Drawing Tuesday - "from my collection"

 It's hard to go through life without any sort of collection of objects, so the "collections" topic gives lots of drawing possibilities. This group started out to go drawing objects in museum collections - and now we're treating our homes, and the online world, like those museums, as repositories of collections.

Also we can draw on our collections of drawings...

From Jo - From a collection of "modernist" pebbles. Unfortunately the two "best" ones (in a "safe place") so those remain to be done another time. It makes me despair of "art" really, when "nature" is so talented!

From Carol -  an early drawing in 2016 when I was using A6 books and very fine pens, not yet brave enough for colour. It’s a very interesting exercise to go back and see how your work has changed and I don’t feel it has stopped changing yet. After very much enjoying drawing at O level I spent most of my life being too busy for it with a feeling that it was not a ‘purposeful’ enough pastime, my parents view I think –then it sort of exploded out (in a tiny A6 sort of way).

From Sue B - A watercolour of tuscan hills through a newly erected arbor….2019, which was the year when I really started sketching in colour again, following a gap of 41 years after A level!

From Mags - I've been going through my indigo stash including a selection of Ndope strip cloth pieces from Cameroon, bought from John Gillow. I did have a go at drawing a small fragment last year, you see so much when you draw, the variations in hand twisted thread for a start.

From Janet K - Happy friends.

From Joyce - some pebbles pick up from Climping beach, I can’t resist picking interesting stones and shells.

From Judith - From my collection of stencils and french curves that due to computer Aided Design have become obsolete except for stitchers and fashion design!

From Janet B - I finally managed to sit down for an undisturbed hour and draw these two rock and roll teapots from my extensive collection of kitsch. 

From Jackie - A collection of earrings  from :

Top Row:         Cambridge, mother in law’s costume jewellery..50’s, V & A, S Africa

Second row:    Hong Kong, India,  Scotland, Iran

Bottom row:     my mum’s collection, India, Islington, Israel

From Ann - A sombre painting from 35 years or more. The plight of refugees.

From Sue K - Here’s my piece from my batch of personalised handmade birthday cards. This was for Richard’s November birthday - he loves mushrooms, (sadly l’ve developed a serious aversion) so l found a selection of edible wild mushrooms to get interesting shapes & colours to make the letters.

From Gill - my collection of shells found and bought. As my sister gave me a big box of metallic acrylics for Christmas I have used them all to colour in the shapes and now have a colour and pigment reference of them.

From Najlaa - From perfume pictures I collect.

From me - My own "collection" refers to research for this term's woodblock printing project, "something to do with Children's Day" - I zero'd in on kokeshi dolls, checked them out online, and quickly bought this one -

They are made in the forested northeast of Japan - this short video made in 2011 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfPapG4EnPg&ab_channel=JapanstoreTV) shows the process of making them.

Finding more images online, I "collected" various faces in the traditional style -

and also traditional patterns, mostly sashiko, for the figures' kimonos -

To give you an idea of where this is going - a two-block print, about A4 size

I used the waste areas of the figures to practise cutting the fine details of the faces (they need to be even smaller) and to try the white-line patterning -

Poetry Thursday - Reading Laozi by Bai Juyi

 

Picture of Bai Juyi from the book "Wan hsiao tang"

Reading Laozi
Bai Juyi

Those who speak do not know, those who know are silent,
I heard this saying from the old gentleman.
If the old gentleman was one who knew the way,
Why did he feel able to write five thousand words?

Bai Juyi (772-846; also known as Bo Juyi and Po Chuyi) wrote in the Mid-Tang period, living through the reigns of eight or nine emperors. A government official, his social and political criticism led to getting into official trouble, and subsequent exile, several times; he lived in "interesting times". 

One of the most prolific of all Chinese poets, Bai Juyi is best known for his short occasional verses written in simple language. Hei wrote over 2,800 poems, which he had copied and distributed to ensure their survival. They are notable for their relative accessibility: it is said that he would rewrite any part of a poem if one of his servants was unable to understand it.

His best-known poems are indexed on this site, appearing in characters, pinyin, and literal and literary English translation.

*Laozi (Lao Tzu, Lao-Tze) was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer. He is the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching, and the founder of philosophical Taoism.

Drawing Tuesday - a long road

When I googled "a long road", this is what came up first in the list. So I had a listen, and a look. The winding scenery backing the singing becomes frenetic freeway footage. 

The version of the song from the Rambo soundtrack has this "into the sunset" shot at the start  -

But that "long road" is the literal interpretation. Other "long roads" might include evolution (the detours etc involved in natural selection, for instance), literacy (that entire process of learning to read), buying a house (with its many setbacks), migration.

The photo above shows a long straight road - there's also the "long and winding road" as in the 60s/70s song that plays in my head ... oh crikey, its by the Beatles and I've remembered the words all wrong! 

Phrases that include "long road" - the long road to freedom, a long road ahead, it's a long road that has no turning. Do those bring any peripheral subjects for drawing into view?

Here are 25 long road quotes -  quite a few from Nelson Mandela. My favourite is by Bai Juyi, a 9th century Chinese poet: "Fumes of wine shorten the long road." Those Chinese poets, 1200 years ago, liked their wine.

If you're looking for something more imaginative ... fairy tales often contain "long roads" as the youngest son (usually) sets out on his heroic quest and miscellaneous encounters. 

From Judith - Quick effort with unsurprising subject!

From Sue B - the crinkly wall in suffolk…done last year

From Richard - Still a lot to learn with the paints but went for graphic doodling this time. Spot the joke.

