Shropshire Open exhibition

Fiona has had two paintings accepted for the Shopshire Open exhibition in Gallery3 at the Gateway in Shrewsbury, showing 13th October to 17th November.

Earlier this year we decided to take a risk and go public with our work by entering local and national competitions. It's been a hit-and-miss experience. Some but not all submissions have been accepted.

We've found that working to the deadlines sharpens the thinking.
Pushing through with a piece of work until it's finished is more satisfying than flitting from one project to another.
Seeing the work selected and hung alongside work from other artists is a validating experience. Meeting other artists and their work is interesting.
It's also a reminder of how art is vibrant and alive in our local communities.

All for the price of small hanging fee.

Sketching in Tuscany

We had a wonderful and inspirational week in Tuscany. Our trip started in Pisa, the air fresh and clear after overnight electric storms. The view from our hotel was spectacular. We sketched for an hour before journeying to Volterra for the workshop.

Leaning Tower, Pisa; pencil (Tina)

duomo, Pisa; watercolour, conte crayon and ink on altered book (Fiona)

In Volterra, we were greeted with a gentle and warm-hearted welcome by Klaudia, Wolfgang and Anton to the Villa Guadelupe, and over the next few days formed a firm bond with the group of diverse, talented and committed artists who had travelled from all parts of Italy, and from Spain, Germany and Russia, to take part in the workshop. The hospitality was fabulous. Simo and Caroline were supportive and energetic workshop leaders, taking us from sketching inside the villa, looking outwards to the gardens and hills beyond; then back to the ancient history of the area, sketching in the Etruscan museum and the Roman amphitheatre and the streets of Volterra; ending with a sketchcrawl to the final public exhibition of our collective work on the final day. Simo has written a summary of the workshop in english here  and in italian on her blog here.


We finished the trip off with a day in Florence. The warmth of the landscape and the people and all that we'd learned made us want to stay longer; a sign of a great week. Photos of the workshop and participants here

A few examples of our sketches:

Val di Cecina from Villa Guadelupe, Volterra; watercolour & conte crayon (Fiona)

Val di Cecina from Villa Guadelupe, Volterra; watercolour (Tina)

Olive groves and the Val di Cecina; indian ink (Fiona)

Volterra garden; watercolour (Tina)

Etruscan bronze statuettes; inktense pencil (Fiona)

Florence, from Santa Croce; ink & watercolour (Tina)

Seeing the world one drawing at a time

Two of us (Fiona and Tina) are flying to Italy next week to take part in 'Tuscan Landscape', an urban sketchers' workshop in the ancient city of Volterra, based in the beautiful Villa Le Guadalupe.


We will be sketching and seeing our surroundings 'one drawing at a time' in keeping with the urban sketchers' manifesto (see below). Their philosophy of truth in looking, capturing and sharing is one that chimes resoundingly with all us who sketch and paint. We'll also be sketching the magnificent Etruscan and Roman remains, working expressively and experimentally exploring interrupted lines and fragments.  We're very much looking forward to sketching in such a wonderful environment and meeting the interesting people who are also attending. In fact we're so excited to be going, and to be going together, that we've been quietly delirious for weeks.

I attended a similar workshop in 2011 and wrote about it in my personal blog here and here.

USK Manifesto

1. We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation. 2. Our drawings tell the story of our surroundings, the places we live and where we travel. 3. Our drawings are a record of time and place. 4. We are truthful to the scenes we witness. 5. We use any kind of media and cherish our individual styles. 6. We support each other and draw together. 7. We share our drawings online. 8. We show the world, one drawing at a time.

Reading this manifesto earlier this summer, I was spurred on to sketch even more regularly. I've therefore had a very pleasant summer sitting outside cafes and in pub gardens, consuming excellent coffees, beer and various cakes, pies etc, sketching whatever I could see in front of me. I made my own sketchbook, taking an old poetry textbook and altering the pages by staining them with inks, household emulsion and gesso or including extra pages, mostly old monoprints, textured papers etc. Every page is different and the challenge has been to work on whatever surface presents itself next, no matter the subject, and no matter how difficult! I'll post about how I made the book in another post later. 

