04 August 2015

Drawing Tuesday - V&A ceramics galleries

It was only a few minutes after opening time when I reached the (vast) ceramics galleries, but already the artist in residence (Amy Jane Hughes) was hard at work -
So much to see ... did you know that porcelain has a tendency to slump, as this vase shows -
This kiln-waster (Delft, 1665-70) is a spectacular disaster and I wanted to look at it closely
but immediately let myself be distracted by the reflections of the rows of teapots behind me -

and started out by warming up with some blind drawing of the shapes of these blue-and-white objects
then filling in the background of the page with elements from the decoration -


Back to the 34 plates gone so wrong, with bits of kiln furniture among the heap -
Was this all the work of one painter?
My first pencil drawing was going nowhere, so I started another on the opposite page, adding torn scraps of tissue paper to represent the unglazed clay -
A changed point of view brought the back into focus, quite quickly drawn with pen over the original attempt -

With not a lot of time left, I was looking for "something quick" and found these African pots -
A water pot from Nigeria, possibly Igbo, 1900-1924
and also from Nigeria (Bida, Nupe people) another water pot from the same era.

Elsewhere, Jo ensconced herself in the study collection -
and really got to know this dark pot (apologies for the bad photos - all that glass makes it difficult) -
using various media to get the dark shiny glaze and the reflected highlights ... not easy ...
Caryl was quite taken by this piece by Michael Flynn, "Angel/Flight" (1988)
She did two versions, first the small one, then the larger one in mere minutes - a speed made possible by the close observation earlier -

Nathalia drew a piece by Bernard Leach and Alison Britton's "Big White Jug" (see it, and six responses to it, here) -
 Sue started with the yellow Chinese roof tiles, but found it hard on the neck -
and switched to pieces at eye-level, "Blue Form" by Wouter Dam, 2004 - a piece thrown in sections -
The blue piece was just visible from where I'd been sitting, thinking how nice it would be to draw those clean white shapes rather than the chaos of that kiln-waster -

2 comments:

Patricia G said...

It's a fabulous place isn't it. Very different subject choices and so much in each. Thank you for sharing.

Patricia G said...
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