I have come to the conclusion I definitely going in the wrong direction with my work at the moment. If something is taking me forever to complete, its usually because I am not happy with what I am doing. The Jakarta placemat project is not going very far at the moment. I have found other things where I can block out any creative decisions. At the moment, its is trying to organise my google photos so I can print them out and create a scrapbook of memories, instead of them lingering aimless in some cloud. Life is very blah at the moment. We don’t eat out, we don’t really do anything and has been 3 yrs since I was able to visit London. I am

Even Instagram is not interesting me at the moment and that is my favourite app! That’s it really, just an update.

So the end of the year is fast approaching and its been 3 months since I wrote on here. Unfortunately that depression just got worse as the months went by as it became apparent and then confirmed that Donald Trump was going to win the Presidency 😦

I will admit that shook me to my core. I have lived in the US for nearly 17 yrs now but I have very little contact with other Americans but listening to the folks I do know, it seemed that although they wouldn’t vote for Clinton, they wouldn’t vote for Trump either. Living in Texas, you know most people will vote republican and they would vote down ballot as republican but Trump was just a step too far. They would leave that blank. So I thought it would be close and Clinton might squeak in. I wasn’t convinced she was well, health wise (even before her collapse) , so although she was a flawed candidate  who would be subject to intense house battles, if she died in office, they had an OK VP in Tim Kaine. In the last weeks of the campaign it seemed to reverse, Trump might sneak at least a tie in the electoral college . But it was not a tie or even just a small electoral college win but a large win  😦 although he massively lost the popular vote.  Since then his actions via twitter and his cabinet picks have done nothing to allay my fears for the future.

Unfortunately, the Democrats still don’t seem to realise they lost because of Clinton, who for some reason the American public don’t like ( its been a hateful relationship since before she was even first Lady it seems and nothing she did was right for some reason, I don’t understand it myself). However, for an outsider (I was in the UK during the Clinton yrs) it was pretty obvious Clinton was not liked even during the non campaigning years ( 2012 -2014)  or she would have beaten Obama 8 yrs ago but the DNC seemed to think it was her ‘turn’ by rights. There are no options like that in politics, Gordon Brown found that out in the UK. You are a winner or a loser but not an heir apparent. Obviously the FBI actions and the Russians had a hand in it but she had lost months before when it was revealed the DNC had contrived to have her win the  nomination, making it obvious to any other candidates they would not get their support regardless of how good they might have been.  In re-electing Nancy Pelosi  minority leader of the House of Representatives, its obvious they don’t know what to do still and will now probably  follow the path of the UK Labour party’s downfall in the UK, where they seem to be in complete disarray despite a very weak Tory party.

Of course my personal bug bear, is Julian Assange. I hope he is happy because he will most definitely be stuck in that room for the next 4 yrs because Trump will definitely have him arrested if he leaves that building. He is a despicable human being in my eyes and deserves everything he gets. He might have started out with admirable intent (not convinced of that) but he has definitely warped into something else now.

My biggest disappointment is that someone like Trump got elected in the first place. Although he didn’t win the popular vote, a sizable number people did believe in his overwhelmingly hateful message, there was nothing positive about his platform.  I felt the same about the Brexit vote although I could see why British people felt overwhelm by the immigration issue.  This country is based on immigration! Trump’s parents were the result of that policy! His mother was Scottish for heaven’s sake and his both of his grandparents were German!  Of course, his campaign has revealed the not too underground current of racism in this country.

Anyway, that view from here. To be honest, the UK doesn’t look any better and its dog eat dog time in the world. Very depressing.  I would like to bury my head in the sand for the next few years but that would be irresponsible. I will just keep my fingers crossed that things aren’t as bleak as they currently look.

My next blog will be pictures (that had been my intention) I promise and I will be more upbeat!

Well, not much has changed since I last wrote other than I have started to learn how to make bobbin lace. For something that has two basic moves Full stitch and half stitch, its surprisingly difficult.  Not sure where it going to take me, if anywhere, yet but I am enjoying learning how to do it, even if it frustrating how slow my brain is these days.

This has taken up most of my time and to be honest, I am still suffering from a creativity block . So I have decided to take it by the horns and make myself produce something everyday for July. I am planning to use the paintings I have done recently at the plein air group and use them as a starting block using various mixed media. I am not going to make the mistake of deciding exactly how that is going to work as I think that was my mistake with the last piece I made

Lastly my sweet Mo went for her final sleep on Friday. She was a very sweet cat who gave us years of loving attention. Unfortunately her last years were blighted by uncurable IBS and she went from a sturdy cat to a very frail 5lb cat. We will miss you Mo.

and I don’t know why.

I have lost all enthusiasm for everything. Working in the studio is a chore. I walk with my son’s dog in the morning and see some beautiful wild flowers. I think I really should paint or draw these beauties but by the time I get back home, that desire has gone. It hasn’t helped that there has been torrential rain for the last 10 days but there have been sunny days, it wouldn’t be Texas otherwise, so I have no excuse for not going out.

I have attended a couple of paint outs with the Austin group since I last wrote.

 

The above was done at Georgetown, a small town about 15 miles north of Pflugerville.  It was organised by the local historical society and there was a little art show a week later to display everyone’s effort. I have shown my work exactly once in public, so I wasn’t too sure about doing it again. But as it was an important show for the group (good advertisement for them), so I decided to participate. There were about 25 pieces in all and I think about 75% were sold, there was one display  unit that was completely sold. I must admit to feeling disappointed there was no red dot by my piece and I suspect this is the reason for my reluctant to show work (apart from laziness, of course). The fear, it wont be liked. Much as I can say, like I did to my son at the weekend, I don’t care what people think, deep down, of course I do.

My last effort to paint was at Mayfield park near the centre of Austin, another paint out with the group. It was mobbed with families and one time I had to stop a child from dipping their fingers into the paint! In the background were loud booms from explosions and artillery fire as they were re-staging an war time event at the Camp Mabry which is less than a ¼ mile from the park. Also in the back ground were peacocks who shrilled loudly every time  there was an explosion or burst of artillery was fired . All in all, not the best place to paint. I failed miserably. I went back on the Tuesday before the rain arrived  but I only made the painting worse!  I don’t think I  could be an urban sketcher/painter somehow, I would get too distracted!

I couldn’t and I can’t cope with all the different foliage that was there, plus my scale was off. I had made the archway too narrow.

The main project I have worked on since I last wrote, is a mixed media work based on a photo I took when I was in France last year.  In theory I had plenty of time to sketch while I was in France and it probably would have been a welcome relief to all the house clearing and visiting of my parents. But I didn’t so, in the week Gordon was there, I decided to take random photos of the countryside as we drove between the nursing home and the recycling dump with the intention to use them some way in my art.

So its all a distance memory now and to be honest, one that I am quite willing to consign to history as it was not a good time.

I started with a small painting as this was basically an experiment as I had a kernel of idea as I scanned in all the old photos my parents had.

I then embroidered extensively over all over the surface. I could have gone on and on to be honest but I got to the stage where I needed to experiment.