From Sue K - Decided on a collage based on Ravilious watercolour of Beachy Head. Collage with pastel rubbing.

From Mags - I took the prompt rather literally and recorded my regular walk down ' Abbeyfields' . I've recently discovered ' What3words' and 'MapMyWalk' apps and taking occasional photos of the road, I held my pen loosely over a narrow cutdown A5 landscape sketchbook , tracking my steps , wrote some of the 'what3words' locations ( and made up some of my own!) . It took longer scanning the sketches and combining them in Photoshop than it did to do the walk !

From Gill - This is the yellow brick road left to return to nature.

I wanted to remind myself than spring is coming along with sunny days in the future.

From Janet K - Light at the end of the tunnel?

From Joyce - Here’s my contribution to today’s topic, at the end of the long road, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Printed on my new toy, a Gelli plate.

From Ann - A collage...

A metaphor for life's journey.

From Jackie - apologies to Hobbema….I copied this whilst watching

Jo Biden’s inauguration..a long road ahead for him too...

The Avenue at Middelharnis is a Dutch Golden Age 

painting of 1689 by Meindert Hobbema,

 now in the National Gallery.

From me - Some scraps happened to be lying on my table, and you know how it is, you start arranging them ... and a story emerges ... the result being an abstract/imaginative scene based loosely on Scandinavian and Inuit folk/fairy tales, which often have an animal as a central character. 

My "instructions to myself" were to use every scrap. After a dozen rearrangements and cutting off one little corner, I chose one of the earliest versions as the best one.

Later, as the bits were still lying on the table (though some had shifted), I took a rubbing, then augmented it with pencil here and there - 

And Carol reports - I have gone off brief this week so no drawing about a long road. Instead I'm preparing art boxes to send to my 4 yr old grandson to help with home schooling. I'm doing around 2 a week, latest one below is a little theatre to make using the box for posting as well. Tiny curtains all included.

Poetry Thursday - The Sick Rose by William Blke

 

O Rose thou art sick.

The invisible worm,

That flies in the night

In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy:

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

     - William Blake (author and artist)

The meaning of “The Sick Rose” is hotly contested (see here, and elsewhere, for the academic battlefield). 

The poem has been set to music by various people; my favourite is Benjamin Britten's setting as "The Elegy" in his Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings. Several versions are available on youtube, this one with a nice moonlit seascape to add further mood. A version sung by Ian Bostridge is here. 

Drawing Tuesday - impractical clothing

 For many people, an item of clothing is impractical if it doesn't have pockets. 

Or if a raincoat isn't waterproof.

But those are prosaic - do use your imagination and perhaps do some collage, making "hybrid" garments that serve no practical purpose! There are fashion designers whose creations fall into this category - google "impractical runway fashion" for a giggle and some ideas. I liked this one - reminds me of Flat Stanley, one of my young son's favourite books, back in the day -

This seems like a good subject for drawing on cloth, or with thread (or paper and glue). Why not go completely impractical and "adapt" something that's waiting to go to the charity shop? 

From Mags - Last August, when making lots of fabric masks,  carefully choosing high thread- count cloth , I  became  increasingly concerned  by what people regarded as suitable materials for  face coverings.  Designer offerings included  embellished  silk organza !  My interpretation    includes "fabric" of fruitnet  with  used Colour Catcher "Filter" 

An additional photo ( manipulated in Photoshop and printed on Colour Catcher)  of me wearing a '2 layered fabric face covering '( 2 fruitnets) 

From Najlaa - Man in gellabia

From Ann - Just had to have an excuse to paint this courtesan from the Edo period in her most impractical kimono. In watercolours.

From Judith - Things to be thankful for in 2021!

From Carol - These shoes are only any good for sitting around and being waited on hand and foot. Cannot walk, stand for any length or time or drive in them but they sparkle in a lovely way and make your feet feel like fairies.

From Sue K - Here’s my offering with influence of Kusama’s graphic novel clothes. A ‘pin up’ dress of covid life!

From Janet K - I bought this coat for £5 in a charity shop. Impractical for London winters - much too warm! But keeps me cosy in Winnipeg when it's -25C (with a sweater underneath).

From Joyce - who else remembers the exhibition at the VandA “Shoes, Pleasure and Pain"? Here are the platforms designed by Vivienne Westwood that Naomi Campbell famously fell off in 1993!

It was an interesting exhibition spanning many centuries and cultures, today’s footwear can be much more comfortable and kind to the feet.

From Gill - I’ve just watched all the PG Tips chimpanzee advertisements on YouTube (well it is lockdown) and they are still lol for me. I loved these when I was a little girl but of course it is totally inappropriate now to dress animals up and these clothes are impractical for them as they don’t have wardrobes.

PG Tips even had their own Bond........Brooke Bond.

From me - "The pocket handkerchief folding pocket book" - showing eight scaled-down examples of carefully folded squares of linen, cotton or silk (in this case, paper) to put in a jacket pocket, for display purposes only. There are conventions of what type of folds are appropriate for whichever occasions, which need not concern us here. The popular saying is "one for show and one [in trousers pocket] for blow". 

Sumi ink and felt-tip pens on packing paper ("use what you have"). 

Some further ideas:

- overcoat for a giraffe

- tights for centipedes

- cloak of obscurity (rather desirable, perhaps?)

- bubble wrap raincoat for hedgehog

- fur coats for sheep

- "pocket wardrobe" - in a pocket book, perhaps?

And the clothes for paper dolls always did have impractical tabs to hold them on.