A few more from life

 On Monday Barbara brought a big box with her to life drawing.  she'd seen a performance at Dance East using a box and was inspired. Shadows fell in a different way.  The body was brought into relief.  the image below was without the box, with the mirror making the edges. I had decided to work in ink and was trying to let the magic of the ink speak, so made choices differently and had to work slower.  I didn't want these to be line drawings, I wanted to use tone. These small sketches (between A5 and A6) were 5, 10 and 15 minute poses. It's interesting to reflect how they give me as much, though different information than a colour pastel drawing.

 We had Esme the week before and I used my 10 x 15 cm zinc plate. The plate below still has a ghost that I am considering reworking. I realise that when I put release agent on top, I lose the whitest whites so thought I could consider that in the subsequent print. I only worked backwards in one of the prints so was able to print a few prints during the two hour session.  Clearly my brain takes longer to work backwards - something to consider for NEAC drawing school.

 The images below are from my last visit to London and NEAC drawing school with Mick Kirkbride.  I was determined to get more done but we made a series of quick sketches first (which was great)  but we didn't have as long on the pose.  I worked backwards but was determined to get a quick print too. You can see how the release agent darkened the whole image in the middle print. 

Looking again - why I like after studies

Waiting for the Party, Oil on prepared book page, 10 x 15 cm,

When I began this blog in 2009, I had a basket of ten objects which I drew over and over in different situations. I learned through experience that objects are dependent on their context and become real through relationships. It's not surprising that the way I work, colour laid next to colour, helps me to find the reality of what I see in front of me. And perhaps this explains why I like to work from observation best of all. 

The image above is a little darker than the real thing.  It is another grey day here in Suffolk and I photographed a few minutes ago when the day is getting darker.  Still it gives the flavour of the slightly different arrangement  point of view, shape of paper (not canvas this time). The still life extension to the front.  The apple sits inside the spoon with the blue handle. When I came to paint, holding up my frame deciding on my point of view, I realised it would be better to omit that stuff in the front. I was moving in and cropping out. 

I like after studies because problems have been solved.  But this time I made new problems in version two which were equally difficult to deal with.  Luckily this little painting is small - 10 x 15 cm painted on a prepared book page.  But small is difficult in a different way.

I traded a simple orangey cloth for some of the pattern of the previous, but it was difficult to keep the colour from becoming insipid.  I painted and painted until it was believable. Each shift somewhere else meant I had to go back to it. That red vase is a devil! I picked two of them up a few days after Christmas. when I looked at them I knew their modern form would confound me but why not? My mum chivied me on. The pom poms make me think of a mexican hacienda.

Thiking about it, what I like about after studies is the same thing you like about a sequel -  the opportunity to connect with the subject in a different way so that it lives again in a new guise.