I placed a large piece of cheesecloth(scrim in the UK) over the whole canvas and attempted to needle felt over the embroidery. It was not a success!   I had tried a smaller area on the red house and road way when I realised the canvas was too thin for the process, so I had added a large piece of black felt on the back. as I embroidered the rest of the piece.

Not a great idea. The felt was a good idea but not in black as it started  to show through to the front. Unfortunately the cheesecloth was not a great fabric to use with  needle felting machine as the needles were getting caught up and snapping. I probably went through about 25 needles just to get this small piece done and as I envision a much larger work, I will need to go back to the drawing board

Although I am probably finished with this particular piece, I am going to do one more process to it. Put it in the washing machine when I do my next load of washing.  It will have to go with a dark load as no doubt the red will run ( the colours from experience are no colour fast). It will wreck it but I will be interested to see how it turns out. Maybe I can work on it further once that process is done.

So that has been my month, not a great one. I am unsure of where I am going next. I should probably give up this blogging and Instagram as I see so much good work on both platforms, so it is making me insecure in my own work. Maybe I am just trying too hard and I should stick to painting. I had a total of 15 visitors on this blog last month and my daily average is 1.6 (255 visitors for the year, so my viewers are disappearing as the months go by), so I am basically  writing into thin air However, I have been doing this for so many years now, its hard to give up and really I write to remind myself to what I was thinking/feeling over the years. I have definitely developed an addiction to Instagram. Not a good thing as it only makes me hanker for things that I are beyond my scope. Makes yearn for London, Glasgow, big cities,art and not my 4 walls. Need to visit the Blanton again, been years since I have been there. I doubt much as changed though 😦

My Instagram page – Jacqui Boyd Alden

 

I started this blog post about 2 weeks ago and never got around to finishing it. Text in blue will be start from 2 weeks ago and the rest now.

view of Oxford Street from bus. London always busy.

Well, I have not done much  since my last post as I flew to London to celebrate my Dad’s 80th birthday.  This time last year, we didn’t even know if he would survive the week, much less to his 80th Birthday as he had a huge stroke. Thankfully he survived and it was so good to see him looking healthy and happy.

It was pretty much a last minute decision to go and I had no real plans other than to visit my Dad and Mum plus meet up with a good friend. It was by oft chance that I spotted that Eileen Cooper had a new show opening the day after I arrived in London. Definitely not an opportunity to miss 🙂

Before I went to Rook and Raven Gallery  I had arranged to meet a good blogger friend and we saw the Botticelli show at the V&A. I am not sure I am a fan of his work in general  but it was an interesting spin of his work, with modern day and Victorian interpretations of his famous themes. A lot of Venus.  Before meeting up with Heather I had a brief visit to some of the other galleries in the V&A 

After an enjoyable lunch with Heather I went to the Rook and Raven gallery. It appeared to closed but it said to ring a bell if the door was locked. So I did. This was pretty amazing for me as I have a fear of private art galleries, especially West End ones, so ringing that bell was a huge step for me. Turned out the show started with an opening reception that night but the lady who opened the door who happened to be the curator of the show was kind enough to let me in.   We had a good conversation about the work, how it came about and how they had decided to hang the work.

The official opening was in the evening, so I returned, I admit, in the hope I would meet the artist. She actually remember me which is amazing as we have only met in person once and that was in 2007! I have a terrible time with remembering names or faces, so I did not say anything to the curator who having looked her up on the internet appears to have Aretha Campbell. She was really busy anyway. She must have thought I was terribly rude but better than saying ‘thanks for the talk this afternoon’ to a complete stranger!  Apart from the artist, I didn’t know one other person so I imagine I stuck out like a sore thumb as most people seemed to talking in groups rather than looking at the art work.  Again unlike my usual self, I suddenly found myself talking to a complete stranger who turned out to be Scottish artist June Redfern with her partner. I was drawn to them as I recognised June’s Scottish accent.  I didn’t know June’s work but I had heard of her ( I must have seen something in the Scottish papers when I lived there). 

As to the work itself, I was bowled over by it. I have been a fan of Eileen Cooper’s work since about 1987 when I saw an article about her in the Artist and Illustrators magazine. This new work has such vibrancy in it and the colours were so rich.  It seems like she has had a rebirth of joy and love in her work as the last few years the work seems to have been about anxiety and lost.  I wish I could own at least one of these works and if I had to chose it would be the star of the show – love in Idleness.  However, a late addition to the show were 2 lino prints which were amazing and I wouldn’t mind having one of those on my wall. They were big though, especially for a lino-cut.

Unfortunately that was the last art I saw during the trip but it just makes me hungry to visit the UK again.  Next time I will write about the work I have done since the trip and where I am hoping to go with it.   

Much of the beginning of the month was not very creative as I was scanning in old photos for my Dad as an aid for his speech therapy. It was good to look at all the old photos especially of my Grand-parents as they have been gone for a long time now and all we have are memories. But we are luckier than other generations because we have all these wonderful photos. I wish I had photos of my great grandparents as well.

This morning I joined up up with a group of like minded artists and sketched on a busy street in Austin in an area called Hyde Park. It still has some character which is sadly disappearing as Austin gets larger by the day.

I am not use to this type of working and it is daunting to working out in the public but it was surprising how easy it was to forget about all the people milling around as I struggled to work out what I was doing.  It was a bit like doing a puzzle.

 

I started by putting down an acrylic under-painting. I had forgotten to pack my pencils so did a very quick pen outline before I started. I knew from the beginning I just wanted to concentrate on the shapes and colours, so I kept it very loose. I ended working on it for an hr and 40 mins.

Working outside is still very much a work in progress. I am still overwhelm with all the information that is in front of me which was pretty obvious as I worked on this. It was like working on a jigsaw puzzle. You put down one mark and then as you work, it is obvious that previous mark is in the wrong place.  The light today was also not the best with a grey drizzle which flatten out everything. If I had been painting this yesterday, the building would have had clearly delineated sides. Today, there was barely a colour shift on the top part of the building.

By the time we left the place was really getting busy with the lunchtime crowd as there were about 4 restaurants in the immediate area and the red car had left a good while before.

So now I have to figure out how this practice is going to work into the direction I am working at home. At the moment, I am still working on the bjp project but that should be finished by the end of this week (end of Feb) and then I am going to start a felt project project using the sketches I have been doing over the past year.  I am also considering using the still life paintings I did last year. I am ready to move onto the next stage.

Next Thursday we are going to a wedding revenue in the Hill Country which had lots of landscape plus traditional buildings. Weather is meant to be good so should be a good day for painting.

This has got to be first for me, completed a piece (only took 5 yrs), started a new work and finished a drawing all before the 6th Jan 2016!

Above is the finished beaded journal page I started in 2011 and never quite finished.  Here is a link to a previous blog post I had made about this 2010 Beaded Journal project

Part of the reason I have gone back to this project is that I decided I have to embrace this side of my creative side. Before I have dismissed it as just a hobby but I get a real feeling of creativity when I am working with all the arms of my artistic abilities. I am a rank amateur in regards of embroidery,beading, sewing or fabrics. However, somehow that is freeing as I don’t have any rules to conform to that seems to block my path with painting and drawing.

