Arting about

I took some "toys" to the seaside -
- a new sketchbook (A4 size)
- various pens and pencils
- the little watercolour box, long unused
- blue threads

...and had some aims in mind -
- fill the sketchbook
- try out various drawing materials
- collect small objects (on walks) and record them
- make a memory ball with these objects, and include bits of writing

We did spend a lot of time working in sketchbooks - and with a bit of large-brush "surface preparation" in the final pages, my book was completely filled.

On the train journey, I started filling a few pages, playing with the effects of various pens on wet paper -

Wetting paper in various ways was something I subsequently did every day, using seawater, streamwater, rainwater, tea/coffee, even watercolour water -

(click on image to enlarge)

The words were notes about sights and sounds - a non-visual diary.

The main task was to collect and record objects found on walks -

These memorabilia included tags, tickets and receipts, as well as natural things like twigs, pebbles, seaweed -

A visit to Tate St Ives resulted in an unexpected project - to make six drawings from a postcard not of our own choosing. Mine was Terry Frost's "Green, Black and White Movement", painted in 1951, just after he moved to St Ives -

(click on image to enlarge)

These used graphite, wax crayon, acrylic, watercolour, frottage, and collage, in various combinations. The close study of the painting and how its composition works was more rewarding than any of my results. Also it gives a new way to look at boats, in their interconnections.

One morning we set up a still-life -

The practice of looking at how one object related to another was good preparation for the life drawing session we attended that evening (eight poses in two hours, whew!).

Eventually, after seeing Judy using paint to such good effect, I got out the watercolours -

 "It doesn't have to be accurate, it's a reminder of where you were" - true; nor was it possible to get a good photo -

Another unexpected project arose from finding a road atlas of Britain - I cut it up to get pages for making little books, vaguely with a "sea" theme -

 The cut-outs got ever smaller, but eventually the eviscerated book did go into the recycling.

As for the memory ball -- because of its lumpiness, it's more appropriate to call it a memory pebble. I recorded what went into the ball, with a view to making a book showing the process (and the contents).

On the train back home, I wrote down more phrases, intending to cut up the page and make another ball with the remaining thread -

The "written" book/ball will be considerably lighter - there'll be no stones in it.