All sketches have been done on location; on some of the pages, colour and texture has been added later. Here are a few examples:

Victorian pub 'the Rising Sun'; watercolour, ink and gouache on yellow household emulsion paint (Fiona)

16thc coaching inn 'The Crown'; gouache and inks on ink-spattered text (Fiona)

fields and sky at Compton Verney; watercolour and gesso (Fiona)

stone sculpures at Tong church; inks on old monoprint (Fiona)

Tong church and village; watercolour, inks and white marker pen on household emulsion (Fiona)

light and dark; inks, crayon and gouache on household emulsion (Fiona)

watercolour, gouache and inks on old monoprint (Fiona)

summer sketchbooks 3

Sue came back from St. Ives with sketches on watercolour paper, sketches on postcards, a moleskine watercolour sketchbook (almost full!) and also a number of life-drawings from an evening at the St.Ives School of Painting. Truly spectacular output, not just in quantity but also in the quality of the paintings, each one a watercolour gem, demonstrating her usual lightness of touch and sensitivity in choice of subject and composition

Here are a few of her colour studies, again all worked on location en plein air:

summer sketchbooks 2

Sue came back from St. Ives with sketchbooks filled with ink and watercolour studies. Her love for the town and surroundings began when she first went there on holiday as a teenager. Her sketches show great sensitivity of touch and deep affection for the landscape. All her sketchbook work is done from direct observation en plein air.

Here are some of her pen and ink drawings of boats in the harbour:

summer sketchbooks

Some extracts from summer sketchbooks, with more to follow over the next few weeks...

An ever-stretching wild river meadow of dandelions with fields of yellow oil-seed rape beyond, sweltering in the golden light of mid-summer, the river deep and fast behind me.
This was worked up from an in-situ sketch as preparatory work for a painting on canvas. I've started to work in a bigger format (A3 sketchbook) in an attempt to ease the transition from living in my sketchbook to stand-alone work.

Severn valley, Shropshire; 82cm x 30cm; inks, watercolour & enamels on gesso (Fiona)

This sunflower sketch was an experiment in using Ecoline watercolour inks. I bought a set a few years ago and have never really got to grips with them, mainly because I'm used to making a limited palette work hard, and tend to avoid brilliant colours.  However, the vibrancy of these inks really comes into its own using pen and wash. The subsequent Indian ink washes and cool conte crayon  work as a counter-balance.

sunflower; 30cm x 41cm; inks & conte crayon (Fiona)

bleached treetrunk, Himley Hall; 30cm x 41cm; inks, aquarelle & conte crayon (Fiona)

I sketched this old dead tree trunk in the teeth of a very brisk north wind, so worked quickly with a broad bamboo pen and various inks, flinging it all around in order to complete the entire sketch in about 15 minutes. That way I could get back quickly into the warm sunshine... but also a great way to free up a drawing and work expressively.

bluetits on snow

Here are two paintings of bluetits on snow by Jane.

Set perfectly against the recent snow and winter plants, the birds inhabit their colourful feathers against the landscape. In one painting the bird almost looks directly at the painter, but something has caught her eye; in the other, she is busy about her business, moving in for a closer look. Beautiful, charming,  perfectly true to life in their spontaneity.

drawing as stitch

 

Here are some stitched drawings by Tina. Two are based on everyday scenes observed in her local market. The other was sketched (as a passenger!) on a long car journey.

Tina likes to use a continuous line in some of her drawings. By keeping the pencil on the paper, the line becomes free and the relationship between the subject and the observer are somehow brought intimately together. The line connects elements in the composition, relates disparate and similar subjects, sometimes identifying and repeating patterns, other times contrasting shapes and textures, always drawing the eye round the canvas, exploring how objects relate to one another both in the drawing and in the life Tina observes so beautifully around her.

This is a technique which crosses so-called artistic boundaries, and lends itself perfectly to interpretation through stitch. These drawings have all been resolved through the medium of a sewing machine and plain black thread on cotton.

fish stall, market; black thread on cotton (Tina)

egg stall, market; black thread on cotton (Tina)

a long drive; black thread on cotton (Tina)

winter trees

Jane draws with a light touch and great sensitivity. 

Here she has produced a charcoal drawing of birds fluttering through winter branches. She has tackled a difficult subject and unusual perspective and produced a vision of light that is stark and skeletal in places, and almost transparent in others, all beautifully observed. Her skillful drawing of bare branches and birds in flight is exquisite, producing an almost meditative effect.

Like many wild places in the area, Baggeridge Country Park is reclaimed from a hard-working industrial past, but now provides interesting walks and activities as well as varied habitats for plants, birds and animals.

The finished drawing is based on Jane's direct observation of the trees where she walks her dog almost every day. Her passion for the place is evident in the intensity of her vision.
 

winter trees; charcoal on paper, 42 x 60 cm/16.5" x 23.5", Jane

portrait of Fiona

Tina has started work on a portrait of Fiona, perhaps the first of a 'drawing allowed' series. 

