Mice, Men and Musing.

My plan for December was to paint/draw one small pastel each and every day. This was to be a new venture planning forward for the exhibition in Shaftesbury in March. I was very excited and buoyed up at the prospect of creating a large body of tiny gems. Then we received the bombshell news that my beloved has terminal cancer and at the time did not look as though he would make it through to the end of the year. Plans are always sent adrift by reality slapping you in the face.

The top row were completed at the end of November, which means between visits to hospital and days of feeling too low to climb out of the chair I have managed 9 out of 20.  One or two I am really pleased with, and will work towards framing them (mounts ordered today), the rest I think I will mount as a book. By attaching the mount to a larger piece of thin card I can punch holes in the backing sheet and put them in a file.

These are the ones I am most satisfied with and may qualify for full frames. I will look at them again after the mounts have arrived.

On another thread, Dorset Artists (a closed face book group I belong to) publishes an on line magazine to which a close friend (Andrea Jenkins) writes fairly regular articles. She asked me if I had a muse and would I write her a line or two about it. Here is the email I sent her:


Musings on a Muse.

Until you asked the question I hadn't much thought about having or not having a muse. Is there a goddess that watches over me and my work? - most definitely, but she is well aided on this earth by my beloved M. It is he who encouraged me to start painting again (with the promise that I could paint and he would cook and clean! It hasn't quite worked out that way, but I wouldn't have it any differently).

I think of the great painters of the nineteenth and twentieth century, the Impressionists, the Pre-Raphaelites and their muse/models and of Lucien Freud, whose models (I think his only real muse was male) were willing to spread their legs for the world to see. There has to be a bond of respect and trust between artist and muse.  It really is very special and not always meant for sharing which is why my only portrait of M is of his beautiful hands caressing his guitar.  Occasionally I see a particular turn of muscle of juxtaposition of plains and have an urge to draw/paint share, but these are precious moments and I hug them close.

As I read your questions Andrea I thought I had two muses. M and the landscape around where I live, but on thinking about it I realised that the landscape and the seasons are my inspiration, whilst my true muse is a facilitator. His actions and words encourage and support even when they are not directly concerned with my art.




I had hoped that the magazine would be published by now - but as always when dealing with artists time is a strange thing and I expect we will see the fall edition out next spring.

This is my portrait of M and one of my favourites - it hangs above his desk and we both see it all the time.

The magazine can be read at http://dorsetartists.com/2016/02/10/magazine-archives/

How an idea develops.

Each year the same or similar images break out of the natural world and force their attention on me. Screaming to be painted.  One of those recurring images is the delicate Japanese anemone that appears late summer and stays with us in the garden until November.  The contrast of the shell pink and luminous white against the dark and dank "past their best" greenery is wonderful, and as mine are in a corner that only gets the early morning sun and then is in quite dark shade for the rest of the day they are like beacons shining out. For the last several years I have attempted to paint them both in oil and in tempera, never successfully.

 I started with this really poor watercolour, the drawing was badly planned and the flower shape squeezed itself into the rectangular paper shape. I then tried to work (as you should in water colour) in layers of colour retaining the lovely soft lights and creating the dark negative shapes. Not one of my greatest efforts and the pinks kept getting muddy.

So I decided to backtrack and work on a simple charcoal drawing, only looking at the shapes and tones and not worrying about the actual colour. this simple charcoal drawing (about A3 size) tok me most of a day to complete.

I felt as though things were looking up and the next day tried my hand at water colour again.

 This is the first layer of pale green wash to settle where the main flowers and brightest lights would sit on the page. Sticking fairly close to the image on the charcoal drawing.

 Here I have added some of the pinks and lilacs so that I can see how the flower forms will develop. I feel as though I have to compromise on the actual flower colour as the paints I have do not exactly match the flower so concentrate on getting the right tone and warmth








I then began adding more colour to the background, very gently layer by layer. You can see at the top right corner I managed to get two cauliflower bursts when the paint dried overnight - I had overwetted the paper, causing it to wrinkle even though I work on glued blocks of paper that are supposed to stay flat.  Adding more dark layers covered the mistake, but I had to take care as the paper was in a very parlous state.

This is the final watercolour and I am rather pleased with it. Its the first time I have managed to successfully retain bright whites, keep the colours soft and create dark enough areas to show the contrast between foreground and background.

 I was so pleased with myself that the next day I worked a similar image up in pastels, adjusting the flower arrangement. I don't think the photo does it justice and will probably have to trim the right hand side away if I decide to mount and fame it.

Not a bad weeks work.

Take a breath...

