Category Archives: Childhood

Dad’s Hat painting

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Child wearing hat and holding mirror
Child wearing hat and holding mirror

Oil on canvas 2′ x 2’6″

I felt it was time for a bit more colour around here.  This was completed in January, soon after I moved into my new studio space.  I’ve tried photographing it indoors with a daylight bulb, but I’m still not happy with the results.  Clearly I’m going to have to wait until we get some reliably dry and bright weather, and drag the whole lot outdoors to photograph them. 
I’ve even tried searching on the net for a local professional art photographer, but failed miserably.  Just goes to show that there are opportunities for business out there if you can design and optimise your website effectively to let your target market find you!

Bathtime

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Bath
Bath

Sepia watercolour on fabriano paper.  I was inspired by the watercolour drawings of Marlene Dumas to have a go at drawing with a very loose watercolour wash.  I invested in a decent size watercolour brush, which cost what seemed like a ridiculous amount of money.   But it is superb to use.  It holds a lot of water, but also goes down to a tiny point at the end so that you can actually make very fine marks with it if you need to.  I drew directly with the paint, without doing any pencil drawing first and I do enjoy this spontaneous way of working.  You get what you get, basically, and that can be quite interesting.

Double-take

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Two face baby

Two face baby

Pencil in sketchbook.  This is one of those drawings which ‘went wrong’ but I didn’t erase the lines.  I find this ‘two face’ effect quite interesting – a sort of double-take.  Which is what I did when I realised it was going to be 2009 – I just wasn’t ready for it.  2008 went far too fast.  Happy New Year anyway!

Dad’s hat sketch, and creative cooking

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Dad's Hat Drawing

Dad's Hat Drawing

Pencil in sketchbook. 

Drawing these photographs in my sketchbook helps me to think about which ones I might want to paint.  It also helps me get to grips with the forms, which helps me when I do paint them.  This is an image that I am now starting to paint onto canvas.  I may post some works in progress to document how I make decisions in the process of making a painting.

Yesterday, I was cooking tea with bits and bobs, and I realised that I was approaching the process of ‘making tea’ in exactly the same way as I do a painting.  I start with an idea (fry up some onions and chorizo), then make the rest up as I go along (need vegetables – how about courgettes – let’s chop them very small just for fun – now, how about some cannelini beans – oh look, it’s all gone creamy, perhaps I won’t put any tomatoes in – just season it with lots of black pepper and some herby salt and leave it alone.)  Does anyone else find they use their creative skills in their cooking (or anything else?)

‘Kiss’ Drawing

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Drawing of girl kissing santa

5b pencil drawing in sketchbook

I’ve been having a bit of a fallow period art-wise, having been busy with other things, and with less going on at college.  I’m having to learn how to pick myself up, and work out what things will get me making art again.  Drawing in my sketchbook seems to work – my sketchbook is like a cosy room where I can go and draw in privacy, and I don’t have to show anyone if I don’t want to.  Another activity which is getting me inspired to start ‘doing’ again is reading about art.  I picked up my copy of Artists’ Newsletter and started to read some articles, and that’s doing the trick nicely.

What kinds of things get you making art again after a fallow period?