It was Elizabeth and Jane who met up this time, as you will see.  If anyone else has some work to send in and would like comments on, please do!


ELIZABETH  said :- "I think both Jane and I enjoyed drawing together in Wimbledon although it was difficult but interesting as we went to Debenhams’s café and it has large windows with reflections and views over Wimbledon so had something interesting for us both. I continued my theme of people and also reflections. However the  Daffodils and swan were done as an experiment with the thought of experimenting with light against dark and dark against light."

Elizabeth 1      daffodils & swan

Elizabeth 2   Daffodils & Swan

Elizabeth   Station Waiting Room

Elizabeth   Wimbledon Reflections

Elizabeth   Mother & Child

Elizabeth  Wimbledon Vies

Wimbledon

What a super set, Elizabeth.  Unfortunately, some of them are a bit bleached out - I've tried to boost the delicate pencil lines as much as possible.  Just looking at the window/reflections ones first, I particularly like the Station Waiting room drawing.

I've cut out a particularly special bit ( right) - just look at the skill in drawing this person.  Most of the actual figure is not there - just bits of shadows that add up to the whole.  Brilliant.  You are so very good at this sort of drawing.
That piece is lovely also, because of the story it implies.  There's the conversation going on between the two silhouetted figures, and that's contrasted against the isolation of the figure reading.  It's a great study in body language, and the human condition.  MORE PLEASE!  I think you really need to use your skills - drawn and compositional - to tell these stories now, so we become a fly on the wall to your groups of people.

Then, your daffodil and swan pictures are an interesting exploration.  I don't know whether the contrasting pair in no. 1 were intended to remain together as one piece, or were 2 paintings done on the same piece of paper, but I think they work really well as a whole unit, especially as the horizontal lines follow through.

As ever Elizabeth, you have triumphed.  see what you can do by way of development of these drawings?










Then we have a submission from JANE :-  "Elisabeth chose the venue, because she thought I would like the structures, which if course I did.

It was an interesting venue and I would like to go there for our next visit on 5th April. It has great possibilities for me. Though I am finding it difficult to work on my recent drawings while I am printing the Wellcome Institute prints and other happenings keep cropping up!"

Jane 2 - reflections in and out

Jane 4 - inside, but missed a panel!

Jane 5 - trying out ideas

Jane 6 - last drawing of inside

Jane 3 - inside and out

Jane 1 reflection inside looking out

Yes Jane, very difficult to open up new possibilities when your head is still full of the current work!!  However, you've ended up with a very strong set here, which will wait patiently until you're ready!

I like them all, and they have a great strength as a set.  Lots of exploring and trying things out.

Your BIG challenge here is going to be what you do about the immense amount of perspective.  You could not have chosen a more tricky subject from that point of view!

Originally we explored the possibilities of flattening the perspective, so that you could maximise the abstract possibilities.  However, you showed us all another way, with your Wellcome drawings.  That was to include a certain amount of perspective, but skew it.  Your stairs became a sort of flattened ribbon, and yet the actual steps were solid.  Your tiled floor had an overly steep perspective, which played with our sense of where we were in relation to the space.  So.......... those are the sort of games you want to try and play.  Acknowledge that it is a 3D space, but then squidge it and squash, and twist it, and flatten or over-emphasise it - and create a new reality.

Phew - good luck to you!!  It's a difficult game to play, but has great possibilities.

EVERYONE'S WORK - V & A 9/2/16

I think it was only Elizabeth and Jane at this meeting, but other people have sent in work anyway, and that's great!



First of all, ELIZABETH said "The conversation (no. 1) I worked on using my imagination from the Kings Cross Sketch, Two drawings in the café and one of reflections in a display case. "

Elizabeth no. 1

Elizabeth no. 2

Elizabeth no. 3

Elizabeth no. 4

Elizabeth, all I can say is BRILLIANT!  I really love the 'Conversation' (no.1).  It has a feel of Karolina Larusdottir fused with Lonia Lawson.  The clever counterchange of the light table in the darker half of the picture, and the listening head of the figure against the light are superb.  If I had any suggestion, and it really is very minor, I would just say that the head on the left could have been more suggested, and just let the hands do the talking (literally!).
I am really so pleased with this one, because often when you work up something for a second time, you lose what you had originally, but this time you have vastly improved on the first version.  Super.
Drawings no. 3 & 4 have the same qualities, and could be spun with magic in the same way.  the only one I am less sure about is no. 2.  I have to think about why.  Visually, the flat red and pencil areas don't really go with the little scratchy bits of drawing.  However, I think more than anything, it's because it doesn't draw me in to a story.  the others are like eavesdropping on a conversation - you are compelled to look in.  That's why I chose those two artists to liken them to, because they have the poetic, human narrative quality to their work.
So lovely Elizabeth.  I think you can truly say that you have found 'you'.






