Pushing

Life has been a bit hectic lately, so I haven't done or read as much as I would have liked to as far as art goes. I've been told to push my work further, so in the bottom sketches I started with a blue ink drawing and then pushed it further into a colour study. I still have further ideas on what to do next (in process) but interestingly enough, I seem to be pushed for time. Last week I visited the the Isle of Iona. A tiny but beautiful place. It goes without saying that I saw the Iona Abbey while there. The Abbey Cloisters had some amazing carvings, particularly the above, which I found out today were done by Scottish sculptor, Chris Hall. - http://www.chrishallsculptures.co.uk/index.htm. I was also struck with the care and beauty of the carvings/stonework on some of the tomb lids that have been placed in a building in the Abbey complex (am assuming to protect them from the elements). There are a couple in particular that I don't think I'll forget.

Light/Dark

I've been getting back into the swing of art classes since coming back. Had a great time a couple of weeks back working with oil bar and pencil . The picture on the left is a bit awry but I was told that was part of its charm. As far as exhibitions go, I recently went to the Joseph Turner exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland. Joseph Turner loved Italy and by the look of his work he loved the Italian sun! What I liked most about his work is how the light is pre-eminent, so much so, that one of his Venetian paintings is so bright that the buildings are barely visible. The painting on the right here is Venice: Shipping Moored off the Riva delgi Schiavoni, which I like because of the strong light/dark contrast. Another exhibition I went to recently was David Martin at the The Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh, which was based on his travels in Ethiopia. His work was so vivid, rich with texture and I think done with great skill and energy. I was insanely jealous because he is only a few years older than me!

Rocks at Yass

Inspired by my brother-in-law's lino prints of Japanese style mountains, I travelled the Yass country side with my sister for landscapes I could sketch and then convert into lino cuts. Well, perhaps not travelled so greatly. We only needed to head out to the local watering hole for this rock inspired lino cut and out onto the road to Wee Jasper for some amazing rolling hills, winding roads and tree dotted landscapes. Lino cuts of which I am still to cut.

Last day term 2

And so ended term 2. Looking back over my blog, I think that these are a definite improvement on last term. I think I'm starting to get the drift of flesh tones and how colour is traced through a work to move a person's eye in and through the work. If only my camera could capture the images a bit better, or should I be truthful and say that if only my hands could be steady, I could stop the blur! Off to Oz tomorrow. Unpacked and pretty much unprepared, but by some miracle hopefully all will sort itself out by the time the plane is ready to leave. Looking forward to seeing my wonderful family and Oz friends, together with lots of opportunities to get my visual diary happening once more. Adios Scottish amigos, or should that be au revoir?

Self-portraits

I am currently reading a fascinating book by Frances Borzello titled Seeing Ourselves women's self-portraits. I am only up to the 17th century section but have been utterly inspired already. From women in the 12th century who copied, wrote and illustrated manuscrips and put their own portrait into letters of the alphabet, to Sofonisba Anguissola in the 16th century who depicted herself in self portraits with amazing skill and wit from the age of 12 or so to old age, to Clara Peeters who in the 17th century put distorted reflections of herself at work in the shiny surface of the bowls and jugs in her still-lifes. I was inspired by this and painted a still-life the other day with the aim of putting my reflection in the surface, but got so absorbed, completely forgot to try. Next time! I also really like the self-portrait by Judith Lyester left. Apparently it may have an intellectual programme i.e. the artist is allying herself with the intellectual ideas of her age about the equality of painting to poetry. The author states that Artists claimed that if poetry is a speaking image then painting should be equally respected as mute poetry. The more I get into art, the more I am thinking this may be true. The books also has Self-portrait as 'La Pittura' by Artemisa Gentileschi, the original which I got to see at The Queen's Gallery The Art of Italy The Baroque last week so that was very cool.

Mono prints

Back to class this week. Had a great time with mono prints - rolling ink onto aluminium plates, and tracing onto paper with pastels, pencils and charcoal and then pulling off the paper to see what lay underneath. Sometimes disappointment due to too much ink or not enough, othertimes pleasant surprise at what was revealed. I found myself at one time, for the first time perhaps, lost in the enjoyment of tracing the face of the model and not worrying about the end outcome. This print was done using pastels to trace and I had some comments that it looked like Spring, which was cool.

Skull

I recently bought myself an anatomy book to help out with my life drawing. My sister tells me skulls have been 'in' for a couple of years, and as usual, being the laggard I am, I have only just recently bought myself a skull tshirt. Given this, I thought it might be appropriate to start my anatomy drawing skills with a skull, who somehow seems to look inordinately happy with himself. It must be those nice shiny teeth!