Of course, these days there are no rules to break with art but when I was at college, painting was still painting, ceramics were pots (sorry that was the extent of my knowledge then, thankfully I know better now), textiles, what are  they?  Actually my interest in textiles started at Camberwell which had an excellent forwarding thinking textile course. Until I did my foundation course I had never really thought about textiles but by the time, it came around to applying for a degree course, I was split between doing painting or textiles, I knew I had a guaranteed place on either course at Camberwell, so it was a hard decision.  As I knew nothing about other textile courses and I eager to leave home, I chose painting as that is why I did the foundation course. I must have been mad, leave London for a provincial school but it was the only way I could leave home and study, LOL.

I don’t regret not doing a degree in textiles but I do wish I had known about the Embroiders’ Guilds courses when I lived in the UK. Now I just have to content myself with their excellent magazine Embroidery.  I am amazed by the quality of work that is produced and it has genuinely inspired my move back to working with beads, fabric and embroidery.

So I decided as way back into this frame of mind, I would complete the remaining 3 pages of the 2010 Beaded Journal Project. Above is the current page I am working on. I had already started the felting on this piece , so it was easy to pick it up and restart. I began by felting a little bit more and now I am on the embroidery stage. It still has a way to go before it is complete.

However, unlike my previous forages into this medium, I will not be working exclusively within it. During the months in France  I took loads of photographs randomly as I travelled around where my parents lived.  Already I was thinking along the lines of incorporating all the various elements together. The fun and daunting aspect was and is, I have no idea how I am going to do it. I have various ideas of how to do it but it will be a trial and error journey.

Above is a oil pastel painting I did yesterday, based on the same image as the beaded journal I am currently doing.  I rediscovered oil pastels over during the time I was doing the advent project. When I was a student, along with Carah d’ache Neocolors II, oil pastels were my favourite medium.  Being a student, I could only afford the craft shop oil pastels which were readily available in most shops with art materials which were the Guitar oil pastel brand. Looking them up just now and it seems there is quite a trade in vintage pastels of this brand. I still have a few of my old pastels left but they are well used and quite hard compared with the brand I am using at the moment, Sennelier which are very rich and creamy.

So 2016 is going well so far.  Don’t forget to keep track of my work on instagram  Jacqui Boyd Alden where I posting on an almost daily basis and my Facebook page

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 750 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 13 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

I did not work on my main project that I revived last month as I knew I would have little time to concentrate on any real creative juices to flow.

So decided to do my usual 24 days of Advent. I am not really religious but I always enjoyed the countdown via an Advent Calendar where you open a window a day. Later it included Chocolates. By the time I was 9 or 10 the chocolates disappear well before Christmas eve, the last day before the real event- Presents!

Unlike most years where I only manage a few days, I actually did all 24 days, although a couple of them were a day late in publishing via Instagram.  I really enjoyed doing them, particularly the last few original pieces.

After tidying up my studio from the chaos of gifts and wrapping paper, I am now back to the Calendar project. I hope to be finished with that at the last by the end of January.

Don’t forget to check out my Instagram page as I will post most general pictures there.

 

 

Well, its been a month since I last wrote and slowly the depression I was suffering from is lifting and life is getting back on track. When I was younger, I didn’t realise I suffered from depression but now I know its a family trait and I let it takes it course. Mine has fairly routine aspect to it as I notice I will have a period of greyness (its not dark or threatening) that will always appear about the end of August or the middle of September when the weather here can be oppressive.  It would worry me at first but now I just go with the flow and know that there is always a light at the end.  Other times it will just suddenly descend and again I just have to suck it up and get through it. Occasionally I will need medical help but that only really happened when my Son was going through a difficult teenage period. Art has always been there to help me through as even if I am not painting, drawing or whatever else, I crave to see good art even if its only on the internet. Recently I took up running and that seems to have a similar effect. So although I really don’t like running I will keep it up as long as I can.

Unfortunately I have not got back into the daily sketching routine. I do intend to take it up again but it needs to come back in its own time. For the moment I am taking sojourn from painting and returning to a more textile based art.  I am really excited by this but realised as I have not really worked in this medium for a while, that I needed to ease myself back into that mode. So I have taken up a project I started with the Beaded Journal group  in 2010. I really didn’t realise it had been that long ago that I started this.  I am pretty much self taught in regard to anything to do with beads, embroidery and material so it doesn’t put the same restraints I put on myself with painting.  So the bead project has 2.5 pages to complete.  I am currently on October  and this is what it looked like at the beginning of the month.

I began by removing a whole load of beads.I then started hand embroidering the lake/sea but it wasn’t getting the effect I wanted, so then I free machine stitched the right side of the picture. I also removed a lot of the felt.  Now I working on the trees with some hand embroidery.

It is slow work but very meditative. I put on my ipod and listen to several hours of music and podcasts.  My 2 favourites at the  moment are the British History ones and a BBC podcast called Art and ideas.  I try not to listen to the news too much, just an hour or 2 to keep abreast of what is going on in the US and sometimes, if impinges on the US universe, world news. I want to put my head in the sand and cut out all the horrible things going on in the world at the moment.

This the current stage of my project and I expect to finish this page by the end of the week.

Not a great image as I am without a camera again. (using my tablet camera which isn’t great)  Obviously something I need to add to my Christmas list this year (again) I have gone through about 4 cameras in the past 6 yrs!

As this is slow work I have decided to restart using my instagram account to keep up a daily progress diary. I have also discovered that Instagram is a great place to fine other artists working in mixed media, drawing, painting and textiles. Yet another addiction for me to contain. I have also created a Facebook page just for my artwork however, I really haven’t worked on it it yet.  There is link to my instagram page on the sidebar. Once I have sorted out the Facebook account I will link to that.

I have nothing new at the moment. I briefly sketched today but a wasp drove me away. It was meant to be the beginning of  new project based on the Cap Metro Rail line that goes though Austin and some parts of Cedar Park, that started in 2010. It is only one line but it goes through some pretty diverse neighbourhoods.

I haven’t really drawn since the middle of September when the weather just became unbearable as it was still in the high 90’s. Even for this area, that was well above the norm.  So today with the temperature actually below normal with the arrival of north wind and the remnants of Hurricane Patricia gone, it was the perfect day to draw. So I went to the station that was nearest to us, Howard Lane. Its about 3 miles from my house

This is the view I chose as it was in the shade and there was a seat. Even with the temperature in the 70’s it would have been easy to get sun burnt and as you can see, there was not a lot of shade to be had.  It is also not the most inspiring view to draw, so when the wasp arrive and didn’t want to leave, it gave me an adequate excuse to depart with a half arsed drawing.

