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.   

Watercolours of Sicily

 

 

 Visiting the Sicily: Culture and Conquest  exhibition at the British Museum  last Friday  had me searching for my watercolour sketchbook from the trip to Western Sicily in 2002.  I hadn't met Ian then so he hadn't seen them . They're a bit variable in quality but they summoned up a  host of memories  ( some like twisting my ankle in Palermo botanic garden and  severe conjunctivitis best forgotten! )

 

 

 

 

 

I'd forgotten these ones from the Belvedere at Monte Reale - I was already beginning to look at details  as well as the more obvious subjects.

Morandi Workshop - Poetic Still Lifes

On  Friday, met up with Margaret for  workshop at Estorick Collection in North London, based around the current exhibition of Morandi etchings and watercolours.  The tutor Thomasina had brought along an eclectic mix of objects to augment whatever we'd brought with us . Who knew you could get excited by a detergent bottle painted white!

I chose a wonderful duck-egg blue jug and a white painted bottle to go with my pewter vase ( which I've used before in various exercises) .

We were encouraged to do a number of quick sketches , using different materials and moving the objects around. I didn't spend too long on my  ink drawing before switching to  watercolours!

Every time I do a class , I enjoy it so much  I resolve to keep drawing but somehow life gets in the way. Off to Weymouth again shortly so determined to do some more sketching.

May Boat Friday

It's a while since I walked along the river looking at the boats so I left work around 4.30, fed up of filling in COSHH forms. I had my teeny paint kit with me and my mobile phone - neither of which gave great images but useful tools for looking - the tide was really low giving a different perspective.  I was using cream coloured cartridge paper in a sketchbook and struggling to use a pentel waterbrush (hardly my travel sable mix!). It made me sympathise with all those put off watercolours by starting out with poor materials and a tiny brush - it does make a difference although at least my paints were artists quality. The results were pretty terrible,still,  it made me think about simplification and what the key elements were. The photos were pretty awful too but I used their low quality to my advantage - increasing saturation and applying 'underpainting' and 'palette knife' filters in Photoshop do the job nicely.

Talking of boats reminds me that the TVCQ exhibition 'Whatever Floats Your Boat' has now opened at Slough Museum - thanks to the hard work of Jane, Sandy and many others . There's various activities on this week  and I shall be going to the private view next Saturday on my return from Bulgaria ( short work trip with v. early start and the joys of Easyjet! )

Cretan watercolours of buildings

Mosque of the Janissaries

With more time for painting, one of my favourite subjects  was the 'Mosque of the Janissaries' (orKucjk Hassan Mosque ) on Chania harbourfront - the oldest Ottoman building in Crete. From the guide book:" Here the Christian-born slaves of the Ottoman Empire worshipped , although little did it improve their character; not only did they terrorize the Greeks , but in 1690 they murdered the Pasha of Chania and fed his body to the dogs". It's currently an art exhibition space.....

I had my own troubles to deal with : I'd started sketching from a bench and then  a string of horse and carriages parked themselves right in front of my view - I had to peer round and hope that some tourists would turn up for a ride.

I had a better vantage point on another day - in a rooftop cafe with a grandstand view. At the table next to us was an art  tutor from a local college and 2 of her students. They  made a much better job of the perspective but the tutor was very kind about my colours - a rather enhanced version of the  faded pinks. A lovely spot for a fresh orange juice or Greek coffee with the background clatter of backgammon.

Putting Paints Through Their Paces

We filled the gap in our paint boxes with the ones we'd made (unfortunately the gamboge made rather too much of itself, oozing around) then headed off to Gordale Scar and Janet's Foss. I did loads of quick paintings ( shocking some in the group during the evening crit by admitting I didn't draw it out beforehand).My best was my first, still not great but hugely enjoyable process. Before heading off to Malham cove and its incredible field systems we had afternoon tea at Beck Mill ( only polite as we'd been given permission to park the van there)

Make Your Own Watercolours

From this array of genuine pigments and a solution of gum arabic ( with some gum tragocanth and a little Yorkshire honey)

we have been preparing our own watercolours to augment the delicious selection already carefully selected for us from Kremer (which includes lapis lazuli!)

We've made gamboge, 2 different colours of madder (1 above), ground up Davy's grey and haematite and watched Pip brew buckthorn berries( 'Persian yellow') and madder root. They're currently in the drying room , hopefully ready to use today at Gordale Scar.

The torrential rain cleared up a bit to allow us to experiment with our new paint boxes sketching Malham tarn .Quite different to Winsor and Newton, they have a larger particle size which gives wonderful granulations but , at least to start with, give rather more delicate colour

Lovely as our paintboxes are, I covet this hugely expensive collection of watercolour 'pebbles', a replica made by Pip of those Turner would have used for an exhibition at Abbot Hall , Kendal.

Water in Ink and Watercolour

On Wednesday when the rest of the group went to Arncliffe to paint, feeling rather rough, I retired instead to the birdhide with watercolours, inks and a flask of coffee.
I was entertained by the Coots courting and chasing off Great Crested Grebes but applied myself to trying to capture the solidity of the branches in the water contrasted with their liquid reflections and the constant changes in the direction and colour of the ripples.


Fascinating if frustrating exercise! I took lots of photos so I'm going to try and analyse the colours and shapes in some more watercolour sketches.
I'll be back at Malham in August on a watercolour course( including making our own paints) so good to get some practice in!