Red Socks

Mixed media on canvas, 40x50cm.

A continuation from our weekly drawing session of 5 March this went through quite a few phases to become a painting.

Trying to simplify the shapes and blur the distinction between elements.

Road Kill

My comfort zone is always to work with drawing materials - pencils, pastels, pens. All my artwork, including my Subconscious Musings, invariably begin with these implements.

Currently, however, I am choosing to start directly with paint and only adding the linear to finish the painting:

"Road Kill". Mixed media on canvas, 50x70cm.

This for me is relevatory and exciting. Instead of the over-reliance on making drawings first, which I then colour in, this way of working has a far greater freedom to produce images that start from the abstract and build, layer upon layer, to become something new. Nothing is planned, it comes about intuitively.

The title, of course, comes from recognising some reality in amongst the abstract.

Life Drawing Session: 25 April 2012

Friday Drawing Session came early - on Wednesday.

You've got to act when the time is right, when the muse is calling, when the Moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter is in line with Mars etc, etc. 

I managed to make four drawings but show only three here. As I said before the first drawing is never any good. I've got to work out which end of the pencil I am holding. But when I get going it's High-ho Silver and Awaaaay. There's no holding me back:

 #1. Charcoal on paper, 43x59cm.

#2. Mixed media on paper 59x43cm.

The 'mixed media' starts with felt pens and finished with Neocolour II's.

You can clearly see some of the preliminary pale blue felt pen markings as I search for the form in this next one: 

3. Mixed media on paper, 43x59cm.

This last one was the most satisfying with the combination of striped sweater and stripey socks.

Downtown

I have changed my way of painting. It's what I have been working on for the past year I suppose, but certainly since the turn of this year.

Generally it's a shift from trying to create a "proper" drawing and transferring that onto the canvas or board  then filling in the colour areas - a bit like painting with numbers which is what I was doing unsatisfactorily.

Now the idea is to build up a whole series of underpainted layers and, like my Subconscious Musings, respond intuitively and let the painting give me the direction it wants to take. This painting was not planned...it just happened. In the development of it I began to 'see' how it could be and began to emphasise those elements:

Mixed media on canvas, 55x110cm.

The one thing it does require is a certain fearlessness or confidence that it will all turn out right in the end.



26 April 2012

I may not have been posting lately but I have been busy.

Sometimes there is a need for silence to hear what's going on in my own head, and while these daily Subconscious Musings may not neccesarily mean anything in themselves, or be 'high art', they are at least mine - a bit incomprehensible and chaotic, but structured and satisfying nonetheless.

Subconscious Musing, Black and White chalk on paper, 59x86cm

Many of my recent drawings have been made on white cartridge paper which sadly doesn't allow for the application of white markings, so, today I went into Glasgow, to Artstore, to buy some buff coloured paper which would allow me to extend my mark-making with white chalks. This is sugar-paper which is very sweet :o)



Drawing from Life

In order to move forward I am having to go backwards, to pick up some drawing materials and start drawing again. I don't go to Life Drawing Group any more because it's too far away and I find the effort too much, so if I can't go there then I'll bring it on home to here. And who should I get to model for my but my darling wife. But nudity there will not be. The contract conditions for this modelling job are: i) with clothes on,  ii) regular coffee breaks, and iii) a tube of 'Smarties' every week. Who says I'm not willing to splash out for my art?

First one is a bit tentative as I explore which end is up:

Drawing #1, Charcoal on paper, 43x59cm.

Second one is still a bit of a struggle:

Drawing #2, Charcoal on paper, 43x59cm.

Third one is begining to get into the swing of it:

Drawing #3 "Mrs Roly Poly": Charcoal on paper, 43x59cm.

(She's really too auld to be doing this sorta thing!)

Fourth is now getting a bit gallus with the felt pen:

Drawing #4, Felt-tip pen on paper, 43x59cm.

Drawing five with a bit of colour to her cheeks:

Drawing #5, Felt-tip pen and pastels on paper, 43x59cm.

 And finally, a bit of light reading to keep the interest going:

Drawing #6, Felt-tip pen on paper, 43x59cm.

All this done to the gentle sounds of Karen Carpenter and her brother Richard, a favourite LP from our shared past [Carpenters, The Singles, 1969 - 1973].

And if yous could all remind me not to forget the 'Smarties' I would be obliged or "Friday Life Drawing" will be a one off occassion!

Spring has Sprung...

...the flooers is ris,
I wonder where the birdies is?
Oh, there's a crow up in the sky,
Yeuch, he's dropped a message
in my eye!

Time for this Rip van Winkle to get oot his bed, shake a leg, and get back to some work. Winter is over even in these northerly parts and I've even ventured out to the back garden to see what damage has been done with the frequent high winds. Like this Helleborus knocked flat but still managing a smile and a few flooers to brighten an otherwise untidy border:

Helleborus, felt pen and Neocolour on paper, 2x19x25cm.

Hope the rest of you have survived the winter too!