Swiss Deep-Sea Tugboat

This is a great example of how a Subconscious Musing can take on a life of it's own:

Mixed media on paper, 59x86cm.

Instead of pasting on strips of newsprint to begin with, like I had been doing on some of the previuos Musings, and still with a desire to jazz things up a bit, I started this one with an automatic colour painting then let the pastels wander hither and thither.

But with such a strong background it didn't take long before the tugboat emerged which raised the question: does Switzerland have any deep-sea tugboats?

Or are they just wind-up toy boats on Zürichsee?

Jacqui and Her Lilies

In preparation for a portrait painting I made this pastel drawing to bring together the figure, which was drawn some time ago, and some of Jacqui's favourite flowers - Day Lilies:

Pastels on paper, 59x43cm.

The Lilies started out as a much larger bunch bought about two weeks ago, but every other day J discards the lilies that are totally done in and cuts the remainder shorter to get a couple more days out of them. Then I squash them up into a more vertical format to suit my purposes.

So these lilies are the flowers that just keep giving!

ps: the painting ain't going well :o(

22 May 2012

I've run out of the blue-grey sugar paper so it's back to buff which doesn't show up the white pastels very well:

Pastels on sugar paper, 59x86cm.

 Letting the lines wander where they will and getting more adventurous with the addition of coloured pastels.

La Petite Marie

Frequently I make studies of paintings by my favourite artists partly to learn what I can, and partly to simply excercise my own technique utilising a ready made design:

Modigliani's "Marie, daughter of the people". Oils on canvas, 45x35cm.

Modigliani is a favourite artist and I have always enjoyed this painting, also known as "La Petite Marie", painted in 1918 (original size 60x50cm). I have tried to research the internet to find more about the model but so far indefinitive (is that a word I have just made up?). The closest I can get is that she just might be Marie Vassilieff, a Russian painter in her own right who mixed with the painters of Montmartre.

I think what I like about it is it's simplicity of design and a bit of the artists idiosyncratic stylisation with the elongation of the girls neck, in this instance wrapped in a thick scarf.

The Big Ship Sails on the Eely-ally Oh

Starting with a background of torn newspaper strips yesterday's Subconscious Musing began to take on the form of some ancient sailing ship with it's great hulk, mizzen masts, and canopies :

Mixed media on sugar paper, 59x86cm.

And this put me in mind of the song we used to sing as children:

The big ship sails on the eely-ally oh,
The eely-ally oh,
The eely-ally oh.
The big ship sails on the eely-ally oh,
On the last day of September.

The captain said, 'It will never, never do,
Never, never do,
Never, never do.'
The captain said, 'It will never, never do,'
On the last day of September.

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,
The bottom of the sea,
The bottom of the sea.
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea.
On the last day of September.

Other versions that I could find on the internet have it as: ally-ally oh, but I much prefer the eely-ally...much more fishy!



On the last day of September.

Fruit Bowl

When you see it, you just see it...and when I was having breakfast this morning in Cafe Cuccina I just saw it...there it was staring right in front of me:

Neocolour pastels on paper, 30x36cm.

Now art is, in my opinion, not just about painting what you see in front of your big bulbous nose (apologies to anyone reading this from Nose City) but the artistic impulse that constructs something else from the meagre fare presented. The little banana on the right-hand side was playing a dual role, originally sitting on the left, and the central apple, well, it just got eaten didn't it!

Jacqueline #4. 16 May 2012

Fourth and last in the series from our drawing session last week:

Pastels on sugar paper, 43x59cm.

At the beginning of a session it can go one of two ways - effortless and joyous, or no matter what I do it would seem I have suddenly become handless overnight.

I'm pleased to say this session was of the former ilk. Which is always a pleasant surprise.

But can I do it again next week? Will the Muse condescend to honour me? Or desert me? Will I run out of paper? Or pastels? Will I remember the smarties? 

Always so many questions, and never enough answers. Say lavee.