Blue Poppies, day two

Blue Poppies - day two, oil on canvas,  40 x 54 cm.

Today before I got back to work I looked and consulted some of my favourite painters: Bonnard, Manet, Matisse and then I looked at Philip Sutton.  Day two is always a tough day for me.  On day two, I have committed an idea and it's either going to get better or go flat. Perhaps it is 'day twos' that make me reach for my pastels or make a monotype instead. Sustaining a way of painting with sleeps in between is plain hard. I think some people are different but I never know what's going to happen.  The brushes, the colours, the ideas seem to exist in a parallel universe and I am certainly not their master. 

Now I need to scrape down the piece of glass.  I will probably paint some paper and then I'll wash my brushes for day three, or not.

Another angle another medium

It's a mistake to use a horizontal piece of paper when your image is vertical.  When I shifted to a larger format, I did not think about the orientation.  It just goes to show how away from things I have been… so, my second drawing, which was intended to be further away from my subject just got wider.  I mostly used the same pieces of pastel, so the first and second drawings are similar (look at the previous post).  I wanted to darken the space behind the opaline vase, so did get a few other blues out.

Christmas Rose in January II, pastel on paper, 26 x 18 cm

Today I got my oils out, chose a vertical canvas and stepped back. My idea was all about the foliage, to begin with but I inadvertently had some lavender shapes in the top third and I wondered about a few blue mecanopsis.  This is only the first day of painting, so I expect it will evolve further. I had shenanigans with my R & F paint sticks getting stuck but otherwise, it felt good to paint.

Blue Poppy and Christmas Rose, oil on canvas, 40 x 54 cm

Ripples of Inspiration

I'm reading Matisse Diebenkorn, published by the Baltimore Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  There is an exhibition looking at the influence of Matisse on Diebenkorn and this is the book from that exhibition. I wish I could see the paintings in life, but as second best, I bought it for myself for my birthday.  

A few days ago I picked a bouquet of leaves to put in my new Opaline vase that I bought months ago at the Boule-In (Bildeston), and put in the 'Christmas closet'.  (Vases are one of my weaknesses, I can't say no to a beautiful vase…) The bouquet dried out in the kitchen but as it sat there I thought about what you do with just green, Today when everyone went out to Bury, I took the vase, picked some new leaves chose three different pieces of patterned blue fabric, and placed, removed, and moved objects that I found in the studio around on my set up: two boxes stacked on a chair with a board on top. I decided I needed a hellibore for height, for colour and for shape to finish off the composition. I looked at John Mcallister and thought about Matisse and Diebenkorn and waited to see what would happen on my 16 x 16 cm piece of paper that I had painted with some pale blue pastel ground I mixed.

I saw this a a preliminary drawing for something a bit bigger.  The next drawing is going to be rectangular and I will include more of the space, as that is what my three mentors would do.

Processing and experimenting

A visit to the botanics Glasgow 23 x 23 cm
gouache, watercolour and methyl cellulose on paper with fused plastic frame

Over the holdiays I had absolutely no time to work. I did look, mess around on my new iPad and explore mount cutting with my new tool. I also made more re-fused plastic badges. On one of the early mounts, I ripped the paper on the good side of the mount and that led to me to thinking about flipping the approach to framing that I had been exploring with my fused plastic.  In recent fused plastic the inside image was stitched fused plastic while the frame was painted.  I wondered whether the reverse would be equally interesting. 

One of the highlights of our trip to Glasgow was a visit to the Botanic Garden. 

As you might imagine, I am a big fan of the work of John McAllister https://www.artsy.net/artist/john-mcallister.  His colour, the way he uses frames and his use of pattern delight me! 

So all of that together was how I began to get back to work again, a little over the weekend and more today. I can't decide if it works or not.

Two more from the Radio 3 series

My winter open studio was lots of fun!  I had a decent crowd of enthusiastic supporters on the preview evening and a couple of handfuls over the other two days. The most exciting thing was that all four of the framed pieces from the Radio 3 series sold!  These are the other two I framed. 

I 'curated' the show by putting words near the 'exhibits' This is what I said about the radio 3 fused plastic collage and stitch pieces:

Although I love to draw in black and white, colour makes my heart sing.  I feel that I solve problems while I am doing other things, so I began to wonder how what I listen to might influence what I am making.  This series of fused plastic collages were made while actively listening to Radio Three.  Radio 3 – I and II began with a Bella Bartok piece. What I found was that my process is longer than a piece of music, obviously, and in the end the fused plastic piece demands what it needs, so I begin to actively not listen. I would like to explore this further, perhaps looping music and actively listening throughout.

What do you focus on in 15 minutes?

Sue, who has organised and modelled for our life drawing group since it began more than 20 years ago, has been asking for 15 minute poses lately. Fifteen minutes is long enough to get alot down but for me, it is also enough time to tighten up and lose the energy of the pose. Drawing is such a relational thing, with every mark the betweenness narrows and it's easy to mush all your marks into something similar. Today I was thinking about the mark making in particular.

I began with a black and white drawing but aimed to work in colour for the session.  Esme, the model, is angular and although beautiful to draw, her poses can feel a little more posed than some of our veteran models. Her first few poses were standing and getting the model onto a square piece of paper without making her diminutive is always tricky.  Some people insist on getting all of the model in the frame.  I was taught that that wasn't essential, and for me it's all about the shapes. Each of the drawings is about 15 cm square on prepared cartridge paper.  Some have schminke pastel ground mixed with a bit of acrylic.  In others I have rubbed pastel into the paper and fixed it with surgical spirit.

I've put the drawings up in the order they were made. Each was a 15 minute pose.

On a Winter's Day Magic the Sun

This week has been a gloopy one.  I've been mired in admin and in a fog since the election. I have been getting lots done, but it has been unsatisfying stuff and I have barely done any real work.  Today was pre-selection day for the 2017 Pastel Society Exhibition and I always get butterflies in the run up to noon, so I did a little more admin and then took Lyra for an early walk, I was pretty convinced I wouldn't be able to work well just then. 

To be fair, it was a beautiful cold day and Suffolk couldn't have been more exquisite, but although I love the seasons, I know which seasons I like best. 

When I got back I logged on and found that this year I had both of my drawings pre-selected.  I call this 'art tax' because it means I have to pay even more to get them framed and to take the stuff down to London.  As faar as I can tell, so little of what is pre-selected gets through because priority goes to Pastel Society members. Nevertheless, obviously I was delighted!

I wanted to make two prints today.  Jo Hollis, framer extraordinaire, has cut me 8 mounts and I only have three prints ready to put into them. I am imagining a wall of mini prints as one of the 'exhibits' for my open studio. When I began this mini print I tried to feel the heat on my back and to magic another time of year in the zinc.

Tomorrow is the opening of the mini print exhibition in Bury St Edmunds and I'll be heading over.