushstrokes  inspired by Pierre Soulages. Still a bit heavy handed  but I've some further backgrounds to play with  

The first week  was a bit difficult -  being the 'new girl' in an established group; new equipment (option of   a large screen  in addition to an easel); the ' where do I start' dilemma after a gap of several months. My main problem ( as usual!) was having too many ideas  and trying to do everything at once .

I'd initially decided when booking the class all those months ago ( it fills up very quickly) that I would use the opportunity to leave work there to develop my oil painting techniques   and that my subject matter would be boats, continuing  from 'Reading a Paint Surface' . 

So I started off with  developing compositions   based on  sketches and photos from Iron Wharf  ( we had another walk around there a couple of Sunday's ago , I must post some more photos, there's a new old boat!) 

But of course I'd also taken some of  my artwork based on breakwaters and  did some colour sketches of those too.  While I was waiting  my turn for some advice from Lucinda, I prepared some more scumbled backgrounds ( one of the many useful techniques from Advanced Painting course).

The  suggestions from Lucinda were to try out   many compositions in black and white only, working tonally initially and to take just one subject at a  time and explore it thoroughly.   Of course I knew that  but in my haste to get into colour  I'd forgotten the basics! There wasn't time to do many in the class but I bore it in mind for the next session  and was much better prepared. 

 Week 2 started with a look at everyone's work so far, to see different peoples  approaches to using reference materials , testing out ideas, getting started.  Some were using  collage , others painting on photocopies or cropping images , there was working directly from sketchbooks, blowing up images on the OHP projector, layering images and a couple starting painting directly and responding to what was happening on the surface, doing one piece and then working from that in a series of samples  not referring to the original source. Most were working from photos or sketches but a few were working  with more abstract concepts including family memories  and recent events in the news. 

I'd brought in  a  folder with the work I'd done in Photoshop  for ' Birchington Breakwaters' ( which I suppose was tonal being red and white rather than black and white)  along with  sketches  and photos of  my journal quilts and previous paintings. Lucinda referred to it as the 'archive' approach. In a later discussion  she said she could see how both my scientific  and textile backgrounds  came into play with my methodical  sampling of techniques.  

There were demonstrations of image transfer  using acrylic gloss gel  ( which I realised afterwards was the basis of paper lamination )  and of using the OHP to play with scale and orientation of images. I used this to combine  photos and drawings on acetate  projected onto a larger piece of paper.  Interesting use of obsolete equipment, years ago I used my slide projector  to project a slide of Moroccan sand dunes onto  my quilt top for ' Erg Chebbi',  I'm just as happy using tracing paper as it simplifies the image. 

With my reference material taped to my  wheeled screen I worked on  a scumbled background with  just black and white acrylic paint

At the end of the session, rather than throw the paint away, I used it up scraping  it on my paper 'dropsheet' with a credit card. Love the marks which suggest rocks and sea foam

I'm feeling more settled now  in continuing to explore the theme of breakwaters and the interaction between my painting and textile practice. On Friday  I'm heading  off  again to Studio 11 in Eastbourne for a mentoring session with Christine Chester.(I'm planning to do some monoprinting with my bench time )  Filling in the questionnaire   has already helped a lot in making decisions about what to concentrate on , in this case breakwaters and acrylics rather than boats and oil paints as is feeds in more directly into my textile work . 

Drawing Tuesday ( and Thursday) : V&A 20th Century and Iron Wharf

 I  went drawing with friends   twice last week  - very different venues  but   both shared the  same  characteristics  of sketching in company and  just as important, wide ranging discussions over lunch in a congenial café !
On Tuesday there were 7 of us drawing in the V&A 20th century  design galleries ( finding your way there and to the members room afterwards even more perplexing than usual  with building work closures!)
 I  drew   Ron Arad chair ' Soft little heavy' in blue biro then attempted to capture the contrasting textures of a  'mobius' basket and pewter bowl in graphite.

 On Thursday I met up with Hazel   at Standard Quay in Faversham  and introduced her to the delights of Iron Wharf.  I've taken loads of photos and keep meaning to go drawing there  but having company gave me the push to actually do so. So  many boats in different states of crumbliness, it's very hard to  choose and settle down to draw. I'll be back soon with  bigger sheets of paper and my paints.