Catching up

Well what a crazy first 2 weeks it has been!  It's been full on, but I have loved every minute & can't wait to get back to it tomorrow. I haven't had much of a chance to keep up to date with my blog, so this post might be a little long - sorry.

As I said in my previous post, our first project is titled World of Water. In class we have been experimenting with lots of techniques and mediums making observational drawings of shells and seaweed, however out of College I have been having a think about what World of Water means to me.

Water has played a major part in my life. My favourite childhood memories are splashing in the sea at Woolacombe with my Dad and picnics and wild swimming by the ford in the river Arrow at Alcester with my friends. When I was angry, upset or needed to be alone, I would head down to my special place - a weeping willow tree over the river Avon in Bidford on Avon & sit under it, watching leaves drift by. My husband proposed on the Athabascar Glacier in the Canadian Rockies, we got married in the Crannog Centre on Llangorse Lake and honeymooned in the Lake District.

I would like to incorporate my personal experience and association with water in my work in some way. Perhaps by collecting some of the crushed shell 'sand' from Barricane beach in Woolacombe and including it in my work, or perhaps find a way of including some of the water I collected in a bottle from the Athabascar Glacier & keep in my freezer at home.

I have several watery artworks dotted around at home:

Unknown artist watercolour, bought in Canada:

This watercolour illustration feels like a dream to me - such a peaceful scene with lots of little details - every time you look at it you see something new - the fish thinking about cupcakes, a rockinghorse, sunshine...makes me feel all warm and squishy! I am thinking of doing something similar to this for my 'mind map'. I like the 'pool of thoughts' idea.

  

Holidays by Harry Watson:

I saw this in the Bristol Museum and even though the print doesn't really do the original oil painting justice, I had to buy one. Such an idyllic 20's scene - I love the play of light on the clothes and the rocks and the water, even though there is no sky in the picture you can tell it's a beautiful blue sky day. I find a lot of my work looks flat, so from this I will take the bold changes in colour to show where the light hits an object - I will try to be braver with my contrasts.

Reduction Lino print of Brecon & Monmouth Canal by local artist Lee Wright: 

Such a tranquil misty morning scene. The way the layers of blue gently build up fascinates me. The simplicity of the image but the complexity of the process - gorgeous. I have tried lino prints before but I only tend to do single cuts and usually in black and white. from this I will take the idea of layering different shades of the same colour to create atmosphere.

 Unknown Artist watercolour, bought in Canada

This probably isn't the best watercolour or most interesting image, but it feels like Botanical Bay on Vancouver Island to me. When I look at this I can smell the Cedar wood and hear the eagles. I think it is because of the limited palette and the composition. The composition feels a bit uncomfortable, but that is how the beaches are on Vancouver Island - very narrow pebble-boulder strips at the bottom of forested cliffs. The "pebbles" are actually 1 + metres in diameter, so whist the scale looks odd in this picture, it's actually correct - I have jumped from boulder to boulder! What I take from this is that sometimes it doesn't matter how the finished piece looks - sometimes conveying the essence of a place and being true to your personal experience of it is ok.

So when I was told that World of Water was our first project, I was initially very excited!  This is a theme that I love & something that I have already done a lot of work on. The following are pastels that I have done of seascapes over the last year:

I have sold all but one of these pieces, so they are successful to an extent, but I feel like I need to develop them more. I love pastel painting, but I need to broaden my horizons. I have already learned a lot from my 2 weeks at college. I didn't think I had a process, but I do:

I am constantly stopping in my tracks, in awe of the sunlight catching some aspect of a landscape, or colours in the clouds or some wonder of nature and have to take photo's. Photo's never seem to catch the moment, so I manipulate the photo's until they look as close to the way I felt at the time as I can get them. I then try to convey that moment of awe that I felt on paper using pastels. I love using pastels because of all the different marks you can make with them - soft blends, hard lines, deep, saturated areas and light grazings of colour. I love how they layer and the highlights you can create with them.

But I still feel like I need to do something more.

I realised that this was more of a challenge than I originally thought. I am doing the FAD because I want to try new things and get more creative. So doing what I am comfortable with would be a wasted opportunity. Playing with different mediums in class has been great fun and I am learning to just give things a go and experiment.

I am particularly enjoying working with ink - using sticks to draw on dry paper is so freeing and you can create wonderful calligraphic lines, painting in ink on saturated paper gives watercolour-like runs and bleeds which are lovely to then draw back into with solid lines. Using masking fluid and washes of diluted inks, or using bleach on quink all give pleasing results and I am really enjoying the medium. I also enjoyed using brushos as a background and created some interesting results by erasing highlights into graphite. Some things worked and some didn't - the composition of the first thumbnail is horrible, charcoal for seaweed in small scale didn't really work...but if you don't try you never know!  

I even forced myself to do a detailed pencil drawing of raindrops on oak leaves!  It took me 5 hours to do and I hated every minute of it, but I am pleased with the result and I am glad I persevered. I much prefer to work loosely, on a large scale and with colour, so this was a real challenge to maintain concentration and keep going!

I went out and got drenched in the rain especially to take some close up photo's of raindrops:

I'm not sure which, if any of these techniques I will use in my final piece, but it has broadened my horizons and 

So now I have tried some different mediums and techniques, my mind is turning to the subject. We did group mindmaps on our first day and came up with lots of ideas - oceans, rivers, lakes, puddles, liquid, mist, ice, flood, drought, pollution, ripples, waves, reflections,patterns, sea creatures, boats, myths and legends, all sorts of things.

My initial thoughts are that I'm not really into mermaids and mythical creatures, so that's out. I also personally see art as something of an escape from the real world - when I look at art I want to be taken somewhere beautiful. I don't enjoy edgy, confrontational statement art that brings attention to a cause - I get enough of that from the news and facebook.

But then I looked into Terry Setch's work and I am coming around to the idea that art can be a social comment whilst also being beautiful. I particularly like this piece:



Toward Lavernock Point by Terry Setch.

He has used sand, mud, oil and rubbish washed up on the beach at Penarth as well as more familiar drawing and painting materials to create something beautiful to look at. He's also included little paintings of the same beach by different artists in each of the 8 panels, such as Sisleys "The Cliff at Penarth" (one of my favourite paintings at Cardiff Museum).

So as I said earlier, the point of doing this course for me is to try new things, so I am joining in with a beach clean up this Sunday with the Marine Conservation Society to see if I will be inspired by what we find to create something beautiful. I will take lots of photo's and try to collect some bits and pieces to include or draw.

I was also inspired by our day of taster sessions at Cardiff Metropolitan University. I absolutely loved the pottery throwing in the ceramics taster session, wasn't so interested in the textile design session - digital embroidery felt a bit cold and boring, however it did give me some inspiration. I am thinking I could 'draw' with coloured thread on to fabric and maybe include some applique with different textures and patterns of fabrics. I could study the different patterns water makes in ripples, waves, droplets and either create a piece of work in this way, or make something that could be included in a mixed media piece.

Here are my pictures from the taster sessions (I am still loving the pottery and have found someone to help me with the firing and glazing as we were allowed to bring them home with us - can't wait!)

 And I think that's about where I am at - we're all caught up!  I will try to keep future posts a little shorter and more frequent.