Mornings in the studio

If the sun shines, there are shadows slanting across the worktable. Some are easier to catch than others! 

The white eggs make a change from having brown eggs, not that it makes a difference to the egg inside the shells -

I thought the white ones looked a bit crowded - social distancing, you know -

Ah, that's better

 Taking the opportunity to clear just a few inches of shelves -

Before - the discoveries behind the scissors pot

Souvenirs of the Designer-Makers degree show at Camberwell, a few years back

Old notebooks and sketchbooks - the tree is from the 1970s

Drawing by young Tom at a lunchtime concert in Oxford, 1982

From different eras: a favourite postcard and a wine label

After - just a bit more spacious

My inspiration - she likes to know how things work, and then get them to work, but she doesn't quite have enough manual dexterity and strength yet. But she's showing strong signs of perseverance; some would call it stubborness -

More morning moments -

There's time for doodling

Double doings - painting and shadow

Just a timely coincidence

 More discoveries -

Diversity, for a reason

2008, art foundation course - I used a drawing done at the National Gallery
from a Piero Longhi painting for a printing plate. Still like it, but the others are in the bin

Poetry Thursday - Still Life with Sea Pinks and High Tide by Maura Dooley

What joy to be reunited with Poetry on the Underground! This was spotted on the Overground, on the two-stop journey home from Gospel Oak after an uphill amble to Kenwood, the cafe, and a coffee in the garden.

Still Life with Sea Pinks and High Tide

Thrift grows tenacious at the tide’s reach.
What is that reach when the water
is rising, rising?

'Our melting, shifting, liquid world': celebrities read poems on climate change

 

Read more

Our melting, shifting, liquid world won’t wait
for manifesto or mandate, each
warning a reckoning.

Ice in our gin or vodka chirrups and squeaks
dissolving in the hot, still air
of talking, talking.

Maura Dooley (b.1963)

Hear it read here.

Drawing Tuesday - bridges

First thing in the morning I was grappling with clearing some space on my phone - trying to get rid of photos - and came across a view in the science museum which showed a bridge I'd never noticed before. Is it actually usable? Would one dare, that's a big space below! A quick sketch in my little notebook.

And then I came across some screenshots from a BBC programme on the Jodrell Bank radio telescope, all scaffolding and interconnections, yumm! It looked very confusing to draw, though, so I looked online and found a simple version of the bare bones of the telescope's structure (1957), and downloaded and printed that. Then out with the carbon paper and on with some Outright Cheating. It was hard enough, during the Cheating, to choose what to include, and not to lose important bits - I learned a lot! This is a "Bridge to the Sky" - or rather, to outer space. Not only has the telescope been finished, but it's been upgraded since and looks like a proper modern telescope now.

From Carol -  This is my favourite Lego model now residing at my daughter’s house but may come back to me shortly due to little hands now being able to reach it. The challenge – remembering to make it look like Lego and not just a model. Drawn mainly from a picture (with a little tracing as the perspective was blowing my mind!).

From Janet K - Brooklyn Bridge - with a bit of colour. Taken from a B&W photo.

From Judith - Thames on a greyish day! Paper from an old stash of oddments. I thought it was watercolour paper but it was more like blotting paper.

From  Sue B - a watercolour sketch of Pulteney Bridge in Bath which I did from a ‘photo last May...No time this week for a new bridge!

From Janet B -  rather hurried sketch of a few Newcastle bridges. No time to add Newcastle!

From Joyce - The artist Samuel Palmer lived in Shoreham, Kent, for 8 years and lived in Water House overlooking the river Darent. He sketched a bridge he could see from the house known originally as Longebregge and which dated back to the thirteenth century.

I have made a study of his sketch and then made my own sketch from when we walked from Otford to Shoreham on Sunday. (How lucky was the choice of subject for today!)

The bridge has been repaired and remodelled since but still retains the basic design of a medieval packhorse bridge. 

Both on brown paper with gouache, pen and ink.

From Mags - After watching ' The Hidden Wilds of the Motorway' and feeling nostalgic for Rainham Marshes and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, I played with some copies of photos I took from the train for my EDAM 'Javelin Journeys' piece.

Question is, which variation gets stuck down in my (new! ) sketchbook ??

