Drawing Tuesday at Museum of London ( plus S.E.W. exhibition)

Last Tuesday  I was back drawing in the Museum of London, in my favourite section ' London before London'  among the prehistoric axes and  pots.  My current sketchbook  started there in June last year   and creature of habit that I am , I was drawing the same pots from the other side of the case! It's always  very busy with school group and excited children   but it's  rather gratifying to have their praise for your drawings no matter how poor and to  find out what they like to draw. 

  This time I was using my embossing ' scraffito'  pen with  watercolour pencil and graphite over the top 

 I struggled with the proportions of this collared pot  ( calligraphy pens and graphite) , even after all these years ,  it's so easy to  revert to not looking and drawing what you think you see .

After lunch in the café , Margaret mentioned the '  vegetable dolls'  which were  charming and definately worth a look

Then   Janet, Sue, Judith and I headed  to Clerkenwell   for exhibition by Society for Embroidered Work ( totally lost my sense of direction as   we took shortcuts through  Smithfields)  Interesting selection of work on show ( online catalogue here) 

Emily Tull 

Sue Hodgkiss 

Edith Barton 

 Annie Taylor 

 Djonne Swift 

 Deborah Cooper

Bridget Steel-Jessop

And the gallery space itself was so inspiring, all that peeling paint!

 I then  headed to the  British Museum Members Room for afternoon coffee and cake  before my first  session   of Art in theory; Space and Place  at City Lit ( more about that in another post ). 

 I didn't get home till after 9.30, too exhausted to stitch on the train , but a very satisfying creative day.  Next week , back at the Petrie Museum ( my favourite)   

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 £££.

York Museums: Quilts,Ceramics and Hoards

 Recovering from a long  yet stimulating day in York visiting  various museums. The object of my  excursion was seeing the exhibitions at the Quilt museum before it closes  at the end of October. I spent some time looking round  'Quilt Art - Dialogues' - I was loaned a copy of the catalogue  so it was interesting to read more about the work and artists at the time ( and good advertising, I bought one  later).  I'd seen 'Small Talk' at FoQ  but with so many galleries there competing for your attention, it was good to have a longer look ( although the light was rather dim).
After tea and a chat  in the members room , I  headed over to York Art Gallery and after buying  a YMT card  had  delicious lunch ( with discount!) in the café there with the view above.  It's  run by the team at Café no 8 ( of rhubarb  and custard pavlova  fame!)

Suitably refreshed,  I headed up to the 1st floor to reacquaint myself with  some of my favourite paintings  including Paul Nash 'Winter Sea'.  The refurbishment of the gallery included comfy, quirky sofas, books and catalogues to look through, drawing materials  and  mini guides to looking at art incorporating a view finder.  I ordered the books on Paul Nash and Wilhelmina Barnes- Graham  this morning!  

I spent most time however in the fantastic  newly opened Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA). The first thing that caught my eye was this installation  by Sara Moorhouse, the interpretation of landscape reminding me of the piece 'Around Here' by Elizabeth Brimelow that I'd  been absorbed by in the morning.    

 Another installation   by Clare Twomey represents the 10,000 hours it is said to take to become a master craftsman ( each bowl takes an hour to make). In the same, light, space there were cabinets devoted to individual artists: Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, Ewan Henderson etc

 

 The gallery next to it on one side had a whole wall of 4 shelves organised by colour ( following, appropriately enough , the 'Richard of York.... mnemonic spectrum) , I could have spent days looking at these wonderful objects! They have dedicated touch screen computers   in front of them so you can identify what you're looking at ( and computers to search for particular artists)

On the other side of the room the collection donated by Anthony Shaw was displayed in domestic style space with furniture and other artwork and artifacts, inviting the viewer to share the experience of living with a collection 

In the shop I added to my own  collection   with a small bowl by Barbara Wood, saggar- fired after burnishing, it's so tactile,  and sits very well alongside my sphere by Elspeth Owen and my recent  'Upwey' purchases. 

 

In the hour before I caught my train back,  I wandered around the Yorkshire Museum,  so many hoards of silver and gold , with other galleries devoted to Richard III and to the  Romans. There were plenty of  screens around with video clips of  experts  talking  with passion about the archaeology and the conservation behind some of these treasures.   

 

Being  still in 'pottery mode', it was the prehistoric vessels which as ever drew my attention- the hand of the maker is so evident, a connection through millennia

 

And a hoard just as precious in my eyes as the silver and gold - a  huge quantity of partially made flint knives and scrapers.  I have a few myself among the 'small treasures' I'm recording through drawing.