developing something
Well I have taken a leap, at the moment I'm developing the tube sketches I have been doing. I am very inspired by the shapes, but I don't know really what I am doing. Painting and drawing makes me feel so much more satisifed and happy yet it can be so painful and frustrating. Sometimes I feel like tearing at my own skin. Somehow it still lifts me up, someone once said 'painting connects me to the earth'.
So that is where I am, loving it, hating it, and needing to do it as much as I can. I don't really know what my making is about...I am just compelled to do it.
sketchbook v3
Another study from the tube, focusing on a sense of all the different lives happening in small ways while squished in the tube.
from the sketchbook
This week has been hectic, one of those weeks that you wish you could start again although maybe not, because you would have to re-live it. Anyway thankfully it is Friday, and I thought I would share with you some studies from my sketchbook. At the moment I am a little focused on shapes of people on the tube.
another medium, another self portrait v3 FINGER-PAINTING
this image is A1 in size and painted with fingers, yes that is right i said fingers. No brushes allowed, not even for mixing colours. Surprisingly the result is something interesting. Who said finger-painting is only for kids.....
another medium, another self portrait v2
This image has been created by first selecting and mixing 3 main colours i see in my skin tones plus super dark contrast colour. Then tearing the painted paper to pieces and creating this collage self portrait. It was amazing to see all the different outcomes form the different people in the class, mine looks mosaic like where as others had more big flat colour planes.
Actual size is A3, quite a large piece for what it is. I was satisfied with the outcome, almost inspired to do this sort of portrait of others. I like that it isn't traditional but can still communicate to the viewer.
more vain and crazy to come....
another medium, another self portrait
A simple self portrait, created by using quill and ink. One of the more successful images of the week.
vain, crazy or both
This past week I have spent my evenings doing a self portrait course. So yes maybe I am vain, crazy or both. Inspired by Van Gogh and the fact I always have this subject available to practice on, I enrolled at City Lit. Thomas Gosebruch was the lovely teacher and he really pushed us to experiment with many different techniques for creating a self portrait. I ended up really enjoying myself after finding it uncomfortable and difficult for the the first half of the Tuesday night(this I realise is a pattern in my learning). Over the next few days I will share some of the self portraits.
Self Portait: Monotype created with block printing ink and my left hand.
So call me vain, crazy or both.
x
mouths and realisations
Yesterday I spent the day at a drawing workshop on mouths at the National Gallery. Taking inspiration from the greats, looking at how artists treated mouths through the ages. I have included the page of studies I did for the first half of the day. I had magic moment at lunch when I realised, I can draw.
Drawing is something I have really struggled with for years and this year I decided to tackle it. Starting with drawing for many days over the Christmas break, then drawing every morning in January, taking 3 drawing courses....and yesterday I was really shocked that I have almost reached a foundation level. Without looking I have reached the first stage of my goal.
I still have a way to go to get to a standard that won't hold me back. My aim for drawing is that I have a level that won't hinder my creative expression of drafting paintings and creations that I want to pursue. It is like learning a new language you want to be able to hold a decent conversation.
This also leads to me to another realisation, sometimes I need to use my mouth more with my friends. When I am unsure, when things feel weird talk about it so it doesn't have to go for months when you imagine all sorts of things. Speak up in the beginning to prevent it growing into something it was never meant to be. I am very privileged to have the most amazing friends and I don't what to mess it up by not sharing and forgetting to use my mouth.
more prints
here is another print that is based on my collagraphs plates with etching ink and using a great big press at City Lit.
I loved Oliver last night it was so great to see a big musical that had all the magic that I remember from first seeing Cats when I was 10. We we sitting in the rafters but it was still so great and I will be singing the songs for days.
reminding me of home
When I was experimenting with collagraphs the outputs and the colours I was getting reminded me of Australia. So I focused on that intent and the development of the prints came to be all about Australia's colour and textures.
In terms of the process this is a different version, before I ripped the collagraph plates into pieces.
it is July
I can't believe how quickly this year is flying, time is getting quicker I am sure. After a four Sundays of Printmaking I have had some positive results on the last day. I have focused on Collagraphs as I have been super inspired by Collagraphs & Mixed-Media Printmaking by Brenda Hartill and Richard Clarke a book I discovered at the Tate Modern.
