Extract from my sketchbook. This is an oil pastel sketch made soon after the tulip petals had fallen. As you can see, it is drawn over two pages. I chose not to crop the image but show the authenticity of the decision making experience when drawing from life outside. I guess I could have picked the tulip stem and take it indoors but then where is the fun in that? Colour and speed of recording would have been altered by the fact of a more relaxed drawing experience.
These artworks of ink paintings and linocut prints have been developed from oil pastel and felt tip pen sketches. Fungi and the charcoal Snow Gardens, (too cold, too fleeting or too low), were recorded with a camera, then sketched.
Ink paintings: – In a process similar to a watercolour technique, where masking fluid is used to block out/protect areas, I masked large areas with a thick water based paint before brushing black ink over the acrylic colour ink.
When dry, the entire painting is washed. A bit of jeopardy as occasionally the black ink does not stay where you want it to remain, but when it does it can have an appearance of a printed line. As a painter/printer the overlap of appearances between different art forms expands my creative thinking.
For anyone, of any ability, who wants to build upon their colour skills.
A practical course over two Saturday mornings investigating effective colour mixing, colour bias, optical mixing and colour relationships. No more unintentional muddy colours.
Bring any paints and equipment that you want to use, but if possible should include white, two yellows, two reds, two blues. Paper, brushes, palette knife, (if using acrylic), palettes/plates and water jars, will also be necessary.
Additional materials will be supplied to help you achieve.
Fee £15.00 each session. Pay on the day. Car parking available. Doors open 9.30am.
Mundon Village (Victory) Hall, Main Road, Mundon, Essex CM9 6PB
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Curious? There is story to tell.
Lords and Ladies – acrylic and indian ink painting reworked from an oil pastel sketch. The Arum Lily berries were ripening to a brilliant red on the purple and green stems, bare of their own leaves but surrounded by the tangled undergrowth.
Thumbnail size fungi, (depending on the size of your thumb), in wood chip mulch at RHS Hyde Hall Garden, Rettendon, Essex. At first I saw only the silvery empty cups and wondered what they were. Then on closer inspection I could see more but with ‘eggs’ that had not been dispersed. A fungi hunt in autumn led by an expert mycologist opened my eyes to the range of common fungi, but I still wonder how I have not noticed these until this year. Field Bird’s Nest – Cyathus olla.
I used silver acrylic ink for one thin wash before adding more layers of orange and blue. Silver ink can give a grey tinge but it worked well for this subject giving a subtle metallic sheen.
The plantain on the path grew flat where it had been walked on, or maybe it was a plant survival tactic to avoid being pulled up easily. Thinking about it now, it could still be there.
This is an old garden with generations of lost, broken and discarded items. When the ground is disturbed or rain washed, small objects can emerge.
Marina di Chioggia fantastic pumpkin, fleshy folds of dense nutty sweet orange flesh, originates from Chioggia, Italy. I use it for coconut and pumpkin soup or oven baked vegetables for pasta or rice.
Initially I added this to the list of regulars grown in the vegetable garden because of the connection to Italy and memories of a good holiday in Venice but I now know the value of the fruit and it is there on merit. (Just as I wrote ‘fruit’, I had to check to see if it was fruit or vegetable).
Definitions of fruit and vegetables –
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10129729/Do-you-know-your-fruit-from-your-vegetables.html
This is an oil pastel sketch for development into an ink painting or print.
Colchester Art Society’s winter exhibition – Digby Gallery, Mercury Theatre, Colchester, Essex.
3rd December – 27th December. It’s pantomine season at the theatre – Sleeping Beauty.
http://www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/
Persimmon is one of my favourite fruits at this time of year and thankfully available in our local supermarkets. It brings back good memories of a late autumn visit to Japan and train journeys through suburban Kyoto and Tokyo. From a high up advantage in the train I could look down on Persimmon trees showing small splashes of orange in wintry gardens. We knew it as Kaki.
‘Persimmon no.1’ ink painting in the CAS winter exhibition.
When I am clearing the last of the summer produce from the vegetable patch I leave the french and runner beans hanging for a few weeks longer. The ripened seeds are dried off, so they do not go mouldy, and stored ready for sowing next spring. As the pod contracts and expands it takes on a different form, easy to overlook as often hidden behind curling leaves, but if noticed it is a good subject to add to the sketchbook.
‘Purple bean podding’ is an ink painting, acrylic and indian, worked up from an oil pastel sketch.
PS I do not know the true name of this bean but I call it Purplette.
jenny hill artwork and words 