The garden is endlessly fascinating. Even as a student I painted images of a lawn. Now I am working on images of my own garden again. The studio is at the bottom of the garden so the walk down takes while as I stop to battle the convolvulus (bindweed) that seems to be everywhere, or pause to take pics of the flowers or the grass. From previous posts you’ll know that I also enjoy other people’s gardens as well, and the images I have collected are the basis for the work I am trying to progress in the studio, the winter images of waves behind me for the moment.
I made a little drawing of grass, which to my surprise seemed to work well, and I have been exploring the imagery further through a series of drawings. I have been enjoying the sun and working directly in the garden, but have also carried a camera everywhere on my walks collecting images to work from, using the camera as a sketch book.
Garden lawn Pencil drawing
I recently bought a decent printer and so am able to print some of my photographs to a larger scale and start playing with them too. Work appears to be going in several directions at once but ultimately they will all feed into a series of paintings, and the first two are forming themselves in my mind, I just need to get the drawing defined more and that will help to determine the scale to work on.
California Poppy Collage
Some of the drawings I have been doing are a metre square, don’t fit in my plan chest and I’m beginning to worry about how I’m going to store them safely. OH says why do them so big? They are not all large but the image and scale need to relate to hand and arm movement, so the size is dictated by the energy and size of the mark. It’s whether I am working my whole arm and body or just my fingers and wrist, together with the relationship of physical to mental, man to art work, that dictates the size. So I have four drawings over a metre square each which I need to figure out how to store safely.
Grass and Sky Pencil
Latest drawings include some collage again and smaller works that have a more precious quality – which I am not sure I like, but hey-ho, that’s how they are coming out right now. I’m enjoying the studio, which I keep white with a grey floor painted floor, just like the studios at Corsham when I was a student.
Drawing in Progress. Oil on paper. Size: a metre square
I have a small room that is set up for the cameras and printer. Here I work with the printer and computer imagery, so finally seem to be getting everything set up right. The printer is capable of producing giclees prints, as I accept that a silkscreen studio is beyond my resources. Finally seem to be getting a good art working situation. So, watch this space….