Another story about exhibiting at the Mall Galleries!

Patrick and I took the 8:10 train.  Once in London, we went to the British Museum for a coffee. From there I walked over to Trafalgar Square and down to the Mall Galleries.  

On arriving I found my exhibitor's label but decided to save it for later. I walked to the 'naughty' room and to my surprise my work wasn't there. Instead, I found it in the main room, hung with other flower and still life works by RBA members and other exhibiting artists. I met quite a few members in the hours that I looked at work, drank coffee and introduced myself.  David Paul Rowan introduced me to others and put me at ease. Gabriella (last year's NEAC drawing Scholar) and Sergio came to support me. 

PV day

During the day, I met Terry Watts and saw his impressive paintings (one was on the invite). I found Mick Davies (after his wife greeted me and introduced herself) - I was a big fan of Mrs Hokusai's Hairdo!

work by Mike Davies

I visited Messums to see Antony Williams' exhibition. https://antony-williams.com/messums-exhibition-2019/ Later, other friends and family met me at the exhibition.

Tom Marsh and me

It was brilliant to meet Tom Marsh, a regular exhibitor at the Mall Galleries.  He knows some of the plein air painters I met during my NEAC scholarship year. I also introduced myself to Annie Boisseau whose work I admire.

On Thursday I went to John Sprakes talk/book launch/poetry and music event, held in the exhibition. I had met him at the PV and his congenial nature and strong vibrant paintings recommended me to the talk.  https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/artist/john-sprakes-rba-roi

Brian Johnson and one of my paintings

While there, Patrick's dear friend, Brian, appeared, and we looked at a bit of the work, including my paintings, together.  His adorable words, something like 'it's quite exciting to be able say my friend has work in an exhibition here,' made my day.

Mr Wei Shao, and a fellow opera singer

The following Saturday, I went to the RBA's annual dinner.  We were entertained by the Patron of the RBA, Mr Wei Shao, and a fellow opera singer with a piece from La Traviata. Patrick and I enjoyed our table with dinner companions: Peter Newsome & Marion Eastwood (member and exhibitor) and Lorrain Abraham, member of the Society of Marine Painters who was an exhibitor in the RBA show.  I also had a wonderful encounter with revered Chinese artist, Feng   Sixaio https://www.royalsocietyofbritishartists.org.uk/royal-society-of-british-artists-honours-chinese-artist-sixiao-feng/ His wife and daughter-in-law took photos of me by my work and explained his practice in China.

As ever, the whole experience was delightful and exhillarating.  And I feel that I couldn't have got more from it, which is also good. (unless I'd sold…)

You can find the catalogue online here: 
https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/royal-society-british-artists-annual-exhibition-2019 my work on page 10

A Few Days Drawing in London

The Plinth and the Priest, pastel on book page

Every year the New English Art Club runs a series of classes to coincide with their annual exhibition.  They are run by members and very affordable. I was able to sign up for two this year: one with Daniel Shadbolt http://danielshadbolt.com; the other with Ruth Stage: https://www.newenglishartclub.co.uk/artists/ruth-stage-neac.  

The weather was pretty poor for Daniel's workshop but we were all prepared and I managed to draw in the rain with an umbrella throughout.  True I had to close up my pastels and water pooled on the top of the containers once while I waited for the downpour to subside, but it was fun learning that I can be a guerrilla painter! I had to work with the rain.  My book was damp throughout and the pastels behaved differently. We were in Traflagar Square with Daniel and in St James Park with Ruth.

 For both worksops we brought our own materials and were encouraged to work in our own way. In Traflagar Square the goal was to draw people.  Obviously we would need the surroundings for context but I found it fun to have the figure focus.  Daniel also wanted us to try to create drawings which we would be able to look at and  tell where we had been standing. As I was working small (in my Silent Traveller in London book), I opted to do some cropping to give clues without needing to work in fine detail.

