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This blog site has been transferred to http://marionabrown.wordpress.com/. Posts etc on this site have also been transferred.

Sketchbook Challenge and Cabbage Art

Have just completed my first piece for the March Sketchbook Challenge. The subject is Spilling over. My first attempt is of a hanging baskets with flowers spilling over....looking forward to Summer. I have ideas for further pages so watch this space ....but you will probably have time to have a coffee, a three course meal and a weeks holiday while you are waiting!


I have also been experimenting with abstracts using coloured pencils. I recently bought a rather good book called Painting and Understanding Abstract Art by John Lowry. In addition to lots about the different types of abstract art and about abstract artists past and present, it also has a serious of exercises to start you creating your own abstracts. The first exercise involved photocopying the cut half of a cabbage in black and white, drawing round the resulting shapes and using those as the basis of a masterpiece!. Not having a cabbage to hand I found a picture of a cut through cabbage online and used that. These are the results. I am rather pleased with them. They are both 2.5" x 3.5" so I could use them as ATCs in the future.

Vanity, vanity.......

I found out last week from Vicki who attends Penny's Tuesday afternoon class, that my picture of peaches appeared in an article about the EAC Art Awards in the February issue of the Dorset Magazine.

Unfortunately, by the time I found out, the March issue was on the shelves. Vicki kindly provided me with a copy of the relevant article and the part referring to my "masterpiece" is reproduced here. Look back through my blog for a picture of the peaches. I have to say being described as a younger entrant put a smile on my face.
Onwards and upwards!

EAC Entry Finished

I have finally finished my entry for the EAC. Having started out being not too happy with it, I am quite pleased with how it has turned out.
Still haven't done anything for this month's Sketchbook Challenge but now I have finished the EAC entry I can spend the rest of the month working on some pages.

Work in Progress

I have started a new still life which, hopefully, will be entered into the EAC Over 60s Art Awards. The closing date is 4th March so I think I will have time. I am not over happy about work so far but I will persevere and hopefully it will pass muster. My problem is anything other than perfection is not good enough!!!!!

Hopefully, the completed picture will appear here by the end of the week.

I had hope to do some pages for the Sketch book Challenge but have go too involved with the above picture. Once I get this finished I will try to do some pages before the end of this month.

A scam and an STC

I had hoped to do a posting at the beginning of the week but unfortunately I was the victim of someone hacking into my email and contact list. The result was that a number of people received an email from me saying I was in Malaysia, had been mugged and needed money! I was totally "unmugged", apart from a mug of coffee, and safe at home. Unfortunately I was logged out of my email account for 24 hours or so because my password no longer worked. Strangely enough, I could not get into gmail to use Blogger and when I tried to reset my gmail I was stymied because the email address to do this through was my hotmail address. Generally I love computers and email etc but other times I want to scream and throw the whole lot out of the window....and just because some greedy little ..*!!** wants to try and get some easy money. Grrrrrr.

Anyway I am back in cyberland. Have just completed another Artist Trading Card for Scribble Talk. I am about to start on a still life which includes grapes so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by doing an STC of grapes (see above) as a practice run. I am pretty pleased with it. I hope the recipient will be.



Now to do some more work for The Sketchbook Challenge is Opposites. I am at the brainstorming stage. Hopefully I will have something done in a day or two

Sketchbook Challenge - the story continues

Another page for the Sketchbook Challenge. This represents Tuesday afternoon painting classes and the friends with whom I paint...especially those who sit with me in the naughty corner. I am so lucky a) to be able to attend these classes and b) to share the time with such jolly good friends. We paint, chatter, drink coffee and generally enjoy ourselves. Most of the people in this class have been painting together for a number of years. It is a very "comfortable" group. Above all, no one "judges" what any one else does. We share ideas, advice and so on and any criticism is constructive. And we are lucky enough to have a very good teacher, Penny, who is also a very good friend.
Without going into too much detail Penny, painting classes and my "naughty corner" friends have been such an important part of my life in the past 7 years, picking me up from the depression I had sunk into and giving my life a purpose and meaning. And they are always there with a helping hand and kind words when needed. I love them dearly. Bless you, girls!

