Barn Red Boat Shed

We arrived on Cranberry Island yesterday and today was a hot sunny day.  One of the first things I unpack when I arrive is my box of pastels. It sits in the loft of the barn and is a series of little boxes organised by colour with lots of little pieces of pastels from unison to super hard sticks.  I also have some bigger sets which I borrow from. I brought some pads from England but for some reason when I created a few pastel/alcohol grounds before setting out, the paper buckled.  In the end I used a smooth water colour pad that I had earmarked for gouache collages instead.


It was afternoon when I had my first opportunity to do some drawing. What with the heat and the start of the mosquito season, I was not ready to step outside the confines of the garden fence. As I walked through the garden, I noticed that red barn on the shore is more visible than last year and thought it had plenty of complexity to help me switch off what Matt Khan calls, 'conscious intent or calculation'.  Today I limited myself to seven colours and then added a dark brown to get a darker value. It was slow going to begin with, in fact I was working pretty randomly at first, but once I had lots of colour down and started using my eraser I began to enjoy myself. It was that big pink woodchip path and those conifers that marked the turning point. the silver young silver birches helped me find the calligraphy.
I decided to ignore the fence. Elizabeth Mowry's advice, 'nature requires editing for the sake of clarity' is helpful to remember even when it's a fence not just a digitalis leaf. Last year the fence dominated. 

Always great to be back on Cranberry Island and to take my easel outdoors!

Distracted by plastic

My studio is clean and I have lots coming up later this week so the only thing I could fit in (between the usual mail art distraction) was a little plastic fusing. Not long ago I found a deflated balloon on the edge of a field and pocketed it. The worn gold was the starting point for this.  

I have been re-reading a couple of pastel books, looking for words for my workshop on Friday and Wolf Khan's use of 'calligraphy' was playing in my mind as I intuitively worked.

Pasteling Over

I arrived late at my drawing group today, caught behind a tractor.  The first pose had already begun. It was a ten minute pose and I didn't think it would be worth it to use a piece of my prepared paper so I found a pastel that wasn't working and began to transform it into a new person, a new pose, new light.  In the past I have wiped the old image away and have been left with a muddy background.  This time I simply began working on top. I did that all morning and these were the most successful products.   I like the feeling of time and the richness of the layering.

Light differently

Not so long ago I had some surgery so I could get the full quota of light into my eyes again.  Since then I have been seeing light differently.  I am not sure if colour is different too but I am aware of light inside and outside more.  Transitions are sharper.  Lately I have been using monotypes indoors and pastels outdoors to say something about light.

Afternoon light

While walking the dog today, I noticed a few local places that I want to draw.  I intended to pack my plein air easel, a pad and some drawing materials and return to one spot when I passed the newly opened silver birch that is just unfurling its leaves at the front of our house.

I find the Suffolk landscape too open.  I like to look through and to make sense of confusion.  Maine is perfect for that.  It turns out Suffolk can be too.  And today I didn't have to take my easel far. There is nothing better than chasing the afternoon light across the page… When I started the planes in the grass were stark and linear. Later they were more like zebra stripes and the shadow on the house repeated the triangle at the bottom.  Magic!

Repeating a pose

The format of my weekly life drawing group has changed. For one, there is no more tea. Sigh. because of this, the fixed timings are no longer fixed.  After break we used to have two twenty minute poses. Now the break is ten minutes and at no particular time, so it's a little more fluid. Today the consensus was to do a series of the same three poses three times.  Timings were 2, 5 and 15 minutes. Of course the poses weren't exactly the same.  The top drawing is 6 x 6 and was a 15 minute pose.  the two altered book pages (5 x 8) were each 5 minutes.  The bottom drawing 4.5 x 8.5 was another 15 minute pose.   

Sun Trap (painted paper collage) 17 x 24 cm

While getting ready for my first exhibition at The Freudian Sheep https://www.facebook.com/freudiansheep?fref=nf, a gallery in Ipswich that shows work by local 'upcoming' artists I've been making painted paper collages and fused plastic. When I took pieces to Jo Hollis (who frames my work), I wondered about working on thicker paper.  This is my first experiment on a thick watercolour paper I had on hand. It's possible to float the piece and avoid the wrinkled feel of lighter paper. I also tried tearing, rather than cutting here.

After visiting the Diebenkorn exhibit at the RA, I felt I wanted to work bigger in fused plastic.  This has been problematic because pieces don't always want to lie flat and I am not sure about how well they will hang. I experimented with sewing and gluing them onto paper and flattening them under books but the movement was compromised. I was able to make some bigger work eventually.  This piece is glued onto foam board.

Solar Yoga (Fused Plastic Collage) 23 x 26 cm