Drawing Little Lane - enjoying the mark making

Following on from my large and very enjoyable drawing, 'Kefalonia' I was keen to experiment further with mark making, and to make work which was as much about the marks as the image.

Off I went with the dog to a favourite spot and I took some photos and made some sketches:

These are the two images I used most of the time in making the drawings. I focused on the sketch, looking at a cropped section down the centre of the page, selecting the most descriptive hoizontal marks, allowing the vertical marks to have more meaning in the further distance. I then scaled up this sketch to two sheets of paper 76 x 28cm.

These are the resulting drawings, one a little more representational than the other:
 

Little lane 1



 

Little lane 2



If you look carefully you will see that I have collaged some cut up etchings into these to emphasise the sectioned quality of the image and to make good use of existing markmaking.

The first drawing is an attempt to push the boundaries of my drawing, and to enjoy making intriguing graphite marks and textures. The second drawing is about pushing things further, and having made the first one I felt less of a slave to the original image.

Here are some of the marks and textured areas I most enjoyed working on. That was the best thing about this work, I really enjoyed the process:

I'm going to go back to an unfinished drawing now, and see what the experience of these pieces has given me.

'First' An exhibition of Drawing

This week I am taking part in a new exhibition by a group of like minded people. Together we are called Out/Lines. We are a group of artists for whom drawing is a central concern of their practice. Affiliated to the Advanced Centre in Drawing (ACiD) at the University of the West of England, Out/Lines is an opportunity for post graduate students and alumni to exchange ideas, and to explore concepts and processes.

We got together in Cheddar on Thursday and hung our 'first' exhibit in a beautiful converted barn and studio gallery kindly lent by Sara Parsons.

The exhibition will take place between 2nd and 8th September 2011, 1-5pm.

The address, should you wish to come and visit, is:

Chestnut Farm Studio, Kent St, Cheddar, BS27 3LG

My piece - 'Kefalonia' hanging by the door.
The tall space made it ideal to show drawing on a large scale

'Imaginary Holidays' by Lynn Imperatore

Close up of Lynn's delicate drawing

On the opening evening we welcomed visitors.

It was a lovely late summer evening.

Work by Mary Crowder, Frankie, Steph Black and Orla O'Carroll



'Hedge, Raft, Nest' by Karen Mead
Karen's upcoming exhibition - 
Prema Arts Centre, Uley, Stroud 12 Sep - 22 Oct
www.karenmead.co.uk



'One and a Half Crayons; the Thouet River' by Frankie Partridge

 It was lovely to be involved in something different. Please go to

http://www.acid-outlines.weebly.com/ for more informtion about the images displayed here.

I will be showing 4 of my pieces at the Minchinhampton Art Exhibition as part of Minchinhampton Country Fayre this weekend 10th and 11th September. The Fayre promises to be a full and busy weekend and the Art Exhibition includes only invited artists from the Cotswolds. It will be good fun if you can make it.

Kefalonia - First

I've completed my large piece of work exploring many nuances of graphite tone and texture. It is based on a number of views of the Ionian Island of Kephalonia as seen from the deck of a boat.

View from the ferry between the towns of Argostoli and Lixouri, looking inland 

 The photo above gave me a lot of the structure and some of the tonal variety, but I also worked from a number of sketches I did on our various boat trips.


The final piece measuring 60cm x 215cm



The work was achieved using graphite sticks, and some water soluble graphite on Fabriano paper which was torn and collaged prior to drawing. The concept had been to work in layers; each layer representing a layer of landscape, and each layer providing the possibility of exploring markmaking in different ways and with a variety of intensity. Kephalonia is an island whose landscape and structure has developed due to lying on an earthquake fault line. In the past the island has suffered very badly; most recently in 1953 when most of the houses were flattened by a devastating earthquake. I intended the fragmented look of the final piece to echo this history.



View of drawing is studio, to give a sense of size

This closeup shows some of the structure of the hillsides,
the 'v' shaped valleys carved out by running water,
and the flattened areas created by landslips.
The peaks of the hills often seem smoothed and rounded by erosion.

This second close up shows the rocks where they meet the sea.
All around the coast it is possible to see these jagged,
fractured rocks diagonally slicing out of the sea.
It is quite easy to imagine the force of the earthquakes pushing the plates of rock out and upwards.
I wanted this area to be strong and heavy in its mark making.
Then above this the tall straight pines rise up out of the lush valleys
and spread to spike out of the hilsides

This image is now going to be shown in Cheddar at a small exhibition of drawing, exploring the work of the Out/Lines post-graduate drawing group, of which I am a member, connected to the Advanced Centre in Drawing (ACiD) at the University of West England.

