Maggi Hambling Kicked My Backside

grayson perry

I watched Grayson Perry’s Art Club on Channel 4 (UK) last night. He’s one of my favourite artists and he’s doing this series to encourage people to get into making art during the Covid19 lockdown. The programme also features guest artists and last night it was Maggi Hambling, who is another one I really admire. She’s uncompromising and insisted that artists should draw every day. That was the kick up the backside I needed. I’ve been way too slack recently and haven’t been doing a daily drawing. So I did one on my lap as I watched the programme – there’s Grayson in the background on the TV.

sketchbook

I fnished a sketchbook a couple of days ago, a tiny Laura Ashley one, so I’m using this one now, very nice with a leather cover (I got it cheap). I have used it on and off for a while, when I wanted something larger than the tiny one, but there’s still over half the pages to go.

The Last Page

the final mask

I love finishing a sketchbook. It’s a slice of my life and there’s something so satisfying about drawing on the last page and closing it. It marks the passage of time. I’ll open it from time to time because these are working documents and I look through old sketchbooks to get ideas and inspiration but it’s purpose has changed now. This is someone who was walking along the street when I was queueing outside the local shop. He had a mask, but it was round his chin rather than on his face. Bit pointless really. He was moving pretty quickly so I had to do a fast continuous line drawing before he went past.

sketchbook

It’s a tiny sketchbook with a Laura Ashley cloth cover (I got it cheap), but it’s quite thick and crammed with drawings. It’s small enough to tuck away and carry round with me. I’ll work on a slightly larger one next.

Mask And Mosque

queue 1

Some more queue drawings. It’s getting to be a good place for sketching now. Faces with masks are new and something I haven’t had a chance to draw before. The queues I’ve been in have mostly moved reasonably quickly so I have to be really fast drawing people. I can be a bit more leisurely with buildings though; this is the old church opposite the supermarket that is now a mosque. They have planted a lovely garden in the grounds, but unfortunately we can’t use it because of lockdown. Something to look forward to when lockdown’s over.

 

The Matisse Cat finished

cat 7

I carried on with the acrylic painting I started yesterday in an online painting session on Facebook, hosted by the Cheese and Wine Painting Club. I did about 3 hours yesterday and another three today. The painting is a cat and goldfish by the Fauvist painter Henri Matisse, he painted cats and goldfish a lot. It’s been fun and it’s given me a real insight into how Matisse painted. When I’m working on my own art, it’s very intense and difficult, it takes so much concentrationa and my own work often deals with difficult subjects, so it was lovely to relax and do some art purely for the enjoyment. I’m surprised by how much I liked it, I don’t normally paint.

final

The original was on a different shaped canvas, mine is longer and thinner, so I had to adapt by losing the sides of the original and putting some decorative panels on the top and bottom.

The next paintalong is van Gogh’s Starry Night on May 8th at midday. It’s free or a donation if you can afford it. Would be nice to see you there 😀

Painting A Matisse Cat

cat 6

I joined in with an online painting session on Facebook today, hosted by the Cheese and Wine Painting Club. It’s an hour and a half live session and today’s painting was a cat and goldfish by the Fauvist painter Henri Matisse. I haven’t finished – there’s a few more hours work to do, but it’s given me a real insight into how Matisse structured his painting and unusually for me I’m enjoying it. I don’t normally like painting, I much prefer drawing and printmaking, but this isn’t just painting, it’s also learning about another artist in a very real way.

It’s something different to do during lockdown. The next one is van Gogh’s Starry Night on May 8th at midday. It’s free or a donation if you can afford to. Will you be joining in?

Tools Of My Trade

box 5

I’m not a fan of shopping except when I need to buy tools and materials, then I’m a danger to my bank card. A while back a friend gave me a set of vintage Isabey paintbrushes that had belonged to his late father. They’re fabulous to use and I wanted a larger range. Unfortunately, they’re made from squirrel and sable and although I don’t mind using old ones, I’m trying to find alternatives to animal products when I buy new.

I put out a call to fellow artists for recommendations and Myles Mansfield suggested Escoda supplied by Ken Bromley. So that’s what I bought.

They came today, beautifully packaged in a travel pouch in a box in another box. Each brush is in a cool metal tube. Gorgeous. Now I need to give them a tryout.

 

 

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Warm Buttered Plums: The Recipe

plums 3

You can download the recipe and print it out, it’s a jpeg. It’s delicious, even if I say so myself. I’ve given gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan alternatives.

oaty plums

Tecchie stuff

I took the photos with the camera on my phone, put them into Instagram, then reduced the size in Adobe Photoshop. I used Comic Life for the layout (I LOVE Comic Life) and exported it as a jpeg. If you right click on the image, you should be able to save it to your My Pictures folder and then you should be able to print it out.

If you don’t have an ovenproof frying pan, try a tarte tatin tin or a heavy pie dish that you can use on top of a stove.

Dogs: our faithful companions since the paleolithic

A gorgeous blog about dogs with drawings from Patti McKenna Jones

 

via Dogs: our faithful companions since the paleolithic

The First Cut

first cut

I made a start on carving my two latest lino blocks. The first cut is made with my smallest cutting tool to carefully carve the outlines. It’s the fiddliest bit of the process, I think and it takes time and concentration.

Sparty rain

It rained today for the first time in ages and Sparta Puss commandeered my dust sheet in my studio while she watched the rain coming down. She wasn’t too happy, she’s been enjoying being out in the garden all day for weeks now.

Here’s a short film of David Bull, a woodblock carver based in Japan. It’s a joy to watch him carving a block – wonderful….

 

 

 

 

 

Lino, Love Hearts And Leftovers Pie

six and seven a

More little grey lino blocks cut and lettered, in reverse, ready for carving and ….

fabric ink 1a

I had a delivery from Handprinted Co, a tube of Speedball fabric block printing ink. These little blocks will be printed onto home made face masks. The first one I did a couple of weeks back was printed in Caligo Safe Wash, which is great on paper but didn’t work so well on fabric. And the lovely people from Handprinted put in a little tube of Love Hearts too.

leftovers pie 2

Then I made Leftovers Pie, what was left of yesterday’s roast chicken dinner in pastry. Easy and it tasted lovely. Enough for tomorrow as well.