Drawing in a journal

.......is something I intended to do every day this year. It's not happening. But here's a couple of pages from this week, one of doodles in red chalk pencil and the other some obsessive colouring pencil drawing that took hours, copying from the work of Kay (pronounced Kigh) Nielson .

Drawing

............................some drawings from this week's life drawing class. This is the model for the painting below which might be titled "In the Fall".

Warm and cool colours ...

Been working on this further. More to do. Getting the correct colour in photographs isn't so easy. Someone pointed out to me today that the highlights on the upper edges of the body were greenish and talked about warm and cool colours and where they were usually used. And I hadn't given a lot of thought to where I would place warm and cool colours, it isn't my way of thinking I suppose, I just play around with the colours I want and think in terms of light and dark. Wasn't my intention to get a greenish colour on those body edges - I've used some green here and there as I was thinking about the change from green to autumn colours in the landscape, but it must be in my colour mixing of glazes that give the greenish hue on those edges. Now, does this matter? This afternoon I was in the garden and picked some leaves that had turned red and they still had green in them and it wasn't anything to do with light and shadows. However, it's good to be reminded about it (and it's not the first time, having been pointed out by a mentor on another of my paintings some time ago). Doesn't mean I won't do it again, but hopefully will consider this when working.

The Painter's Keys - Robert Genn

For a couple of years or so I've been receiving Robert's regular inspirational letters and in his latest letter he provides a link to " Forest Spirit ", a video he made of himself painting in the forest, a gift from him on his birthday. You see him pull up in his car, he and his dog get out, he sets up and starts painting what he sees. Here's the link to the short video:

http://clicks.robertgenn.com/persistence-creativity.php

After a few moments of watching I felt like taking my camera, getting in the car and driving over to Whiritoa to walk through the trees.

The main webpage is http://www.painterskeys.com/ . Well worth a visit and subscribing.

More life drawing

These are a few drawings from this week's life drawing, and a pastel drawing where I was practising capturing light on spheres (in this drawing I used cinnamon balls that are made from coconut and have the most beautiful cinnamon fragrance). I didn't use a template to draw the circle shape, maybe I should have!

Autumn Hills and Valleys

is what I'm thinking about for this painting which is the work in progress I've been spending time on this week, but as a title it's not quite right. It's 91cm x 61cm canvas, acrylic paint and glazes and mixed media. One of my life drawings is the starting point though the pose of one of the legs has been altered to create the shape I want.

Pumphouse open soon

Mixed media incorporating article in the Waihi Leader, the local newspaper. The Cornish Pumphouse, that cost some millions of dollars to move because it's stability was threatened in it's original location, has been off limits to the public while the landscaping is completed. Apparently it will be open soon. The last time I was able to go right up to it was about 8 years ago on my first visit to Waihi. At that time the gold mine, which previously had been underground and not operational for decades, had begun to be excavated as an open pit. Over the years the ground near the mine has become unstable and this historic building was fenced off after an old mine shaft collapsed in the area. In fact, not only the pumphouse was fenced off but residential property, part of the local rugby field and more was made inaccessible. People were paid for their properties, houses relocated, and an area where people lived, walked, played, is now out of bounds to the public. A lot of planting has been done by the mining company and it looks like it will take on a park like appearance. There were plans to let the open pit fill with water once mining is finished (another 3 years I think) and a park with access to the lake was going to be in that area. I'm not sure what will happen now. I've heard some people say they'd like the pit to stay empty, and I have to admit it is very interesting to view (and the subject of some of my work).

Sharp water dancing

is the title of this painting (acrylics on paper approx 70 x 46cm). I spent a few hours doing some quick acrylic painting on paper and this is one of the works. The inspiration is simply words taken at random from some writing. The colour is very different for me! I'm quite taken with this one, and hope to take it's energy and life into a painting on canvas but sometimes prep work has a certain kind of energy that's hard to repeat. It's a long time since I painted on paper for that reason - preferring to get that first energy onto a more permanent surface.