January Sketchbook Challenge - Episode 1

At last after a week of procrastination I have finally done my first sketchbook page for January. If I could draw as well as I procrastinate I could be up there with Signor da Vinci!

This sketch represents the opportunities I have had to travel, often to places off the usual travel track. This sketch amply illustrates that. It is part of a silver cruet from Iraq. In 1949, when I was a lot younger than I am now, we moved to Iraq where my father, who was in the RAF, was posted. This cruet was bought by my parents whilst there. I remember my mother telling me it was made by a silversmith who called himself John the Baptist.....either my mother or the silversmith or both were having a joke.

Since then I have travelled widely, both with my parents and on my own. With my parents we went to Australia and Germany as well as around the UK. By myself I have been to the Middles East, North Africa, Nepal and Thailand. Two years ago, I was fortunate enough to sail across the Atlantic and up the Amazon with my painting teacher and friend, Penny Wilton when she was teaching on a Swan Hellenic Cruise. I have also done a couple of trips to Menorca with Penny and some friends who also attend her classes.

I have a stack of photos of these travels but, more importantly to me, a wealth of memories. I just wish I had had a sketch book for some of my earlier travels. You can capture so much more in a sketch book, bot in words and pictures than you can with a camera, no matter how good a camera is. My sketch book do not just have sketches but a lot of notes to describe the environment where I am sketching. When I look at those pages now such descriptions transport me back to the day I made the sketches.

January Sketchbook Challenge

The theme for the January Sketchbook Challenge is "Highly Prized", what is highly prized to me.....where do I start. Well, with a mind map. I know some people do lists and the like when they are trying to organise thoughts and get down ideas but I find mind maps more effective, for me, anyway. Above is my mind map for January. I began by splitting it into tangible, eg friends and family, wildlife, books etc and intangible eg the 5 senses, life and so on.

It seems a lot of things are highly prized in my world so I think I am going to have to narrow it down. I am going to start with the 5 senses first and see where I go from there.
Although I am going to use separate pages and form them into an accordion book, one for each month, for this month, at least I am going to work in a sketch book and take the pages out to make up into the book.
The cover of each book will be decorated to reflect book the theme and the month. As I plan to do each cover in a different colour I thought I would take the birthstone for each month and use that colour. The birthstone for January is a garnet so the cover will be a darkish red-brown colour.
I have also collected together a basic set of drawing equipment which I will keep in a pencil case. Graphite pencil, watercolour pencils and a wash brush, drawing pens and some coloured felt tip pens. I can add to this as and when.I can keep that and the sketch book plus a notebook together so I can work at odd moments as I get ideas and, hopefully, inspiration.
I think I am ready to go.

The Sketchbook Challenge

I have decided to have a go at The Sketchbook Challenge. Whether I manage to complete work each month is another matter but I will give it my best shot. I am thinking that instead of working in just one sketch book I will do single sheets for each month then make them up into individual books. I have an idea to make each month's book cover in a diiferent colour so that the resulting 12 (hopefully) volumes will have a rainbow look when collected together. That's the plan. The reality may be different.
Over the next 2 months I shall be working on my entry or entries for the EAC over60's art exhibition. I had a picture accepted for the last exhibition and hopefully I can repeat the performance. I plan to do a graphite drawing and a couple of colour pencil paintings.
In 2010 I had hoped to make a start on using alkyd oil paint but only got as far as purchasing the necessary material and gessoing some wood panels to paint on.

Looks like 2011 could be a busy year....I hope.

Happy New Year

New ATC

 

Coffee Break

Colour Pencil on Stonehenge Paper

3.5 inches x 2.5 inches

Have just completed this Artist Trading Card for Scribble Talk. Scribble Talk is an online forum for people who love to scribble, be it with graphite, coloured pencil or pastels ( or any other type of pen/pencil). Mostly people post their latest work to the site and receive comments and criticisms (always positive and helpful). A number of people also post WIPs (works in progress) to show how they completed their work. I have actually done one of these myself of the Temple at Side which I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. It is actually a very effective way of making yourself get on with a piece if you know people are “watching”.