Final drawing St James Park,  pastel on book page

In the park the sun came and went.  Sometimes I wanted to be faithful to the way the 'still life' of plants, sky and architecture were actually arranged (the focus of this workshop was pattern in nature) and in other drawings I moved things around to make the composition and colour work. Some of the drawings took as long as an hour.  A few were completed in under 30 minutes.  Both in the park and in Trafalgar Square I featured in many tourists' photos.  People stopped to ask questions and look carefully at what I was doing and looking at.  

I had some wonderful experiences and Katerina, a young woman from Italy stood for me for a few minutes in front of the lions in Trafalgar Square while Gabrella entertained her parents. Then before and after the rain I met Jonathan, a musician who was next on to busk in front of the National Gallery. He also stood a bit for me.  I loved both workshops and it turns out I like going to the city to draw.

an Old Age,  pastel on book page

Standing by the Canteen, St James park,  pastel on book page

Jonathan on Deck,  pastel on book page

Dinosaur trees about Teatime,  pastel on book page

Katerina and the Lions,  pastel on book page

Green Stripe - No Men,  pastel on book page

Low footfall, why not paint?

I thought about making badges during the down time of my open studio today.  That was the plan but when it came down to it, I wanted to paint or draw.  My flowers are starting to flower and it seemed to me that it might be interesting to visitors if I was doing something that reflects my current interests. While I was working on my little egg tempera, Fiona Camp, a fellow artist and sort-of neighbour came by. She was interested in egg tempera and had even done some herself.  She watched me paint, something I never really understand, but was willing to do. I was fine. I haven't finished...  something to do tomorrow if it's not too busy. I was pleased that I was integrating the various strands of what I am doing: portraiture, still life, egg tempera, painting on the spot and story telling.

What was also intersting about the day was that the picture I almost didn't frame was the favourite of three people. - an egg tempera of Lyra and Patrick on a cold morning. Who knew?

Little sketches in cracks of time

We had a lot of rain in Maine and as my mum had injured her back there was just that little bit more to do in the garden...so this year so I drew less and had less 'headspace' in general for imagery. I carried my altered sketch books to Maine, so was determined to use them when I could. Hopefully I will use these notes later.

We went off the island to do chores. My mother and I collected new vessels from Goodwill.  Back home when it rained, we made bouquets from whatever we could find in the garden. The hellebore was the star of the counter.

One of the things I did in my 'spare time' was to renovate my travelling pastel 'kit'. The pastels have been in saggy cardboard boxes that were falling apart for the past few years - all held together with elastic bands. This year the elastic bands broke in my hands and my backpack was a big grey mess. At the workshop I took with Felicity House, I discovered the power of using rice to keep the pastels from turning grey so I searched for some new clear screw-top holders and it is like magic! It was so hard to say goodbye to this new system that on the way to the airport I stopped to buy another set and have replicated it here.

Back home I'm just coming out of catch-up mode. In the 20 mins when I should have been heading to the house to get on with dinner prep, I paused and drew the stuff at the other end of my studio. One day I went to draw with the IBBAS artists at Old Hall in Southwold. Yesterday Christopher Lucas came by and sat for me.  When I have a chance I will return to the egg tempera portrait below. Today I called into the Handmade shop.  The work by our trail looked fabulous!

Fig comes back tomorrow and It's Suffolk Open Studios soon so it will be a struggle to find even little cracks of time to sketch in...

As Spring Becomes Summer

Tulip Blossom Pear, egg tempera on panel, 27x24 cm, 

I find that so much of what I begin with feels intuitive but may actually be intentional, even though my mind hasn't caught up with what I'm responding to yet. 

I picked some flowers from the garden, wanted to use the dress I'd impulsively bought at a charity shop that was a great colour and had a great pattern but that I would never wear. I liked the idea of the IBBI bowls inside one another… As I was matching things, trying to get the balance (without thinking about it) I chose some similar blue items with bits of bright red on them. I needed height and structure to work, orange, green, more fascia.  The last few items and re-arranging them always takes the most real looking and nudging time.  The green cup on the right came towards the end of the painting, not part of the original still life at all but necessary in the end.

So what's it all about? Why did I gravitate towards those colours in the first place? I'm not sure that I can answer truthfully now that I am done but it was starting to get hotter, the tulip and the figure has a blossom feel, it's all making me feel exuberant... but is that language or what I was looking at? It felt wholesome and fecund, how do you show that, create that mood? 