 The show runs for one week only, preview is Thursday 1st September, and the show is open from the 2nd - 8th September, 1-5pm only. If you are close to Cheddar it would be great to see you at Chestnut Farm Studio, Kent Street, Cheddar, BS27 3LG.
Further info at http://www.acid-outlines.weebly.com/
Link to ACiD http://www.acid.uwe.ac.uk/

Extraordinary Graphite

I have been experimenting with graphite mark making for a new, large scale piece of work. It has been a joy to play freely with graphite sticks and stumps and various erasers, including putty rubbers. The marks that can be achieved are extraordinary and extremely seductive. The soft changes of tone have captivated me at the moment, and the tonal change from black back to white have inspired new approaches.

The last slide shows how I have begun to explore the possibilities of over drawing with scaled up marks that I found in my sketchbook.
All these images come from one piece of work, the making of which is a fascinating journey and I have not yet reached the end. Next post hopefully will reveal the finished piece.

Kefalonia sketchbook

I have just returned from a much needed break in the sun - and there are few better places to rest and recuperate than Kefalonia.

Of course my sketchbook went with me and after a few days I got itchy sketching fingers.

These sketches were done from a boat looking towards the coastline. The boat trips chug up the stretch of sea between Kefalonia and its sister island of Ithaca. It was a good challenge to draw while the landscape was moving along in front of me - a good way of sorting out which marks are important.

Cloud bruised hills

green napped and threadbare

pine plush hills

The landscape rises up out of the sea, as mountain peaks would. It really makes you think about what lies below the water.

This double page was done looking out from a cafe in the village of Katelios. The landscape layers and folds itself down towards the water.

I have a project in mind for some of these sketches and photos, something large scale and layered.

This is a close up of some of the marks from the first sketch. I'm intrigued by the nature of these marks and how they will work when enlarged, and combined in layers. Sketching fingers itching again...

Art in Action visit

On Thursday we took a trip over to Art in Action at Waterperry Gardens near Oxford (www.artinaction.org.uk).

We had a great day, the event is bigger than I expected. If you haven’t been before it is a large event showing artists and their work. Many of the artists demonstrate and all are happy to talk about their work and their techniques. There are classes and talks and a Market.

A couple of chums were there, Sue (suebrownprintmaker.blogspot.com) was demonstrating/selling her amazing bird collagraphs in the lovely Nature in Art area, and Sharon (blog.sharonmcswiney.co.uk) was selling her metal work and jewellery in the Market.

I took a camera but unfortunately didn’t think to use it, but the web addresses will hopefully illustrate it for you.

I was particularly impressed by the drawing tent. It was very quiet in there but there were some very talented people who were clearly forging their own path, and so it was one of the least commercialised of all the tents.

I had a lovely chat to Julia Polonski (juliapolonski.com) who does wonderful large scale work based on the human figure, with compressed charcoal and pencil. The work appears to have large elements of frottage incorporated, but in fact it is all drawn. She is very inspired by renaissance artists, and some of the patterns come from a study of these paintings, but she gives her work an incredible contemporary twist by the way she uses these ancient images. I hope you enjoy looking at her website, she really inspired me.

I was also very impressed by Sarah Morpeth (sarahmorpeth.com). We went to visit her on Sue’s recommendation and I came away with a gorgeous small scale seabird book.

If you weren’t able to go this year, make a date for next July, and I hope you enjoy looking up some of these links.

An experimental etching

The Nags Head brook

I spent a while in this meadow at a place with the wonderful name of Nags Head taking photos exploring, sitting and looking. I also did some sketches. Sketching fixes a place in my mind - I can still feel the weak sun on my back, and taste the tea that I took with me.

sketchbook - a morning at Nags Head

The plate that I made in response to this place was very experimental, as you can see there are a number of different mark making techniques employed: brushing, sponging, drawing through with a brush end, and finally dripping, with a bit of splashing!

'washed out' stage 1

I also put a hard ground on and drew in the tree shape and branches. Then using white spirit and a fine brush I drew the spirit on where I wanted the tree trunk to be and where I wanted a suggestion of trees on the horizon.

'washed out' stage 2

For the final proof I mixed sepia with the black ink. The result has warmed the image a little, just as a spring sun had warmed me when I visited this location.