Drawing Tuesday at Museum of London

 Tuesday's drawing session    was at the Museum of London. I was starting a new sketchbook ( the 3rd devoted to museums) , always scary, so I'd been looking through the previous 2 as inspiration for what I might draw ( and therefore  what materials  to take).  Ancient pots and tools, ' the hand of the maker'  evident   still continue to fascinate me  so it was no surprise I headed to the Neolithic gallery and  after a bit of wandering round, settled on the other side of the case I drew from last time!

It's surprisingly difficult to  capture  wonkiness accurately! I had several attempts with lots of rubbing out then concentrated on the marks and textures  combining different media ( watersoluble pencils; Pitt pens in varying thicknesses in sanguine and sepia; 0.1 and 0.3 Unipens: pencils and graphite) . The items made of antler horn were particularly difficult.

At lunchtime  when doing 'show and tell' of our sketches ( as ever, widely diverse subjects) , the others wanted to know how I  got the effects on the black pot.  I first developed this technique drawing at the Petrie Museum : scoring lines with a leadless propelling pencil then rubbing over with 6B graphite . The inner part was graphite partially erased with tombow eraser, another of my essential tools  

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.

Drawing Tuesday - Flying in the Science Museum

 It's years since I visited the Science  Museum ( probably not since I was at University round the corner over 30 years ago)  so I  got thoroughly lost  finding the 'flight'  gallery, destination for Tuesday's drawing session. Memories of the   aviation section of the Royal Army Museum in Brussels .

  I was enchanted by the  early planes, so fragile, and spent most of my time sitting in front of the case dedicated to  Hiram Maxim ( as in gun) 

 It was the curves of 'Phillip's Propeller  which attracted me but  it proved a challenging subject with all that foreshortening!

  As  bit of light relief , I turned to the boomerangs in the next case , trying to capture the different qualities of their surfaces  using graphite and eraser.

 And finally a quick biro sketch , not taking the pen off the paper,  attempting to untangle what was happening in this model ( which it looked like it had evolved rather than  being planned).

  Waiting for others  to finish,  Margaret  showed me the different kinds of rivets - this seaplane   being a good example. Definitely lots of things of interest for another visit

 After a leisurely lunch, I did a little more exploring in the museum on the gallery devoted to 'challenge of materials'

 There were 2 polyester dresses in a case on 'Perceptions' where unusual materials had been used for clothing ( like the Vivian Westwood  Axminster carpet dress). These had stainless steel coating with permanent embossed images of spoons ( above) and of hands( below), playing with the idea of transparency/solidity.

 This sculpture using layers of different flooring materials was fun

  Then a bit of retail therapy in the museum shop - couldn't resist this heavy cotton lined bag  showing  how a sewing machine makes stitches on one side and about cotton production on the other.

Then a bus ride to  High St Ken  and Cass arts. I only went in for a fine eraser   but somehow  came out with 2( Tombow Mono zero and Derwent eraser -pen)   and a tin of Winsor and  Newton   watercolour markers..... I made them work hard in the shop as the packaging just had dots of colours  on the front, not a list of what they were  but they helpfully looked it up on the computer so I could work out what additional ones to buy  to replace the green and black.  I'll let you know how I get on.

May to August Journal Quilts

 After months of  preparing house for sale and then maintaining it  in 'show house'  viewings condition, I'm FINALLY  regaining studio time and space and actually using my sewing machines and 'sew-ezi' table finishing my CQ  Journal Quilts before deadline of end of August. It's been a bit frustrating  tracking down where threads and equipment  are as my studio was set up to look tidy rather than for practical use but it's proving useful in thinking about planning  layout for new studio space in Faversham.
After worrying whether I'd  complete 4 quilts in time , I've actually made 6, all based on the 'mark-making' from my 2 City Lit courses  ( Printmaking and Develop your Drawing) and CQ Summer School  which took place during this period of time.

  Photo of Collagraph of  feather printed on fabric and applied to monoprint of threads

 Photo of A1  drawing in graphite  of pewter pot from multiple viewpoints, heavily machine quilted with variegated threads

 ' Landscape' of layered lines  achieved through fabric collage on wool constructed on CQ Summer School

 Another fabric collage using fabrics with marks ( 1 commercial, 1  discharge  fabric from Dorothy Caldwell masterclass). Quilted with fancy machine embroidery  stitches ( hearts and stars)  with connecting threads left.  Needs more practice but this technique has possibilities in producing a different set of marks to my hand stitching and usual machine quilting.

 My favourite drawings from CQ Summer School of positive and negative circles built up of tiny pencil marks interpreted in black stitches on boiled wool fabric purchased in Shrewsbury. Edge finished with blanket stitch. Mainly sewn on train journeys! This fabric is lovely to sew even though it stretches, I'll be doing more stitching experiments  with it.  

Photos  from CQ  Summer School drawings printed on hand dyed grey cotton : spiral in ink; circle of fine pencil marks ( as above); graphite stick filling  square with tiny white circle left.  Quilted with spiral lines

My next set of 4 ( or more) journal quilts will be based on  my eco dyed/ printed  fabrics

Last Week: Tallis, Pangaea II and Alchemy

Ephrem Solomon

 Sunday lunchtime , listening  on  Radio 3  to the recording of the Thomas Tallis lunchtime concert  we went to last Monday at the Cadogan Hall.  While lovely to hear again, the live performance, especially of Spem in Alium,  was  spine tingling.
After the concert  and  a late lunch, while we were in Chelsea, we went to the Saatchi Gallery - some  interesting work in exhibition 'Pangaea II', my favourites the  woodcuts of Ephrem Solomon referencing Ethiopian society  and the isolation of the human figure

Eddy Ilinga Kamuanga

 

African fabrics: in Kamuanga's paintings  ( above) of the contemporary cultural diversity of Kinshasa  and traded old clothes from market sellers  stitched  by Mahama onto  old cocoa bean jute sacks (below) used to bag farm produce and charcoal. The catalogue refers to the importance of the personalised exchange and the meanings acquired by material over time - reminding me of  Boro  

 

Ibriham Mahama

Armound Boua

Powerful paintings  of forgotten children painted in acrylic and tar on cardboard boxes  then torn scratched, erased.

Alejandra Ospina

 

Paintings of calligraphic marks constructed  from layers of images found on internet, reconstructed into abstract associations, exploring ideas on how the internet has transformed our relationship to images, space, a networked world of information and consumption.  



Diega Mendoza  Imbachi

 Very large scale drawings in pencil and graphite, recording changes to the landscape in Columbia  with the impact of industrialisation 

 

 Upstairs  in a separate exhibition on death, the 'stars' of  Pangaea I, the ant forms of Rafael Gómezbarros, have been rehoused  in a small room. Very creepy (not referring to Ian)

 On Tuesday, I finally got round to another museum  sketching session in the company of Margaret Cooter and co , back at the Wellcome Collection. We were based in the reading Room, home of the amulets.  Many of the displays  were quite high up  in cases but  I found a good position at a table in the section on alchemy,  attempting to capture in graphite the differences in surface between the glass flasks  ( above) and wooden pestle and mortars ( below)   without getting a crick in my neck!

 Since then it's been dental appointments, a funeral, house hunting in Faversham  and keeping the house tidy for viewings.