Next up we have JANE, who was also at the V&A, but then went back to the Welcome Institute.

Jane drawings from V&A

Jane - Wellcome stairs

Well done Jane.  This version of 'stairs' is looking promising!  I think we are up against 'how precise' to be again.  The very formal candy-stripe on the inside of the stairs is mesmerising, but just a bit too mechanical for the rest of the painting.  The rest has a slightly organic look, as done by a human hand.  You need to decide.  If you think about Bridget Riley paintings, they are precise to the nth degree, and that's what makes them what they are.  .Tthey wouldn't work if an area was done like we know them to be, and another area was more painterly.  You need to decide.  This is the tightrope you walk on, being a painter and a printmaker!  Are your paintings going to be like prints, or like paintings?  Both valid, but not intermingled so much!
having said all that, I like the 2D / 3D discourse that you're exploring in this piece - keep that up.

Your set of drawings looks interesting, and the comments above absolutely apply to whatever you go on and do with them.  the little drawing on the bottom right looks especially promising.  I can't say much more about these until we see what happens next.








STEPHANIE has sent in some work, saying "still on my painting course.  Have been working more slowly, and making a lot of mistakes!  Currently working on a New York city streetscene which is not going too well, but am having ideas for tackling it again next week.  Here are a couple:  the first, white landscape needs a little more work on the right foreground — it is quite big; the second is a fairly straightforward Canadian lake scene, the third a portrait in progress."

Stephanie no. 1

Stephanie no. 2

Stephanie no.3

It's great to see what you're up to!  Image no. 1 has a lovely soft mystery to it.  I like the blue in the bottom right corner - it's a nice spike against everything else.  i think the only thing you need to change, actually, is that curve of blue, over the green splodge.  If that wasn't there, and the blue was just in the corner, it would all work very nicely.
No. 2 - I am less convinced by at the moment, if I'm being honest!  I love the courage of the colours on the right, but then it all goes a bit soggy and splodgy on the left.  Again, it seriously does come back to 'what are you trying to express?'.  Is it to show that you can do large conifer trees in oils, or is it about the rocks in the foreground, or is it something to do with the layers of colours and textures in the landscape?  Even if you're just experimenting with a new(ish) medium, you need to just know where you're heading in each case.
No. 3 is very much more certain in it's direction, and I like the simple colouring and the brave, strong lighting. Those strong shadows are a great way to define form (of the head, in this case).  I'm assuming this is from a photo?  I do like the way you've worked the subtle shine on the skin, and really got a sense of the volume of the head.
Without knowing exactly what you are being asked to do on your course, I can't comment much more, because maybe you were aiming for something specific.  It's looking exciting, but just remember - what's it about??????

EVERYONE'S WORK - 12th January 2016

Parcel Yard pub, King's Cross Station,

Well, it's possibly because everyone was in the pub all day (!), but I don't have much this month!  Both Penny and Pat W. say they didn't produce anything worth sharing.  I'm thinking it's hard to get back into it after the break, and hopefully next month will feel better.



ELIZABETH had trouble too, because she lost her contact lens - a serious handicap!
She says " I felt I could not continue with one eye as it was not comfortable so came home. Therefore I have one drawing I did at Kings Cross , a drawing I did on the train with one eye and a drawing I did at home when I sorted my sight out ".  Well done for doing anything at all, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth 1 .King's Cross

Elizabeth 2. On the train

Elizabeth 3. Window

I can see that no. 1 was a struggle - it doesn't have your usual inventiveness.  It's a great tonal study, and i like the possibilities that exist in the patterning in the lower half of the drawing, but the heads don't quite have that expressive quality that you sometimes get, where the viewer can almost overhear the voices in the drawing.
Having said all that, I really like no. 2 - the original composition is fascinating.  You have the structures of the seats represented just in line, and then the mysterious figure glimpsed in between them, as a sort of vignette.  It's a bit like a window through, to pick up on your parallel themes!

Which leads neatly on to no. 3, a view through to a window. 