Weekends full with drawing and printing has fast forwarded time, I have now realised I am in July where I have Lawrence home so there will a little more life and a little less art. We are off to see the musical Oliver tonight to see Rowan Atkinson and try not to think of him as Mr Bean. A fun way to spend a Monday night in London.
life and monotypes
I have been having such a ball spending my weekends learning at City Lit. I love having 2 days a week full time creating. It means I am doing something 7 days a week so it has been hard to keep up with normal chores and keeping up with paying bills and having a some sort of social life(I don't know how any parents do it). I have managed it and life fills rewarding and full. It all finished this weekend it is the last days of my drawing and printing courses. The picture is from week 2 at my printing course, one of my experimental monotypes that has turned out ok. I love learning lots of new techniques, it makes my mind boggle and I get super excited with all the possibilites. If you look carefully, you can see how one of my sketches was the inspiration for this monoprint.
I feel so grateful this very evening, the sun is shining I got home by 6.20pm (a record) I am not working tomorrow and Lawrence returns home after months travelling and working 7 days a week. It feels like it is going to be a great summer, lots of art,working 4 days a week and Lawrence is home 6 out of the 8 weeks. We have tickets booked for theatre and a plan to go camping somewhere in the English countryside. Summer feels like such bliss when your normal is grey days, today it feels like I have won the life lotto. I will ride this wave while it is here.
I am off now to make my new favourite pear and walnut salad with a glass of Oyster Bay and 2 hours of the Grey's anatomy Season 5 finale. See it keeps getting better....
finishing a sketchbook
To celebrate another of my Geneva sketches above.
At the end of my Geneva weekend, I had the wonderful achievement of finishing a sketchbook (it has taken 1 year). I feel very satisfied that the pages are full of good and bad ideas, drawings, scribbles, words. I have completed it!!! Not backed out halfway through and started a fresh again later, this is becoming a new habit of mine and I am throughly enjoying it. Completing and finishing personally important projects, this is usually something I only do great at when it comes to work and study. I am not in such a rush anymore or desperate to break free and on to the new and better ideas, fresh books where I can start again. It is so exciting and a relief that I don't need stuff and things to be so perfect.
If my memory serves me correctly this will be the first journal of any sort that I have actually completed, and I have started many good looking and lovely blank paged books over years.
Yeah for me!
Magic in the land of Toblerone
From My Geneva Sketches
My visit to Geneva was such a delight on so many levels. The sun was bright, the air fresh and smelling the salt water reminded me of home. Lawrence (the boy) played a fab Cat in Honk a musical based on the Ugly Duckling I still have the tunes running in my head. It was a pleasure to see Lawrence on stage creating his magic and having lots of fun. I met lovely people he worked with and it was great to share some Verve Clicquot and celebrate on Saturday night.
On another level I enjoyed spending 2 days sketching for the pure pleasure of it and for no other reason. Geneva is a lovely place to walk around with many pretty buildings, parks and of course the lake. I was supported well in this process by eating excellent raspberries and some Swiss chocolate.
Sunshine in Geneva
In the land of Toblerone with the boy. Spending much time in the parks and sunshine, relaxing and sketching to my hearts delight. Big blue skies, the air lovely and crisp and the sunshine so warm on your skin.
Breakfast was in the park and consisted of tasty raspberries & fresh bread. So delightful, it feels wonderful to be relaxing and be able to walk randomly through the day to the theatre and visit Lawrence. (Where I am now doing a quick post before I take another walk maybe to the water this time.)
Au Revoir xx
Developing the Sketch II
Looking at the original sketch I have enlarged the image and cropped it, focusing on the line and the spaces. This is to develop an interesting more abstract image potentially to use for the drypoint printing. It could be anything which is what appeals to me.
Starting to develop the sketches
Starting to develop the sketches in line with my ideas for printing. In my course I will be undertaking four different types of printing - collographs, monotypes, drypoint and linocut. I want to progress one of my sketches in the four different print mediums and it will be interesting to see the results.
Sunday at the National Gallery
On Sunday I had a wonderful afternoon doing some sketches inspired by masterpieces at the National Gallery. The sketches are in preparation for some print making, some inspiration for lateral interpretation on experiences of paintings. I really enjoyed the afternoon and it was lovely to feel like I had enough confidence to enjoy the experience instead of being worried about the results or self conscious of sitting in a gallery sketching.
