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.
The latest additions to my collection of leaf drawings. Rowan, and Chestnut this time. A bit trickier as they are of course constructed from multiple leaves, so smaller and more detailed. Still more to come…
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.
I decided to give this commemorative spoon, which I have posted about earlier, to a friend who was with me at Priston festival (whether he wants it or not!) So I had to mount and frame it. I used scans from the festival programme to create a mount, and set the spoon back behind this, and managed to find an appropriate frame from my collection. Although I was initially focussed on presenting this individual spoon it has suggested ways of presenting my other “tree-painted” wooden spoons. More to follow.
And he was very appreciative of the gift.
Another double page Apocalyptic Illuminated Initial. I have drawn these more fully in pen prior to adding colour. It was started a while ago, along with several others, and I am in the process of attempting to complete them before I start new works.
I have it in mind to make a colouring book-An Illuminated Apocalyptic Colouring Book, of depressing and fatalistic images.
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.
Here are a couple of pages of my initial letters. As I have said before I was exploring the use of words around the trees, selecting words primarily on a gloomy and pessimistic theme. In the first ones the lettering is a fairly standard heavy font. In subsequent examples I started to use lettering that is intended to be recognisable. These two are almost finished. A little tidying up is needed, and replacing of the words at the top, with APOCALYPTIC ALPHABET, I think.
Once again, if you click on the image then zoom in you get a version as seen through a magnifying glass. Really quite interesting.
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.
Following on from an earlier post here are a couple more simple pen sketches of tree shapes. I have included the earlier ones to show the development.