This is really lovely.  What I especially like is the feeling of light.  It takes you through the picture, from the table in the foreground, to the light on the door in the middle ground, and finally to the window frame. The Matisse-like bowl of fruit in the foreground also begins the beautiful journey of discovery through the space.  The combination of drawing and gentle painting is really lovely.  But it's the tonal composition that really makes it. This is pure Elizabeth, and one of the loveliest things I've seen you ever do!
Brilliant.





After that, we have PAT K, who said " We had a lively discussion before settling down to work-all very pleased to be together as a group once again,and all feeling v.jolly!! We then set about collecting info.for our next series of paintings. Some went outside some stayed in. It was fairly cold on the concourse. We met for lunch, and discussed the work produced in the morning ".  

A solid set of drawings, Pat.  Nos 1 and 2 have a really useful set of possible compositions.  I think you need to be fully aware of what the shapes and divisions of space within them are.  You've got curves, diagonals & rectangles as basic shapes.  So decide which will be your dominant shape theme, and which will be the variation on that theme.
Then there's the question of 'to perspective or not to perspective?' You don't have to have it in there as an all-or-nothing decision.  If you remember conversations we've had before with Jane, especially, about how you can balance allusions to perspective in a painting - it can be read as 2D and then as 3D and then back again. A neat trick to play!

Then nos. 3 and 4 both have figures in them, which is less usual for you.  I can see how no.3 could balance the hint of a figure within the  more suggested representations of the space, the ESSENCE of it, as you are always trying to achieve.  No. 4 could cause you some head-scratching moments though, because it is predominantly about the figures.  I will be very interested to see what you do with this.
Just remember, think about the simple shapes, and how they divide up the space.  think about the balance of colours (and that doesn't mean the same ones dotted all over the place), and the edge qualities.  where does one section end, and the next one begin?


Both Pat W. and Penny were there, but felt they hadn't achieved anything of note, which is a real shame.  Next time..............!












So, we now have JANE, who says "I only managed 2 sketches.It was quite cold that day. I liked the shadows in the pub in the first image and the repeat shapes in the second image. Not my best drawing by any means, but thought I would be brave and show it any way".

Jane 2 - Kings Cross

Jane 1 - Kings Cross Packet Arms

Well, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself Jane.  These are a very useful set of ideas.  They might not be refined and 'finished', but that's better really.  You can pluck ideas from them and use them at will!
I do really like the pub interior (no. 1).  There's lots of potential for playing with the shapes of the chair backs, and what's there and what's not etc. etc. - I can see this leading to something exciting. No. 2 is a more obvious drawing, I suppose, but still very useful.  Remember what I said to pat, have one main theme and then a sub-theme. There's potential for competition between the circles and the parallel lines.

Jane has also sent in some ideas developed from the spiral staircase at the Wellcome Museum :

Jane 3

Jane 4

Jane 5

jane 6

Jane 7

Well, how fascinating.  
The one I think works best is actually not the obvious one, it is no.7, the very low-key one (well, almost black and white).  I really like it's painterliness, and it's open un-self-consciousness.  It does exactly what we were discussing earlier - it plays with both 2D and 3D interpretations, especially the very lovely chevron shapes (stairs).  It's really nice to see you PAINTING and letting it happen, without trying to be too aware of the outcome.  I do feel that sometimes you are too in control, but that's your training as a printmaker coming out I guess!

No. 3 also works very well, because there are elements which you see directly (spiral) and others that emerge in time (dark blue pattern on the floor).  I feel nos. 4 and 5 are all a bit too 'in need of attention all over', especially no. 5 with that very aggressive grid on the floor.  I like the colours very much, but just remember 'heirachy' - what do you see first, what do then see later? 
No. 6 almost hits the spot, but is a bit too full of pinpricks of light, making it a bit too exhausting to look at.

Very good Jane - considering you didn't think the subject had much mileage!




So, well done everyone.  Hopefully you've got plans for next month, and let me know when you've got some work to send in.

EVERYONE'S WORK - BRITISH MUSEUM 3/11/15

I have gathered from the various e-mails that everyone was glad to have the input and companionship from fellow members, so that's great.  It can be a very solitary business this painting game.

I am going to share ELIZABETH's work first. She said "It was nice to meet up as we all felt a bit stuck and needed some encouragement.  Jane got out our notes and we looked at what you had to say about our work. What you said to me was to look at the hierarchy so I thought I would do some quick sketches of what I see first with out any detail. Then I did one with more detail. I felt the first ones were the more direct. I may be able to work on the last one (no. 5). "

Elizabeth no. 3    British Museum

Elizabeth no. 4    British Museum

Elizabeth no. 5    British Museum

Elizabeth no. 1.  Pat at the BM

Elizabeth no. 2   Pat at the BM

What super drawings, Elizabeth.  As you say, they are simple and direct, leaving much room for future consideration.  The two of Pat are lovely studies, using that line, which is now so much a part of your individual handwriting!
No. 3 has elements of many of your drawings - cafe conversation overheard.  In terms of possible heirarchy, think of what else you can do to lead the eye on from the foreground individuals to something else beyond.
No. 4 again is beautifully seen.  Did you see the 'Imagine' programme on Monday about Antony Gormley?  Fascinating.  These line drawings of yours remind me of some of his recent pieces - have a look anyone who hasn't seen it.
No. 5 is great!  What a fabulous drawing, telling a story.  I love the girl in the foreground looking at her phone, and then this wonderful figure doing something else in the background.  Let your paintings weave a mysterious narrative - not something explicit - almost like you are placing the figures on the stage, and then it's up to the viewer to come up with the story.  The drawing of the back of that head (of the standing figure) is magical - really lovely.  More like this please.  You would be able to find these unspoken stories in the most mundane of settings.  When you work it up, think about what we said about hierarchy - what's most important?  What do you look at first?  then what? How does the eye move around on the stage you've set up?  Lovely stuff - well done.



Next we have JANE, with the following :-  "Pat K and I thought we would concentrate on shape and colour, which didn't quite happen with me!

At lunchtime we showed each other our work.

For me it was grappling with the glass roof. I will try and work on combining patterns perhaps."

Drawing 1 This was my last drawing of the day
from another view point. I liked the pattern of the steps

Drawing 2 This is the first drawing I did.
Trying to get to grips with the glass patterned roof.

Drawing 3 Blind Drawing

Drawing 4

Drawing 5. This is drawing 4 with the pattern of the
roof overlaid on top. Inspired by the reflection
of the roof in the windows of the circular old library.

Very interesting Jane.  Going back to my comments last time, the words 'flat and yet voluminous' pop out.  That's when you drawings work at their best.  If we start at the end, with your drawing no. 5, it is basically a flat design.  yes, there might be a little space implied in the overlay of pattern, but its very shallow.  So, you can have a great time with different colour schemes, but in the end it would be a flat pattern, like a fabric design.  However, compare that to drawing no. 4, where you have the stairs rising through the picture.  We can understand them as being stairs, and a certain amount of linear perspective is drawn in, especially in the foreground.  However, the stairs have been strangely flattened, and I think it's all to do with the horizontal nature of that central kink, and the horizontal rectangles behind.  It creates a tension, an almost tangible question-mark. That's very nice.  Like I said last time, it's all about distorting drawings for a reason (ie. not just bad drawing).  I like this very much, and it ties in with your spiral stairs of last time.

With that in mind, you need to have a think about how you deal with drawing no. 2.  the roundness has been flattened by the fact that the outer edges are not shown.  So, do you imply roundness by the perspective curves top and bottom, or flatten them off??  At the moment that's unresolved.  Then the roof is obviously reaches over and out - so there's your 3D element.

Drawing no. 1 is a fine drawing - it must have taken ages!  There's LOTS of opportunity to play with your perspective here. 

Remember - FLAT AND YET VOLUMINOUS!

Next we can share what PAT K. has done :-  "For me clarity and depth of colour had to be top. Of the list. I think Ipartly achieved this in two of them.-the two I worked on in the Chinese room (top left & bottom right). I find it difficult as you know to resolve clarity with a degree of  mystery as there are always several threads  pertinent to the whole-does that make sense?"

Pat K

I think you have just asked one of the main important questions for you, Pat!  How do you keep a sense of mystery and the unexplained, but maintain a certain amount of definition and clarity?  I think this question has dogged you for ever!!  The temptation is to think that to achieve mystery, everything needs to become ill-defined and mushy.  I PARTICULARLY like the two Chinese room ones, especially the top left one.  There's a lovely sense of knowing what you're looking at, combined with a huge journey of discovery and wonder as to exactly what it is that you are looking at.  Very well done.  The two 'layers' of pots implies space, but is not specific.  I especailly like the combination of line, well thought-out line, in addition to the ares of colour.  Super, Pat!  Then the green and red one is very different, mainly because of its un-Pat-like colours.  I wonder what you think of them.  