So I am not sure I will pursue this particular project. I know I want to move away from the landscape drawings I have been doing and I love buildings as I am at heart a big city person. However, Pflugerville is not the most interesting town to live it. Apart from the old town which is typical Americana of the early 20th century, it does not have much character being mostly new build homes in the US standard. In the last count, the city has nearly 48,000 residents and it has grown 93.40% since 2000, the year we moved here in fact. That makes it larger than Kilmarnock which I thought was a fairly large city in Scotland but Pflugerville has none of the character or history that Kilmarnock has. So the idea of the commuter rail came to me as a way of moving into a more urban setting. It has a strong emotional link as my childhood and early adulthood was spent travelling the tube or buses in London. I still might go with the idea but I think I need to explore the line more before I commit myself.  Austin itself is very interesting but unfortunately it is quickly disappearing into a maze of new high rises as the city grows. Without the older buildings it will soon be just another big  US city which is a shame.

I also have the dilemma of where I am going with all this work and I think is reflected in the chaos which is currently my studio. Quite frankly its a mess and it has been for several months. For the last 6-4 weeks I have largely avoided it which is easy as it is upstairs. I think I am closer to resolving that issue and it is probably going to involve moving back to mixed media projects as I am naturally drawn to that type of work.

Anyway that’s the update for now and hopefully normal service will resume soon.

Notes:9/16/2015 time 4.20pm No network connection About 87c Time for a quick sketch before I get burnt.

Time:  4.47 A very broad interpretation. Curious effect to standing next to water, makes me seasick with the motion

My usual inertia hid me after my morning training run and before I knew it I had wasted a complete day. So I decided that despite the heat and humidity, I would go to Pflugerville Lake when I went shopping. I actually did my shopping before I drew as I popped into Walmart to get a new acto knife as I hadn’t put my normal one back into the bag.

There is no shade at the Lake and very few benches so I ended up on a fishing pier. I had brought along my watercolour pad but didn’t feel comfortable balancing a palette on the top of the pier fencing. So I used my aqua pencils but began by doing a light drawing in pencil and I ended up using a fine tipped pen to finish with a few details.

It was  weird experience drawing on the pier which is over the water. After about 10 mins, I was feeling a bit dizzy. At first I thought it was the heat as it was very hot with the sun reflecting off  the water (I had sweat dripping down my face). Then it dawned on me, it was actually the effect of the water motion at the corner of my eyes. I was actually feeling a bit seasick!  I wish I had remembered my hat as it was very difficult to make out the scene due to the strong light from the water and sky. In the end I decided it was best in the short time I had available (I had groceries in a hot car ) just to aim for a quick impression.  Overall I was OK with the result.

In an effort to get rid of my dislike of watercolour, I have signed up for a boot camp at the local art school, The Comptemporary Austin Art School.  I looked up the instructor and although her work is not really to my taste, she looks very proficient  in watercolours. With the coming cooler weather (please October be cool), I am hoping to become more adept in watercolours.

Finally, as I opened the box of aqua pencils, guess what I saw? That’s right the elusive acto knife. Now I have 2 in my bad so no more blunt pencils!

Notes:9/15/2015 12.24pm 82f feels like 88f 27c feels like 31c cloudy with a slight breeze 10/15 mph SE

Ventured out of Pflugerville to place called New Sweden where there is a classic Lutheran church. Used my phone to navigate as I always get lost on the country roads. Once I got there I was in 2 minds about actually drawing but Heck!  I am here so I should do something.

1.25pm 86f feels like 90f  30c feels like 32c

Time to finish. Must remember knife to sharpen pencils – not easy working with blunt pencils.

Almost didn’t go out today as I for some reason I never remember the way to this place with is about a 15 min drive if I get it right. Unfortunately I did not get it right on the way back (I was going to Round Rock which is the next city up from Pflugerville). As it didn’t say left or right on the phone I guessed right and after that I went around in an ever decreasing spiral on the country roads in Travis/Williamson county, only to end up about 1/4 mile from where I started and then it decided that country roads were the best way forward. I never did get to Round Rock, as once I found myself at Hutto ( another town north of Pflugerville) I decided to cut my loses and eat lunch in Pflugerville. However, it did show me some interesting landscape spots if I can ever find my way back!

As you can see the temperatures really haven’t moderated yet. We had a brief 2 days of cooler temperatures over the weekend and from the looks of the forecast, not much is going to change in the next week. Sigh 😦 So if my sketches are infrequent it because I am in a funk about the weather.

This is was only effort this week and I was not happy with it. I tried watercolours again and failed miserably again. It was under the bridge at Swenson Farm Blvd and it was hot. I took a separate small sheet of watercolour paper  (about 4×6 inches)  I managed to lead against the  low wall of a bridge support  and used my stool to balance the watercolour palette plus water.

My notes: Time 11.24  am #22 90f feels like 96f 32c feels like 35c

Under the bridge at Swenson Farm Blvd – only cool spot.

12.25pm  91 feels like 98f  32c feels like 36c 

Yet another failure with watercolour.  Need a bigger sketchbook. Think I will keep this one for drawing and used a bigger pad next time – Lunchtime!

After Monday I really not could face the heat (and sense of failure) and decided it would do me good to take a break for a week, This week I plan to take the car out to the Hill country and explore more of the landscape. We have had a little break for the heat for the last couple of days and it looks like the 100f/38c temps will be history for the rest of this year. Unfortunately it will still be about 95f/ 32c for another few week before the fall temperatures arrive but at least the cooler weather is coming.

So this week I have spend semi reorganising my art room. This is a regular event as (1) I am not that tidy (2) I have a lot of stuff and (3) it allows me to reconsider what I am doing.  Amongst the stuff I have is most of my old art work, which includes my CSE,  O level work and the drawings I did at Camberwell School of art Saturday morning classes. It is good to look at this work as it reminds me that I can draw and the principal of Camberwell was particularly complementary of my drawings.

Then I have my art therapy drawings. In 1992 I began to study Art therapy as post grad subject. As part of the course we had to participate in art therapy sessions with other students. It was a very productive 2 yrs for me in drawings and I would love to recapture that level of spontaneity which was sparked by key words, some of which I recorded on the back of the drawings.  At first I found it difficult to let go but as the sessions when on the more visceral the experience became. My dreams in particular were very vivid in the last year.

It had a profound effect on my relationship with my mother. At first I wasn’t sure it was a good effect as it eventually led to break of 2 yrs and only repaired once we moved to the US. In the end though I had much more honest,loving and to be truthful, more grown up relationship with my Mother . I was also more able to deal with the emotions these memories brought up and relate them to my current life, rather than let them fester in the past. From that I gained more understanding of why my relationship with my mother was different from my sisters and just because they hadn’t experience or reacted to it in the same way, didn’t negate the memory, it was just my memory not theirs. Quite understandably my sisters and I have sometimes butted heads about this, in fact just this summer as it happens. Listening to my own kids, I get the sense of the differences a child within a family can have, often relating to the position they are within that group. Most of the time they have a communal memory but every so often a memory resurfaces that is unique to that child. Anyway before I get myself into trouble I had better finished.

Anyway,

When I was kid, the headteacher at my primary school, described me to my mum as a plodder. Not a flattering term but probably quite accurate.