Taking photographs as a resource

Took some shots at the local railway station, I love the colours there - Waihi used to be the largest town in New Zealand at some stage during the mining boom, about 35,000, and now about 3,500 (don't quote me). Thanks to the efforts of enthusiasts the rail between Waikino and Waihi and the stations are maintained and operated as a tourist venture. It was the middle of the day when I was there, so I need to go back early or late as quite a few shots look overexposed, and even though I can tinker with the computer, I can't get detail in areas that were very shadowed or overlit by the bright sun. Amazing weather we're having, cool at night but sunny and warm days with fabulous light.

I see red

After a lazy Saturday morning watching TWO foreign films, we drove over to Whangamata to take a look at the Beach Hop - an annual gathering of classic car enthusiasts. Took the camera and made hundreds of shots, but not many that I'm pleased with. Thought it would be a good opportunity to get shots of people in the crowd (the town is small and numbers were expected to swell to 70,000 for the days of the event). Looking at my photos of people, and the crowd, the lack of colour merges into a grey nothingness. The way we dress these days is pretty boring. Anyway, I've pulled out these shots so far.

Body and Mine

Acrylic and acrylic media on canvas 36" x 24". This is the fourth painting in what I call the mine series, based on the landscape around the opencast gold mine in Waihi, Coromandel. A year ago I had in mind a landscape with a figure somehow based around the mine but it seemed all too complicated. This pose was in some recent life drawing I'd done in charcoal and it reminded me of that idea. The underpainting has been done for some time (there's a photo in an earlier post). I used a palette knife to apply modelling paste over the top of that and finally have got around to painting. There used to be a hill in Waihi, Pukewa, (hill/mountain? I never saw it...), and it was excavated away for the gold mine and in an obscure way this is what my painting is about. In much of my work I have this horizon line which drives my main critic crazy, but it's significant to me - I'm surrounded by hills - and looking out of a window is like looking at a painting, framed, with the horizon line like this. It's only just occurred to me that it's not just standing on the edge of the mine where I see it. It's all around me.

Playing with pastels

The powdery feeling on my fingers is something I don't like at all, almost abhorrent! But I am trying. These are a couple of exercises a group of us tried out when we got together recently at one of the artist's studios. Drawing without looking (covering the paper with another sheet), then crisscrossing over with black lines and then I suppose you could call it colouring in! There were vast differences in outcomes - abstract, realist, cubist. We drew each other but don't think I was with a group of aliens - remember, I said we weren't looking...

Time flies

I've been playing around with ideas after starting a word art project. The ideas I started out with were very literal (the people falling into the book in a previous post ...). So I've tried to leave the words out and just create images. These are two acrylic and mixed media works on canvas (20cm x 40cm). The green one is called "Time Flies in through the Window" and the other one "Time Flies".

Time Flies in through the Window is sold.

Collaborative Journals

are very interesting and a real pleasure to work in. It's exciting to receive one in the mail and see what's been happening in it over the previous weeks. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours working in one. The owner of this journal had a hip replacement a while ago and her pages were about that with pieces from paperwork about what she may and may not do with her new hip collaged with imagery including a wonderful drawing of a woman stretching her body and hips in joyful freedom. I have a hip that was damaged in a car accident which is pretty good at the moment but has an unknown use by date, so I appreciated being able to see this work of Michele's. It reminded me of a Sam Hunt poem called Sara - he released a CD single "Your Body has no Flaw" where he recites the poem with funky music playing (click on the link and there is a 45 second soundbite from the CD there) - I love it. It's a good mantra. I have a lot of his poetry books - on our second date my husband and I went to a bar where The Warratahs were playing, and Sam was also there, reciting his poetry - including a favourite, Wavesong. There you go, quite a lot of personal information ... I don't usually impart that here!