They also do an ATC swap about every 2 months. Everyone who wants to take part completes a drawing which has to measure 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. You post a picture of the card to the person organising the swap. After the closing date, the organiser sorts out who is going to receive which card and the results are posted to the forum. You then contact the person who is sending their card to  you and give them your address….and a couple of days or weeks later (this is a worldwide thing so postal times can vary) an original art works comes through the post. The person who is to receive your card will contact you with their details and you post it off to them.

There are a number of sites which do such swaps but many of them either expect you to do a number of cards for each swap or run them on a weekly basis etc. One every 2 months is about right. Otherwise you could spend your whole time doing cards to the detriment of other great masterpieces you may or may not be creating!

I am off to Brownsea Island for a couple of days next week so look out for an extended Brownsea Blog.

Sunset over Cley Marsh

Sunset over Cley Marsh. Pastel on mountboard 17" x 11"


Yesterday I attended another one of Penny Wilton's excellent workshops. Although I have tried some work with pastels I thought I would have a serious go at trying to achieve something in the medium.
I recently came across a web sight called Paint my Photograph http://paintmyphoto.ning.com/where photography and painting meets. Photographers can upload photos for artists to paint and artists upload their paintings for the photographers to see how their photo has been interpreted. Needles to say there is overlap with photographers who are also artists uploading to the sight. I have uploaded some of my own photos and have now uploaded my first painting using one of the photos someone else has uploaded.
The photo was of a view over Cley Marsh in Norfolk which I was instantly drawn to...I just thought it would be an ideal subject to interpret in pastel which I spent yesterday doing.
I am not given to doing landscapes, but I have to say I really enjoyed working on this one. It is done using a mixture of pastels and pastel pencils and is done on mountboard. To give the mountboard some tooth I first applied a layer of pumice gel which gave a slightly rough surface. I then applied a wash of burnt umber acrylic. Many pastel manuals suggest working on a darker backgrounf in much the same way as oil painters do so I thought I would give it a go and it seems to have worked. I think I will be doing more in the medium very soon.

Temple of Zeus

I attended a workshop with Penny last Thursday and spent some of the time trying to complete a commission which I had started about 6 months ago (at least). It is the Temple of Zeus at Side in Turkey and was done from a photograph taken by my chiropodist when she holidayed there last year. Knowing I liked to paint and draw she asked if I could do a painting of it which I immediately agreed to and then spent weeks regretting it. I was nervous about not doing a good enough job so had not proceeded very far but I decided I must get it done and dusted as it was always in the back of my mind that I must get it finished. Anyway a couple of hours on Thursday and another 10 hours or so work subsequently and the Temple is finished and ready to be delivered. Hooray. I am quite pleased with it. Most of my coloured pencil work up until now has been still life, flowers and wildlife. This is the first building and I really enjoyed doing it so I shall certainly be doing some more, probably old buildings and ruins such as this.

Temple at Side
Coloured Pencil on anthracite Pastelmat

A year later.........

Well, over year since my last post. I had thought of starting a new blog but decided against it and decided to continue with Carpe Diem. I have been reading people's blogs over the past 12 months and decided to start up again. Many of the blogs I follow are of the work people are doing in colour and graphite pencil so I thought I would do the same. I also want to start doing some oil painting as well using the Old Master technique of glazes. I recently purchased a book by Arleta Pech called Radiant Oils which goes into the technique in some detail so watch this space.

On the coloured pencil front, I ave been scribbling away, practicing various techniques trying various pictures and consigning them to the bin. My latest piece, Pears and Grapes, escaped this fate and I decided to enter them into the Open Art Exhibition at St Barbe's Museum and Art Gallery in Lymington. Much to my surprise it was accepted. This has been a real boost and was partly why I decided to revive the blog.

I will try to post all my efforts with colour pencil (and oil) to show my progress.

This is my entry. It is done on off white Stonehenge paper using mainly Prismacolours and is 4" by 6".

