This year I’ve been ignoring my blog but concentrating on my art. Since graduation I’ve had to scale down what I do to the simplicity of drawing and it’s been a hard task for me. But I think I’ve finally come to terms with drawing. It is an artwork in its own right and doesn’t need to be part of any project. So take a look at my new gallery showing off my life drawings.
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This is a tentative step to a new project of work.
I am beginning by making lots of line pencil drawings which will inform more expressive painting and drawing later on.
The works aim to as a collection discuss relationships between people and spaces. How relationships between people change and are informed by their state of dress and how a whole environment can be changed by the people within it, their relationships to one another and how they chose to portray themselves.
To begin this body of work I am asking people I know and am close to to sit for me to draw. Beginning with family members – a more difficult task than it seems- no one wants to sit still and be studied.
The way people are choosing to present themselves to me to be drawn and the way in which I have captured them will inform later stages of development.
The very first studies are;
Mother; This was a challenge to draw, I have always and will always find it difficult to capture my mother. It may be a combination of knowing someone so well, being so close to them and worrying about offending them who knows. This has been my most successful attempt so far. The image is stoney, mountainous, looking down and reminding me of the colossal importance of Mother in childhood. This image also shows the great space between sitter and artist and highlights the flowing clothes covering the body- something which my mother is always aware of- being covered up.
Birthday Boy; This is an incomplete study, a tribute to the energy and restlessness of the sitter. It is a study of my stepfather on his birthday- in this particular study the title and age of the sitter seems to jar, making the work more playful- a possibility for the painting in response to it. The study itself is more removed than the first seeming to show less about the relationship between sitter, artist and space and the importance of clothing in this. Latter paintings from this will I think make much of the bright blocky colours of his shirt compared to the sleepy shrinking position of the figure.
Other sketches for study Birthday Boy;
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All of my drawings are always for sale, just send me a message.
Most of my sculptural/ painted work is not as it is created for a certain space and also very delicate, meaning it often doesn’t survive. But you can commission paintings of sculptures from me.
But this aside, I currently have three drawings in Creativitea, Nelson, and am planning life drawing classes with the owner soon. Contact them or me to show interest in either.
I also have one coloured drawing ready to go up in O’callaghans, Treforest, which is also a lively arts based cafe. Poetry, music, art its all there.
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So I have really been focussing on drawing while working out how to find some space to do bigger, messier works.
One thing in drawing which I haven’t tackled in years is colour, mostly because there has always been some agenda to fill in drawing.
Drawing for the sake of drawing however has created plenty of it’s own challenges and interests which I am looking foreword to exploring and developing- starting with use of colour.
These are made using conte pastels and are mostly warm colours, reds and browns because I am naturally drawn to these when depicting the figure. Cold blues and greens just don’t settle with me and the body- something for future experimentation? It’s a strange association as there is so much blue, green and purple in our body.
Colds seem to be a more painful, distanced colour to me- shivering or lack of care for what you see. Possibly as the months go by and things do get colder, models start to shiver and artists wrap up, these colours may creep in more to my work.
I will also be looking to experiment with washes of colour soon to bring further change of texture to the drawings.
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Summer is almost over and I hardly noticed it was here.
Here is a snippet of what has been keeping me busy!
The Jenny Saville exhibition Oxford;
Jenny Saville, Reproduction Drawing II
Which I will be translating notes from into a review very soon…
Home building and nesting;
Keeping up the drawing;
These deserve their own post…
Work appearing in arty Cafe’s and galleries;
These charcoal and graphite pieces are on sale in Creativitea, Nelson
Currently you can see work in O’callaghans and Creativity. I’ll be looking for more showing opportunities throughout the Autumn.
A start to a new project;
Mum
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Edvard Munch is exhibiting in the Tate Modern!
I descovered I liked Munch in a run down second hand bookshop where I found an old catalogue of his work. (The cruel bookseller wouldn’t drop the price so I couldn’t afford to keep it.)
Before this point I had only seen The Scream and didn’t think much of him. But his work is enchanting.
I love the expressive lines and colour and the deep emotion he draws from surreal but inane everyday settings. His fixated repetition of select images only means that you can begin to see the heart of what he wanted to portray. Through the many interpretations we are shown, a deep and alive image emerges.
An excellent depiction of this obsessive repetition is shown here, through Woman in Three Stages.
Right now, until the 14 October Edvard Munch’s work is being exhibited in the Tate Modern where you can go and see exactly what I am talking about.
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On the subject of places to go and things to see. I will not be leaving this summer without having been to visit the National Portrait Gallery.
From the snippets and prize winners paintings which I have seen there will be plenty to be inspired and awed by! A full list of the exhibitors is on the National Portrait Galleries website, and shows plenty of realist and fleshy painterly bodies from all walks of life.
Aleah Chapin’s Auntie is the real reason I want to go though. A portrait of an unideal, fleshy, ageing body the painting nevertheless glows. Drawing me in to admire her strength and beauty despite the bodies differences from the normal nude. It is this womans face which keeps bringing me back. There is no other way to describe it than beautiful. Glowing. The pride and confidence within the stance of the figure and its outright position on the page allows this face to take hold.
A small summary of the piece comes from the National Portrait Gallery;
“Her portrait is of a close friend of the family and is part of a series of nude portraits of women Aleah has known all of her life. She says: ‘The fact that she has known me since birth is extremely important. Her body is a map of her journey through life. In her, I see the personification of strength through an unguarded and accepting presence.’I’m inspired to paint faces again… and I haven’t even seen the painting yet.”
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Jenny Saville has always been a favourite artist of mine and now I have discovered her drawings! They are every bit as dynamic, epicly large and beautiful as her paintings. These centre around the theme of motherhood and seem to have grasped a sense of what it is to be “a woman” better than any of her previous work.
The ethereal quality of pencil on paper, give the works a sensitiveness, a fine sadness that wasn’t in her painting. Moving on from bodilyness these are creating something deeper more challenging to see and understand.
Still containing the expressive swoops and curves but also smaller more detailed finished areas contrasting them.
Artists from Cardiff are going on a trip to see some of Savilles work on the 4th July, do come along for the day.
It is on display in Modern Art Oxford until the 16 September.
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Here are some photographs taken by other people of my work… I always find this sort of thing interesting as it shows what they feel are the important or strong parts of the work.. Sometimes parts which I had not considered or managed to fully capture myself!
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Well I think it was a success! A fabulous turnout to admire some clearly talented artists work. Lots of positive feedback and memories of the night and passed years to look back on.
A complete gallery of images from the show are here.
But here are some highlights to get you interested.
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Rebecca Lois 