Notes:Sketch #19 9/02/2015 2.36pm 88f felt like 90f  31c feels like 32c Pflugerville lake beach area  Nice breeze in the air 10 mph. Intended to sketch somewhere else but I missed the exit on the free-way. Then I decided I would to go to the trail at the Travis County sport fields . It is being rebuilt and redesigned!  So last resort here. Sun is strong despite lots of clouds and reflecting off the water- too strong really  to give any real tonal difference to features.  So here goes 2.42 pm

Slight break before I even got started – chap came up for some shade- now 3.07 – 3.37 Sigh:(

So that sketching session didn’t really go so well. The guy just sat and chatted for 30 mins before taking himself off to cool down in the water. He makes an appearance in my sketch 🙂  Then just after that a family arrived with cool boxes and chairs, sitting on the small wall beside the bench where I was seated. It was very obvious they wanted me to leave without actually saying anything. So I made a quick exit and sure enough before I was even 10 yds from the bench, they were already sitting there. Don’t blame them as there are only 2 covered shaded areas on the small beach. There is no shade elsewhere at the lake as its basically a man made reservoir  which has lots of immature trees dotted around. In 10 yrs it might be better.

Notes: – quick sketch before going to sleep. 9/4/2015 #20

12.15pm – my scratching is obviously messing with Gordon’s sleep as he is restless, so time to stop.

So I didn’t sketch on 3rd as I had a really good night sleep and it put me in the mood to do some actual housework (a very rare event)  Then just as I was thinking I might go out, my daughter rang to ask if I could pick up my grand-daughter from daycare as she was running late.  Much prefer playing with my grand-daughter than sketching, she brings me so much fun in my life.

Yesterday, I had the opposite of the day before, a poor night sleep.  Despite that, I did my 5k training but it left me cranky all day and not in the mood to do anything that involved going out into the heat again. Even at 9 am it was hot and humid and by the pm the heat index was nearly a 100f.  I fully intended to sketch indoors but only felt like to doing it as I was going to bed. I love how my bedroom is full of interesting shapes and shadows when we put on our reading lights. So after I had read for 30 mins, I finished off the day with 30 mins of sketching. Unfortunately it didn’t help me get off to sleep.

Notes: 9.00am 9/05/2015 #21 Nice strong breeze, cloudy .  77f feels like 77f  25c feels like 25c Down by the soccer fields at Swenson Farm under canopy with table.

9.50 am sometimes you have to admit things are not going right and admit defeat!  started in watercolour (useless) and end with the aqua pencils.  The paper is not robust enough for that and started to disintergrate. Must remember to bring watercolour paper next time as I might have been able to resolve it with the pencils if I had stronger paper. 

temp 27c feels like 27c  82f feels like 82f  Still cloudy.

So this morning wasn’t so great but hey, not everything is going to work out.  I really don’t like watercolours. Its weird because most beginner painters start off in water colour before they move on to acrylics or oils, In fact most people seem to think acrylics are really difficult to use whereas I love acrylics, always have done. Such a versatile medium. I will get over my phobia about watercolour in the course of time, I am determine of that.

For the  last few months I have just used  my scanner to scan my sketches, I have discovered it better to use the Photoshop elements 11 program I have to scan the images.  Give a much truer colour of my sketch book.  Now I am going to insert glassine paper inbetween the sheets of my sketch book as I have noticed that the pencil is rubbing off on to the opposite page. I don’t really like using fixative so I am going to try the glassine paper I have.

Notes: sketch #  16 11.23 am 84f feel like 85f 28c feel like 29c  Slight breeze. Thought I would come out to the edge of town where the Heritage House Museum is situated. Just not a lot of shade to be had unfortunately. 

12.11 Had to stop suddenly. swarms of ants on my feet,- the biting kind! Just as I thought I was get(ting) to grips with this sketch. At least the temp didn’t increase, same as 11.23

The above barn is on the outer limits of Pflugerville where they have situated an original house, traditional barn and a windmill plus some other things to represent a past time in Pflugerville. There is also a brand new community pool beside it for the younger kids of Pflugerville and a play scape. Unfortunately, no one has thought to put in any shade around about, so I was hunting for a suitable spot which was a bench in front of play scape and red barn. The bench was barely covered with shade (from the play scape awning) and I could feel the sun beating down on my back.

I always check before I sit anywhere as ants are always a problem over here but there didn’t seem to be any when I first sat down. About 5 mins after starting I saw one random ant and quickly brushed it away. It was fairly large so I knew it was not one of the dreaded fire ants.  I think they were attracted to the sweat in my feet which were almost in the sun, as more came along and then 45 mins into the drawing, they began to swarm and couple bit me. At least they weren’t fireants, so they were just little nips but enough to say to myself, that’s enough.

Its a pity because I was just getting to work with the drawing and probably only needed another 10 mins to get it completed.

Notes, No 17  Time midnight- 12.00 am. I can’t sleep and I saw something in A&I*  about drawing at night so that is what I am going to do. 

30th August 2015 81f feels like 81f  27c feels like 27c

12.21 am Well drawing in the dark is a bit like drawing in the dark!  I really couldn’t see what I was putting down on the paper but it was very freeing. I really didn’t care. I just put down fairly random  marks. I would like to do it with paint next time!

Yes, very random and probably to do with having a couple glasses of wine and then going to bed with thoughts racing through my head. I enjoyed doing it though and just that 20 mins of drawing settled me down enough to sleep reasonably well for the rest of the night. Maybe I should try it more often as sleep is frequently elusive.

*Artists and Illustrators Magazine.

 Notes: 3.30pm 8/27/2015 Sketch #15 Approximate temp 78f

Thurs is watering day which is 3 hrs of shifting water hoses/sprinklers around the front/back garden every 30 mins- cut off time 10am. In theory, that mean I have time to beat the oppressive heat that is Central Texas. But I am lazy!  So I am indoors  today looking out over our back garden for today’s sketch.

4.15pm Really need to work on prespective then trees blocking the view wouldn’t be such a challenge. Not a good sketch!

As I was working on this at home in the comfort of air conditioning, I should have been able to work on this longer but I just found it frustrating. One thing was the faux window frame would shift  all the time. I hadn’t realised that I move my head so much. Its a wonder I can draw anything with such a wobbly head.  And then trees! Just have no idea how to tackle these. And again perspective. I have books on this subject but have yet to master it.  Practice practice and more practice.  Can’t believe I have actually managed to do 15 sketches since 1st August. That is a record for me and I aim to keep it up.

Notes: Sketch #14 8/26/2015 10.52  84f feels like 90f  28c feels like 32c

found a nice shady point facing the main road through Pflugerville. trying out stool feels a little precarious to be honest and not that comfortable.

11.41 – getting too uncomfortable to stay on longer. Feet are numb from semi couched position the stool forces you into. Hip sore when standing (up). 

