Today’s illuminated word is…
Virus.

It’s been quite a while since I last posted on my blog. But I have been busy with my art work. I have had a couple of low key exhibitions. Currently I have work on display at our new shop, Keepers Preloved, at Farrington Gurney in Somerset. Here are a few images of my work, and I will post more later. Though they are all framed, some are only temporary. It’s good to get work on display, and I have had some very positive comments.


Haven’t posted any of my own work for a while. Mainly because I haven’t had time to do much. So here are some drawings I have been completing of leaves. They are drawn on pages from a biography of Thomas Carlyle, which has lovely thick paper. I had originally planned to do a drawing of the whole tree on the opposite page, and may still do this. But for now I wanted to complete the images. The images are drawn lightly in pencil, then inked over with different size pens.

After a prolonged hiatus due to work and family intrusions over the last couple of months here is a new post! And a new piece of work!
As is often the case, it took some external stimulus or deadline to provide the motivation, and this time it was a friends’ birthday that lead to the completion of a new piece of work, and hopefully further creative endeavour. So here it is, composed along familiar lines, and with the intention of being a simple expression of life, with some clumsy latin, Veni (I came) and Vita (I lived). Happy Birthday Verna Ventham.

More about my pen sketches of leaves in books.
These are sketches I completed a couple of weeks ago, trying to develop some of my ideas and images to a resolution. In these pictures I continue to be preoccupied with leaves, trees and imagery from nature, and with the formal and associative possibilities of the book form. What can the double page spread, the curve of an open book, the layering of sheets of paper add to my images? What added meaning and depth can the observed text, the associations with a fictional or factual text bring? So, more leaves in a book!
At present the idea has reached its fullest form in the book below. Leaves drawn in cross-hatched pen marks, sprouting from the spine of the book, raised above the level of underlying pages. These are also intended to be three-dimensional and sculptural objects, to remain open to view. Still to be completed and resolved-watch this space. The first image is zoomable.
Prior to the sketch above the leaves were drawn in a “moleskin” sketchbook, cut and folded to give an effect of growth and motion. I envisage the books as displayed open with the leaves becoming tree-dimensional. The impact of a strong directional light source creates drama, and emphasises the three-dimensional structure.


I am planning some slightly different work to my usual output, as the local library service in Bath is organising an exhibition and competition. To enter you simply choose one of the books they are discarding and transform it or alter it in some way. I am currently playing around with the idea of the double meaning of the word “leaves”, which could refer to the green things that grow on trees or the pages in a book. Over the last couple of days I have been thinking about layering and cutting pages, and these are two designs.
The first is a line drawing on a page/leaf from a novel, and the second is a photocopy of this on cartridge paper, with the addition of tome using cross-hatched lines.
I haven’t quite decided what to do with the background yet. I’ll keep you posted.


Here are a few doodles from last weekend. They were scribbled in a few minutes in a small moleskin sketchbook. I am exploring the shape of leaves and trees, again, and experimenting with the formal and symbolic possibilities. Again, clicking on the images and zooming in magnifies the inconsequential images so that the texture of the paper is visible, and the pen lines take on an interesting quality!