I've collaged in some gestural drawings from a visual diary of mine, (these are 20-30 second life drawings), and then painted the page, and written the words of the poem around the figures. The figures look a bit like boiled lobsters! Couldn't stop myself adding my metallic paint, of course. There are seven artists in this group. Each artist completes a double page spread. There are several of these working their way around New Zealand and it's something of a long term project - it'll be a while before we each have a completely filled journal.

Sara

poem by Sam Hunt

Your body has no flaw.

That must be a lie!

Maude Gonne had sad hands,

Angela's temper never opened doors.

Your body has no flaw.

I look for one daily,

the darkness of the valley,

the climb to your jaw.

Your body has no flaw,

I part the earth and sky,

I witness birth,

I pray at a bleeding door.

Your body has no flaw,

buttocks breast and thigh

curved ankles where I lie

your calves...another shore.

Your body has no flaw.

The black shag neither,

nor the blue heron at prayer,

you live outside the law.

Your body has no flaw.

I've also photographed the other two contributions I made in the journal. The first entry was a compilation of ideas from the books I was reading at the time. There are many layers and pieces that fold back to reveal other images. The third image (music and houses) was an idea taken from the work of another artist, ("Union Road", by John Brack) and to be honest, I can't remember why. The wonderful thing about these journals is that they are a place to experiment!

Ten days without posting...

I have been out of town quite a lot and am now teaching (last week and this). I was in the Coromandel again last week, and took many pictures. The tractors are on the beach at Hahei, and the birds were at the marina in Whitianga. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take shots early or late in the day so the bright light meant not a lot of my photographs turned out very well, particularly the beach and water.

At school we did some printmaking. The students did prints using a thin board instead of lino. It worked very well. The students planned their design on paper first, then drew it onto board before cutting. A couple of them spent a lot of time carefully cutting lots of detail and their's worked very well. Most of the children (Years 5 and 6) were so keen to get to the printing bit that they rushed - we had butterflies, a boy with fishing rod and bucket of fish, a couple of landscapes, a hand, and animals. The first print was in one colour and for the second (the boards dried quickly in the sun) they chose two colours (they'd done colour mixing recently with their regular teacher). Some rolled the ink until it totally blended and others tried with some success to have two colours blending into each other. They're mounted on coloured paper and up on the wall and look great.

and more visual diary stuff ...

Playing in the visual diary

Little Fish

Taken with my Canon digital SLR at Port Charles near the top of the Coromandel. I might have this one printed. I have adjusted the levels and contrast a little.

Drawing

Some figure drawing in black ink in my journal - did a few in charcoal on large paper but haven't photographed them. These are 15 second and 30 second gesture and I think 1 and 2 minute drawings, certainly no longer. I'm a bit phobic about pencil at the moment but I also think drawing pen is good because there's no going back! It could be good to get some marker pens for drawing in permanent ink on large paper.

I am painting

this week. This is a photograph of a quick painting I did after the Cornish Pumphouse in Waihi was moved and there was a local celebration with fireworks. It's acrylic on canvas, 20 x 30 cm.

I've been working on this idea of the photo imagery in paintings, and on Monday I spent a long time on another one where I use the actual image on paper, glued to the canvas, beneath the work. This time I was working too quickly, I think, and had some problems so I've picked off some of the areas and have to work out what to do now.

I've also been working on a larger, 60 x 90 cm, canvas and this time quickly painted in the shapes and lines I want, then have layered over (and boy, do I mean layer after layer) glazes. I now have an underpainting (which was already underpainted) for a fourth mine painting, similar composition as the other three but more abstract. I'll look at it tomorrow, decide which dark lines need to come out and how I'm going to apply paint over the top. It looks a ghastly intense orange but it has a lot of colours in it, really! It also has the dreaded metallic paint in it - copper. Some of the glazes were rubbed on with cloth. Others painted with brush. I put the picture up to create pressure on myself to do something with it now.