St Ives





St Ives. What can I say, except that the week I have just spent there in the sun, overlooking Porthmeor beach, eating Cornish pasties, fish and chips and hanging about sketching, was one of the best weeks I have ever had. I was very pleased with myself and got an art pass and went to the galleries and museums in St Ives and also to a few in Penzance. I recommend all, but I particularly loved Leach Pottery in St Ives, with its film made in the 50s showing how the standard ware was made and the shots of Bernard Leach painting the individual pieces with his Asian influenced designs. I was also lucky enough to be there to see an exhibition of Bill Marshall, the first apprentice taken on at the Leach Pottery. In Penzance, there was a Walter Langley and Birmingham Boys exhibition at Penlee House. I initially thought it would not be my kind of thing, but the way Walter Langley had painted the fisher folk in Newlyn, particularly the women, really got to me. Connected with me. He managed to convey the hearts of these women, the sadness and grief when their men did not come back from sea, the support they gave each other, the memories of their lives in their faces. I can't describe it, except to say, the he painted women like he understood them. And poverty too. That there can be dignity in hard working poverty. Before I left for St Ives, one of my friends got me onto using an A6 sketchbook and I found it really easy to use, as it was much easier to carry around and easier to complete a sketch quickly. The first sketch is overlooking the sea at Porthmeor Beach, the green colour of the sea was incredible. The second is of some things in the place I was staying. And the third is of a house/building sitting directly on one of the beaches there.

Trad Chinese Woodblock Printing

Where do I start? Traditional Chinese Woodblock Printing is not easy. It is a mixture of cutting out the black and colour woodblocks (in my case pine), followed by hand painting the ink (for the black block) and watercolour or oils (for the colour block) onto the blocks and then using the back of a spoon or a similar instrument to ease the ink/paint onto the Xuan paper (in this case processed). I definitely learnt that a sharp engraving tool is essential and cutting as deep into the wood as you can before you start gouging out prevents a lot of slippage accidents (had quite a few - but not too noticeable!). Also, preferable not to have a nose that's running when you're chiseling away bending over because that will just drive you mad!! Well, it drove me mad, woe is me, yes I know. But the results some artists can achieve with woodblock printing are absolutely amazing. The woodblock prints below are from contemporary Chinese artists, with the exception of the fourth one, which is of course mine - can you tell - ha ha. Oh well, it was a first attempt and I have SO MUCH to learn, but I am, as always, up for the challenge :). Oh, and the course I went to was fun, hard work and really informative. It was by Suzanne Chong (www.suzannechongart.com) at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh - highly recommend it.

Chen Qi - Lotus No. 5

Chen Qi - Lotus No. 9

Prof Xiang Silou - Mother of Liangshan



Three friends



The Pine Tree



The Bamboo

Three friends of winter. Three pieces of fruit. Three people. Three is one of my favourite numbers, together with seven. I think that two is good, but for some reason, if there are three things, or something happens three times, it seems more concrete. This weekend, I attended a course led by Suzanne Chong on Chinese Brush Painting. It was completely amazing - I really enjoyed it. I never knew bamboo leaves could be so hard to paint or that getting the 5 petals of a plum tree blossom to look good and even is just as difficult. Apparently, the saying is that a plum blossom takes a year to perfect, but bamboo leaves a whole lifetime. The three friends of winter are the pine tree, bamboo and the plum blossom. These plants are a symbol of getting through the hard times; even flourishing and putting forth fruit in the dead of winter. The trees are depicted as old, with tree holes, as this symbolises longevity, strength and power. I definitely learnt that Chinese Brush Painting can look easy, but as soon as I tried it, I realised that it requires a tremendous amount of patience and practise! I also learnt that Xuan paper (raw) absorbs the ink much more readily and gives such a different result to say, standard A4 photocopy paper, that it is sometimes hard to control where the ink bleeds and to get the wash right. Similar to water colours I think - priority - must perfect the consistency of the wash! Here are some of my humble efforts from the weekend.