From Ann - I started to draw a local bridge which is under threat ...it leads into the Grove Allypally.  Unfinished at the moment as we are enjoying seeing our son and grandson who are staying for a few days. I will finish in watercolour and ink. [see end of post for the outcome]

The portrait is a drawing from last week's Royal drawing school session and I think describes the feeling of worry experienced by many. Relates to a 'troubled waters' interpretation.

From Najlaa - "Rhine bridge"

From Hazel - I have drawn an imaginary bridge that may be found amongst the sweet peas. Hope you can spot the little critter that uses it.

From Sue S - done in pastel on dark red card. The Peace Bridge in Calgary by Santiago Calatrava

From Helen - Here’s my contribution to this week’s topic - an illustrated haiku.  A subject close to my heart!

From Gill - I looked on line for interesting bridges and saw so many spectacular newly built ones. However , I chose this old moon bridge as I thought it was simply lovely.

From Jo -  collage - green envelope and newsprint.

Addendum - Ann's finished Grove Bridge -

Poetry Thursday - Urgent by Sheila Wingfield

(via)

Urgent

Villages pass under the plough
In England, where there was plague,
And lets time slide over parishes
The way hedges are torn out.
Bulldozers flatten a hill:
Even continents slip.
Everything must elide or kill
As the wild aurochs died.
And our elms. We have
Barely a minute now.

Sheila Wingfield (1906-1992)


Because both her father and husband disapproved of her interest in literature and poetry, it was only after her husband's death in 1973 that Sheila Wingfield was free to write openly. As a child she educated herself by secretly reading a literary classic each night and writing verses in the early morning, and during her marriage she wrote her poetry between 3am and 7am. She inherited and renovated two large houses in Ireland, and wrote three volumes of memoirs and seven books of poetry.

Drawing Tuesday - shelfies

Which shelf? I have so many to choose from, starting with dozens of bookshelves (boring) and including built-in and free-standing shelves. This one, a hanging shelf, has been in my possession since 1971, bought at auction in Durham -

Getting started was taking its own time, so I did a little warmup of the current drama that's playing itself out on the table (a story for the inner child) -

 And then off we went, starting with pencil and eraser and adding watercolour in a slow, pernickity, and kack-handed way -

Watercolour needs practice, and it needs knowing a few tricks. I'm still at the childish stage.


From Carol - Considering how much time I look at this wall unit (because the telly is on part of it) I was surprised at how ‘treasure blind’ I had got to the little things in it – all things I once held dear. Lovely task to do today.

From Sue S - Here’s my Work room window ledge of green bottles & glass pendants - done in pastel to force a looser technique!

From Richard - Shedshelfie. Pencil with a little caran d’ache. It could bear another couple of hours to bring out the light contrast better. 

From Sue B - What a great exercise!

From Judith - a watercolour. The background when I last zoomed with my young grandaughters. Enjoyed doing the toys!

From Ann - Here is my shelfie...a home -made dinosaur standing on a pile of books by a stone African lion...on a shelf in my grandson Leo's room. Happy memories of painting and making with him. 

From Joyce - Here is my shelfie, treasures from family trips etc.; vase from Gozo, sand picture in a glass paperweight from America, Japanese pot, picture made from butterfly wings from my husband’s grandmother (wouldn’t be made now) and a Fimo model made by my daughter 40 years ago. Brought back happy memories

From Mags -  It wouldn't be a 'shelfie' without books so brought up to my studio a selection of ones that have been a big influence and some I wrote to add to the basket shelf. The baskets on the left all have an orchid work connection : the tall Indonesian one was part of a display at World Orchid Conference in Glasgow 1993 and after admiring it , I was thrilled to be given it. The small 'pot' woven from pine needles was acquired in Mexico in 1997 when teaching an orchid propagation course. The Rwandan lidded one came from Writhlington School premiere screening of ' Plants Behaving Badly' which I was involved with as well as students from the school.

From Gill - I set myself the task of keeping the pencil moving along the paper without lifting it off. The dining room shelves drawing was done late at night and my nail varnishes on my bedroom mantelpiece drawing was done in the morning. The colours are the actual varnishes. These bottles remind me of my former social life a 100 days ago.

P.S. my new social life is drawing with you lot! Thank you for sharing.

From Janet K - Treasures on a shelf.

From Jackie - recipe books with hand sculpture and clock and ceramics(top shelf). Watercolour and pen

From Najlaa - This is my shelfie  from my oldest daughter's room where I stitch, sew and draw.

From Janet B - Haphazard books, a tardis and three cat teapots.

From Sylvia - a bathroom shelfie