Thursday 4 September 2014

Drawing bands and DRINK and DRAW....

Have been having a great time doing the DRINK and DRAW sessions at the Golden Eagle Pub on the corner of Delawere Road in Southsea on Tuesday evenings. Every week is a different theme, and anyone can come along - even if they have no experience of drawing whatsoever - and join in from any time after 7pm. I charge a nominal fee, and we have drawing materials too if needed.


Drawing spaces 'in between'.
Faces and proportion.

.. and I have continued to draw the bands who play in the pub during the weekends too - as seen in my last post. Last weekend I sketched the band 'Hazzard County' - great riffs and rythms. If you like good old solid Rock, then vist their Facebook site for further info  HERE.





I am really enjoying drawing musicians - I think this may well be something I will develop further with paintings in the future.... I like the spontaneity of mark making whilst they are moving around and focussing on their music, the pencil strokes echo the rhythm of the music (like when I am playing drums) and the movement of the band. I feel the intensity and immediacy of drawing like listening to music.

But...  Still waiting to get my other paintings into the Hospital in Gosport - I will be talking to them again next week - so lets hope we can move forward and get them into the ward asap! (apparently they have a conservatory that has just been completed) In the meantime, I am making preparations for teaching in the coming academic year at my University - which starts VERY soon!!! 

Even more busy times ahead!!! 

Saturday 16 August 2014

Been busy...

... adding the final tweaks to the Gosport War Memorial paintings... adding the words and signing the work...


It will be good to get the paintings in place.. and I do hope that they become a distraction for staff and patients alike... Some of the words have been suggested by staff and patients on the ward.. and all four paintings of the apple tree will have various words on them.

So have been thinking about what to do next... would like to explore representation and dementia a bit more in the future... but have also decided to do a drawing a day if I can...  I have also started drawing sessions at one of my local pubs - The Golden Eagle on the corner of Delamere Road in Southsea. Tuesday evening from 7ish onwards - Drink and Draw! For a small fee we supply the art materials, and I give tuition - it's great fun! I have also started an Etsy page for my work too...

Have also been playing my djembe drum a lot recently at gigs - and will be going for another full drum kit lesson next week at the Drum Garden just outside Portsmouth. 

Here's some of my 'drawing a day' drawings.. I have been giving some of the work away to the people that I draw...  am also seriously thinking about getting a small studio shed built in my little courtyard garden.... so that may well be my next project... watch this space!!


Wednesday 25 June 2014

Preparing the work for the Ward

Have had great news - the ward at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital has been re-decorated - so my work can now be put up. Hopefully I will pop in to see the Ward Manager and organise hanging. I was thinking of perhaps exhibiting the work before it goes on the ward - but that may not be possible now - unless anyone reading this has any ideas!! Hopefully I will be able to organise some crowd-source funding to get a book published about the project that can be sold in order to raise funds for creative activities for patients on the ward.

So I need to make sure the works are signed, dated and tidied up - checking the edges are clean and the final finishing touches completed. I just have to write the text onto the tree branches in the composition, and write up the rationale and artist statement about the work.


Here I am in the picture above checking the work - you can get an idea of how big the canvases are.. (or how short I am!) It will be great to finally see this project come to completion! Then I can start on another!! 

 In the meantime, I am also giving a couple of drawing workshops at All About Tea  https://www.facebook.com/allabouttea
in Southsea Portsmouth - 





Saturday 17 May 2014

Portrait commission.

Have been busy doing a portrait commission of three brothers. I really don't like working from photographs if I can help it - so three sittings were arranged over a 5 day period.

 


I also had another bash at the Sky Arts portrait competition (after being encouraged by the production company to have another go) I didn't think I would get selected after already being on the programme; so for fun I did something completely different, influenced by Auerbach and Kossof... I wish the selected artists loads of luck.. the pressure is pretty horrendous!! 




Monday 7 April 2014

The final painting in the series.

The final painting in the series for the Gosport War Memorial Hospital is now completed. It is a still life of the apples from the tree. It was difficult not to eat the apples I set up for observation!.

So I loosely used this composition on which to base my final painting. Here are pictures of the painting process for this still life.
I like to do underpainting with texture to get the form of the fruit - and the basic colour allows for overpainting on the texture and makes the additional colours more luminescent. Then I start to add observation detail.