The Plum Blossom

I also tried oil pastels this week, together with a household candle as a resist for a water colour still life of fruit. I definitely need to do it again, as I messed up the highlights wholeheartedly (didn't have my head screwed on at all this week by any means) and probably went to heavy on the orange (probably because I love orange so much)!  I promise to try again and do a better job of the highlights and resists :).

The Oranges

Masking

So, I think as I mentioned in my last post I've started working through a book I bought called Painting with Watercolours, Oils, Acrylics and Gouache by Wendy Jelbert and Ian Sidaway. I'm still very much into the early stages of the watercolours section. My most exciting purchases to date have been a mop brush and masking fluid. The mop brush cost a bit but makes me happy so it's worth it. The painting above was a quick exercise I did that they have in the book, using the photo of the vase they've published and masking fluid for the pattern. Sometimes I feel that I am painting a bit like paint by numbers but I know me well enough to know that I tend to learn best by example so it's good for me. I like that the top left hand of the picture captures a bit of Tague's 3D buildings, a kid that drew in my sketch book, together with his sister, one day when I was sketching at the Crags.

 

There was another exercise about painting a turnip and a pear. So, knowing my luck that day at the supermarket, they didn't have a whole turnip but only half. I actually ended up appreciating the half better, because it stood as some kind of sentinel over the pear. I am also finding it pretty interesting watching how quickly it shrivels in comparison to the pear. A strong timeless turnip becomes a withered crinkly one. The shadows and washes are not the best. I'm still finding it quite difficult to mix the right volume of the wash first up, and get the water to pigment consistency right. Next up are resists and oranges - I love the colour orange! 

Travels

Brunelleschi's Dome - fresco designed by Vasari & Zucchari

Head of Medusa - Caravaggio

Lino cut - Fire extinguisher print

Harden, NSW - Bridge sketch

So as I stand here listening to Higher State of Consciousness by Josh Wink (Winx), an old track but one I'm still in awe of, as if I just heard it yesterday, I'm reflecting on the past few months since I last posted. Or I have been reflecting. I've decided it is time to stop thinking and just do what I need to do. Get on with it. To be honest, I have barely "done" much art lately.

In Italy, I saw some of the most amazing frescoes (particularly Brunelleschi's Dome in Florence - designed by Vasari and Zucchari), paintings, had a conversation with an Italian artist in Italy, Verdirosi, when all I could speak was 5 words of Italian and somehow I understood his theme, what his work was about. I also saw some of the most amazing scenery and things so old, that I am astounded with the care and love of craftsmanship that these buildings and monuments are still standing. I have gained a new love of Caravaggio's work. His Head of Medusa (above), which was on exhibition on the Uffizi gallery in Florence of course blew me away. Some of the facial expressions he has in his paintings are completely unexpected; take Boy Bitten for a Lizard for example. I bought a number of art books I have to read.

And yes, I am finally getting my act together and going to work through a painting book to improve my technical skills. Which I will post as I go. When I got back from my travels I did a weekend course on lino printing (I like colour so chose the red fire extinguishers). I also did a few hours quick sketching in Harden, in New South Wales (I liked the bridge). I've got some art courses coming up early this year which I am very much looking forward to. Apologies for the long ramble of this post, but something in me wanted to speak so speak I must!

The Crags

So I'm thinking my latest project is drawing one of the places I love most in Edinburgh, the Crags, with a view to doing some printmaking over winter. I wanted to draw so much more this summer, but other things it's true have taken precedence. I think I love the Crags even more when it's windy and the clouds are dark, mixed with some patches of white and it's all a bit wild just before it begins to rain.

Freedom

This is my final piece relating to the last blog post I wrote, which was all the way back in May. I read in a book, The Creative Gift by HR Rookmaaker, that freedom is not freedom from something but freedom to do something, freedom to act (to paraphrase). When I did this piece I was thinking about freedom from depression. Freedom from slavery, freedom from fear, but what about freedom to stop slavery, freedom to stop fear. I think that there's just something so much more powerful about using "to" instead of "from". How great it would be to always want to run to and not from something.