28c  feels like 32c  84f  feels like 90f

First attempt at something that has fascinated me since I moved to the US, 15 years ago- all the hanging cables. Even in the countryside you will see wires hanging as for some reason Americans don’t bury their cables as a rule. Of course that means whenever we have a big storm, there are wires hanging everywhere, some of them live! We have been relatively lucky with storms for the past few years but an El nino is predicted (or is actually happening) this year which means we should have above average rain with storms in the fall and probably ice storms in the winter.  I live in a new neighbourhood so all the the wires are buried but we still have the power outages due to cables getting snapped by falling trees somewhere in Pflugerville. It this scene there were numerous wires with trees directing behind them.

This hit me on Wednesday so I didn’t go out sketching and then about 1pm I had a call from my grand-daughter’s daycare to say she had a high temp. She seemed a little pasty faced and tired when I picked her up but by the end of the day she seemed fine.

Yesterday, I was planning to go Pedernales Falls State Park with the Plein group.  As it was our watering the garden day, I would arrive late so I just planned to sketch. So organised my bag, switched the water off and locked the doors. Just as I was going out to the garage, the phone went off. It was my eldest daugher, my grand-daughter had been sick this time plus she had a temp of 101f again (it had been normal at breakfast time). She was busy with a meeting so could I pick her up while she arranged things with her boss. Of course I said yes and I also said to continue with her work. So that was my day, looking after my grand-daughter. At first she was very listless as you would be if you felt sick and had a temperature but as the day went on she started to perk up. 3yrs olds never stay sick too long, thankfully, so we had another wonderful day together. However, that meant sketching was on the back burner for the day or at least I thought so until Gordon suggested going up to Pflugerville Lake with him.

Gordon has a pretty set routine and Thursday night is when he runs around Pflugerville Lake. It is just shy of 3 miles, so it takes him about 24-26 mins depending on other factors. So my sketch had to be quick. It was also late, later than normal and  the sun was already setting when we arrived, so it was about 8.05.  I forgot to take my stool and there are few benches around. As it had been raining earlier I was not keen on sitting on the grass. All the fishing piers had been taken up by fisherman.  So looking around I thought ‘ah, the limestone blocks that line the parking area would be ideal.’  I was going to sit on one but ended up standing while resting my pencils on one. Like the other day I used the Derwent Aqua pencils. No graphite drawing to begin with, I just dived in with colour due to the time limits and fading light. Gordon completed his run in 24.32 mins, so this sketch was done in about 15 mins after all the mucking around.

Managed some notes at the end when I got back to the car.

‘sketch 11 21st August  time 8.32 Drawing complete.

came with Gordon to Lake Pflugerville while he ran. Found a spot. Immediately covered in fire ants! Had to work quick as the sun had set.’

Today I was going to go the Falls to meet up with a few member of the group who couldn’t make it yesterday. However, it  has been very overcast with a threat of showers. Sure enough, at about 8.45 this morning, we had a brief shower. Houston is getting a lot of rain at the moment (which were the showers are coming from) but apparently most of it will not get here. So maybe this afternoon I can get out and sketch.

My notes for today: “sketch #10 9.17 am. 27c feels like 29c. 81f  feels like 85f. Although it is slightly hotter than yesterday, it feels more pleasant as there is a slight breeze. Not sure what I am doing this morning. I had in mind the playground but at the moment I am looking at the basket ball court surrounded by individual trees with a a canopy of leaves. lots of lines. Also brought along another sketch book – multi media type in case I feel included to (can’t make out word) larger and use colour. Anyway time to get started. 9.22am

10.22 am stopping as I am fiddling and getting lost, in other words I have lost interest. Something i have to work on. I have the attention span of a gnat! 82f feels like 87f  27c  feels like 30c  slight breeze (14mph)”

So I finally committed to some colour. I used the  Derwent Aquatone pencils I have been lugging around for the last few days. They worked well and the paper stood up to a fair amount of water plus scrubbing which was surprising. As I said I started adding details (with a fine tipped pen) but quickly realised I was just being quite random with the marks (like the branch that appears from nowhere on the right). An hour is longer than normal for me but  I really struggle to keep looking after about 40 mins.

On my way back, I was really amused by all the squawking of the birds in the tree and did this LOL.

my notes back in the studio ‘ While walking home and hearing the squawking of several birds I had a sudden urge to do a rubbing of a tree stump. It didn’t work but I enjoyed the action of just scribbling and pressing down hard on the paper with charcoal with no purpose. Fun!”

Not sure why the birds were squawking but it was very loud and the Grackles were flitting all around the tree they were in. I also heard a cry of a hawk near by, so maybe they were in a panic because of that. Just glad they are not my neighbours!

Today’s notes “sketch #9. 9.01am  77f feels like 77f. 25c feels like 25c . Thought it would be cooler today but no such luck. Air feels very sticky even though it says it the same as yesterday. Location picked because it’s the closest to HEB (supermarket). Start 9.05 am. Will sit and observe for 5 mins before I draw.

9.46, Drawing is a mess. thought a clump of trees would be simple – NOT!  2nd mistake having the sun behind me shining onto the paper so difficult to see what I am doing. Tried a variety of ways to overcome this- changing to charcoal, drawing without my glasses, closing left eye. Ended up getting totally lost. Taking a walk for 5 mins. Sitting on a park bench also a mistake – uncomfortable and cramping my arm movements.

10.08 am Sometimes you just have to admit defeat. Today was not a good day for drawing but I have learnt a few things ie Sun glaring on paper!

81f feels like 85f 27c feels like 29c”

So today wasn’t great but at least I got out and tried. Sometime soon I will need to start thinking about colour. For some reason I am nervous of adding colour, probably because I am not confident with watercolour. However, I have some water pastels so I begin with those I suspect. Will probably have to use a different sketch book as this one wouldn’t take much water I think.

Can you see it?  It just visible at the top of the trees on the left. Haha

My notes for today ” Sketch # 8 8/16/2015 8.56 am. Early today as grand-daughter with her mum, my very multi talented daughter comes over between 10.10.30 am. Temp is nice this morning, lower humidity than yesterday. 25c feels like 25c, 77f feels like 77f. Doing a ‘simple’ landscape. Here goes 9.59 am.

9.50am Finished I got lost again! My trees look more like rocks but I tried. 81f feels like 85f, 27c feels like 29c. Good spot for setting up my plein air kit at least. I will be back next month some time.”

 

Miss yesterday as I just couldn’t face up to the heat but made sure I was ready for today by packing my bag last night and taking the bag plus stool downstairs for the morning. I was a bit later than normal as I decided to sleep in although in the end with the early morning rain, mewing cats and a strange beeping noise that turned out to be misbehaving electric toothbrush, I may as well of got up early.

Put my notes on the opposite page/back of previous sketch today so the drawing was more centred today.

My notes “Sketch #7 (below) 8/15/2015

Very steamy today as it rained quite hard for 10 mins this morning, just at Day break. When I put on my glasses they steamed up, the humidity is so high.. Trying out my new folding stool today.. So I have found a secluded spot by the creek with lot of debris from  last storm in May and generally overgrown.

