Husb and I spent a happy day at the Pompidou Centre in Paris last week, traipsing around the exhibitions. We were very impressed with the Simon Hantai retrospective. I’d never heard of him before but I thought his work was fantastic. As we wandered around, I noticed a French scribbler sketching away in a corner. So I scribbled her too.
Back from France, the weather is lovely, a small nephew is staying so we’re off to Swansea Beach. Not quite Montmartre, but you can’t dig a hole in the sand by the Moulin Rouge. Here’s Husb and boy, digging with some oyster shells they found. Small boy got very excited when they reached the water table, which wasn’t very far down, because it’s the beach. Great fun, it’s free and it got him out of the house and away from the lure of the computer and the Wii. Result.
Drawn into my A5 clothbound sketchbook by Laura Ashley with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens, sizes S and B and a watercolour wash over brown parcel paper.
We spent a day in London before our recent trip to Paris, taking in the Royal Academy Summer Show and then to Gaby’s Deli for supper. There were a couple of aged thespians seated at the next table helping each other to practice from Hamlet. Here they are.
Husb and I just went away for a few days to Paris and in our last few hours we visited the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. I knew there were famous graves there and we wanted to visit some dead artists but I had no idea what to expect or how amazing the place is. It’s a necropolis; a city of the dead. The area is packed with incredible tombs and monuments, most of them like tiny houses with pointed roofs, doors and stained glass windows, laid out in streets. It’s like walking around a city from a Tim Burton film.
One grave I desperately wanted to visit was the tomb of Jean-Francois Champollion, the French linguist who translated the Rosetta Stone and unlocked the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The monument is in an older part of the necropolis, rather rundown and ramshackle, but his simple and minimalist memorial obelisk stands out from the strange, ornate little houses surrounding it. It was a very hot day and the place was full of tourists and mourners attending funerals but there was a strange silence underlying it all.
I sat on the ground opposite and worked up this sketch into my A5 clothbound sketchbook that I’d previously prepared with some ripped up brown package paper. I used Faber Castell Pitt pens, sizes S, F, M and B in sepia along with some water colour in black and emerald green and a touch of white conte crayon.
The BBC has a documentary about Champollion and the Rosetta Stone on You Tube.
Husb and I spent the whole day at the Pompidou Centre. What an amazing place. We sat awhile on one of the roof terraces, looking at the views over the rooftops and I had a bit of a scribble. I wanted to draw the pigeons but the statues and the building sort of took over. There is a shallow pond on the roof and the pigeons share it with the statues.
Drawn into my cloth bound sketchbook with Faber Castell Pitt Drawing pens and a touch of water colour. I prepared the sketchbook first by sticking in some brown parcel paper with a Pritt stick.
Paris is fabulous but I’m shattered because we’ve been walking everywhere and it’s Hot! It’s also difficult to decide what to scribble because in a city full of artists, it’s all been done before. Husb and I visited Notre Dame yesterday; it was jam packed but I found this statue in a dark, quiet corner and stood at the bottom, sketching. I like the drama of the foreshortening and the way it loomed out of the darkness.
Today we traipsed all over Montmartre and I had quite an emotional moment in front of Theo vanGogh’s house, where Vincent lived for a while. Marvellous. Tonight we went for a stroll under the full moon in the delightful Parc Bercy, which was packed with locals picnicking, playing sports and enjoying the gardens.
Yep. I’m on my travels again, courtesy of Eurostar and a budget hotel, Husb and I are in Paris for a couple of days. Arrived this morning and already shattered, we crammed in Notre Dame, Saint Chapel level, a sculpture park and some heavy duty walking. It’s very hot. Here’s a young mother and her baby outside Notre Dame.
After two days working on one large drawing installation, it’s back to speed sketching. I did these two little scribbles in the cafe in Waterstones bookshop. It’s a nice place to chill out; everyone’s reading their purchases and staying quite still. I love bookshops and especially ones that serve tea and cake. I scribbled for about 3 or 4 minutes, then my pot of tea arrived.
For the past two days I’ve been working with other artists in a public artspace doing what we do, making art and letting anyone in to see how we do it. I did a very large drawing on two layers; the background on brown parcel paper and the foreground figures in thick tracing parchment.
The background is a local street scene and the figures are based on drawings I made during a street art performance event last summer, Disruption II. I have sketchbooks full of scenes scribbled on the hoof and it’s hard to find a way to use them, so I was well pleased that I found a format for developing them.
The drawing is huge, taller than me and I ended up with really sore arms because I was drawing over my head. I used a reed pen that cost me about 50p and black drawing ink. It was a very physical drawing experience.
Here’s the drawing gestating below.
About 70 people came in over the two days, which we’re well pleased with. A lot stayed to do some art themselves and talked to each of us about our methods and sources. It was a mixed bunch too, not just artanistas. We’re hoping to do something like this regularly because we want to demystify art; there’s too much posing in the art world and too much nonsense written about it.
It’s been a long day, doing art. First off, I was with my colleagues from the art collective, 15 Hundred Lives, at the Creative Bubble artspace in Swansea, doing what artists do all day, making art. People usually see art in its finished state, framed and hung on a wall in an intimidatingly white gallery. We want to make art much more accessible to the public and also let people see just how complicated and long the creative process is. I spent the day constructing a large drawing in chalk and charcoal, with a touch of chalky pastels, onto brown parcel paper. Tomorrow I’ll be adding a second layer to the drawing and extending it across the wall with a translucent paper overlay. My colleagues worked on a large painting and a wall-sized collage.
And then this evening I went to life drawing group, but I’ll save that for another blog. Tired now, going to bed. Goodnight 🙂
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