Dad-in-law had to go back to hospital today, where we spent some of this afternoon. I sat and sketched a while in the assessment centre’s waiting room, where visitors mixed with patients waiting to be assigned to a ward and their relatives. Opposite me sat a man with his ill wife. He cradled her hand while they sat there, willing her strength, but all the while I could see the fear in his face. I can’t detach from what is in front of me when I draw and sometimes I draw through tears.
It’s hard to know when a piece is finished. I often turn them to the wall and don’t look for a few months. This one hadn’t been looked at for about 3 months and when I turned it round the other day (I’d forgotten about it), I liked it the way it is and won’t be doing anything else to it. Finished!
A2 Fabriano coated with acrylic gesso, coloured with thin layers of acrylic wash in yellow, red and blue then worked up the imag in conte crayon and oil bars.
Husb has a new smartphone. He is now lost to me 😉
Drawn in my A5 purple silk recycled sketchbook with a Pentel V5 pen just a few minutes ago……….
Husb took me out to lunch today. Fish and chips in the Windsor Caff. With salt and lashings of vinegar. Lovely. I had a very few minutes to scribble and I drew the lady opposite us.
I’m a bit uncomfortable about drawing people who are out-of-the ordinary, as I don’t want to risk poking fun at them, or be voyeuristic. But on the other hand, I don’t want to censor myself either. I have to try and be honest in what I see and what I draw, that’s all I can do really. I sympathise with people who are very overweight; I’ve battled to keep my weight under control for decades, it’s hard to watch what you eat every day of your life and do your exercises no matter how much you hate doing them. And now it’s Xmas and there’s a plateful of home made mince pies in the kitchen, taunting me. 😡
I’m a grumpy old git and proud of it. Honestly, I sound just like my Dad did back in the day. Husb and I were battling through the Xmas crowds in the city centre yesterday and got stuck behind these two young lads, wearing these RIDICULOUS trousers without belts or braces so that we get an eyeful of their underpants and bumcracks while the hems of their jeans scrape the floor! How ridiculous! These particular ones had handles riveted to the back, just below the beltloops, so you can hang the little idiots up on a hook when they get under their Mams feet. And they moved so SLOWLY! Because the crotch of their pants was down around their knees. So they had to shuffle! I drew this from memory. The sight is seared into the back of my eyelids!
Anyway, today was far more productive. Because of the torrential rain I decided to stay in the kitchen and make loads of preserves with the fruit in the freezer that we grew in the summer. Four jars of bramble jelly, four of spicy redcurrant jelly, four of berry butter, four of rhubarb chutney and a bottle of spiced blackcurrant cordial. Lovely.
That’s a few Xmas presents sorted 🙂
If you’re in the Swansea area for the next few days, pop in and visit Fiona Kelly, artist-in-residence. She’s holding an open studio.
The door is open (well it might be closed but you can always press the buzzer) to my studio @ SPW 11am -1pm and 2pm – 4pm daily from Friday 14th to Tuesday 18th of December respectively. Come visit me, we might have tea or pull a print, or have a bit of banter. Unlimited possibilities.
“There are Thousands of Taps Dripping”
I’m working from a life drawing that I did quite quickly and I didn’t have time to draw in a hand, so I need to construct one in the mixed-media piece I’m doing. I made a start by doing some technical exercises, working from anatomy books by Burne Hogarth and Sarah Simlett. I find hands very difficult and I don’t want to get the artwork muddy so I want to get the hand right first time. Nothing else for it but a day of practice. Took me hours and I still don’t feel confident enough to get stuck in. I’ll go back to it on Monday and try out a couple more hands. It’s really hard though, it’s much easier to draw from life.
I visited the El Prado art gallery in Madrid a couple of years ago and had a good look at their collection of paintings by Velazquez. I was well pleased that when I saw them close-up, there were all sorts of mistakes that he’d scrubbed out, but you could still see them, especially with horses hoofs. It makes me feel a bit better about all the mistakes I was making today 🙂
I thought I’d put the psychokitty on a greetings card. So all the very best for the holiday season. 🙂
ps the drawing is by husb, using a digital programme on his laptop, don’t know which – probably Adobe Photoshop. And I photoshopped in the background, snowflakes and text. Inspired by the mad-as-a-box-of-frogs Sparta.
I was tidying up the other day and found an old life drawing that I’d forgotten about. I like it very much so I’ve started working it up into a mixed media drawing. People often tell me that my nudes remind them of Egon Schiele’s work. I’m very flattered by this because he’s one of my favourite artists. I often wonder if I’m too influenced by him, but to be honest, I’d developed my style of drawing many years before I discovered Schiele’s work. When I first saw his nudes, I’d found a kindred spirit.
The nudes that look most like his work are based on thin models. It’s easy to forget that a century ago, poverty was widespread and most of Schiele’s models were not fashionably skinny, they were poor and malnourished. My model here is small and she’s been a dancer all her life, which is why she’s thin. It’s easy to accentuate her angles and that lends a Schiele quality to the drawing.
Here’s the mixed media work in progress. I’ve spent about 4 hours on it so far. I coated some Fabriano Accademica in rabbit skin glue then applied acrylic colour washes in yellow, red and blue. Then I worked on it randomly with compressed charcoal and fixed it. Now I’m working up the nude image in oilbars. Still a few hours ago.
After the excitement of blogging about Iceland and wrestling my computer back from Sparta the psychokitteh, I’ve settled down into some domestic normality. Husb and our little great-niece put the Xmas tree up this evening and I sat and scribbled – and issued directions. I sketched some of the tree and baubles and noticed someone lurking under the branches, plotting mayhem! If this year is anything like last, those baubles will be all over the house by the morning 😡
scribblah 