Three days ago I bounced into my day all ready to start a new group of paintings.  Then I looked around - the easel was surrounded by 4 large 4ft x 2ft recently completed paintings, several smaller pieces,  and my palette was so coated in paint that the knives were sinking into it.

Upstairs there was more of the same. The watercolour table was buried under the detritus of my latest efforts, torn bits of paper, left over mixed paint glued to the glass surface, dried out pieces of kitchen paper that had been used for blotting, and countless pastel sticks







Even the computer table was shoulder deep in paper.

No place to work.




 I cant work if I am in a muddle, so I collected together the finished pieces done over the last 3 months and sorted them into groups and hung them in the outside studio.

Sorted all the waste paper out of my upstairs room - I can now see the computer table (its wood effect) and will be able to start work on the watercolours
Hmm quite pleased with myself. (end of day one).

I put the sealing ground onto the boards that I want to use next  (lovely magenta pink) and left them to dry in the barn.  Then I cleaned all the brushes, knives and palette. (end of day 2).

Day 3 - started work on the first of the new big paintings  - this is going to be based on the apocalyptic skies we have had during this autumn. Lovely dark clouds and the late afternoon sun squeaking through rent skies to throw its gold around.




Yes, I know this has a lot of pink, but we are only at the underpainting stage and the pink will add warmth to the yellows and blues and stop the finished image from being too cold.


Really excited about this, need to work through some more ideas in watercolour,  to see how the final colour layers will work.

Anyway with my now tidy work spaces, and the frames for the big oils have just arrived, I should be able to crack on for a couple more weeks.

A Pilgrimage.......

Georgia O'Keefe at the Tate. What a way to start the week.  First discovered her when I was a student in the late 60's, when the idea of a woman artist being successful and making it up there with the 'big boys' was absolutely mind blowing.  Saw photos of her flowers and only one or two landscapes, there was no internet and the only books we had were whatever the college librarian deemed suitable, so the big exhibition at the Tate was a dream come true.

It was really exciting to get up close and look at the detail and how she worked her images. I was surprised at how thinly the paint was applied, it almost had the appearance of watercolour. I had expected a more impasto, but this was so delicate . Beautiful drawings and the colour applied 'inside the lines',  no overlapping, but fabulous gradations that carried behind the foreground items. I do hope someone has saved/archived her drawings. There is another story to be told there.

I bought this card to send to my Mum, thought it would bring a smile to her day.

This is my favourite Georgia painting. This image haunted my dreams for months. Extremely clever lady.

(Both these images from the Tate web page)






That was a lovely day out with my friend Amanda House (see Blogspot View from our Hill). Finished off with a meal at Le Pain au Quotidien - Mmmmm.  Thank you John for chauffering us to and from the station.

From there the week went downhill. Our lovely facebook page, Dorset Artists, has had its first major upheaval. Someone asked in a PM about copyright, what a minefield. Suffice to say I hope it blows over if we don't keep mentioning it!

Have been working on my watercolours again.  Autumn is always a lovely time to experiment, the colours can be so vibrant (reds, yellows, oranges) or misty and interesting (smoky blues and greys).

I have been painting rosehips.  I love the slashes of crimson and cadmium red amongst the bright green leaves. From a distance they look like blood flecks against the foliage.

Then as the week has gone on  the yellow is creeping into the leaves and their shapes are changing, curling and withering. Do I sound obsessed yet?

A simple Plan Chest

I have always yearned for a plan chest. You know the kind of thing, a huge multi drawered behemoth of furniture just for holding paper.  I have never had the space or the funds to justify buying one but am really pleased with a project I undertook last month.


Some years ago I created a structure for hanging all my sons shirts. Nothing fancy, just an open fronted box high enough to hold a shirt on a hanger on a rail and wide enough to hang a curtain in front of the shirts.  The width was determined by the space between two other pieces, which also acted to hold the whole thing stable should my woodworking not be up to scratch!  Its made from the coated fibre board used in kitchens and held together by the plastic blocks also used in kitchens.

To make my paper holders I cut boards from the same stuff as the sides and when I ran out of that I used some MDF that was lying around. To support the shelves I fixed three plastic blocks on each side of the space for each shelf I needed.  By having a block support in the middle I can pull each shelf part way out to check the contents and then slide them back into place - just like drawers but much much easier to construct.




Maybe now that I can find my way through the different papers I will choose what I want to work on instead of using whatever the top sheet is!

A quiet week.

Woke up last Saturday morning in mid sentence with myself....." if the pictures would be better with white frames?"  Obviously thinking about the Boundaries 2 opening event set for the afternoon and whether my pictures would stand up for themselves next to the other 10 exhibitors.  Pondered all morning and asked Amo what she thought on the way there.  As I walked in the gallery the first words out of my mouth were "Sharon should the frames be white?" She responded with "We were discussing the same thing yesterday... and yes." Bleugh.

