What with the pandemic and the necessity of behaving sensibly over the festive season, I am not sure how many of us will get to church this year. But whatever you do, remember that it is Christmas when we celibate the coming of Jesus into this world, so be thankful, think of others and have a jolly good time.

Lots of Love from Charles and Liz.

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I am always grateful in having a patient, supportive wife, for without such my artistic efforts would would certainly be much curtailed. The reason I say that is because as well as the ongoing sculpture, my ink work is also progressing. The research into my woodland project is tricky at the moment due to mobility issues, therefore most of my thinking is done around the many thousands of photographs which I have taken over the past few years. The above, which I finished yesterday is a good example. It is of a lane in the Bocage, near to Valognes in Normandy. the area is full of tiny deep, wooded, winding lanes, which twist endlessly around equally tiny fields and hamlets. Liz and myself had a super week there a few years ago with friends.

At the same time the boats are coming along just fine and are such good fun. Above is a Star Wars X winged fighter flying above the rest of the sculpture. The fighter is held in position by fine wire, which is positioned and painted in such a way as to be almost invisible. Ridiculous yes, but I am enjoying myself

 

Well today is a sculpture day.

Over the last few days the boxes which fit behind the frames have been made, glued, clamped, primed, painted and finally sanded down. Trying to find a gap in the light drizzle to work outside was frustrating, but we managed it yesterday. So last night the first half completed boat went into the box and was firmly glued in place. Now is the fun bit of putting everything into the boat.

Sculpture two is also boxed and the base plate for the work inserted. The boat is put in place and the job now is constructing the water all around the boat. this involves heating up a large amount of glue in order to make all the textures, while not making it so hot that the boat is burn to a cinder, a difficult balance. I will add that water is on hand in case it does catch fire and the room is very well ventilated. So that needs to be left for about a week now for the glue to harden.

Believe it or not the next job is researching the Star wars x fighter and then making one about 1 inch in size. They call this work, I call it fun!

Well must get on.

Art wise it has been an exciting week, two realy good inks came to fruition and the sculptures moved on well, but first the ink work.

The one I would like to show you is of a rather remote lane at Polsden Lacey and is an exerciser in rendering the effects of light. When people think about shadows and light, the matter is normally simplified to light and dark; in truth it is normally a little more complex that When light is passing through trees, this  is a good example of how this light can work. First there is direct light and shadow, then reflected light and reflected shadow. That's not to complex, but then colour starts misbehaving as well because, as shadows often show the opposite side of the color circle to the original color; all very unbelievable, but it works. However the above is all about direct and reflected light and shadow; I didn't worry about the color. Hope you like it.

Now the boats, no exciting photo today as the work has all been on building the box frames, which does not make an exciting photo, however all is coming along nicely.

 

In the last couple of weeks, every kind of weather has come our way; snow, rain, wind sun, cold and even quiet gentle warmth; it has been a little varied. So it is time to travel again. Today is Budapest and a short tale at my expense. 

We loved this ancient city and learned such a great deal about of its culture; however one morning Liz wanted the nice touristy bit, so we walked across the city to its magnificent cathedral. In front of this splendid building is a grand square, surrounded by very posh shops, coffee establishments and places to spend a great deal; of money. Understandably I wanted to paint , So after much searching we came to the conclusion the the Subway quick food cafe offered the best view. We did enjoy a Fanta bottle of pop there as I drew the above. Maybe I should have painted from one of the rand coffee shops?You know I think that there is still a need for forgiveness for that one. Liz certainly reminds me of that on occasion.

Now the boat sculptures are ongoing, above is one of many layers of PVA  glue drying. As this happens, I heat it up with an industrial paint stripper, until it boils and slowly push it into the wave shapes using tweezers, spatulas and an assortment of cast off dental tools. Good ventilation is essential and great care constantly as to the risk of fire, but with care the process works. The above is only the beginning, it is ongoing. See you all soon.

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