As you can see this work is far more observational that the others in the rest of the full sequence. I have purposely divided the  composition up into halves and quarters; and I have also deliberately curved any lines. I have also stopped projected shadows short of moving into another quarter of the composition. Also the composition tends to mirror different projections from viewpoints with different planal values as if in a mirror. This is to help patients engage with sections of the work and not necessarily the whole composition. It is hoped that there will be some interaction with both hemispheres of the brain in that when patients look at this composition - they will actually be doing a form of cognitive and perceptual exercise. This is the rational behind this work.

Whilst working with the terminally ill in a Hospice - I noticed that patients with brain tumours would only register their own drawings on certain sections of the page. They were convinced when drawing their own still life composition, that they had drawn the entire still life across the whole page, when in fact whole sections of the work was actually missing. This is why I have divided up my final composition in this reflective and deliberate way.

Hopefully I will find somewhere to show the work in its entirety before it goes into the hospital - as the ward is secured and the work will be for patients and staff only.If anyone reading this blog could offer a space for a short exhibition - then please do get in touch!







 


Tuesday 1 April 2014

Magic and Logic - nearly finished!!

March has been so hectic - lots of teaching and lots of painting for the Deadalus Ward for Dementia at Gosport War Memorial Hospital - too busy really to make a note on this blog! But here is the update - I have managed to complete a further three paintings and am about to start the final one. I am taking some time off from my university teaching in the spring break in order to bring this specific project to a close. The final painting in the tree sequence is complete, and two of the landscapes are also complete. The work is very simple, stylised and redolent of archetypical  representations usually associated with childhood.

Below is the final tree in the sequence - Autumn.


I will be putting the words of the patients and staff used to describe the seasons on the right hand branch of the trees. So below is a picture of how these trees will look all together.


As you can see they are taking up much of my kitchen at the moment! 

The next three paintings are part of the narrative of the painting sequence as a whole. The work is to be viewed as one whole piece rather than seven separate pieces. The fictional landscape contains the trees. The aim of the landscapes are to try to build a basic narrative as patients take the time to move along the corridor where the work is to be displayed. This may help staff to engage in that narrative with the patient. If the patient cannot remember one image to the next, there are other aspects of the work that can also be explored, such as texture colour, shape and form.


This simple and bright landscape also has the sea in the distant horizon. So the second landscape - is actually a seascape - the sea on the horizon. The patient has the chance to identify with the horizon, the mid ground of the landscape, and then the details of the tree - and the passing of time and the seasons.



The final painting in the sequence will be a simple still life - of the fallen apples from the tree. When all the work is completed I will try to find somewhere to show the work before they go onto the ward. I have enjoyed this project - and look forward to seeing it in situ. I am also going to turn elements of this blog into a book in order to raise further awareness and funds for creative projects on the ward. I will be looking to crowdsource the costs of the book - and hope for any help offered! 


With special thanks to: 
The Portsmouth University Art Shop 

and










Thursday 13 February 2014

Catch-up – Magic and Logic on the same Tree.

Quite a lot has happened since I last wrote on this blog.
 The final of the Sky Arts Portrait Competition came to its conclusion (I may write about that a little later), we had the festive season and the new  year – I moved offices into a new building at my University, and I had the flu. Then suddenly, there’s lots of storms and it’s February already!!!

In the meantime, I have been asked to write a paper for a conference, and another book chapter, and I need to get my paintings finished for the Daedalus Ward at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital.  The trees in the paintings are coming along and very nearly finished.  So I have a couple of the compositions to talk about in this blog post. I started on the summer painting..


 

 


The colours are rich and the composition follows through from the others. This time apples are added to the textures - simply and stylistically worked so as to be easily identified, touched and counted by the patients on the ward.  


The final autumn painting in the sequence was started next and is nearly completed as I write.. with all the changing seasons - I spend time walking in woods and getting a feel for the mud and the falling leaves before winter holidays.

 

So I tried to get the sense of saturated colour - using purple skies which will contrast with orange and yellow leaves (which are added next!), muddy greens and stronger textured strokes with the palette knife.


This final tree painting will eventually have the most colour contrast developed on top of the initial textured and coloured ground. Once I have this composition completed, I will then work through all four paintings in this sequence together, bringing in elements of colour and brush stroke to create further continuity for the patients who will view the work. These paintings are starting to take up lots of space!!


There is one strange thing that has affected the work however - as these paintings have progressed for patients in the dementia ward - my partners father has been diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease - and it seems that as the paintings have developed, so has his disease, thus making the work more poignant and personal for me. 

Painting is a magical process and tells stories on so many different levels..


Very special thanks for brilliant art supplies go to: