13/03/13
Since last writing, I have been very busy. The portrait project still interests me and now I feel much more confident. I am using egg tempera and the medium seems to suit me. I am sure that the way I am using egg tempera would seriously upset the purists but it works for me.

A small handmade book

    



The fields in Purwell are close to my home and I love walking there.I started drawing in these fields in August 2010 and a "project" soon grew and became a passion.

I wanted to produce a little book. The initial idea was to make a facsimile of my own sketch book though in the end, the process dicted and alterations were made. Nevertheless, I am pleased with the final outcome.

I am totally indebted to my friends Michelle and Nena, without whose enthusiasm, encouragement, professional knowledge and many hours freely given, this little book would still be no more than an idea. The books can be bought for £7.50 each. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing one.



Exhibition 

I am mounting a small show of paintings and drawings at Kendals Framing and Restoration in Letchworth at the end of October. The work will be available to view and to purchase from Friday the 26th to Monday 29th. 

A year in the life of a garden

I have decided to visit the Cambridge University Botanic Garden regularly. My intention is to document the seasons in a series of drawings and paintings and to compile a collection of sketches that explore the beauty and tranquillity of this lovely place.

Here is my first watercolour done in the garden. I have no idea what form this project will take in the end and I am intentionally leaving it very open. Right now I am getting to know the garden and gradually becoming comfortable in its many different spaces.

Purwell fields

 Oil on board: 51.5 x 41 cm.
This is the start of a new adventure in which I am extending ideas gathered in the autumn of 2010. The stripes created by the combine harvester overlaid by the tracks left by a tractor create a compelling design. A sense of distance or depth is achieved but at the same time the painted surface demands attention and so the picture is visually ambiguous. I am particularly pleased with the colour and especially the use of grey.

In the grounds of Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust property in Cambridgeshire, there is a delightful hanging sculpture that resembles a Marimba strung between trees. I first saw it in the early Spring and was very taken by the dappled shadows and the sharp light piercing the lattice of branches.
It is a complex picture of dancing light and shade and really needs to be redone . Nevertheless, I am happy enough with this as a first step towards what promises to be a long and enjoyable journey.

This is a gouache. It marks the beginning of a new direction in my work. I am enjoying the freedom of this medium because it is so much more forgiving than "pure" watercolour. I can repair almost anything and make alterations till I feel happy with the outcome. I have an idea to print a facsimile of a sketchbook. This seems to be consuming most of my time these days. It is a most fulfilling project.

I am drawing again. The English countryside is so beautiful and the changing seasons offer endless inspiration.

Drawing again

I was given some flowers. They are swathed in shimmery grey organza and the whole effect is not unlike a glass "basket". The organza simultaneously contains and frames the flowers in a random manner and they are 'presented' in a way that makes them rather special. I was immediately inspired to draw and paint the flowers so I took a number of photographs while they were still fresh. I hope to do several more drawings and a couple of paintings. I only hope I can "hold my vision" and my energy levels for long enough to follow through to  the completion of my project.

I have done several of these mixed media pieces and am feeling increasingly at home with the pictorial ideas. I love the crinkly collage and the shadows around the edges where the paper lifts off the surface of the picture. I have also started experimenting with pencil line and scraps of cloth.

Working into the prints

 Here are two more mixed media pieces that are the result of working into the landscape prints. The underlying image is the same in all of them. The structure is also the same. I am still playing with the idea that I culled from a photograph by Vuillard. In the photograph we see Madame Vuillard, drying her hands on an apron, standing in a bare room, possibly a kitchen or passage to such a domestic room. She is framed by a doorway and this is flanked on one side by a wall covered with floral wallpaper. The rectangle of wallpaper "reads" as a totally abstract and very flat surface but, simultaneous to this, Vuillard's mother is standing in a very believable interior space. The juxtaposition is intriguing.

I want to see what happens when I juxtapose a landscape with flanking strips of abstract painting that relate to the landscape insofar as they are derived from close-up observation of the land itself.

I have decided to use a glue gun to stick the collage into place when all is ready and sufficiently dry. This is because I think that the crumpled paper and the shadows that are evident when the pieces are pinned into place are lost when I glue more thoroughly. I don't know why I have not thought of this before because I have often noted how much less interesting the image seems when it has been carefully glued.