The bottom left painting has possibilities, but is inclined to descend into a bit of mush if you're not careful.  Think of where you could use crisp white edges in your paint (doing the equivalent of what the drawn lines are doing in the piece above).

Then the top right is very interesting, as an abstarct collection of rectangles, but doesn't hold the mysetry of the others.

A very good day's work Pat.  Can you transpose that into further paintings???

PENNY has sent in the following :-

Here are my British Museum efforts!  I started out trying to leave room for more development in the painting.  Then I got hooked on pots again as metaphor for people.

BM1  Juxtaposition of Canadian carved profile of sphinx inspired by picture in 19C Bible and totem pole face.  I think this might offer possibilities for forming lines in different ways - e.g juxtaposition of colour blocks, scraffiti, etc.

BM2  Broken pots in the Mesopotamian section.  Two girls in hijabs just happened to sit down on the other side of the display case.  Mesopotamia 2015?  

BM3  Fallen pot and part skeleton, also in the Mesopotamian section.

I happened to catch the latter half of the Imagine programme on Antony Gormley in the evening after the BM visit.  I think that what I’m trying to do is a bit like what he is doing so well with his cast figures.  But it’s a fine line between the message being too obvious and not obvious enough!  

Penny BM1

Penny BM2

Penny BM3

This really fascinating.  I think where we need to start is to think about how you are presenting your 'content', and your subsequent compositions.

BM1 has been left deliberately open and available for interpretation, and further changes such as decisions about colour etc.  It is the way that the shapes divide up the paper that interests me.  They are open shapes, that stretch to all 4 edges.  The resulting 'design' is a very flat one, and however much tone change etc. you applied, the picture field would be shallow, and it would be read across and up and down, not so much 'into'.  The spaces are as important as the objects.
BM3 also has components (I won't call them objects) dividing up a space, and the spaces read as part of the composition.  However, the addition of some form-defining tone separates out the objects from the background, so the eye sees them much more as something on a background.  Do you see the difference between 1 & 2?

Then BM2 is a completely different thing.  The composition is an elegant pyramid reaching up through the space.  The pyramid is compelling to look at, because of its contents.  There are pots defined by line, pots defined by tone, pots which merge together, and then, the heads become part of this pile - head bearing such significance because of the hijabs.  Can you see that there is so much more to feed off, because of the varied language, and the context, and the implied meaning, and...and....  In terms of meaning, and the pots being a metaphor for people, this is utterly readable.  It is more complicated to read the implied significance of the pots in the other two.  BM1 offers something, because of the reference to human faces, but it's a struggle to get much further with it.

Glad you saw the Antony Gormley - so powerful.  Difficult to find a parallel between his work and painting, but it's all about context really - recognisable things (figures) in powerful contexts.  I still go back to your little figures in strange spaces that you did at Greenwich that time.



PAT W. sent the following, :- Very little I'm afraid as I nipped off to the Ai Wei Wei ex. at the academy (very moving ).  First one was Elgin Marbles where I meant to "abstract" the strong lines of movement between the human figure and the centaur (?).  I shall have to assume the angles of the missing heads!
The second became a bit frantic as so many people  and high pitched children's voices resonate 
In that hall! Hope it shows a bit.?

Pat W. no. 1

Pat W. No. 2

Talking about powerful work, Ai Wei Wei is another!  Imbuing objects (pots or whatever) with meaning to represent people, and make political comment - just linking back to Penny's work!
Pat, you are SO good with the coloured chalks!  the light radiating from the two drawings in no. 1 is amazing!  First question - why do you need to assume the missing heads? - especially if you are abstracting the movement and the lines - let the heads be missing and play on the ambiguity of that - it's a powerful device.  Then, if you ARE going to abstract the movement, then do that. I think you were caught up with still needing to make 'good' drawings of the figures.  You can still do it, if you try working another piece from this one.  Feel the tension in those two counterbalancing shapes in no. 1.  I really commend you on the use of the red within the shadowy greys.  Super.
No. 2 is quite powerful in its scale.  The tiny, ant-like figures rushing around in front of a giant carved figure - is it friend or foe?  It plays nicely with our sense of scale, and makes us ponder on the context.  I can almost hear the noise level!

Well done Pat.  Play on these ideas of ambiguity and meaning.  Weave your magic story-telling skills.