Untitled

More work with Paynes Gray... now I've lost the support and am deconstructing my surface.

This work is almost finished. Thinking about how much further to take the broken edge...

Life drawing

I've not been to life drawing for the last 3 weeks being so immersed in my current work which is totally unrelated. I swiped these photos from the organiser/tutor (apologies/thanks John!). Reminded me I've not uploaded my last drawings so there is one that John took of one of mine, & a very atmospheric shot from another evening.

Payne's Gray

Payne's Gray

Sumi Ink

Control over the material

has become my interest currently. Or rather, not having control. Over the last couple of weeks I've been exploring Paynes Gray paint in a variety of ways. It is a colour I did not like but have become more interested in, and my painting "Submission" was in Paynes Gray. This week I started working with sumi ink and really enjoyed the nature of the material compared to paint, and it got me thinking about chance in artmaking. Its not that I have huge control over my materials, I don't. But applying them can feel 'forced' at times, like a battle to win control, and it might be very nice to use a material in a way where I know I cannot control the outcome so much. That's my quest at the moment. I will post a couple of photos but they won't make sense most likely. Top photo sumi ink, the others playing with PG.

Mixed Media drawing

A3 cream 180gsm, compressed charcoals/pastels, acrylic Payne's Grey wash, drawn from life.

nude

Is something that happens all over the world. Google it. Well I've discovered it even happens in New Zealand. I happened to be in Wellington for the last session of Dr Sketchy, at the Mighty Mighty bar in Cuba Street, big crowd, the models dressed in fluro leotards, animal prints, glitter & sequins, hair teased up big. Fabulous music, nice drinks, great atmosphere. Some rough sketches attached. Then I found there was one in Auckland & I went to the Cassette Number Nine bar in Vulcan Lane. Theme was early sixties, dresses, shoes, hair & makeup in theme. Last pose was one man in a suit & overcoat holding a paperbag, with two girls standing behind him, one about to choke him with something. I drew more of a cartoon style, won a "Buddy Christ" from the movie Dogma for that one, & gave the sketch to the main model. The person running it was fantastic, talked up a scene, even gave us a title for each drawing. Now I discover there is a Dr Sketchy in Hamilton, another nearby town.

A winter morning

I walked outside to the car this morning, before driving off was standing and brushing my hair looking at this. Isn't it gorgeous?

Materiality, process, horizontality

People peer in the doorway, comment on the fragrance of the materials but venture in only on invitation mostly. Stepping carefully around they look closely, one or two stood on the chair. Comments range from 'its like looking at a world without rubbish where you can breathe" (Dan) to "it needs blood" (Robert). Everything was gathered from the bush around TLC, the Wellington art school where I've begun the advanced dip, and will be returned at the end of the week to the bush. It is a site specific installation of short duration, a collaboration of four, and some of the materials are ever changing because of the intense heat in the studio, the sun pours in all day and the concrete floor absorbs it and releases it when the room cools, affecting the appearanceof some things.

Life drawing 30 June

I'm beginning further study in fine arts, particularly materiality, process and horizontality. This is going to be a real challenge, going back to a kind of beginning place again, and in a way slowing down the whole process of artmaking to look at the materials and what they can do and my process.

One of my favourite models at life drawing tonight, very disciplined and able to move through poses without direction, and hold them perfectly. He likes to devise challenging poses.. both for him to hold and us to draw, but for this session we had several 20 minute simple poses to work with so I used mixed media.

They're all large A2 size drawings, done on heavy grade cream paper. First with an old brush and thin acrylic paint I very roughly painted some lines, some are quite ugly in fact, but I tried not to worry about that! I blocked in some areas with watery acrylic. Then I worked over the paper with soft and medium pastels and compressed charcoal. I ran out of white so used light colours in highlighted areas. One of the pieces has some collage on it. The room we use is a drama room at a local high school and our lighting choices are limited.

The first sketch is the only warm up I did...running late I missed the others.

It would be best to gesso the paper first next time, and have it dry, in preparation. That adds a nice weight to the paper, and helps keep it flat.

Drawing in the dark

Again set up the model & our easels & turned the lights off. This time there was only 2 small candles lighting the model & it was quite difficult to draw just the lit areas ...These are a large pastel sketch on black sugar paper. After a while I moved & started another from the other side of the model.

Mixed media

Recently I was involved in a one day exhibition of working artists... most of us were working at the venue so that people could view our process. Many stopped to talk and ask questions, and I sold Red Nude and Dream (mixed media collage drawings).

These are a couple of works in progress I began while there, starting with the heavy printmaking paper, then adding various media, some of my own monoprint material, antique text, drawing.

Drawing with light only on the model

We put all the lights off, & had one light shining on the model. There was time for two drawings of about 10 minutes each. All these drawings are fairly large, A2 size paper, about 10 minutes each.