Drawing Tuesday - Wallace Collection

Judith and Janet K were in among the armour -

Swords, alone and in series, by Judith

Heavy metal, by Janet K

Janet B caught the action of Hercules wrestling a bull -

Joyce found dogs in paintings -

I went downstairs to see if there might be an exhibition, but no. However the plumage flanking the passage to the loo caught my eye...

The drawing -

 Looking closer.... they turned out to be 18th century Italian sculptures -

The goddess Diana

Figure representing Asia (the turban is the signifier) -
possibly part of a set of the four continents

Figure representing the Americas 

Feathers wrought in stone

A jumble of details - curls of hair (Diana and Asia), the feathers, the goldwork around the plinths - and a number added by the museum  -

Drawing Tuesday - Wallace Collection

On the way to the venue I resolved to look for "strong pattern". Maybe this?

But no, I started with the patterning on these bits of armour -

 The aim was to collect patterns from here&there, and to make a colourful page. I could have glued on the tissue paper thoughtfullly at home but did it hurriedly on site -

 and then spent an hour and a half adding bits of this&that, starting with the armour patterns in white on dark -

 Others had more sensible agendas ...

Janet B returned to "her" horse

Judith's dogs from paintings

Sue's horse armour (protection for eyes, ears, neck)

 

Janet K's dragon drawer-handle, approached in two ways

 Extracurricular activities

The Matisse in the Studio exhibition inspired Janet K ...

... and she also tried some "dendritic" monoprinting

 And finally....

How to keep your earphones from getting their knickers in a knot

Drawing Tuesday - Wallace Collection

The current exhibition (till 30 July) is about gilding - I got only as far as the first room because the intricate drawings by Pierre-Adrien Paris reached out from their frames and grabbed me.

Part of one of Paris's drawings

More intricacy in ink and wash

Paris (1745-1819) spent his latter years cataloguing his collection of some 2,000 drawings, many of which were made during three years he spent in Rome in the 1770s. This sojourn formed an "archaeological approach to architecture" which was reflected in his later designs.

I tried out several pencils and got more familiar with the leafy forms, but certainly have a lot to learn from Paris's drawings -

Not everyone got stuck in the exhibition -

Janet B's combination of simple lines and more-worked areas

Sue's observations of gilding

Carol's lively River Nile

Joyce's "Young Cicero Reading"

Judith tackled "that horse"

Extracurricular actitivies -

Carol found photos of a maze she'd made (on canvas) years ago, and also
found out its current location

Following on from the ceramic lizard in Margate, Janet B drew lizards
at the Royal Veterinary College 

Joyce tried various ways of drawing birdsong

Drawing Tuesday - Wallace Collection

This was the 11th Drawing Tuesday at the Wallace Collection, since October 2014. Mostly we've been drawing in the armour galleries. They are also visited by schoolchildren (en masse) and by enthusiasts, and it's a pleasure to overhear curators giving select tours.

I settled in between a case of helmets and another of these knives, which I'd tackled in an early visit -

But it was this case in the distance that, behind its reflections and at some distance, caught my eye -

 In it, I later found, one of the long swords had an inscription along the blade -

... on both sides ...

The catalogues of armour and weapons were published in 1962; very little information on the exhibits is given in the cases, just a number, and you must consult the books to find out anything about them. And then the information is peppered with arcane words like quillions and gadroons, not to mention the writhen knobs.

What next? a change of scene - mailoica with grotesques -

Made in Gubbio, Italy, early 16th century

Having used "dark" pencils for the swords, I tried using a fine felt pen for the plate - and it was utterly the wrong medium, or perhaps the wrong scale. Changing to an HB pencil for the right side was such a relief. Ideally a fluid medium would have been best. I loved figuring out how the grotesque shapes fit together and look forward to drawing more of this crazy stuff.

Janet K caught the gesture -

 Carol caught the tones, and showed the rider's gesture from another perspective -

 Judith overlaid various sword hilts -

 Sue's page shows the development of the drawing in watersoluble pencil into a tonal study -

Drawing Tuesday - Wallace Collection

In the exhibition space at the Wallace Collection (till 27 November), The Middle by Tom Ellis - paintings after Daniel Teniers "A Shoemaker in his Workshop" (1671), differently rendered, mixed with furniture - tippy-up tables with painted-canvas tops. And an "environment" of loosely-papered walls created, and everything carefully placed. (Under this table is a bit of floor that lifts up, probably an electrical outlet.)

In this video the artist reflects on painting and furniture making and the relation between the two in his work.

Wandering through the collection I found a little 14th century reliquary made in northern France; intrigued by the text, I drew it several times. It attained something like its true shape on the third attempt.

Janet had done the "draw your hand" homework - four drawings taking 5 minutes each - and had another go at the back of the horse - her first drawing of it was in May 2015 -

 Sue's fully articulated gauntlet - German, 1460-65 -

 Najlaa found patterning in the glassed areas of the ceiling -

 Joyce was held up by train problems but made an impressive start, using the mid-tone of the paper and adding white highlight -

(Must try that sometime...)