Woodcut progress

Getting a feel for what the blocks made in the summer will look like combined with the new "spooky shapes" blocks -

Held up to the light

Another possibility

Of course the colours make all the difference. First  mix your paint, then print your backgrounds -

The yellow had already been printed

 There's no photo of the disappointing, pale, grainy "spooky shapes" - and the yellow made it look ghastly in the true sense of the word - but inking up again and printing again made for a satisfying darkness, and I quite like this combination. The darkness animates the shapes and keeps the yellow in its place -

 Some of the backgrounds were printed in a pale brown, and this is less exciting -

 I'm working on further layers. In this version of the spooky shapes, they are printed the other way round, to be mirror images -

 The background hasn't been properly cleared yet, and I'm wondering what it might look like left as is -

 The way to find out, short of a test print, is to do a pencil rubbing -

That's also a quick way to test combinations of blocks.

By the end of the course (three or is is just two weeks from now) I hope to have improved the printing skills, and maybe even cutting, if there's time to do more blocks. And to have discovered how to put them together to make something that pleases me and inspires me to continue. After the course is over, I hope to continue to develop some of the ideas that are starting to emerge. (Note to self: write them down!)

Meanwhile I've been looking at the books on my shelves, including the Kuniyoshi exhibition catalogue, from which this theatrically spooky subject comes -

Classic Japanese woodcuts abound with ghosts and monsters, such as this one by Hokusai -

(via)

Dazzled

Some of the jewellery that caught my eye at the Dazzled exhibition, which is at the Oxo Gallery till 7 January. 

Sue Gregor's "fossilised plastic"

Paula Treimane

Caroline Finlay

Lindsey Mann

Kaz Robertson

There was plenty of silver and gold, but it was the colourful stuff that caught my eye.

Food for friends

This week is turning out to be Traybake Week at Kitchen136. What a great way to feed people - you cut up a few veg, add some chunks of chicken if desired, mix some spices or herbs, and into the oven it all goes. There's not even very much to wash up at this stage, and the kitchen will be in a tidy state before the doorbell rings and the wine gets poured.

The spice mixture on the Chicken, red pepper, etc traybake was really good - fennel seeds, smoked paprika, cumin, lemon zest, garlic - who knew!

The Spinach, ricotta, and chicken recipe, with veg roasted in a separate pan, is untried, that happens tonight ... and it needs the chicken breasts stuffing with a spinach and ricotta mixture, which is a teeny bit fiddly imho, but it all cooks at the same time, without different saucepans needing timing, which is my criterion for an easy life.

The spicy roast veg and lentils recipe is untried too -- but lots of veg are on hand for tomorrow's debut. The recipe calls for tinned puy lentils, which will take further searching for - or else I'll boil up some dried ones, just like we used to do in the bad old days before everything came in tins.

Poetry Thursday - two busy poems (Watts and Rosen)

How Doth the Little Busy Bee

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

How skilfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labors hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labor or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.

--Isaac Watts (1674-1748; preacher, poet, hymn writer)

From: Anthology Year 1 (Treasure House), Collins UK

--Michael Rosen (b.1946; children's novelist, Children's Laureate 2007-2009)  

It's a busy week - more in the popping-here-and-there way than involvement "in works of labour or of skill".  Visitors and visiting, cooking (and eating), talking, walking, class, proofreading, exhibitions, having coffee, even a bit of Meaningful Housework (sorting out the broom cupboard). Emails and blogging have rather fallen by the wayside. Everything is jumbled up in my memory, routine is upset, which adds to that busybusy feeling...

It happens sometimes. Unfortunately, busy does not equal effective!

Bicycle collection

Drawing Tuesday - Camden Arts Centre

On arrival I saw Janet B heading into the cafe - she was looking for someone to tell that she needed to go swimming, not drawing ... but there was time for a coffee (and chat about Art etc) first. This is not a rigid group, by any means!