86f feels like 92f. 30c feels 33c. 10.45am. Bit late today as I slept in. 11.32am  Got totally lost with this drawing. 11.35. Time to give up and start another day. Once I use to the heat I was fine. Stool very good.

90f feels like 93f  32c feels 33c.”

All the landscape by the creek is a haphazard mess basically. Damaged trees, Dead trees, thicket and just general overgrown vegetation.  Going down to the creek for me, is nerving racking as it full of nasty bugs and sure enough around my feet were some large ants which basically ignored me thankfully. Unfortunately I am very allergic to fire ants, so if they had been those kind I couldn’t have stayed.  Fortunately they were normal ants and once I got into the drawing I became oblivious to all the flying bugs. Stool was very comfy so that is good.

I did add some colour this time, rather nervously and soon gravitated back to the pencil and thin tipped pen. Yet again I really couldn’t get a handle of the leaves of which there were a lot of with this view,although I am not sure you would know that from this drawing.

From next month, once the weather is cooler I think I will move onto painted sketches but until then I continue with what I am doing plus maybe start translating these into something more solid. They will be small to begin with, so a bit like marquette for sculpture. That way I will be able to judge what I am really looking for in a sketch.

First sketch in nearly a week, already slacking!  Had a great trip to San Antonio where we visited the McNay Art Museum. What a wonderful place and I so wish the Blanton had been as as visionary as this building. It helps that it still has the original building in place with its Spanish Colonial-Revival architecture but the new part of the museum has been well designed and complements the older part. I will definitely be making another trip as I  only saw the inside as the weather was typical Texas summer heat, 100f +

Since returning from San Antonio, I basically got caught up in arranging for my Mother to be move from France to England. It really didn’t take up all my time and it is a very poor excuse for wasting my time. Anyway, today, the move actually happened and I decided it was time to get back on course.  During that time though, I did update my supplies, not that I really needed to that but when you are sinking, you tend to fall on to your comforts. For me that is TV and shopping for art supplies I really don’t need.  As I mentioned I am a big fan of Heather’s 805 blog and she posted a picture of her mobile work station. I thought it was such a good idea I decided to copy her. Here is my mobile art studio (not quite complete as I haven’t actually put any paints or pencils into the trolley). I don’t actually plan to use the trolley until I start going to the plein air meetings but with all the stuff you need for that, the trolley will be ideal.  The stool will be perfect for sketching (I hope).

I took the stool with me this morning but I didn’t actually use it as the Memorial has no less than 3 benches in front of it. unfortunately none of them are under any shade so although it was mainly overcast this morning, it still got very hot when the sun was out.

As usual I put in my running commentary, I think I need to put it a separate page, they are getting so long.

“sketch #6 8/12/2015 – 9.36 am. Slightly overcast 86f feels like 94f (30c feels like 33c) A few days break due to life – mum returning to England today. No shade where I am sitting so only a quick sketch possible with the heat!  Managed to last longer than 30 mins despite the sweat dripping down my face! Started too far to the left.10.17 am. 31c  feels like 34c 88f feels like 94f  Memorial to Pflugerville Fallen Warriors”

I think I will be going back to this a few times as its such a feature of the park.  At the moment the park is quite busy as summer camp is still on but I suspect this is the last week as school starts on 25th August.

Supposedly the weather is going to change next week. I hope so as the heat is oppressive at the moment.

How do you do it?  Today was my 4 day of drawing in the park and I will be honest I am struggling.

This was my 2nd drawing. At the moment I do not have a chair to sit on and I don’t fancy sitting on the ground. Couple of things, I am too old and fat to sit comfortably on the ground.  There are too many ants in the Park, biting ones. So I am relying on Park benches as most are in the shade, much needed in this heat. Unfortunately, most of the them do not have a great view.  This particular bench view was situated so you can see across the creek bank. It is basically a view of tangled undergrowth and and spindly trees.  You will see I have put notes (a habit I will continue) as I draw.

Notes: ‘ daily sketch No2. 8/2/2015 time 10.34am  temp 86f/30c  7b pencil  Started off ‘blind’ 10.36 begin to draw in structure. Changing  to ketch and wash pencil. Narrowed my focus too much. Finished 11.00am 88f/31

notes for this drawing ‘ contrasting man made with nature. 8/3/2015 Happy birthday to me. 9.44 Sunny 82f/27c feels like 86f/30c aborted drawing at 10.23 need to work on tone and pencil strokes. Only 3rd day so don’t despair . 86f/30c feels like 87f.

I must admit to some reluctance today as I know my drawing skills are not up to the challenge of depicting nature.  At lot of the park is wide open but it seems the planners have decided to place the benches at the most uninspiring parts of the park, so I will need to invest in a seat or use one of the folding chairs we already have. They are quite heavy, so not an appealing prospect and I have not drawn while sat in them, so not sure I would be that comfortable. With the heat, I need to be comfortable at least.  I am sticking to mainly pencil although I have used a fine tipped pen in all of them so far, as I feel I will gain more from seeing the tones rather than working in colour at the moment.

Notes with this drawing ‘ Daily sketch 8/4/2015  Time 10.00am 82f/27c feels like 88f/32c  Very humid. Going to look for 2 mins before starting Being way too timid 10.18am Goring to try shading in mass and then erasing. 10.53 getting  the lights and darks confused. Need to work on my mark making. drawing in with Pen. not worrying about how it looks. 88f/30c feels like 93f/33c ‘

I kept getting lost with this drawing. My eyes were wandering all over the place. It wasn’t until the last minute that I realised I had placed the bench on the right in completely wrong place and that was too small! I manage to correct it to a degree but it was important scale mistake. The mass of trees and bushes are proving to to be quite a challenge. I have a lazy right eye so if I closed my right eye, all I see is a blur which is great as it helps to see the real darks and lights but obviously it loses the detail.  As far as I can make this park on the whole has not be ‘planned out’ but craved out of what was originally there so lots of different variety of bushes and trees are intertwined leaving a huge mash of textures.

Still not sure where this project will lead but ultimately I am determined to combine painting and beading together without it being considered crafty (such a dirty word in the art world) I have thought about doing it in the past but never really got that far with the idea. I must admit I am really inspired by the work of  Grayson Perry. While I was in France  I saw a channel 4 program on the house he created, it looked amazing and it brought to mind a comment Eileen Cooper made to me when I saw her in 2011 and show her my bead work. She wonder why I was not trying to get it shown in an art gallery and at the time, I was truthful, I didn’t think people would consider it art.

This is one of the pieces I created in 2007. I did a full twelve months, one for each month and it was part of a world wide project. At the time, it was best way to express myself in an abstract form. I still love beads.

Wow, making that matchbox museum piece seems so far away and the intervening months have been crazy. Just after my Dad’s 79th birthday, I received a call from their English neighbour to say Dad had a stroke. 2 days later I was in France and my life was basically put on hold for 3 months. Ever since I returned from France I felt unsettled and unfocused. I can’t even remember what I was doing before going to France as it seems like a life time ago.

