Shalford Mill

A couple of days ago we were walking below Shalford Mill on the river banks, It was lovely, a picnic and a good friend with us; just about perfect with hardly any mud at all to contend with.

I have started another boat sculpture, this one is a fun one, and is an imaginary dingy which a young lady typist would have with her on holiday, that is if she found difficulty in leaving work behind. I have spent the last forty-eight hours or so making her typewriter out of paper; it is about an inch cubed in size and has been slightly challenging to construct. I did the typewriter first as I knew that it would be the most tricky part of the work to construct. It all sounds crazy and it is, but I was offered an exhibition in the new year a couple of days ago, with a particular request that I included a couple of my boat sculptures in it. So at least a fun one and a serious one must be exhibited.

So now I will undercoat (paint) the typewriter and then a terrible annual event will continue. Liz insists that the studio is spring cleaned at least once a year. Yesterday my desk was completely stripped naked, washed down and repainted. Today all my book shelves are being washed down. The studio being cleaned is one thing and that's ok, the hard bit is finding everything again. Everything is slightly out of place.

See you soon.

 

I was in Andy's cafe yesterday and got talking to a lady about drawing with ink. She told me about this tree, she was pleased when I told her that I knew about the tree which she was talking about. The tree in question is situated above the Silent Pool, near to Newlands Corner. So I am using it to illustrate a point.

Remember that it is all pure black line and that lighter strokes are produced by holding the pen lightly or at an angle to the paper; a little easier said than done, but with lots of practice it does work.The aim of this image is to show the dappled light moving across the picture, slightly problematic, as light areas in the image are produced by not placing any ink, or applying very controlled small amounts of ink there. Its all about very strictly controlled contrast in a disciplined manner, One way of keeping control over this contrast is to always work with light strokes and building contrast up slowly, with much crosshatching and plenty of constant thinking thrown in.

It all takes time and lots of practice, but when you can make it work, it is such fun; slightly challenging as well. It all keeps the mind working and keeping us young at heart. Incidentally with regards to the aging process, I live in a constant state of happy denial.

See you all soon Duncan

What a fortnight it has been, a wedding, a conference and a few days r and r, spent painting, with lots of adventures thrown in. A ten thousand word essay would not do the events justice, so I shan't bother to try. The few days r and r, were taken at Dungeness; we stayed in a super b and b, right on the shingle shores edge, the weather was perfect.With Liz's blessing most of each day was spent sitting on the shingle amongst the old decaying fishing boats, mainly doing watercolours paintings; but tonight I am showing you an ink drawing, which I love. Do you know; I actually relaxed!

I am aware that people like coloured work, to me that is fine and I can produce that work. But where my heart is, and my main thrust as an artist must remain, is lying in my hands with the pen and ink. Somehow this medium is so expressive, I can say how I feel, when holding a pen. It is me. So I will do other things and work in other mediums, but please allow me to return often to my pen.

 

Apparently for some of you my image of the other day did not show; sorry, IT can be a so and so on occasions.

The image today is a quick one, it took only about six or seven hours to produce, is a study of a bank side and is small, being only about four inch's square. It was a fill in piece, not being sure as to what I needed to create next, so the approach was a little relaxed, care free and to be honest it works better in the original form, the IT version is a little flat, but that doesn't matter. What does natter is that not all pieces are marvelous works of art, what matters is that your mind is working and creating, always looking for something new to explore and luxuriate in. 

I used the word luxuriate deliberately, as although the approach to this work was a little relaxed, once started, it sort of took hold of me and I was almost on that river bank, luxuriating and chilled out. It was a pleasant few hours being there in my mind and on the paper. Just out of interest the original version when not printed or digitalised works rather well. So it was time well spent. 

If you pop round, if you want to, you can see the original and have a coffee as well. have fun.

 

 It certainly is a little on the warm side at the moment and maybe we are all having to live with consideration for the heat; I for one have been just a little sensible and certainly slowed down a little.

This afternoon I wanted to go out to paint, but how could I do that responsibly, whilst not putting myself at risk from overheating. So I wandered down to the canal and stopped near by to the Bridge Barn, then sitting under the trees on the edge of the canal tow path; a pleasant cool breeze was running down the canal, which was just right and I had lots to drink with me. not a bad start. I kept the relaxed feeling gong by using the children's multi coloured biros which I bought for a song the other day. So, no expectations of fine art, just fun and relaxation.The result, maybe a little colourful, but I did enjoyed myself.

Believe it or not, but I am now seventy five years old: it was my birthday yesterday; so Liz as usual, gave me a super present. She scooted me off to Sidmouth and Beer in South Devon, with her in tow, for a few days. We were there for three nights at our favorite hotel, the Kingswood, right in the middle  of the Esplanade, on the sea front, it was all rather plush, polite, shiny and fancy; we had a lovely time. The food was rather splendid. On the first full day, Saturday, I was told to go away and sketch or paint in Sidmouth, before we went to the theatre in the evening, so being a good little boy that is what I did.

I thought how can this be a little different and still be good fun?  So. the usual paper, A3 sized was used, with the usual pen; the difference being to sketch very loosely using the whole A3 page, which is quite large for a sketch. 

So off I went with my stool and did four sketches; they were such fun to draw, working almost in a slap dashish manner; each drawing took about forty minuets to produce.. After drawing sketch number two I stopped for tea in a quaint old word tea room, before getting on with number three. People were so pleasant, the town center was busy and everybody was in  holiday mood, the sun was shining  and it was lovely and warm; lots of people stopped and chatted, and they were all respectful and enjoying nattering with me ( I think), so, all in all, it was a rather pleasant few hours.

I love being an art6ist.

 

 A few blogs back, it was mentioned that I had a clear out and offered a painting of Nigh Neb near Sheffield to a good home, well it was snapped up very quickly by an old student from Sheffield university. 

At the same time a large file (about forty) paintings of Filey, Yorkshire also appeared; Above is one of them. This is a lovely ink drawing and not necessarily looking for a good free home, of the Coble Landing. At Filey there is a long concrete ramp down to the beach and in the past this is where the fishing boats were dragged up on to, in order that they were safe from the sea. I was fortunate some years ago to be able to make friends with many of these fishermen, spending time on the Coble Landing (as they call this concrete ramp) in order to make a fairly comprehensive record of their work. I haven't been able to return to Filey for bout twenty years, but when I was last there, they were reaching the point when it would not be possible to operate boats from the Landing. I must try to get back there to see what is happening.

At the same time another file on Lincoln cathedral appeared. The scanning and digitalising of the Filey work is now done, next in line is to do the same to the new Lincoln file. Its a good job that I like what I do.