Drawing with the Gift of Time

  Most of December was spent looking after  Ian  following surgery . He's back at work now  and  with surprisingly little in my diary for the next few weeks  I have the gift of time to  think  what I want to do this  year and get back into the habit of drawing. And at some point I will try and catch up with the backlog of blog posts....

 I can't get to 'Drawing Tuesday'  until next week but as Margaret has written  on her blog, we had a lovely session before Xmas at Janet K's -  as we weren't in a museum with the strict rules on 'dry' drawing materials, I took my watercolours and used them to capture Carol's childhood treasures.

I  wanted to  return to the discipline of daily art  - ' Wind Me In the Sea' started as that  in 2017 as a sort of daily stitching  and in 2013 I kept up working with colour catchers for several months.  I'll have several sewing projects  planned  in preparation for an exhibition in September   so  bought 12  A6  paperback sketchbooks  with the intention of  filling one a month.

Day 1: Something small 

So I started   recording my sewing kit  and then  a shell from my collection of small treasures  then discovered  #30daysketchbookchallenge19   and found that the first 2 prompts had co-incidentally  been 'something small' and 'Shells' and have  now signed up.   I'm enjoying what  other people are posting  on the groups Facebook page and the encouragement offered ( like getting into the habit is more important than necessarily producing a wonderful  drawing ) .  So here are my efforts so far. 

Day 2: Shells 

Day3 : A bag 

Day 4: cubes 

Day 5 : Five 

Day 6: A kitchen utensil

Day 7 : birds 

Day 8: Footwear

Day 9: Under The Sea

Festival of Quilts 2018 : Nancy Crow and Maria Harryman

The exhibition  of   75 monoprints   by Nancy Crow was by far the biggest  gallery at Festival of Quilts.  Knowing  how addictive  monoprinting is, the large  board  outside the gallery explaining her methods and process  was a fascinating insight  into her  work.   She has been so influential in  quiltmaking ,  I think she was very brave  to  show  her personal explorations in this medium, so different to her pieced works.  However  while I  am full of admiration  for the  scale of her vision, I didn't love it , the repetitions  and subtle changes  obviously mean a lot to her  but didn't excite me.  The most interesting parts for me was zooming  in on the details of some of the marks, particularly on the black and white pieces .

In contrast , my    favourite   work   at  FoQ  by far ,  were   2 pieces  by   Maria  Harryman,  ' Ubiquitous  1' in the Art Quilt section   (details above)   and 'Ubiquitous 3' in the  CQ West gallery ( below)  

In both pieces  I was drawn to their abstract compositions  of  painterly  layers of colour, with the subtle variations  in  hand stitch and  marks providing emphasis  in  key areas. It's so easy to go too far, I  really admire her constraint.  Then I discovered her website which I've spent  quite a while reading for her insights into  her work.  I too am inspired by  mussels and limpets  but  she's achieved  what I've so far failed to do in my own interpretations ,  producing masterly abstract compositions, successfully scaling up marks, textures  and colours, making the leap from observational drawings to large scale textile  works.    She's inspired me to go back to drawing my 'small treasures' and revisit my sketchbooks  and earlier explorations ( below) .  

Drawing Tuesday: New River Walk, Islington

 Last Tuesday's drawing session was at Janet K's in Islington. While most sketched some of the wonderful objects she has in her house,  with  yet another new sketchbook to start ( my ' small square chunky book' of watercolours and small treasures is full), I headed off to the 'New River Walk' in search of inspiration armed with my 'bijou' paintbox and size 12 travel  paintbrush.

 Some interesting architecture  and seriously distracted  by the adorable moorhen chicks (  black balls of fluff with enormous feet) , with less than an hour I  found a bench and drew whatever was in front of me. 

I started off with the negative shapes of the tree then ' branched out'  into  a watercolour  sketch .   There were several people  that  stopped to look  and  some members of a walking group  huddled round blocking my view! I'd like to say that's why it isn't a brilliant painting  but I'm out of practice. 

What is it about painting in a public space that invites comments  from passers by ? 

