I am soon off to Europe for a trip and should be full of vim and vigour. At least producing more sketches for my next project, but I’ve done little except moan about toothache, or a pain that could be sinus, or it might be…? Maybe tomorrow the periodontist will come up with a name, but meanwhile a winter sketch has lifted my spirits – a little.
Last post I was dealing with a crook back. Improving now, thank goodness. I was also recovering from a cataract operation, and that I found even less conducive to looking at a screen for writing, or a sketch pad for sketching. However, I can exercise again, and can see without peripheral bright light flashing, finally enabling me to do the post I’d planned. For two or more weeks I’d thought about drawing this old wooden barrel, which is a perfect container for loose tea. It did start its life as quite a different object which I’ll get to by and by.
A few weeks back I posted about my husband Kerry’s special birthday (80th). He received wine, chocolate and song at his party, but when he opened a box-shaped present later that evening he was amazed. For on the wrapping paper sat the most unique, but perfectly delightful gift. Some of you may have heard of, or even owned a tin SPACE PATROL vehicle with Da Da Sound. This model is circa 1970’s and from China, although there were earlier Japanese models through the 1950s and sixties. But neither Kerry and I had come across this toy in our childhood, or vroomed one around a room. I know I was was overjoyed to see the Space Patrol toy, brightly coloured with stars and flashes and a ‘robot’ driver. I immediately planned to sketch this fabulous machine, and finally found the time to spend on it yesterday.
The week started well. Get hold of a good book and there’s no stopping me; waking early and reading for hours until the clock reminds me it’s way past getting up time. I’m talking about Sarah Winman’s novel Still Life. A warning; there is nothing still about this narrative. It contains great characters, settings, and themes like unrequited love that keep you turning the pages to find out, do they? Or don’t they? until the end; or if you are a lover of art, then this is for you, as there is plenty in here to keep you enthralled. Especially in Florence, where a good deal of the action takes part. To quote from Patrick Gale who writes on the cover: ‘Harnesses big-hearted storytelling to a dizzying historical sweep to celebrate love in all available colours.’
So, with Still Life of one sort on my mind, the other Still Life beckoned to me, or rather, I spotted the large bowl of fruit on my table and knew what I must do and that was to sketch a still life to accompany the little rant above. Less is more sometimes, and thinking this I selected two pears and a small apple to comprise my Still Life.
I have used Faber Castell artist-quality coloured pencils, a combination of Apple Green, Cadmium, Yellow Ochre, Brown Ochre, Van Dyke Brown and Dark Sepia. I love nothing better than starting with a fresh sheet of drawing paper and seeing how my marks become solid forms through the rendering of colour and tone. I was pleased that this sketch took just an hour to finish, and not three days like the book. However, I love both versions of Still Life!
Still Life was first published in Great Britain in 2021 by 4th Estate
I took some photos of a beautiful native Nikau palm while walking last week, which I felt compelled to draw as the bulb was large and particularly colourful. I needed a break from my writing, and the time to let new ideas gel, so I started the initial sketch yesterday and finished it today. Sometimes I wonder why I write or draw, as it often more difficult that first envisaged, or let’s just say, either art form can be hard work when in progress, but feels great when done. Similarly with the novel. You get an idea, sketch it out and keep going until the work’s finished. It’s just the tools which differ. The tools I used for this sketch are: artist-quality polychromos pencils. The colours: Apple green, permanent green, chrome oxide green, lemon cadmium, dark sepia, brown ochre, van dyke brown, Indian red, sky blue, and light grey.
I’m still on the botanical track – sorry, if you were thinking I’d written a Mills and Boon style romance – although the passionfruit flower I’ve sketched is as beautiful to look at as its fruit is to eat. This particular plant was thriving a couple of years ago on a wall in my relative’s garden, and thinking it would make a great drawing I took a photo of a flower and the fruit. Alas, the plant shrivelled and died in the heat the following summer. So, I guess my sketch is a kind of memorial to that luscious passionfruit vine which died prematurely. I could have sketched this in one sitting, but decided that I’d like to take it slowly. I sketched it in three short sessions, spread out over three days, as family were visiting.
I continually sharpened my pencils and kept changing from one tone of green, or purple, to achieve the desired effects. While drawing the initial sketch I wondered how I could show the delicate white tendrils so they would show against the darker background of leaves. This was a good time to leave it alone. On return I began fleshing out the foliage and used an olive green, apple green, and a lemon cadmium for highlights. For the stamens, I used dark violet and magenta. Picking out the edges was tricky, as I wished to keep their delicate appearance, yet I needed to add depth of tone in the line, in order to have the stamens show against the green.
I applied more colour to the foliage, yet left the sketch loose around the outside, so the flower would remain the focal interest.
I love sharpening pencils, as it reminds me of sitting on the back step as a child, and watching how my father sharpened pencils – always using a knife. He was never without a pencil, which he kept behind one ear, whether for jotting down sales in his bookshop, or sketching a scene for painting. ‘A sharpener doesn’t give nuance to the lead’, he told me, and I only discovered the value of this statement when I became an artist much later in my life.
Usually I am up reasonably early, take off for a walk once I’ve finished my chores, returning refreshed and ready for ‘work’. But, lately, I have been staying in bed longer, reading, not wishing to face the world. I do go out eventually, masked while walking, and steer clear of others coming too close. I look at at the clouds, the sea, and the trees still in blossom, to help lift my spirits like they usually do. But my heart is heavy, as the Delta strain of Covid has hit New Zealand and we are in lockdown again. I miss my family terribly. One week has become two, and I have done little artwork or writing. I knew I had to shake myself out of this slump, and gave myself a little drawing project to complete.
ARTISTRY 