Drawing class, week 1

The (City Lit) class is called "Seeing images" and it's about "visual structure". This week it was about line and shape, and we drew with charcoal, from a still life -

After the first drawing, the objects were moved and we rubbed out the drawing, then built it up again (from the negative shapes) ... and rubbed out ... and built it up again, this time checking the sizes and alignment of the objects/shapes. I had the farther sheet of paper quite wrong. You often can't see what's wrong and someone else can see it right away; it's a surprise and a relief to be able to fix it -

 Finally a spotlight was brought in, and we added lines (with pastel) to delineate the dark shapes -

 My main problem was a common one - making the faraway objects too big -

Homage to Morandi

The supply list for the drawing workshop at the Estorick  included "a favourite object". The evening's task was to use that object, in conjunction with a number of others chosen from those the tutor had brought along, to create groupings - landscapes - as Morandi did with his bottles.

It was a chance to use the various drawing materials we had each brough along. Suggested time per drawing, 15 minutes - during which time, I found, you can get rather exasperated with the current drawing - or was it that, knowing the duration, one simply wants to move on?

fine felt-tip

I worked in my A5 sketchbook.

graphite

lumograph ee

graphite

charcoal

somewhere underneath the charcoal is white wax crayon

charcoal

It was lovely to be working in among Morandi's prints.

Rules for living (part 1)

(image from here)

Beware of all enterprises that requires new clothes. (Thoreau) And especially: Don't ever buy clothes on vacation.

If you have your best ideas in the bath, take writing materials into the bath with you.

"Ten rules of thumb"  formulated by Wendell Castle:

1. If you are in love with an idea, you are no judge of its beauty or value.
2. It is difficult to see the whole picture when you are inside the frame.
3. After learning the tricks of the trade, don't think you know the trade.
4. We see and apprehend what we already know.
5. The dog that stays on the porch will find no bones.
6. Never state a problem to yourself in the terms it was brought to you.
7. If it's offbeat or surprising then it's probably useful.
8. If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it.
9. Don't get too serious.
10.  If you hit the bullseye every time, then the target is probably too near.

"If you're depressed, you're living in the past. If you're anxious, you're living in the future. If you're at peace, you're living in the present." -Lao Tzu  

Simplify, simplify, simplify. (7 ways to do so are here.) Indeed, “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Black bookwraps

front (without a book inside, of course)

back

Moon bag

When I saw the "moon bag" (here is the pattern and tutorial) I thought the round bit might be a pocket on the front. It's not, but "next time" I'll make it as a pocket, stiffened. And add straps.

The aim was a make-up bag, but it turned out larger than I expected. I was in a hurry - and my scraps of wadding weren't iron-on adhesive, so I had to quilt them in. And then there wasn't enough grey lining fabric, so I had to add a (brightly coloured) piece at the bottom.

I tried using bits of bondaweb to position the zipper before stitching, as in the tutorial, but it didn't work too well, first time. Will try that technique again.

And I added a tab at the closed end of the zip - something to hold on to while pulling the zip closed - which isn't terribly easy as the zip goes up over that hump. Finding a zip that was long enough in my recycled collection wasn't easy (better too long than too short!) and really, having a longer zip in the bag would be better for reaching into it.

This is what I saw that enticed me to make it -

Found art Friday

Blossom ... pink ... cherry blossom ... spring in Japan ...

A viewer-driven cultural concatenation, you might say... Conceptual art, of a sort?

Here's the real thing -

Himeji Castle (image from here)

Blue bookwraps

What was I thinking when I made the blue "thing" these are cut from? Less is more, when it comes to the shiny stuff! These fit an A6 spiral notebook - and even the black-covered hardback A6 sketchbook. Not knowing how thick the book will be, I made the loops on the bias for a bit of stretch. The larger the button, the more secure the closure -

 These, also A6 size, remain unfinished. I shall be leaving the inside "rough" and adding a pocket at the square end; they'll close with a ribbon -

It's been a pleasure to doodle with thread ... making a fantasia of handstitch...

Up my street - end of an era

It's sad to see the demise of Chez Liline, the Mauritian fish restaurant that has been going since before I moved to this area - thirty years ago. Hopefully the fishmonger, France Fresh Fish, will keep going. Meanwhile a street trader sets out his wares daily in front of the post office and shop - he was also using the space in front of Chez Liline as soon as it closed, but now workmen have moved in to convert it to a Kebab Palace.

What the street really needs is not more kebabs, but a decent baker!

Poetry Thursday - "Still Life" by Elizabeth Daryush

Through the open French window the warm sun
lights up the polished breakfast-table, laid
round a bowl of crimson roses, for one —
a service of Worcester porcelain, arrayed
near it a melon, peaches, figs, small hot
rolls in a napkin, fairy rack of toast,
butter in ice, high silver coffee-pot,
and, heaped on a silver salver, the morning’s post.