Tibetan lady finished and a pastel painting

The pencil drawing of the Tibetan lady is finished. I decided to leave the lower part of the drawing unfinished. I like the effect of doing that. I am quite pleased with it and really enjoyed doing it. So much so, that I have started on another drawing of hands with prayer beads. Have not got very far with it but have posted a picture of it anyway.

Tibetan Lady. Graphite

Hands and Beads. Graphite

I did another workshop with Penny last Thursday and decided to use pastels. About 3 years ago (I am ashamed to admit) I promised a friend a watercolour of the Old Harry Rocks, Dorset. And a promise it has so far remained despite constant badgering and reminders from friends! I did make a start about 6 months ago and came across that start a couple of weeks ago. Having just purchased and excellent book by Bill Creevy on pastel painting and bought a selection of pastels I thought perhaps I could “finish” the watercolour with pastels. Below is the result. I am not totally happy with it but as I have not done much pastel work I guess it is not too bad. I did not really enjoy working on the rough watercolour paper with the pastels so plan to do another “Old Harry” using pastel paper, probably Fisher 400 as I have done some practice work on that and liked the effect.  Watch this space

Old Harry Rocks. Pastel over watercolour

New work

Some while ago I cam across this photo on the internet and something about it grabbed me and told me that I should recreate it as a pencil drawing.

That was about 6 months ago. I have now started work on it and the results are show below. It is about A4 size and is quite a challenge, not least the hair and wrinkles….but the satisfaction of working on it and seeing it come alive on the page.

 

I find working with pencil, especially with graphite where you are just concerned with tones, extremely satisfying and relaxing. I guess it requires a degree of patience, gradually building up the tones but, equally, because it requires a degree of concentration, it puts all other concerns from your mind, albeit temporarily. And sometimes that is all you need to refresh your mind.

I will publish updates on my progress as and when.

My latest work of art!!

I attended one of Penny Wilton's excellent workshops last Thursday. This one was held at Holt Village Hall, a venue Penny uses regularly and is a very good venue....a large hall, plenty of tables and chairs and a nice kitchen. It is also rather nice for painting outdoors should you wish and the weather is appropriate.

I had no idea what I was going to do at this particular workshop so I put some brushes, canvases and acrylics in my bag. At the last moment I picked up a book I had recently purchases about still life and decided perhaps that would be what I would do. I had also grabbed a handful of pictures which I had recently printed hoping for inspiration. En route to Holt I decided to do a still life based on some pictures taken at Hampton Court of Tudor goblets, plates and boxes.

Unfortunately, when I unpacked my bag, I discovered none of those pictures were in the handful I had brought....in fact none of the photos were remotely what you could call "still life." Fortunately, Penny had brought some of her objet d'art and some fruit plus a cloth so I was able to arrange them and use them.

This is the result. It was an attempt to paint in the style of Paul Cezanne who I greatly admire. I was moderately pleased with it although I think I may do a bit more work on it. Incidentally, I used a linen canvas rather than the usual cotton and found it very pleasant to use. I shall certainly use line canvases again. The figure is supposed to be a cat although looking at it it resembles a pig...a long skinny pig, if such a creature exists. Maybe I had better to a bit more work on it.

The story so far....

I have just returned from 2 weeks in Teddington looking after my brother and sister-in-law's house whilst they were on holiday in Thailand. When I say "looking after their house" that included and tankful of tropical fish, some fish in the garden pond, the garden and last but by no means least, their cat, Moonshine (see picture) who is an absolute delight and wonderful company. I thoroughly enjoyed myself as Teddington is very well placed for visiting a number of interesting places.



They are about 40 minutes walk through Bushey Park (a delight in itself) to Hampton Court. I visited there on a day when they had a whole programme of re-enactments based on the marriage of Henry Vlll to Katherine Parr including sword fighting, falconery, music, cooking in the Tudor kitchens and, of course, his majesty with his new bride parading before his loyal subjects. "God save the King" we cried and bowed our heads as he passed (whilst holding our cameras up to catch the magic moment.


I also visited the Picasso Exhibition about to finish at the National Gallery which looked at the influence of earlier painters on Picasso and at his interpretations of their works. Absolutely fascinating and thought provoking.

