Squashed - and colourful

Cornelia Parker's Perpetual Canon fills the ground floor gallery at Turner Contemporary (till 17 March) -

I had time for a drawing, and discovered how delightfully cushiony it is to draw on a paper napkin with a biro -

Most of my time at Turner Contemporary was spent upstairs with the Patrick Heron paintings (it was the last day of that show) - a wonderful antidote to a grey winter's day.

A group of gouaches from 1999, the last months of his life, included these -

Other paintings ranged from the 1940s and incuded some of the huge canvases painted with tiny brushes in the 1970s. I particularly enjoyed those with lots of white space ...

"Non-linear storytelling"

Surprising and striking exhibition at Blain Southern (till 19 January) of large, detailed, imaginative, skillful drawings by Berlin-based artist Jonas Burgert -

 Some details -

From the press release:

schlagen und bleiben is the first exhibition to focus solely on Jonas Burgert’s drawings as an independent body of work. While the artist is best known for intensely coloured, large-scale paintings, this intimate exhibition focuses solely on intricate drawings on paper, each subtly rendered in pencil. 

Densely populated tableaux are how Burgert explores non-linear storytelling. Often created at the same time as these expansive pictorial dramas, the subjects of his individual portraits are exiles from the main story, isolated within their own frame. This exhibition explores Burgert’s portraits as entities in their own right. Untethered from a central narrative, they become newly enigmatic, each alluding to its own particular mysteries. 

Burgert is interested in the personification of psychology through figurative painting and it is his ongoing close observation of human emotion that gives his characters such a potent charge

Local coffeeshops

The name of the game is to try them all. This is The Deli at 80 - a big mug of rather weak americano, and lots of deliveries happening on a Friday morning.

 I did some drawings from things seen on instagram -

and perforce overheard this dad involving his daughters in his reading of the newspaper that the shop provided(Guardian), talking about the stories in a very adult way with them -

It's a relief to see that not all children are rambunctious and bad-tempered!

(With any luck, Studio Saturday will return next week. I've been a bit lazy in the colder weather.)

An exhibition of convenience

The need to get out of the house during Betwixtmas sent me to Tate Britain, a convenient destination, and the Burne-Jones exhibition (till 24 Feb) was convenient to the entrance, so in I went, even though my interest in the Preraphaelites wore out some decades ago.

He certainly could paint, and draw. But oh those languid ladies, so bored with life, so frightened, so passive...

Early work - painted on part of a piano!

Striking stained glass ...

... with lovely "medieval" plant details

Rubens was his least favourite painter - this is a
caricature of a Rubens Annunciation

Straightforward drawing

Strangely raised and gilded drapery (and lettering) on a
wood panel - how did he do that?

 And speaking of drapery - great swathes of it, in many colours -

Poetry Thursday - inspired by Wendy Cope

Many poems are on hand in the books on my shelf, and they deserve re-reading. I was surprised to find, in the back of Wendy Cope's Serious Concerns (which has been with me since 1993), a few lines about what was definitely an ongoing and serious concern of my own. (The title is an afterthought.)

The State of His Socks

I am very particular
    about my beloved's socks.
They must not be
    worn out, short, or thin;
they must not be
    pilled, or rubbed, or crumpled;

or beige.

My beloved's feet deserve
a cared-for cushion of comfort
to carry him through the day.

Woodblock Wednesday

Starting with this idea...

 ragged edges in grey with a red centre, I wanted to make it wider (30cmx40cm) and without a fold in the middle, which meant doing an entirely new middle. I played around with zen circles but didn't want to get a complicated as this -

 So while ideas for the middle were percolating, I cut the edges -

Lots of lovely curly wood shavings!

For the second edge, instead of using the big round gouge I used the smaller one, hoping that there would be slightly more wood between the cuts. Taking a rubbing meant it could be a template and the two could be overprinted.

This time I remembered to use a thin watercolour wash ... did it make the shavings curlier?

 Taking a few tracings seems to have got the ideas flowing, and I came up with this -

 The overlapping item needs two blocks -

This birch ply (some of Tom's offcuts) isn't wonderful wood, in fact it's messy to cut no matter how sharp you try to keep the tools. So I started experimenting with non-standard ways of removing the wood, in an attempt to be more efficient (ie, faster!) at getting the job done. Two possibilities arise: practise and practise  (Forschprung durch technique); and, use better wood. Wish list: superb hangito, or failing that, this one from Intaglio).

 A change of activity - the edge block soaked overnight, and the damp pack was made. Paper was cut and set to get damp -

 First effort - too green, and darned if the red watercolour on the wood didn't lift off a little -

Inking up, phew - I tried various unorthodox things with my unorthodox woodblock -

Too much watercolour "ink"?

Better! (this is the big-gouge pattern)

Uh-oh, the dreaded blob...

Some improvement (this is the little-gouge pattern)

How long can a printing session go on? I had printed both edges on all four sheets of paper, and overprinted one sheet, and then the nori ran out and that was the signal to STOP. Which was rather a relief - it felt like I'd been doing this all day. I haven't set foot out of the house (fitbit reading, 7.45pm: 1400 steps; "must try harder").

Time to pack up for the day

Prints du jour -

Three types of paper were used - ordinary Chinese roll, part of a Chinese paper for scrolls, and "grass paper" - I've had the papers for a long time and they probably all came from Guanghwa Bookshop.

Much more experimentation and better technique is needed. At lower left, overprinting -

 I think it's making progress, though -

Before ... and during ...

NY Day walk

 ...to Woodberry Wetlands, for a restorative breakfast, and  Gerald Durrell's lovely Corfu stories to read -

 Then a further exploration of the mean streets of N16 -

 with their quirks and surprises -

The bike was battered and broken

The sign says it's a scout hut, but it doesn't appear on this map

... and just off the main street, a remnant of former times

Along Stoke Newington Church Street, the lovely bookshop was open, and I left with three books, one from a museum of ironwork -

Isn't it a bit early for snowdrops?