Bearing in mind that after months of concentrating on MY painting this is meant to be M's week and I am supposed to be cosseting him, this is how the rest of the week played out:

Sunday ordered new frames on tinternet using notes made during organising stuff for showing and started painting the 3 frames I had.  Made some chocolate chip cookies to try and earn some brownie points.

Hated Monday (4th July) a bad day in my calendar.  We always used to celebrate with a huge fourth of July party (thank you Walter) and also my sister's birthday (she would have been 62 this year).

Tuesday my frame pieces arrived nice and early, fixed them together and rushed off to have glass cut. Lovely Mike managed to turn them round in 45 minutes. Also spent some considerable time filling my new box with my pastels.


Wednesday set off good and early (for me) 9 a.m., to take new frames to L'Artishe in Swanage. No- one there - for good reasons - one of those emergencies that always occur when you don't have time for it, so came home a very unhappy bunny. Sixty miles and three hours wasted.





Thursday, set off much later after having phoned ahead to make sure someone was there.  My painted frames were perfect - yes the paintings did look better, BUT the new frames with glass were all too small.  AAAAGH. (I later discovered that I had ticked the wrong box I needed glass size not exact size). Went out and bought a saw to cut the back boards to the correct size, then had to cut each pastel drawing in its mount down by 1.5 cm all round. I finally finished at 4pm.  Hung everything and yes it does look better, but there really has to be an easier way.




Friday - morning - committed (haha) to hanging the local art exhibition in Tarrant Hinton Village Hall. Gilly Hesketh and I worked like stink for 2 hours and were quite pleased with ourselves. The exhibition is only on for two days but they had around 60 visitors in that time and raised quite a bit for local charities.



Friday - afternoon -severely exhausted, did not know what to do with myself and going back to bed was not an option. Set off across the yard planning to get out some tools and set to in the garden which has been sadly neglected this year, but instead of turning left into the garden shed somehow managed to turn right and into the barn where my prepared painting boards are stored. Lightbulb moment, I think I'll do a painting!!!!! I know there is one rattling round in that head of mine just waiting to come out

This was the board at the end of Friday - quite eye popping.








Saturday around a visit to Chettle village Fete






And Sunday  - the view out of my window, 6 foot tall cow parsley - I have never seen anything like
it, besides they should have finished flowering over a month ago.


Several other things happened during the week, but I think this is quite long enough.

DONE... that wonderful feeling when the biggest to-do list no longer matters. We hung Boundaries 2 yesterday and I am really pleased with the result. Looking forward to some housework

This is my bit -


haven't taken photos of the other 10 artists involved as they weren't quite finished, will take more at the open event on Saturday afternoon.

Not quite sure how I got to this stage - the weekend was manic no head space at all. Woke up on Sunday morning to the glorious smell of slow roast pork permeating the house, reminded me of when I was small and Mum would always cook our Sunday roast overnight. Favourite Son and Daughter in Law arrived with 2 gorgeous grandchildren in tow. Lovely day spent building a very bright plastic castle in the garden and watching cows being delivered. There's always something exciting going on at grandma's house. Then the shortest time spent reading quietly, love doing this.


Monday - the final push to list, label and sort all the stuff for Boundaries. Almost there when I dropped two framed pastels (with glass) didn't break the glass thankfully, but several hours later noticed that I had badly dinged one of the frames. Spent ages reframing it (luckily I had another drawing almost the same size). But - why when you are stressed to the max do jobs become more difficult - put that darned thing together 8 times and each time there was another bit of stuff under the glass. I was working on a freshly ironed sheet in a still room and my hair was fastened back - just where do all those bits come from? So there is still one small speck but its just too bad will have to do.

On top of all that M was not well, had to drop everything and go fetch him some potion from the chemists, he looked grey but improved as the day progressed.

Tuesday, up and away with the sparrows. Had to be in Swanage by 10am left the house before 9, that's almost the day before by my count.




The usual hurry up and wait, but the hanging went well, had a quick lunch with my friend Andrea (who is also exhibiting) then back home to spend the rest of the day looking like something from a zombie movie.  I am so tired - porridge for supper.








Why do people always photograph my bum? I know I duck away from having my picture taken, but this time I wasn't even trying.









Today I am not arting, I am actually looking forward to housework, ironing, dusting, scrubbing floors it doesn't matter anything as long as it is not art related, the last few months have been so stressful I don't want to pick up another brush or pastel until .....at least tomorrow!


