Trying to glimpse the light

So here we are, 01 February 2020, bigotry and ignorance seem to have “won”. Let’s hope those responsible enjoy their “victory” and not too many people suffer from the consequences. Many glimpses of light needed to even attempt to keep my spirits up.

Sketchbook, exploring burnt sienna in its many shades and tones

A weekend away in the woods

Seeing fantastic 300yr old trees

Beautiful mediaeval floors, and new kneelers based on the floor tiles

Progress on the drum - an image from a children’s colouring book, coloured, then manipulated in imaging software, printed and glued to the drum. Some smaller seahorses to be added at some point, but this drum is now an active part of Extinction Rebellion.

Reading

•  “The Binding”, a terrific novel, based on the possibility of having our bad memories removed
• “How to Lose a Country” read and weep, and then take action
• “The Man With No Face” a reissue, but the parts about the UK in / out of Europe still so pertinent
• “A Most Wanted Man”, excellent novel, showing the consequences of the supposed “war on terror"

Monoprinting from a ceramic tile

Autumn leaves in my sketchbook

This term, I am doing a course on colour with Abigail Downer at the Mary Ward Centre. I really enjoy Abigail's teaching and she is encouraging us to explore this extended autumn in our colour palettes. I’ve combined my love of colour, collage, precision  cutting and leaves in these pages.

and one for fun

Where has all the stitching gone, long time passing

With apologies to Peter, Paul and Mary, time to ponder where my stitching has got to.  I’m being diverted in to sketchbook work, which is a good thing, in light of the degree of mental block I have about thinking my scribblings are worthy of the word sketchbook.

Work in the studio at Mary Ward, continuing with this piece, cutting a stencil to allow multiples to be drawn on top of each other

Then as ever, I felt the need for some collage

One more week to work on this in the studio.

I am still working on the CQGB monthly challenge. with the last one of the seed series well underway. Applique, embroidery and texturing with TextureMagic

Shadowing with oilsticks has been overdone, I’ll need to see if I can tone that down.

The final three in the series are based on bacteria, and the threats posed by overuse of antibiotics.

I’ve filled a sketchbook,, so needed a new one. Breakdown-printed cloth with an appliquéd piece of melted ( deliberately of course!) gold lame fabric. 

Filling up

 

Experiments with drawing ink and an angle-cut hair dyeing brush on pasted tissue paper - swans, gondolas?

Inspiration this month has come from: Ruth Padel and  Issam Kourbaj, “Dark Water, Burning  World” a small installation in the Islamic Gallery at the British Museum; The Business of Prints at the British Museum; Prism at Hoxton Galleries, now finished, particularly the work of Ross Belton using found natural materials.

Finishing on using found natural materials, a note on Margaret Cooter’s blog, inspired me to search out this beautiful method of making decorative roses from autumn leaves.

Sketchbook - a working object

Regular readers will know that the term “sketchbook” is one I have very mixed feelings about.  I mistakenly used to read this as an object of beauty, with a wonderfully formed image or composition on each page. Through discussions with my art tutor, I now understand that it can be a working, dynamic object, where pages can be revisited, added to, changed and adapted.

I realise that I enjoy setting up a page and then coming back to it several weeks later when I have worked on other techniques, been to an exhibition, or viewed my photographs.  I have been doing that this week.

Painted page, cut out, with inverted section and then with photograph of work by Victoria Coeln.

Flowers - sketched and real

I have an obsession with the sweet peas growing in my garden. So many photographs of them,

so many bunches gathered

 

they have made it in to my sketchbook