Strawberry and Orange Feast, oil on canvas, 20 x 20cm |
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
What I see and what I do
Monday, February 6, 2017
Marks, Tone and Monoprints
There's an essay in Alice Mumford's book: Colour From Coast to Coast, which talks about colour versus tone and the tension she has felt to deal with both in her work. She explains that if you look into light you can see more depth of field but that you will not see colour in such intensity and if light is behind you, you will see the colour but the view will appear more flat. Bonnard painted from his drawings and they are effusive with colour even though he looked into the Southern light because he seperated form and colour by drawing tonally and painting the colour. In life drawing I tend to draw tonally. With monotype you can't help but combine line, light and tone. I've always said that I need to work in different media to say things differently. alice mumford has helped me to name it.
Today I took my 'monotype kit' to life drawing. We had a new model, had 5, 10, and a 25 minute pose. Last week I drew Erin.
Saturday, February 4, 2017
What are the Colours of Spring?
Primose and Planning, pastel on paper, 14.5 x 16 cm |
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Using the same objects to say something else
Flowers and Musk, 26 x 26cm, pastel on paper |
Using a slightly bigger piece of paper than I did yesterday, this time I coated some Fabriano with a deeper pale blue acrylic/pastel ground. One of the things I always have trouble with in a garden is yellow and red flowers together with a backdrop of green grass… so I took out the yellow flowers, changed the background and changed vases. I like to get up close. I like to find the shapes in the complexity. I like a richer, deeper palette. For me, this arrangement works better and there's nothing wimply about it!
The Mall galleries have put what they call 'selected work' up on the website for the the Pastel Society Exhibition. I am on page six!
http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/pastel-society-annual-exhibition-2017
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Getting away from the Subject in Pastel
Spring on the Windowsill, pastel on paper 23 x 24 1/2 |
Getting the paper ready was troublesome as it pulled at the tape so I had to soak it and gesso it before I could even begin. Nevertheless I drew for a few hours yesterday and then all afternoon today. There were many times when I wanted to abandon it. I find inventing part of a drawing in pastel, well, nearly impossible. Although I resolved this, as anticipated, it lands just this side of twee. Maybe I'll find a new 'blue room' tomorrow.
Monday, January 30, 2017
Painting an 'afterthought'
Blue Room Afterthought, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm, |
Although I intended to take down the blue room today, I just had to get one last long look at it before I did. In front of the table I had made (out of piled up boxes, a board and some fabric) is a chair. On the chair is some more fabric, draped, and I sat on the chair at the start of last week to be photographed. The artist becomes her still life. The chair, the cloth and the memory of the photography session hanging around the room between the subject and my easel. What if I took a few steps back? What if I shamelessly let everyone see that it was something I had set up in my studio, not something I happened upon?
Today after drawing group I intended to do a quick painting on a small canvas. I have said over and over that I want to paint more and one way I thought that might happen was if I did more quick studies, alla prima painting in my colourist way. The 'blue room' beckoned. I think, because I'd explored it in detail, over time, I was happy to use shorthand and the shapes and a way of decribing their textures guided me in this afterthought..
Sunday, January 29, 2017
I think it's just about finished - Blue Poppies on Table
Blue Poppy on Table |
Below are the earlier versions. I wouldn't say the reproduction colour is perfect in any of them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)