Sketching at the Edges of Abstraction

I know logically that shapes are shapes and a cup or a flower is just a shape of colour, but I think differently about things I can name and use my pastels differently as I draw.  I often feel that my best drawing happens when I am truly confused and can't understand the things I can name so they become simply colours next to each other rather than a hand or a foot or a petal. I hate that feeling, and the confusion isn't always good, but I wonder if it is about a different part of my brain being activated.

This altered sketchbook (using soft pastel) is about the edges where figurative and abstract mark making meet. I have said before that making fused plastic is a playful part of my practice where I am freed to respond and which is more like solving a puzzle than drawing.  It is intuitive and does require careful looking, but it isn't as rooted in eye-hand coordination, it is more about discovery. As I progress through the altered sketchbook, will it be possible to combine the two in a different kind of drawing?

Last year I made a series of pastel drawings where I combined still life objects with some of  my painted paper collages, drawing about the two together.  They were surprising. Is this a direction that could be intriguing?

These are the last two of my dining on plastic pieces.  You can see more about them and the other from previous weeks at that blog here:
.http://diningonplastic.blogspot.co.uk

Mozarella and Mangoes at the Pier

Carrots Downriver

Still Life by Colour

Yellow and Pink, 23 x 25cm, pastel on paper

While running my 30 minutes this morning, I decided to put myself under a new kind of pressure. I made no New Years resolutions this year but am chipping away at the things that need changing anyway. 

A few days ago I saw a twitter feed about a sketchbook open submission and I have been debating whether I could finish my altered pastel sketchbooks in time for the deadline.  Finishing them would have meant altering my course with the two that I have on the go. One is life drawings and the other is landscapes in Maine.  This morning I decided to attempt to make a new altered book sketchbook focused on whatever I was working on in the studio, so studies, after studies and related things and experiments. As I was looking at the set up I had made (the one with the orange and green) I considered how even as I was setting the still life up I kept thinking: THESE ARE NOT MY COLOURS. I wondered whether still life set-ups intentionally focusing on colour would teach me anything or lead my anywhere. 

Yellow and Pink was fun to compose.  Who knew I had any yellow. The big yellow motif behind the flowers is a plastic bag I found while walking.  The yellow things are lemons.

altered sketchbook still life by colour and experiments P 1 & 2

I started the altered sketchbook in Glasgow at Christmas but I hadn't had the time I envisaged and it went nowhere, so I began again leaving a little of what was there before.

Back from Mall Galleries

Pauline and I arrived at the Mall Galleries for the private view of the Pastel Societies' annual exhibition before 5 pm on Monday.  That gave us time to look around and try to find people whose work we admired. I was delighted to find my pastel eye height in the first room, above a pastel I had particularly liked from the catalogue. I had a label with my name on it and the words, exhibitor. Everyone was welcoming and the atmosphere was wonderful.  The room filled so that we were all pressed in to hear Jeanette Hayes (Pastel Society President) and Michael Portillo (Chairman of the Federation of British Artists) speak. 

Talking to Keith Bennett, the artist of the pastel below mine.

Michael Portillo

Spicy Vermillion - pastel on paper, 25 x 23cm,  Feb 2017

Yesterday and today I began making pastels again, with the hope that something will satisfy me enough to enter again next year!

The quiet of Emily

13.5 x 14 cm

 Our models are all very different. With one, you might get the feeling that you have caught them in the moment between something else; another tells a story with a shoulder.  With Emily, it's as though she stops time. Today I was using the side of my pastel to approximate areas of colour and light.  I used my eraser very little and just drew over to make adjustments.  I like the loose peaceful feel of some of what I drew. The first four sketches are ten minute poses.  The last was 25 mins.  

13.5 x 14cm

13.5 x 14cm

16 x 16 cm

16 x 15.5 cm

Visiting Parndon Mills

After Parndon Mill series of 9 matted fused plastic collages (A6 )

Pamela Yeend and I went with Jane Lewis to Parndon Mill on Friday.  http://www.parndonmill.co.uk/gallery/current-exhibition-gallery

Jane Lewis and Caroline Fish have a show that is on now and I wasn't able to go to the opening a few weeks ago, so I was delighted to get there.  Making the journey with two artists was perfect. Parndon Mill is in Harlow and it takes 1 1/2 hrs from Boxford, where Jane lives.  It was a long day, but wow was it worth it! Sally Anderson and Roger Lee, brought the place to life in the 60s and 70s and now it is both a gallery and studios for artists.  Caroline and Jane's work looks stunning together and the setting of the mill is beautiful too. If you live anywhere nearby, it is definately worth visiting, but hurry, the exhibition ends on the 19th of February.

Pamela, Jane and I went on to the Gibberd Gallery next.  There was an open on but the permanent collection was the draw.  It has an eclectic mix of some exciting work from the past. You can see some of it here: http://gibberdgallery.co.uk/index.php/collection/watercolours

After that we went to see Simon Carter's opening at the Minories - also inspiring. 

In response, yesterday I began a new project, the results are above.  Now that I have my own mat cutter, the opportunity to use fragments beckons! I think I am sending these out as mail art.  One thing I discovered was a way of creating Diebenkornesque whites using fused plastic, see the top left, after Parndon Mill IX. 

What I see and what I do

Continuing on with my goal of making regular alla prima paintings, I wanted to think about colour and tone in the window setting and evoke spring in what I looked at. Today has been dreary and I think that's what made me reach for the pink and orange. I'll have to come back to this.  I applied some of the paint with a palette knife and some of the hottest colours in the brightest places need a little care and zing that will only be possible once things have dried a bit.

Strawberry and Orange Feast, oil on canvas, 20 x 20cm

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.