I've got  used to it over time  and don't mind  too much  but  it  can be intimidating if you're new to working  'plein air'  .  On this occasion  it was the usual : ' you're so clever'  ' my aunt /brother paints' , 'I couldn't do that' etc. They're usually complimentary and admire the fact that you're doing it all rather than critiquing  the art you're producing ( I was once unnerved by someone silently watching for 10 minutes or so then saying ' That's a neat little paintbox' )

 On holidays abroad  eg Tunisia Ian has found me surrounded by silent locals  or in Greece, cats. 

My favourite quotes from walkers on the Pennine way  whilst  painting in Malham :' Why don't you take photos , it would be  easier' to 'I'd like to take up painting , it must be so relaxing' . I meanwhile was trying to brace myself on a slope with my easel threatening to take off at any moment! 

I'd picked up this large piece of bark but although tempted to bring it back, I'm not sure what the train commuters would make of it  so settled for a continuous line drawing in pen with 'frottage'  using brass rubbing crayons.

And whilst in 'frottage'  mode, I made rubbings from the litter bin  with crayons on colour catchers and handmade papers and graphite on tracing paper

Janet supplied a wonderful lunch and  it was great to catch up with most of  the Tuesday sketching group  with  interesting, wide-ranging conversations. ' Homework' was to draw from a painting/print. Alas I haven't done it yet  but I will, I know from the 2 courses I did at the National Gallery  that  you learn so much  about composition from  using drawing to really look and analyse, even if the subject matter is not to your taste.  One of my examples was  published in this book  but my more recent experiences have been looking at colour too. Definately a very useful exercise.

Drawing Tuesday: Museum of London

 A successful day out  along the Northern Line: dropping off my Fine Art Quilt Masters entry to Upper Street Events ( Angel) then onto Museum of London ( Moorgate) for 'Drawing Tuesday' then finishing up at Intaglio Printmaker ( Borough) before heading back to St Pancras.   

  I very  rarely make it past the Neolithic section, I just the love the marks, the evidence of the hand of the maker, in the pots and vessels  and knapped flints and tools.  This time was no different and with lots of sketching stools available  found a well lit  display case  with both.  What made it even more special was that they were collected  from the Thames close to where I used to live.

I attempted the vessels first, the very aspect that I like in their irregularities and roughness making them very difficult to draw properly - still not right  despite several goes.  I kept getting distracted by the different marks in the flint dagger so moved on to trying to capture those in different hardnesses of graphite ( and use of my  Tombow eraser , one of my favourite tools).  It was fascinating to really  look through drawing,  I must get back to recording my 'small treasures'  ( I've added rather more to my collection...)

After lunch with the usual wide-ranging discussions and  seeing what other people  had drawn I headed off to Intaglio Printmaker in Southwark ( a week later than the others!)  to stock up on Japanese woodblock printing items . The most expensive item apart from tools I'd already bought for course was the sharpening stone. Though the watercolour paints I've collected over the years must run into £££.

Beyond Small Treasures

 

My  1/2 hour drawing sessions recording 'small treasures' has  worked well getting me back into  good habits  (  along with  the kickstart of City Lit  drawing class and sketching Tuesdays in Museums).  As with when I started making Journal Quilts in 2003, the appeal is   fitting something creative in  when  life is very hectic and larger projects are impossible. They provide opportunities to explore new materials and techniques and if they don't work, well you've learnt from it.  I like that they don't need to be for anything, just themselves,  and my observational skills ,  have improved no end.  I'm also currently in love  with the 5 1/2 inch square  Seawhite sketchbook I'm using.

 

So while away for the weekend on Portland, besides studies of some of the wonderful  pebbles on Chesil Beach ( which I carefully rehomed after I drew them - you're not allowed, quite rightly, to take them away ) , I moved on to recording larger views, while still sticking to the half hour rule.   



 

 



 

 The views from 'The Heights' over Chesil  were wonderful, especially in late afternoon, drawing from the  restaurant after a cream tea (me) and a beer(Ian)  

 

Drawing the West  Weares at Chiswell , first from a bench and then at Cove House Inn with a beer ( always have to be careful not to dip the brush in!) in hot sun   was  blissful. My kind of break