Which of the players in the arrangement did I want to focus on, what does that say about my mood, the season, my thinking?  Is it really just a case of nostalgia or that thing that I love about pattern and colour? You tell me.

An Afternoon of drawing with Annabel

drawing 4, Whatfield, - looking uphill at sun, 16 x 18 cm

Even though it was a bit misty, the pastel colours glowed yesterday. Annabel took me to some of her favourite spots.  I had my french easel that I use as a table and my travelling pastel 'kit' -just little bits of broken pastels in two tins: hots and colds. I also had some chinese ink, a couple of brushes and my sketchpads. 

drawing 1, Semer, Blackthorn and Hill, 17x 15 cm

drawing 3, Annabel and the Sheep, 16 x18 cm

drawing 4, The Colour of Spring, 12x13cm

Spring and the Still Life

Ibbi Bowls and Green, pastel on paper, 29x29cm

Lifetimes ago when we were living in Rome I went to the market and bought some peaches.  It must have been the summer.  I had a tablecloth of blue and white that I got at an off-cut supplier in Warwickshire and apparently it was the same upholstery fabric they'd used in the BBC studio.  It was calm and perfect for our table in Rome.  The peaches spilled out of my bag and I noticed the most divine still life. I brought my drawing pad into the kitchen and drew the scene in pastel and later painted it adding some made up china. 

Today I woke ready to incorporate the divine bowls I was sent by Claire McAlpine from IBBI interiors. Claire discovered my work on Instagram and ended up buying two pieces.  She sent me the bowls after an aside comment I made about loving their china. As I started putting together my set up, I couldn't help feeling the excitement I felt with the peaches in Rome.  I sold that painting to Lena and Hennig so only have the memory of it.

Last night I was in Colchester at a talk by Charlotte Verity.  Her work is beautifully spare and she explained that her still lifes are not just still lifes. I'm not sure mine are more but I think I do my best work when I feel enchanted by what I am looking at and like Charlotte sometimes my subject becomes a portrait. Perhaps these bowls were my people this time. 

Digressing, this morning Henry Finkelstien was talking about Chuck Close's comment,  “Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just go to work”.  Everyone commenting disagreed with that. I think I remember Charles Williams or maybe Jason Bowyer saying he doesn't value 'work'. I know what he meant, the struggle is a particular way of being an artist. Then there's the playful thin. I know I'm for inspiration. and if you want to call my work nostalgic, and sometimes playful that's OK.

Drawing to fix things in time

Voluptuous Bouquet, pastel on paper, 23x22, 2019

For Mothers' day, Figgy got me a bouquet of flowers.  There were protea, some heather and some dried fuscia flowers. I had never had my own protea which was exciting. Today I combined some of the flowers with some tulips that have been in the house and were on their last legs and set up a new 'story'.  

Story suggests intentionality.  I liked the green in the kantha and found a green cup then my rubber stamp tin for the spots and for the cup to sit on … the figure is me, languishing in the scene. I suspended a fused plastic collage from a staple and then edited out the frame as I worked. The vase is a charity shop find, vintage Honiton, as I discovered.  It conjures up Duncan Grant for me. There is a deco linen tablecloth with a green, beige and ochre motif and a pashmina in the background. In the front, the kantha some velvet and the back of the velvet, a swatch of fabric from a fabric book and a mexican belt. As I drew the tulip moved and the leaves withered. I wanted to fix the bouquet and the only way to do it justice was to draw it. I had to learn a new language to say soemthign baout the protea.  

Tell me a story

Red Scholar, 23x22 cm, pastel on paper, 2019

When I was young I read The Borrowers. When our children were young I read them The Indian in the Cupboard. I wonder if my fascination with the still life as a genre comes from stories that captivated my imagination and were about things coming to life. 