I did intend to paint and draw while I was in Brittany as it is a wonderful place full of rivers, amazing architecture  and woods, all the things I would love  to be surrounded by in Texas. However, sorting out my parents and their affairs just drain me completely. I did take a lot of photos at the end of the trip when my husband came for 10 days and I do have an idea fermenting but at the moment artistically I feel spent. I actually took a bunch of photos specifically with that idea in mind. Once I am back up to speed I am sure that idea will become reality.

This is the one sketch I managed to do while I was away.  These stone crucifixes dot the countryside of Brittany (not sure if it is just a Breton tradition)  which marks the way to the local Temple (church). I have always been fascinated by these crosses and this one is at the bottom of the road that leads to the hamlet where my parents lived,  It was always a welcome sight at end of a long journey. So it was fitting this was the only drawing I managed (I made few other aborted drawings at other places) as this was the last trip I would be making to this part of France.

As I have said, I have not felt settled since coming back, mainly due to the fact there are still several loose ends to tie up in France.  Anyway yesterday, I decided I had enough of this moping around waiting for things to happen, life is too precious. I made the decision to move my table away from a wall to facing a window.  I figured all my energy was being sapped by the blank wall in front of me. Next step was to actually do something. For that I got inspiration from my friend Heather who writes a couple of blogs about drawing. Her latest challenge is found on 805 steps where she has chosen to document a very small part of the Hertford Union Canal, starting at Wick lane and ending at White post Lane in London. The drawings are amazing.

So this morning I took a short walk to Pfluger Park in Pflugerville and did a very brief sketch. One thing I always have problems with when working outside is deciphering what I am seeing as my eyes are darting all over the place. I am not comfortable drawing most of the time and drawing outside is probably my least favourite thing to do. In  my still life set ups I have complete control over what I see, with a landscape everything is out of my control and comfort zone.

I began by not worrying about drawing accurately  by drawing ‘blind’ without looking at my paper. I have done this before sketching in my living room and back garden, it’s very freeing if you are worried about your ability to draw. As you can probably see from my notes on the sketch, I started off in pencil (B7) and then moved on a fine line pen. Towards the end I actually looked at the drawing and started to draw in the structure.  The important thing to me wasn’t the actual view but the process of drawing and looking. So the fact it ended up not looking anything more than a scribble really didn’t bother me. Not sure anyone looking at this drawing would make out much but I know when I come to look at it in future, I will understand it and its shorthand.

I am not very good at keeping up on projects so I don’t know how much this will evolve but I am hopeful. Eventually I would like to have enough drawings to translate the drawings  onto a canvas. That is another area where I plan to evolve and I will write about that next time.

looking back at my previous blog posts, all of the above seems too frequent theme, https://happyjacqui.wordpress.com/2015/02/10/the-fog-is-beginning-to-lift/.  

Need to try to be more positive!

as the piece I was working on for the Matchbox Museum turned out to be too big to be folded effectively. I could fold it into the tiny little box  14mm X 37mm X 45mm as I did a mock-up but I couldn’t show any of the picture.  I knew this would be an issue a few weeks ago but I am like dog with a bone, so continue on with it. Now I have to rethink the whole thing over the next few days but I have a gleam of an idea, so I think it might be possible.

Anyway, I have a work that I am reasonably happy with as it was based on a still life set up and I was able to move away from that, to create another image which is the way I want to go. Here is the set up:

 

 

I am not good at angles so I used modern technology and printed the image to get the chair and tea set. I used the back drop as a guide.  I then used  2 tea towels the kids had printed at primary school where all the kids drew a ‘portrait’ of themselves.  I placed images from the back drop that seem relevant to the kids when they were younger.  I decided to enlarge the butterfly (a paper butterfly from a hobby store) as it seemed good way to unite the back ground and foreground Also the butterfly to me symbolises that time is fleeting, especially childhood.  I was  tempted to move away from the 2 tone colour of the paper butterfly and paint it as a Monarch which is the common butterfly around here and disappearing .  That wouldn’t have worked as it would have made the butterfly too dominant and it was already pretty much in your face!   In the set up the daisies are scattered (and paper) but a memory flashed in my mind of the happy times I spend as child and a mother making daisy chains.  The chair in the painting is my baby chair and has served as a play chair for me and my children and now for my grand-daughter. The tea set belongs to my grand-daughter and like me as a child, she loves to make tea for her Mummy and Nanna.

I have finished with this although as normal I am tempted to fiddle with it. That is the reason I stopped, as I getting too fussy with details and getting too tight.  Also having a deadline helped.

 

Finished Painting – 30cm X 36cm acrylic on Rice paper coated with acrylic gesso.

Its been a while since I posted partly because I keep forgetting to bring the camera cable down stairs plus life getting in the way.  Just looking at my previous post and really hadn’t realised it had been this long.  I actually finished this drawing about 2 weeks ago and its was by far the biggest drawing I have done to date. (approx 18″ x 26″)

 

 

 

It is also totally different from my usual type of drawing (with pencil) as I was trying to do a tonal drawing.

I found the flower pattern very difficult to follow and I ‘cheated’ by using tracing paper to grab the main design.  This also helped with the scaling as it made the drawing a lot bigger scale than if I had drawn it free scale.

My reasoning for concentrating on the tonal aspect was because basically I have a lot of difficulty dealing with tone. When I did an art class just after arriving in Austin, I was introduced to red acetate.  I had never come across this before.  By placing it in front of your view and it gives an idea of the tonal value of each colour. Of course you still have to use your own judgement but it is surprising how close some colours are tonally to each other even though visually they look a lot different.

I also have a grey scale and value finder but I will admit I don’t know how to use it. It came as free gift.  So this is what all these exercises are about relearning or teaching myself how to draw and paint again.   The internet is a great tool for this as I can read the books but it tends to go in one ear/eye and straight through the other ear/eye.  Looking at demonstrations by other artists via video is more informative, even if I am not keen about the art created.

So now the drawing is finished, I have started the painting and I have already run into trouble as I did not tackle the tonal aspect of the flower background.  Yes, it is white but it is not the lightest part of the group, that is actually the left hand side of the figurine.  It is very close but not quite white. The white band behind the Buddha is a yellowish creamy colour but the white in the fabric is blue/grey with a hint of red.   Anyway, that is another blog post in the making.

 

yesterday’s life drawing session was different for 2 reasons, it was a male model and he was very big.  You could see very little of the underlying structure of the body and because of the amount of flesh from the stomach, everything seem to take on a weird. perspective.  In one pose a leg I though was pointing straight at me and which I was having difficulties with, was actually slightly bend. I only became aware of this when I was looking around the room after the pose. The longest poses were 30 mins unlike our normal 40- 45 mins .   It was an interesting session but I will be glad to get back to the slender framed models we normally have.  I have put up all the drawings as it good to see all the horrible mistakes.

 

the shortest pose 20 mins and the most successful.

the least successful drawing although I like the bulk of the stomach.

the legs are totally disconnected 😦

His body was covered in tattoos so the blue of the shoulder and on top of the thigh were my indications of the tats.