Working into the images

I now have a studio full of prints of varying quality. If I have learnt anything it is to be more fussy about the colour that I mix before using it. I have decided to work into some of the images so as to extend the pictorial possibilities of each one. I am using oil paint and, inevitably, collage. This is my first attempt and as it is still too wet to be glued, the collage is pinned. However, I am rather pleased with this one and have started another.

A learning curve

I am still enjoying the relief printing project though it has not been plain sailing. There are so many small but important technical details to iron out still. I am hand embellishing in preference to using the press because the prints slipped forwards. I was told that I should rather be using a simple letter press which applies pressure downwards evenly over the whole surface. I have still to try this.Instead, I am rubbing with a spoon and it works well enough. Inking up with just the right amount of paint and block printing medium is still a bit hit and miss though there is an improvement on my first prints. I love the multiple image but simultaneously want to work into each one separately. The studio is full of prints.

Dante's Inferno

I am surprised to see that it is almost a month since I last added a post. I have been busy with an enormous amount of clearing. This involved throwing out and burning and was quite a harrowing experience. However, I also found things that had been temporarily "lost" and I am pleased to say I have resuscitated an old project that has been "on the back burner" for too many years. I am once again approaching Dante's "Inferno". This time I hope to complete the task and bring together a body of work  in the form of either a portfolio or even a book.

Ideas for the print

I find that I am quite anxious about the first print. I know I should simply "go for it" and have done but still I want to get the most out of this first attempt and so there is pressure. I have completed two preparatory sketches. I am aware that once I start working on the block, the image and the process will take over and I will be carried along. Nevertheless I need to do all this preparation. I think it is a subconscious means of creating courage and at the same time I am storing ideas that will be there when I need them. Probably I am just putting off the first cut.

Here is the finished piece. I call it "Stepping back".

Well, here it is. I added some acrylic paint to mask a few of the black lines because I felt that they were leading the viewer out of the picture. People always want to know the exact location of my landscapes. I have to explain that my pictures are the direct result of many drawings and that I absorb views and store them in my memory and in my sketch books. However, the final work is an abstraction in which I bring together my visual and emotional response to an area. It is never an exact copy of a scene. The marks that I make and the colours that I use are partly drawn from reality and partly from my experience of life and of the creative process.

A new collage from start to finish



This is about to be glued but the final image is not yet "fixed".



This is how it works. I start with collage papers scattered over my work surface. Sometimes I begin  the picture by placing a few pieces of cut or torn paper and sometimes I make marks before I try the papers. Either way, the papers are only pinned into place and can be taken off or moved as the design progresses. When I am happy with the image I glue every piece of paper carefully into position. It is a painstaking procedure and quite the opposite of the original creative process. When it is glued, I leave the design on my studio wall for a day or two and I look at it and I think about it. When necessary, further alterations are made. Finally it is "ready".

Sketch books

carolayton.com

I am making my own sketch books now. That way I get to choose the paper on which to work and by the time it is sewn and glued together, it is all so familiar and "used" that I have no fear of spoiling it. In a sense, I have already made each page my own and so I can't possibly feel intimidated.
I found on the market, some Irish linen thread intended for carpets. It is ideal for sewing the bundles together. I like to draw across the page, crossing over the join.

Has anyone seen an eraser like this?

I bought several of these erasers in the late 70's, on a yard sale in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. They were in a box of discarded art materials being sold on by a RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) student who had graduated and was about to pack up and leave. I have almost come to the end of my supply and would very much like to find some more. Perhaps they no longer exist. Is anybody reading this and does anybody know about these erasers?

Edging towards the first print

I thought I would start with a lino print. I am familiar with the genre having taught many young people to do it in the past. There is something new on the market called "flexicut" though this afternoon I bought "softcut vinyl". This appears to be the preferred material of the time. It is soft and very flexible and is described as " buttery". It is also a soft creamy colour. Obviously I have never used it and I am all anticipation.
I took out my old cutting tools and found them in a cloth pouch made by a past pupil. Many memories flooded through me. The design is almost fixed but I am not yet happy with the inks that I have. I want to use something translucent so that I can overlay shapes in the manner of a silkscreen. My art supplier is sourcing a suitable medium.