EVERYONE'S WORK - Dr. JOHNSON'S HOUSE 4/11/14

Well done indeed, the four of you who went along.  I think we will all be MOST impressed by the clarity and courage of your drawings, and your plans for what to do with them.  This is so exciting, as far as I'm concerned - your work is just so strong now.

Jill made the useful suggestion that anyone who couldn't make it on Tuesday could go along at another time.  I know they'd be more than happy, but just phone them first and check there's nothing big happening.

Also, I know you are all very concerned for Pam, and we just await news, probably via Jane.


I am going to start with ELIZABETH's contribution :-

Elizabeth no. 1

Elizabeth no. 2

Elizabeth no. 3

Elizabeth no. 4

She said about no. 3 : "This started off as shadows but then the sun disappeared and so did the shadows so I rearranged everything!   I would call it shadows of yesterday and today."

And then, about no. 4 : "My final attempt . I wish they could look a bit more controlled and orderly after looking at the others work. "

The thing I love about your work, Elizabeth, is the richness of your expression.  You have so many variations on your 'voice', each saying something different, but always distinctly 'Elizabeth'.
Last time, the conclusion was that your simple line drawing was a bit of a breakthrough, as it left so much to work on painting-wise.  This selection combines many things, but each drawing is more complete as it is than last time.  Each drawing can stand, very nicely, on its own, as well as being the basis for further work.  They are all lovely.  
No. 1 - I really like the clarity of tonal arrangement here.  The light through the window, echoed on the left, and then in the foreground.  That is what makes the picture.  the figure is a simple but strong suggestion - not over defined.  So good!
Then no. 2 offers more light and air - much less formal and more dreamy.  And ... a nicely placed patch of colour against the dark of the picture on the wall.  Very successful.
No. 3 sounds like it was frustrating, but often new ideas come from that sort of frustration.  I really like what's inside the shape in the middle, but I'm not sure about the way it floats against a sort of mushy sky.  Maybe if that was darker it would work better, or part of it at any rate.
No. 4 is really beautiful.  Pure Elizabeth.  You have such skill with your drawing.  Don't wish you were more controlled and orderly - others would wish they had your poetry!  The only thing to watch for is the cross monster-face in the picture on the left - 2 yellow eyes and a cross mouth!

As I said, these all stand as pieces in their own right.  It will be interesting to see whether or not they help you with further ideas, and whether last time's line drawing is more or less useful, or maybe a combination of all of them, with a little creative memory sprinkled in for good measure.

PENNY wasn't sure whether she's even make it, and had a short day because of the cold.  She said :-

Penny - 'Unused objects'

Penny - 'Security Objects'

Penny - 'Handled Objects'

Penny ' Books behind bars'

Influenced by Grayson Perry’s recent programmes on portraiture “Who are You?”, I decided to see if I could find any thing about Dr J’s house that I could use to turn my drawings from last time into more of a statement about the house, rather than just a spacial description.  So, I spent the first hour just looking and making notes.  e.g. 

Anti-slavery, black servant was Dr J’s heir.  But - “A woman preaching is like a dog walking on it’s hind legs”!

Security a problem at that time - hence the chain.

Chinese links - porcelain, stone from great wall(?)

Chairs no longer to be sat upon today.  Books not to be opened.

Conflict between the occupants.

etc. etc.

I don’t feel I got anything much that I shall be able to use, so not a great day.  This needs more thought!  Will proceed on last time’s drawings and see what happens.

You certainly set yourself a challenge, Penny.  If anyone hasn't seen the Grayson Perry programmes, they are well worth watching if you can access Channel 4 OD. He was making 'portraits' of people, or groups of people.  The actual representation of the individuals were there, along with all sorts of bits and pieces, and references, to their lives, and their 'identity' as individuals or groups.  Totally valid as part of a portrait, and a really refreshing take on how to encapsulate the complexity of an individual's perception of identity.
The difficulty with doing this sort of thing is how to balance the reproduction of 'reality' (eg. a face, or an interior) with the added bits - be they bits of photographs, or other fragments as in Penny's case. The two components of the expressive language of the piece need to work together, and feel that they belong to each other, not that one has been superimposed on the other.  This is Penny's challenge:  how to weave the bits and pieces into the interior drawings.
Penny also has another challenge - getting the message across - imbuing the painting with the 'feeling' of injustice, or prejudice (as we see it now) or whatever her statement might be.  Penny - remember the outcome of one of your Wallace Collection pictures - that a red slash was more powerful than a recognisable drawing of a sword.  Let the painted language do the work, rather than assuming that the association of, say a sword, will translate as, and be understood to mean, violence.  Your unused objects drawing has the beginnings of this through the way that everything is a bit wobbly and leaning.

Easy .... over to you!

Next, we have GERALD, who said :

Gerald nos. 1-4

Gerald nos. 5-8

"I think I had a good day yesterday despite the cold and rather gloomy views soon after 3pm. The four of us, - Pat K, Elizabeth, Penny and me, had a good discussion, including the benefits of watching Grayson Perry's excellent TV series. Our mini crit was also useful, with Penny asking where were my thumb nails, so I did one for my last sketch.

So I'm attaching a couple of pages of sketches where I've tried to be more daring in overlaying or combining images and simplifying others. I intend to combine no. 4 and 5 and perhaps put elements of no. 6 in with the others. Again how they will adapt to brush and paint is going to be a challenge, however I'm more confident since our last crit at RFH. "

Oh, well done!  It's great to hear you sounding so brave.  These drawings are most successful, and well balanced.  However, they almost go as far as they can as they stand.  The lovely balance of tones in no. 7 (?), and the simplicity of drawn lines in no. 5 are just great, and to try and 'reproduce' them in paint would inevitably be disappointing.  They are of their moment, and stand strongly as such.  So, doing some clever reconsidering of the content, combining images, pondering on the possibilities within what you've got etc. is a great next move.  So much is stored within your recollected reactions to what you were drawing, as well as the actual factual stuff, and as Grayson Perry eloquently showed us, these are just as important, if not more so!
So, Gerald, it might end up feeling ham-fisted and awkward at this stage, but persevere. Your own thinking is leaping ahead, and that's so exciting.


Then PAT K. sent the following in :-

Pat no. 1

 "Not really 'thumbnails' but made a conscious  effort to simplify the image Bottom left on second line I think came closest to this Will hope to carry this into 'work to be done.'-What a super place this is-quiet meditative-Exactly the place to encourage a change of direction."

I agree with you Pat, the piece bottom left is great. Lots of potential there.  Simple, and yet a strong, tonal, statement, and a nice combination of light and dark areas combined with the confident line-work.
I think the thing I'd just remind you of is to consider what your colours are doing for you.  The image bottom right is colourful, but are the colours acting as 'local' colour to illustrate a scene, or are they contributing to the expression of the piece - there's a difference.  The one you like (bottom left) doesn't suffer from this because it is predominantly tone doing the work.  The image top right uses colour and tone combined very well - the golden colour ADDS to the richness of the tonal statement.  Top left is a bit muddly as to whether colour or tone is doing the main work.  So, just be careful when you come to work from these - what is your colour contributing?

So - great stuff.  Well done.

We will, I hope, all meet on December 9th at the RFH.  I'll let you know about further plans nearer the time.