It may become a large painting in oil, or perhaps the start of a series of paintings inspired by friends busy doing what they like doing.. in Fiona's case working on a crocheted blanket. It could also form the basis for a more complex work of multiple small-scale portraits. Or it may remain as it is. One of Tina's favourite things to say about art is that anything is possible, and that we can do anything we like, such a liberating thought.

Tina is fascinated by the facial expressions and head movements as people concentrate, and also their hands as they move through the necessary productive positions and gestures. In this initial exploration, she surprised herself by painting Fiona smiling as she worked. So, this is a starting point; an accomplished and insightful exploration that managed to surprise the artist but at the same time a source of inspiration for further work.

In the spirit of the twin-face of Janus, the name-sake of the month of January, we could all pause and look afresh at our work and sketchbooks, reflect and take inspiration from these starting points to further develop our future work, perhaps allowing ourselves and our work to develop and mature in surprising directions.

Fiona crocheting by Tina (watercolour and gouache)

daily practice

I'm not sure if we at 'drawing allowed' have any new year resolutions other than to continue to make time for our own creative practice and to share it with others.

Before the holidays I decided to make time to follow Chris Carter's online drawing exercises. Chris is a very experienced and talented artist who has a strong and generous commitment to sharing her skills and experience through her blogs. She posts three times a week with quick tasks, always with an explanation of what to do and why it's important.

For example: Her first exercise is about getting into the habit of sketching for 5 minutes every day. It doesn't sound a lot, but we all know how hard that is sometimes. But if you follow her advice you'll find yourself doing 5 minute sketches wherever you are whatever your circumstances, and all without even thinking about it. Before you know it, you'll  have a sketchbook full of sketches, inspiration and ideas for further development.

Find Chris's exercises here.

I hope you find them as useful as I have.

A prosperous and creative New Year to all. And for our italian followers.. auguri e tante belle cose per l'anno nuovo.

portrait of Frank

Frank; oil on canvas, 26" x 26" (Tina)

A stunning oil painting by Tina of her partner, Frank. A painting with powerful depth of character and intensity of expression, the painting is achieved with incredible sensitivity in her choice of colour palette and brushstrokes. 

Tina says that it is not quite finished and asked me to post it under 'works in progress'. It's there too, but I thought it should also be highlighted in a post of its own.

drawing as printing (2)

Following on from a previous post, 'drawing as printing', I said I would return to the topic to describe the materials and process with pictures.
 
Materials:

-2 pieces of cartridge or drawing paper. I cut mine to approx 8" x 8".
-soft pastels or chalk in pale shades
-oil pastels
-drawing tools e.g. ball-point pen, hard pencil, chopstick, stick, the wrong end of a brush.. experiment with mark-making using different tools.

 1) using soft pastels, cover one of your pieces of paper entirely with colour. It doesn't matter which colours you choose.

2) choose some oil pastels and steadily rub them on top of the soft pastel surface until the whole surface is covered. A fairly generous hand is required. Irregular shapes will be most effective, the more random the better. Overlap the colours to soften transitions and mix colours on the paper. Here I've chosen 5 colours: dark blue, pale blue, lemon, ochre and a mid-green.

3) On a flat surface, take your coloured paper and place it face-down onto a clean piece of paper.

4) At this stage you can either take some time to experiment with different drawing tools or choose a subject/pattern and plunge right in. 

5) Taking a page from my sketchbook as inspiration, I choose to draw the shell on the right.

6) Working into the back of my coloured paper, I use a ball-point pen to do a simple outline drawing of the shell based on the sketchbook image. A firm line and simplified form works best. Here I've varied the weight of the line slightly to emphasise the basic shape.







7) Happy with the drawing, now I'm ready to see what's been happening underneath. I peel back the paper to reveal an oil pastel monoprint. You can see how the random colour placement magically gives form and interest to a fairly ordinary outline drawing.

 The negative image is also interesting....

...but if you don't want to keep it, then you can continue using the coloured 'plate' until exhausted.

Here's another monoprint taken from the same coloured plate, this time of dried honesty seedheads. The drawn lines as less distinct in places but the image still works.
 

The negative image is now breaking up, but could make a very interesting texture to work into as it is, or to cut up and use as collage, or to paint over... wherever your creativity takes you. Never throw anything away!

If you experiment with this technique we'd love to see your work. Post a pic on your own blog and leave a comment here with the link. We'll drop by and visit.