She comes over the lawn, the young heiress,
from her early walk in her garden-wood,
feeling that life’s a table set to bless
her delicate desires with all that’s good,
that even the unopened future lies
like a love-letter, full of sweet surprise.

image from here

I came across this poem - and poet - via a bit of quick research on her father, Robert Bridges. In 1975 Donald Davie bemoaned the neglect of Daryush's poetry: "When an unprejudiced literary history of our century comes to be written, our failure to recognize Elizabeth Daryush will be one of the most telling and lamentable charges that can be laid at our door." The article no doubt arose from his work on the notes of her Collected Poems, published in 1976. 

Elizabeth Daryush (1887-1977) was brought up in Oxford and in 1923 married a Persian student who she met there. Her first book of poems was published in 1911, and many more were published throughout her lifetime. "Still Life" has been called " an ironic critique of the false security of the idle rich". The subject matter of Dayush's best poems is "moral without being didactic—a stoic acceptance of impermanence, the need for discipline, self restraint, and dignity in the face of tragic loss."

Fun for kids of all ages

These "activity books" are from a selection at the bookshop at the Wellcome Collection, where the current exhibition, till 30 June, is Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan. Well worth seeing! 300 works by 26 artists; it's on till 30 June, and there's quite a bit of info on the exhibition website, including a short video and many images (photography wasn't allowed in the exhibition).

We weren't really there for the bookshop, we were there for the show. "Art created without tuition ... art created without an audience in mind ..." says the video. Each mode of expression carries its own interest, and I was struck how "present" each artist was in the work. At the end of the exhibition there are screens with short videos of some of the artists at work, or talking about their work. What a lifeline this form of expression is for them.

"Olives in their happy homes"

This month's zany "olive" journal quilt is based on the "glowing hearth" in the centre of log cabin blocks. Traditionally it's red - the very colour of the pimento that stuffs many an olive.

First step - red squares of various sizes, to be used for foundation piecing of thin strips, somewhat randomly -

Several hours and 99 (count 'em) "logs" later, a layout -

Sewn together, layered, backed, quilted, faced, turned, sewn down - hey presto! -

(Too busy...)

Miscellany

Fleece Inn, Bretforton

map of derelict land in Belfast (in an exhibition at RIBA)

worth a closer look (exhibition coming up in June)

treasure trove

from Art Textiles of Australia, vol 2 - Pamela Fitzsimons' work, gorgeous

Darn, double darn

During the "Wool House" exhibition at Somerset House, I attended a workshop on darning, given by tomofholland (read his take on the event here). First we learned Swiss darning - following along on top of knit stitches. This can be done following the pattern, or imposing a different pattern (or colour, as in his sample). The tricky bit is moving up to the next row -

After we'd mastered that, out came the darning eggs/mushrooms -

and those long darning needles. Note that this is being done on the wrong side of the "sock", and that the weakened area around the actual hole is also being strengthened -

 I'd pulled the fabric too tightly over the mushroom , so my darn bulged - but after a bit of steaming it lay more or less flat -

back and front of samples

Since then I've been "in the mood for mending" and started many a day by rescuing some sox and jumpers.

Bookwrap bonanza

This weekend's sewing session converted a number of "old bits" into bookwraps to fit a spiral-bound A7 sketchbook. I used one to make a template by folding a sheet of scrap paper to the right size -

The hole in the centre is for getting the spine in the right place.

These bookwraps have pockets into which the covers of the book slip -

and the edges are done with my favourite binding, the narrow binding (cut fabric 1 3/4" wide, fold in half, sew to front, turn to back, "stitch in the ditch", and hey presto it's done). I'm almost happy with the closures of these - most are bias strips of the binding/pocket fabric, sewn onto the back along with the binding.

 Some time ago I started a series of small pieces with white fabric above and black below, including a rectangle of "something". Turned sideways, were large enough for trimming down -

front

back

Perhaps there's a critical-mass effect at work -- at last I'm getting comfortable with making these. Many more "samples" ripe for conversion lurk in the bags and boxes I'm gradually going through...  Here are a couple more -

Displacement

From The Guardian, 10 April

The Offing

photo by Garry Fabian Miller (from here)

off•ing (ˈɔ fɪŋ, ˈɒf ɪŋ) 

n.

the more distant part of the sea seen from the shore.

Idioms:

in the offing,

a. at a distance but within sight.

b. in the projected future; likely to happen.

[1620–30]

Land art walk

It took us nearly six hours to do a four-mile walk - the idea was to make some "land art" along the way. I took along two cones of red thread, not quite knowing what I'd be doing with it, but soon started tying the thread to things

photo by Sabine Thoele

and tying things together -

 The thicker yarn (chenille) shows up better in the photos (and is more noticeable in real life) -

The evening before, and on the way to Goring, I'd been finger-crocheting the thread into something more substantial, and used it to wrap this branch that had been cut from the trees nearby -

Later, it was irresistible to decorate this conifer that had somehow found its way to the Gatehampton railway bridge (designed by Brunel in 1838) -

and I had to add a "nest" to this welcoming little tree -

Mary did some serious work along the riverside -

Eventually we got to the top of the steep hill (nice view, with Brunel's brick bridge in the background) and had lunch amid the grazing sheep.

Mary continued with the plant structures theme -

while the photographers enjoyed the intermittent sunshine

and I gathered stones (chalk, actually) for a bit of hummock-paving -

The rain held off till we were back in the car.