Different media for different purposes

Sue pulling on sock, Pastel on paper 22 x 24cm

Figure with Beads, pastel on paper 6 x 6"

At my life drawing group recently someone asked me how I came to begin making my 6 x 6" pastel life drawings.  I told her that it is all about the colour.  It's interesting the way different materials work to enhance the subject matter and what I want to say. I find pastels and their direct colour suits me when I want to get something down and I want to create a mood. They can also explain light. Big charcoal drawing are about gesture and light for me. I often use my drawings to begin something else. Figure with Beads was a starting point for Japanese Interior with Figure, if you can believe it...

Homework pastel on paper 6 x 6"

Because oil paint usually requires time and different ways of applying it, I use it to describe different things. I have the same preoccupations but the process yields different results.  If I were someone who made pictures in the same way every day I suppose my results would be different and much more similar to each other, but the way I was taught, by my California School abstract expressionist teachers, was to begin every day as though you know nothing and find a way through. Perhaps that explains my willingness to work across media 

Japanese Interior with Figure oil on canvas 40 x 40 cm

Spring Beads and Royal Blue pastel on paper 6 x 6"

Feeling unsure

Imagining Vuillard's Bouquet (oil on canvas 30 x 30cm)

The first few days of my weeks feel busy with life drawing, a visit to the care home and a morning in Ipswich at the refugee centre.  So even though I draw everyday, on Thursday mornings I can feel unsure.  It's not that I have a lack of ideas, it's more that I have at least two whole days stetching ahead and I don't remember where I was and what comes next.  It would be easy to do all the other things that I have neglected but I go into the studio and I begin. 

I was tempted to paint over something I had hoped I'd finished but I stopped myself.  It felt tight and joyless but I have a habit of painting over instead of waiting or solving a problem.  I was already frustrated and I hadn't even got my brushes out. I and then, sometimes when I feel like I can't paint, I can trick myself into painting and something simple and surprising appears.

Flowers On Orange Tablecloth (oil on canvas 40 x 40)

 

With my painting, I am trying to let the painting tell me what to do instead of recording what I see.  The painting on the bottom became the painting on the top.  I think it may change again...

Carnations, Christmas Beads and Smoking Jacket (pastel on paper 6 x 6cm)

And I continue to draw my beads.

Art on the Inside of a mail art envelope

Part of most days is devoted to mail art.  People ask me what mail art is and I tell them it's art that travels through the post.  For me it is that other kind of art that makes me laugh and work obsessively, often purposelessly, although sometimes conceptually.  It is a different space for me and an essential one.  These two envelopes are going out today and I am dying to make some more in this 'style' later.  

I usually work in styles, or series in mail art.  These I'm calling 'unsealed envelopes' and the envelopes are made from life drawings I no longer need, and they have bespoke two sided fused plastic collages inside.  I have made the labels in a similar to the way I make my business cards with 'trash' fused plastic and clear labels. Obviously I have obscured the addresses with a bit of washi tape to keep people anonymous.

Below are the actual contents of the two envelopes in all their sides.

painting and drawing beads and textiles

Oil on paper 7 x 7"

Not long ago I prepared some heavy paper by gessoing it a few times on the front and back.  some time later I put some leftover turquoise green oil paint onto it.  Today I retrieved that and cut an 7 x 7" piece to see what would happen if I painted instead of drew today in my current series. The colours and materials of my set up were not harmonious in the way they have been to date. What I mean is, there were was a wider range of colour and value.  Infact half of what I chose to work from was black. and if Ihave one object that confounds me, it is that little yellow ginger jar.  It has a way of distorting.  When I started I thought I'd just do some quick oil sketches but I got interested in the paint surface.

Below is another of the bead series in pastel. I admired my neighbour's pashmina and she lent it to me to inspire and complement the beads.  In addition there is a bit of my son's african trousers and a silk skirt I found in cahrity shop.

pastel on paper 6 X 6"

Monday Drawings

A Selection of 2016 Monday drawings

Erin, pastel on paper 6 x 6

Since the New Year I haven't missed a Monday morning.  I get to the venue early, to help hang the plastic  in front of the window, to roll out the rug and to get a space on the side of the room where you can see the model.  If you are on the other side the model is backlit. Sue organises the sessions and we usually have some fast poses 1-2 minutes or 15 mins of a moving model and some longer poses, 10 - 30 minutes.

We have a range of models (in terms of age, hair colour, height, size, flexibility, agility). Many of the models have been coming for as long as I have been going (more than 15 years). Erin has been modeling for us for a year or two.  She can hold a pose in standing but doesn't 'fold' well.

Like Erin, Marilyn is athletic with long legs. Marilyn never moves and is always enthusiastic to push herself to hold poses until her feet turn blue.

Marilyn, pastel on paper, 6 x 6

Esme, pastel on paper 6 x 6

Esme has modelled for us twice.  Like the other two, she is brilliant to draw. She makes strong poses. Each model has her own character (we have a few men too) and for me, the trick is to stay loose enough to capture it and to avoid getting bogged down by the local colour and the setting.

Peace, Energy and the Turquoise Muse

Turquoise Muse - Pastel on paper 6 x 6

Now that I have made a few pattern studies using my new muse: the fabric beads, I notice that arranging the fabric to create drama and interest is like building a nest.  I'm thinking colour, light and energy.  It's quite a restful phase in working. When I draw I find it is chaotic at first and then I find a peace in the image as things start to coalesce. I think keeping the drama and energy and suggesting peace is what I like about this new series.

Resolution number one: paint more

Oriental Bouquet in January 30 x 30 oil on canvas

I sanded down a painting that was tight and unresolved from last spring and tried to apply what I'd learned from a small pastel drawing .  The drawing was done from life and much of the set up remained. I painted quite thickly at the start of last week and it was only dry enough to return to today. In the interim my ideas had moved on, the flowers had changed and I had begun a necklace series. 

In the same way that local colour can be a barrier to making the most interesting drawing, the objects in front of you can be too. Sometimes invention is the only solution.

initial 6 x 6 pastel drawing: Freesias and Kimono