       


                                                              My favourite picture of this week.

Open Event Saturday 2nd July 2016 hope lots of people come to see us, have a drink and talk to the artists. I am very proud to be part of this

The day after a LONG open studios....and a week later

Dorset Art Weeks is over and I am shattered. After 16 long days, having visitors look at my work, explain my thought processes and working practices and generally being nice to people (so far outside my comfort zone it doesn't exist) I can barely stand up.  Feeling somewhat desperate today, just glanced at the work I am proposing to take to L'Artishe Gallery in Swanage for the Boundaries 2 exhibition starting July 1 and I am not one bit happy with it.  This show is supposed to be new work so my dilemma is 1. do I rework that which I thought was finished or 2. do I start again using the frames I have already prepped and hope I turn out something reasonably 'good' in the time available?

I know I must do something not remain in this almost catatonic indecisive state. A Plan is needed....

As the gallery space is still in good order (I haven't even started taking work down and packing it away) I think I shall spend the next hour or so hanging the unsatisfactory finished work, looking at it as dispassionately as I can and thinking.

So it's a week later and how did that go..

I hung the aforesaid pieces, decided the pastels were OK but the oil  paintings yeuk. (not exactly an artistic word but just fits my state of mind).

Then avoidance tactics set in. I washed and polished the kitchen floor, tidied two weeks of clothes that were strewn around the bedroom, started to pick up the dining room where all the prep work for Art Weeks took place. On Tuesday am went to a meeting in Swanage to discuss Boundaries 2.  Managed not to let on how panicked I was about my work.




Came home, proverbial and metaphorical kick up the.. and set to work.






Cut and sanded several 12' x 9' boards ready to repaint the offending ones.  Have worked like crazy all week on these 3 pieces whilst at the same time trying to keep hold of the images for my next project.







 In each the reworked example is on the right.  I think these are a great improvement.





Now all I have to do is start my next project, write my artists statement, start my next project, decide whether or not I will take cards,  start my next project, or prints, start my next project, pick out the watercolours that may be ok, Start My Next Project.

 Mustn't forget to invite everyone to the Opening Event for Boundaries 2. (SATURDAY JULY 2nd 2pm - 4pm) A chance to meet the artists etc.

Have I mentioned that my head has been boiling all week to get going on the next thing....

Getting there - thoughts on Dorset Art Weeks

We are exactly half way through Dorset Art Weeks, and so far it has been great.  My visitor numbers are substantially up on last time (2014) and if the sales continue at this level they will also be up.  Mind you I am getting there the hard way (one card at a time).  One of the great things about Art Weeks is that we get to meet so many new people.  Being an artist is a solitary occupation and for 16 days every two years we have the opportunity to meet people from many walks of life and all age groups and see first hand other peoples reactions to the blood we pour out over everything in the studio.

Dorset Art Weeks is one of the biggest such events in the country, we have 299 venues this year and I think the artists participating are over 800.  One of the things that keep being talked about by my visitors are the number of good textile artists that are showing. So much NOT tea cosy knitters, these people have taken stitching to a level most wielders of needle and yarns wold never imagine. (See "View from our Hill" blog by Amanda House).  I am not tempted to change how I work, but am thrilled for the recognition these hard working people are being shown.

One of the biggest changes since I first started showing in DAW (2010) is the development of our group on facebook.  This closed group provides us with a forum for everything arty. From who locally does the best framing, to where to get a meal or cup of coffee in a part of the county you don't know so well.  There is no backbiting or negativity, just a warm wholesome family feeling of belonging to. Something bigger than you own little world.

Have been holding off on this post as I thought I had sold my large seascape, but the man who promised faithfully to come back Saturday morning and then Sunday afternoon still hasn't turned up.  I learnt some time ago to never consider an item sold until you actually had the money in your hand, but hope is a mischievous feeling.





Instead I am pleased to say that this small oil painting of cow parsley in evening light has gone to a new home.  A lovely young eastern European couple presently living in Verwood.  He has just taken up oil painting and it was great to give encouragement, especially after he had shown me several of his paintings. The delights of modern technology, when I was young we had to haul our actual work around now you just reach into a pocket and pull out a phone.










This past week has been most productive, because I am more or less tied to the gallery space I have been working away. Assembled and painted 10 frames ready for Boundaries in July. Several small pen and ink sketches and work on a few small oil paintings which may also find their way into Boundaries

These are all quite small for me, 12" x 9" which makes them quite a challenge. It does mean, however that I can paint them in a much shorter time

Looking forward to the next 7 days of Art Weeks, lots to do and lots of people to meet.