I hadn't seen what was on show and just in case it overwhelmed (or underwhelmed) me, I took a photo of our cups as a possible starting point for "independent work" -

 and then spent a few minutes waiting to get a person-free shot of the lovely old doors ... double doors ... a double set of double doors ... which might be another possibility for a starting point. Or maybe it was all just procrastination - er, let me reword that: it might have been subconscious preparation for a very focussed drawing!

Not to worry, though - to me the objects in the rooms were very draw-able ... first a film-within-an-installation by Rwandan artist Christian Nyampeta -

 and also two rooms (and rooms within rooms) by Milan-based Nathalie Du Pasquier, a founding member of the Italian design collective Memphis -

With less than an hour on hand, I spent an intense time filling a page spread with motifs collected in Nyampeta's room, which contained furniture, wall painting and cut-out wall plaques of great appeal; their interest developed as I looked closely with pencil in hand.

 The pencil pulled at random from my selection (usually it's better to think before choosing) was the indigo inktense, and back in the cafe I added some water here and there to enliven the objects as they floated across the page.

That the plaques are wood and the lines were cut into it influences the interrelation of the shapes, as Janet K found -

She also enjoyed the graphics and colours in the other rooms -

 Carol found a seat with a view in the cafe and suddenly noticed the marks on the glass around the room-

 Drawn onto transparent film, they can be moved into place over the background foliage -

 Extracurricular activities - 

Janet K had been to the Rachel Whiteread exhibition -
her sketch there (left) got reworked at home, with colour

Some shapely-tree-noticing on the walk towards Hampstead afterwards

Reading matter

For bedtime, bathtime, relaxonsofa-havealittlenaptime ... and of course for traveltime, but only if the book is small enough and/or light enough.

The first of Donna Leon's Brunetti series was an impulse-choice at the library - set in Venice's opera house, it slipped in as an adjunct to the online opera course I'm trying to keep up with. But the "hidden nugget" that interested me most was about the psychology of using hearing aids:

So much of what we hear, we don't hear with our ears. ... We do a good deal of lipreading, we fill in missing words from the context of the others we do hear. When people wear ... hearing aids, they've finally accepted the idea that something is wrong with their hearing. So all of their other senses begin to work overtime, trying to fill in the missing signals and messages, and because the only thing that's been added is the hearing aid, they believe it's the hearing aid that's helping them, when the only thing that's happened really, is that their other senses are working to their maximum to make up for the ears that can no longer hear as well.

What If?, it says on the cover, contains "serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions" - and is a lot of serious fun. The answers to the questions aren't the point ... it's the swerves through the byways of science that make this an unpredictable journey.

The Museum of Modern Love is a novel centred around Marina Abramovic's performance of sitting very still at a table while members of the public came and sat opposite her. I've been reading it off and on for months, reluctant to come to the end - it's rare to get so much  "art" in a novel.

All Change is the last of the five novels in the Cazalet saga, and here too I'm reluctant to finish, but fortunately Elizabeth Jane Howard has written other books, and an autobiography, Slipstream (2002).

One thing leads to another

The goldcrest is the smallest European bird (via)

This perambulation among online resources started when I set out to send a picture-essay about the silversmith's studio to some friends ... and then I noticed the interesting links at the end of the article...

So here's the cascade of links to "interesting stuff" - hope some of it hits the spot for you!

Silversmith's studio - insight into tools and processes - 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/oct/20/the-ancient-craft-of-silversmithing-in-pictures

Pocket knife maker

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2016/nov/02/revival-of-the-little-mesters-a-sheffield-pocket-knife-maker-in-pictures 

Pencils!!

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/nov/04/me-and-my-pencil-famous-creatives-on-their-tools-in-pictures

Art from tiny objects

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/feb/11/small-is-beautiful-art-from-tiny-objects

DIY art therapy (book art)

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/jun/17/improving-books-diy-art-therapy-in-pictures

Long article on recipes and their spread through social media

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jun/18/great-recipe-explosion-social-media-does-more-mean-better-instagram-pinterest

"Recipes are such a ubiquitous technology, we sometimes take for granted just how much we have benefited from their diffusion."