Another day was spent at the National History and the Victoria and Albert Museums. In the past I have spent many a happy hour in both museums in the early 70's when I lived in London and again in the early 80's when I was a student at nearby Imperial College but I was surprised at the changes made, for the better, I must say, at both Museums. It was a bit like re-discovering a treasure that had been forgotten. I will try not to leave it so long before I re-visit.

The same is true of the British Museum, which I visited on another day. I think the last time I visited that estimable institution was when I queued for 6 or more hours to see the Tutankhamun Exhibition which was some time in the 70's. Since then they have built a new part which I think is a rather good space. Whilst in that neck of the woods I also made a maiden trip to Cornelissons, an art suppliers which no one should miss visiting if they get a chance. Needless to say money exchanged hands.

Kew Gardens also had a visit from yours truly. Normally when I go to Kew it is on a coach day trip where you have a limited amount of time to see everything. This time I had all day so I took the opportunity to walk as far as the pagoda and also to see some of the other areas I had never found time to visit. The highlight of this visit was the new Siriol Sherlock Gallery, built next to the Marianne North Gallery which is currently being refurbished to which I say hoorah because it really is a jewel in Kew's crown. The new gallery is brilliant and well worth the visit. I understand the exhibits will change periodical. Currently there are botanical drawings in various mediums and from the 18th century through to modern artists. It is well laid out and worth the entrance fee alone....well almost. Added to which they also have a very good selection of books on related subjects, for sale...... I did, on this occasion, manage to resist temptation satisfying myself with a couple of postcards.

Well, enough of my journeyings for the present. Next blog will be back to matters artistic??

Moving On

Back in March I decided to delete this blog. My entries were very sporadic and, to my mind, not very interesting. I have just spent the last fortnight house sitting for my brother and I felt I wanted to carry on blogging, regardless of whether I had anything interesting to say or not.

I did think I would create a new blog page but could not come up with a better title than Carpe Diem - seize the day! So I am back.

A few days ago a UKCPS (United Kingdom Colour Pencil Society) member mentioned a blog sight called EDM (Every Day Matters) whose aim is to encourage creativity. Now, I know there is all manner of inspiration all around but sometimes you need something else...a pointer or something. I checked out and found amongst the files a list of over 200 different ideas for daily drawing challenges. These could easily be daily painting or any other media challenges (and not necessarily daily...I am not that organised!). Below is some of the subjects listed.

180 - Draw something in your favorite color
179 - Draw an onion
178 - Draw something red
177 - Draw a flag
176- Draw something summer
175 - Draw a basket and what it holds
174 - Draw a bridge
173 - Draw something from memory
172 - Draw something that sparkles
171 - Draw some ice cream
170 - Draw a zipper
169 - Draw a piece of cake
168 - Draw your daily newspaper
167 - Draw something that needs fixing
166 - Draw a fish
165 - Draw the front of your house, apartment bldg, condo, dorm etc.
164 - Draw a camera
163 - Draw a deck of cards

There are over 230 in total and I assume being added to so plenty of choice.
Let's see how it goes.

The Turner Prize

The subject of last week's class was a painting in the style of Turner. I had intended doing my version of his Wind, Steam and Rain using a more "modern" steam engine than Turner depicted. However, I realised he had done his picture in oils and I intended using watercolours. Having looked at Turner's picture I really did not think my talents were up to recreating such effects with watercolour so I looked for another subject. At the moment I am sorting out my photos to use for my other blog which is a travelogue about the places I have visited. I came across pictures of the Krak des Chevaliers in Syria and thought that would fit the bill. This is the result.



My first attempt was on a piece of Turner Blue paper twice this size and, as far as I was concerned, it was a disaster. I really do not like working large scale (10" x 14") so I cut the paper in half and did the Krak on one sheet and another more abstract sort of picture on the other as you see above.

Neither picture is finished. I have just put down some wet into wet washes. I am going to put some more layers of colour and a bit more detail into them....but you get the idea.

A few years ago, I did a couple of Turner style paintings, this time on ordinary white watercolour paper rather than the Turner Blue I used here and I have uploaded them as well.