Greetings trained monkeys. Sparta Puss here. I’ve managed to get my paws on the pooter box while my hairless apes are preparing themselves for something called a Zoom Quiz. Idiots. I thought you’d like to see me. I’m posing with something called a buk. It is a special buk that the she-monkey pokes with a stick with dirt in it. She makes a mess then turns to me and says, “See Sparta. This is you”. She’s an idiot. But she gives me Dreamies. So I won’t trip her up on the stairs…………….yet…………………..
I met up with a friend in Clyne Gardens today, where it’s easy to keep a safe distance. It was raining, but not heavily, what my Mam used to call “Scotch Mist” as she sent us out to play in the summer school holidays. We sat on a picnic table near the Touring Tea Room, a lovely vintage caravan serving tea, coffee and home made cake (lemon sponge cake glazed with lemon curd) and chatted in real life. I like social media and Zoom but after all these weeks, it was so good to talk to someone in the real world over a cuppa, even if we got wet.
I did a quick scribble while my friend went to get us a second cuppa, and the sketch is softer and smudgier than normal because of the damp. The Khadi paper is thick and strong so it didn’t crinkle or disintegrate.
I went out earlier for my sanctioned exercise and as it was looking like rain and very windy, just strolled to a small public mews garden, probably Victorian. It has quite a formal arrangement of lawns and paths but there’s a tangle of very mature trees around the edge. I did a quick sketch with willow charcoal into my Khadi sketchbook, then headed back before it rained. Then I made two small loaves and some Chelsea Buns.
There’s a hot spot in my oven, it’s annoying. I have to cover my baking with foil part of the way through the cooking time and I didn’t get to it quickly enough today. Tasted good though.
Husb and I went for our daily authorised exercise today and ended up in the lovely Cwmdonkin Park where I stopped to draw this very striking row of trees. I laid down the basic details with willow charcoal into a Khadi sketchbook – then the heaven’s opened and a deluge of Biblical proportions hit! I ran under a large tree and managed to spray the sketch with fixative before it got smudged. I like it though. It’s the quickest one I’ve done and has the least detail. But I think it also has the most dynamism – it’s getting towards an Expressionistic style. I love European Expressionism so I’m well chuffed with it. The weather forced me to be much braver and more spontaneous than I would normally be.
Another Faking Friday at lunchtime today with the Cheese and Wine Painting Club over on Facebook. This week we copied a picture by the artist who runs the club, Ed Sumner. He taught us how to paint skies, which is a big deal for me because I hardly ever pick up a paintbrush, not normally my sort of thing. I decided to give it a go as a lockdown project. It’s been fun over the past few weeks, but I wouldn’t like to switch from drawing and printmaking.
Next week’s subject is a painting by the American 20th century artist Jean Michel Basquiat. The sessions are free or a donation by Paypal if you can afford it.
Another quick sketch in willow charcoal on Khadi paper caught as we left the allotment this evening. I’m getting used to being very sparing with it now, not doing too much detail. I find it helps to squint to see the blocks of light and dark more clearly. This stand of trees caught my eye, I liked the strong diagonal they formed on the slope of the hill.
If you’ve only got five minutes, draw. Even when you’re so short of time, draw. It only takes a few minutes every day to keep up that regular practice and it all adds up over a year, decade, lifetime. I only had five minutes this evening after we left the allotment with our first summer berries.
Winsor & Newton willow charcoal into a Khadi sketchbook at Oystermouth Castle. Gooseberries, raspberries, Alpine strawberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.
For most of my life I haven’t been keen on charcoal, I thought it was a bit clumsy. Husb calls it “the sausage fingered stick of doom”. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it isn’t much good if you want to do fine detail on small paper. My Khadi sketchbook isn’t big so I’m limited in what I can put into a drawing, which is challenging but in a good way. Here’s a sketch I did with Winsor & Newton willow charcoal after Husb and I did some work on the allotment earlier this evening. There’s a group of copper beech trees in a row alongside the path leading up to Oystermouth Castle and I made them the focus of the drawing. It was a chance to play around with strong diagonal scribbles.
This is a very interesting read about an artist I had never heard of – you never stop learning …
Had one of those bitty days today. I carried on carving small lino blocks and as a bit of light relief I had a quick scribble with willow charcoal as Sparta Puss was lazing around.
She has a houseful of beds, comfy chairs, cushions as well as a sunny garden bench with a blanket just for her, but no, she’d rather doze on my sharp lino cutting tools.
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