Creativity helps you stay well [not news, this!]

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/nov/05/art-and-soul-how-sparking-creativity-helps-you-stay-well

"We need to remind ourselves that creativity can be as simple as playing or doing things differently, so that we give ourselves permission to open the door to other activities and usher in all the benefits that come with this"

Wildlife wonders

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2017/nov/03/the-week-in-wildlife-in-pictures

(more links to "week in wildlife" compilations are at the bottom of that one)

And there, with the goldcrest and other natural wonders, we stop ... for now ...

Windows, views, and fireworks

Much anticipation attended the installation of the new windows at Rathcoole Gardens, and the job is now half done: six windows are in. These are the old ones, in much better condition than those already replaced; but double glazing is needed, so they too are for the skip -

 and these are the new ones, same sort of style but without the fussy glass in the small panes -

The rest of the room is still in rough shape - it's scheduled for replastering - but the windows (wood, double glazed, with brass fittings) are a delight -

My walk home in the the dusk gave a chance to try to photograph the spectacle of the city, with all its red lights, and the occasional moving dot of a plane heading for City airport, or Heathrow ... but let's face it, a phone camera is not going to be up to the task -

 The full moon was looking gorgeous -

Just before 9pm we went to to the top of the hill to watch the Alexandra Palace fireworks, a bit of a visual juggling act what with signs, trees, and the new bright LED streetlights to contend with. There was quite a crowd...

 The (orange) streetlights around Ally Pally had been turned off before the display started. That was my favourite bit, the moment when the orange glow suddenly wasn't there.

It happens again tonight - at 8pm.

What the camera sees

Odd moments from the past few days.

Window display - such as it is - in a "Vintage" shop

Discarded item - all that jolly painting just lying there....

Sweeping fallen leaves off the Parkland Walk - guys, is this the best
use of your time ... really ...

A confrontation of toothbrushes - ever wonder what they get up to,
in the medicine cabinet, in the dark?

Last day of the old windows at Tom and Gemma's ... window boxes
will be removed to a place of safety, ready for the replacement casements

Some mornings I like to put on a load of washing and, lulled by
the rhythm of the machine, write and write and write - about "nothing"

Poetry Thursday - Earthy Anecdote by Wallace Stevens

Earthy Anecdote

Wallace Stevens, 1879 - 1955

Every time the bucks went clattering
Over Oklahoma
A firecat bristled in the way.

Wherever they went,
They went clattering,
Until they swerved,
In a swift, circular line,
To the right,
Because of the firecat.

Or until they swerved,
In a swift, circular line,
To the left,
Because of the firecat.

The bucks clattered.
The firecat went leaping,
To the right, to the left,
And
Bristled in the way.

Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes
And slept.

(via)

"You have to hand it to Stevens to start off his first book [1923] with such a poem. "Earthy Anecdote" has no people, no drama, no believable situation, no recognizable form, its main character is wholly imaginary but not explained in any way, almost every word in it is repeated multiple times. It is like a nursery rhyme without the rhyme, or better yet a cartoon, the primitive kind one would see on movie screens in 1923. It makes perfect sense in fact as a cartoon, you can just see that funny firecat bristling and the poor clattering herd of bucks go veering away." Read more of this explication, explanation, disentanglement here.

Kids' eye view

Last week I noticed that photos had appeared along the street, taken by 5-year-olds from the local school. Either I didn't look hard enough, or some new ones have appeared ....

"I thought they were bunny rabbits but they weren't"

"Green bananas"

"That was fake because it was closed"

An insight into children's minds, should the busy-busy passer-by care to notice. And coincidentally, someone on the radio who has researched the focusing vs noticing powers of 5 year olds finds they notice things outside of the task at hand more than adults do, ie they are more distractible [surprise!] -- so he suggests that classrooms shouldn't have interesting things on the walls, so that the children will be able to receive their "education" from what the teacher tells them t focus on. What joy!