Daily Drawing: October

 Autumn fungi, wildlife,  fruits and leaves:  Train Journeys;  expeditions;  Matthew Harris  course at Lund Studios;  Mexican pine leaf basket; Anthony Gormley inspiration.   

Window with Ashley Hanson at Creek Creative

 In September  I took part  in my 3rd ' freedom in painting "workshop with  artist Ashley  Hanson at Creek Creative  ( previous ones were on Painting the novel  and black  and white )  this time  on the theme  of the window in painting.  Looking in, looking out,  frame within a frame :  we were asked to respond to the idea of a window, from  framing of views  to the abstraction of the painted frame

 He started out with an overview of how different artists  had tackled this theme, from Giotto to Howard Hodgkin. Of particular interest were pairings from the  Matisse/Diebenkorn exhibition ( how I wish I'd seen that ! )

 We were asked to bring drawing/photos  of our favourite  window(s)  and the view beyond as a spring board  for our paintings  and ( as in previous workshops) 2 identical canvases.  I  brought views from train windows which I'd been developing as apart of my EDAM ' Meanwhile ' project   (   not a new obsession, it dates back at least  15 years ) .  Also for inspiration I bought copies of works by Paul Feiler - I like what happens at the edges  of his paintings

 The first exercise  was to draw a fame on the canvas , make further frames within it to the same  scale/format and then to draw over  with our  chosen subject matter 

 This went though various transformations  following discussions  with Ashley to  finish ( ( for now)  at the stage below. I've learnt  now through his classes not to panic when things look awful at the end of the first day,  that things often get resolved  with last few brush strokes and  that all the mistakes add to texture and variety of marks beneath the surface.

 The second exercise was to  paint  a ' window'  offset   rather than the central position of the first. 

  I mainly worked on this on the second day, not fully resolved yet , I like the curves and the 'South Eastern  Violet'  but the views  from the window need further work ( it was was getting  very thick with paint and was still wet at the end of the day ) 

 Having brought 4 A3 canvases  with me , I decided I'd like to try the same exercises but in landscape rather then portrait orientation ( with the hindsight of knowing what we should be doing ! ) based on  a photo of the reflection inside the railway carriage . 

 This was my off-centre window,  it needed very few  gestural  marks  to give the impression I wanted

 While  the more centrally place window  with frames  required a  lot of obliteration  and changes to  recover from it's awfulness

In the  end though, this was my favourite of the  paintings produced and  it's Ian's favourite too.   The part of the journey  in 'tunnel land' is  one familiar to us both,  suddenly aware of people around  you in the reflections in the window.   

Drawing Tuesday: Large Scale Sketchbook Homework

I was up in Yorkshire when the Large Scale Sketchbook  course had their site visit  to the V&A   cast courts   but as its an essential part of gathering information  to be developed later , I made sure I went at the earliest opportunity. I've been  a few times before , mainly interested in the exhibits in room 46a (including Trajan's Column)  which is currently closed for renovations (although you can see glimpses of them shrouded from the sculpture room )   At least it was  relatively peaceful  given it was half term , with lots of sketching stools available, 2 people already hard at work on intricate detailed drawings  and  a helpful steward/guide

My heart sank rather at all the figurative busts and statues, not my thing at all, but as instructed I made a number of brief sketches  and notes of things that interested me , mainly of the different depictions of folds in cloth of the  various virgin and child reliefs. 

I then went via the sculpture galleries to the Cafe for an early lunch to cogitate on what I might draw in greater depth.  On the walk back, I was struck by how much more I preferred the rough, raw,  back of this terracotta sculpture , the 'unconscious side', but then I do have 'previous' in this regard, drawing the backs of Greek sculptures at the BM ! 

 Initially attracted by the curves of his helmet, I ended up drawing the rear view of these 2 busts: 'Bart and Massa" and is often the case, the more I drew, the more I saw. 

As I used the surrounding architecture  and larger sculptures as references for measuring proportions, the more I got interested in how the lines and forms of the  busts   were echoed in the shapes around them. 

I drew 'Bart' from different angles and viewpoints  until I realised I was not looking anymore  but repeating myself  ( and distracted  by the spectacular thunderstorms overhead-  the cast courts have glass roofs) 

Only then, as per instructions,  did I start taking photos. I'll be missing the  next session too as Ian has a hospital appointment  so I've started playing around in Photoshop to simplify the structures so that hopefully I'll have lots of material to play with in  week 5 of the course. Already I can see so much potential in what initially seemed a pretty uninteresting subject.  

 After such a lovely day out, I had a horrendous  journey home. I got to St Pancras  after 3, in time for the 15.25  train, to find that trains had been cancelled and or delayed due to bad weather and lightening strikes . Stood for 2 hours on the platform, Ian joining me for supposed 16.25, couldn't physically get on the train when it arrived , thrown off the second as all trains from St Pancras cancelled due to trespasser on line at Ebbsfleet.  As it was now after 6pm  we went for  a meal ( and glass of wine) at Pizza Express  before heading off to Victoria station where train only 45 minutes late . Arrived home at 10pm, still recovering, at least Ian was working from home today!  I did have my train stitching with me but funnily enough none was done!