Setting up a situation to draw becomes about story telling for me. I think I have a synesthesia thing about colour and stories.  I can't be any more specific than that but it's a visceral thing when the colours speak in the way the characters might.  The little blue demi-tasse in the front is some kind of blue! It is japanese and very delicate, probably not really to drink out of.  I bought two for under £2 from a Stowmarket charity shop and have been excited to draw (and share in the empathy of the colour) for days. 

Marginalia, exploration and the time all that takes

Opened Book:  My Little Bird Book, pastel on book pages, 30x19cm

 Yesterday I finished off the painting below.  It was a reaction to another painting which I began in the same spot; I added a few new things - I wanted to satisfy something that the other painting didn't have for me.  I was looking for some 'soul'. I wanted it to feel like paint. 

The drawing above is a reaction the painting below.  I set up a new still life but wanted to do something quick, spontaneous and experimental with it before I moved onto something more substantial.  It was afternoon and I knew the light wouldn't hold. I got out many books and looked for one that would be appropriate. I wanted a square format so I cut out a square piece of cardboard and put it over a few opened book pages looking for something that felt right. I prepared the book and gessoed the top pages then masked out an area with a pink/orange ground - a square in the middle. I drew and the result was a very chaotic image.  There were birds and owls on the side of each page and I selected a few words to show.  I used watercolour to create a frame around the pastel image. It didn't work.  I painted with black gouache over more of the words, some of the birds, right to the edge.  It didn't work. I extended the drawing . The end product makes me smile. The marginalia became some of the characters.  But, it was as much of a struggle as something 'more substantial'!

Oil on Canvas: Cherry Blossom Time, oil on canvas 30x30cm

This canvas is repainted over an old painting.  I began at night when the light was terrible.  I used the same paint that was already on my palette and returned to it over the course of four days.  I like it but if I go by what they say on instagram, it's not as popular as the previous one that is bright and fresh. 

A dance of colour with Doreen

Doreen in motion with sheer cloth

We began with a long very slow movement by Doreen with cloth. It was long enough to say something about the shape and movement but not long enough to resolve anything. 

On the heels of Tim's workshop, using pastels instead of a paintbrush, I worked small and directly, looking for the colour and the tone but intending colour studies rather than accurate colour.  For me, today, the goal was to create believable light by approximating the relationship between the tones and colours without being slavish to skin tone. 

5 mins 10x10cm

5 mins 10x10cm

5 mins 10x10cm

25 mins 12 x16cm

Expressive Painting with Tim Benson

45 minute oil on panel 

Yesterday was another NEAC painting session at Heatherley's. This time the tutor was Tim Benson.  I missed the opening talk as when I arrived at the train station in Stowmarket, I was surprised to find it was replacement buses.  Then the district line wasn't going to Wimbeldon so I had to walk from Earls Court - I arrived just before 11:00 (10:30 start) and had to set up the six colours Tim wanted us to use: alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, lemon yellow, white, burnt umber and cadmium red medium.  We were to use a big brush (at least 1/2 inch). Tim wanted us to use thick paint and to work expressively to capture a close up of our model.

It was interesting to work with one fat brush and took concentration to keep the colours from getting muddy. Making corrections with thick paint doesn't come naturally to me so I scraped with my palette knife to draw. Tim wanted us to find the natural colours we saw and moving around after the first pose gave me the chance to see the way the light changed the skin colour significantly.  Unfortunately I did not have a bigger canvas for the final painting (there were three paintings over the course of the day) as it would have been impossible with my transport constraints and I could see this scaling up and painting with thick paint changed the challenge significantly.

I found Tim a sympathetic and astute teacher and enjoyed the constraints of the day.

1 1/2 hr oil on canvas

Drawing the model like a still life

 Having spent the last few days making lots of little still life drawings, directly, I wanted to think of the model as a still life today and see what that frame of mind would do to the drawings. I moved around the paper looking for shapes and colours, tones and light - swapping pastels, adding ink, beginning with ink, Using a big fat brush, working small, smaller, bigger - trying to hold the pastel gently, to use both the end and the side, to keep it dry and to work into wet and to think about the edges. This is the order of the poses. The first was 15 minutes then Sue decided we needed some quickies - 3 minutes, then back to two fifteens and finishing with a thirty.