cold comfort [in twenty five drawings]

a change of scenery (or what i have seen-ery), an escape to the white wilderness of Antarctica... it seems a little remote, but relatively quiet... a few (twenty five thus far) quick sketches done over the course of a couple of days (in the evenings)... a fake journal, a bogus adventure, a hoax expedition... nothing is ever as it seems...antarctica sketch - watercolour and graphite pencilantarctica sketch - watercolour, coloured pencil and graphiteantarctica sketch - watercolour and graphite pencilantarctica sketch - watercolour and graphite pencilA5 sketchbook pages...but wait, there's more... three quick panoramic landscape sketches...it's always good to have a couple of sketchbooks when out in the field, so to speak... ten more sketches of the Antarctica landscape in a smaller A6 sketchbook...glaciers - pen, pencil and acrylic on papermore glaciers - pen, pencil and acrylic on paperi feel that i have only just begun to scratch the surface...and the motivation, aside from feeling slightly out on a limb this week, is Mr Benn (going out through the in-ternet door)...

on digging, drawing, and discovering a van gogh

last week i had a go at scaling up one of my own drawings ... this one metre square print-out of a scanned lichen drawing came out quite well but the component parts were quite fiddly to join up with tape.. shown here on the floor with the original drawing in a sketchbook... (the 'mosaic' refused to stay up on the wall)...this is the original drawing, 15cm x 15cm... see more lichen drawings here...these lichen drawings, though beginning as observational studies, soon become re-imaginings - re-interpreted, flattened, schematic....here are some more smalll lichen drawings in black pen in a sketchbook, early june 2010...these drawings are perhaps not so far removed from my large rust/decay paintings, as both involve a re-imagining of surface, playing with scale and magnification... i would be quite happy with a microscope today...a word that comes to mind is geomorphology, which is quite separate from the appropriation of the term landscape (by the English) and notions of the natural environment - words which nearly always imply a concrete vista, a horizon, a sky, a cultural or subjective reconstruct of a landscape made more tangible or meaningful by the viewer, sentimental in the widest sense... but these are just thoughts......last week i spent a couple of hours digging the garden to plant out peas and french beans, then later that same day came across this framed picture in a charity shop... I had to buy it, even though it cost me my last £5...Vincent van Gogh, Peasant woman digging, Nueuen, 1885this drawing is, as far as i can ascertain, 'actual size' at about 40 x 50cm although the drawing is cropped slightly to fit within the mount - nevertheless it is delightful to look at, the reproduction being of a very fine quality... and i am certain this is one of the peasant women drawings included in the recent Royal Academy exhibition... Vincent mentions drawing these peasant figures in a letter to Theo in early July 1885:I’m sorry about what you write about the money, that you’ll be short yourself. Painting is sometimes so damned expensive, and nowadays it just comes down to following one’s own idea at all costs. [...] I’ve got a few figures here, a woman with a spade seen from behind, another one bending over to glean ears of corn, another one from the front with her head almost on the ground, digging up carrots.Vincent van Gogh to brother Theo van Gogh, Monday, 6 July 1885...i might be adding another exhibition to my roster this summer, having received an invitation to exhibit some of my work in a contemporary art show, the broad theme of the exhibition appeals, having some philosophical relevance... details and works to confirm......

some exhibition news

musn't grumble, i have some exhibitions coming up over the summer...NCA10 at The Forum, Norfolk Contemporary Art Society, 1 to 21 July 2010. NCA10 is a curated exhibition of work from artists of the NCAS, including painting, photography, ceramics and mixed media. Open daily, free admission. All work is for sale.Textures, Traces & Elements at Beyond the Image Gallery, 2 July to 1 August 2010. Artists Hazel Bignell, Jazz Green & Carol Pask will be showing recent paintings, prints, ceramics and textiles, inspired by the East Anglian Landscape.[thirty intaglio collagraphs on paper on canvas, 2010]stop press: i will have three large edgescape canvases in another exhibition, entitled Rebirth at Gallery Art 1821 in the fine city of Norwich,  opening 29 July – 8 September 2010. read more about the future exhibition Rebirth…Artworks 11th Anuual Exhibition at Rougham Barn, 11 September to 3 October 2010, with ‘Artists Making an Exhibition of Themselves’ on Saturday 2 October 2010 - an event when 'Artworks' artists set up temporary ‘studios’ in front of their work at the exhibition. Artworks is a group of thirty professional East Anglian Artist....in the meantime, i am looking for paid work this summer... i saw a job advertised today, for gallery assistants, offering daytime shifts of four hours @ £5.97 per hour = £23.88 - £10 petrol (commuting) = £13.88... {sigh}...at the weekend i visited the studio of an internationally acclaimed potter, but he is now producing lots of paintings. he said that he was enjoying painting more without the immediate worry of making money from it, much evidenced by the quality and quantity of his output.after the job search, i felt even less motivated to do any painting (or make any more prints), so instead i baked an apple and blueberry crumble and then decided i would do some more lichen drawings (you can view some of my previous lichen drawings here)... there is no grand idea or concept with drawing, its just very therapeutic......