Saturday 7 February 2009

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It...


Thanks to a worrying amount of the white stuff coming down I've had to cancel the aptly-named Saturday Art Day. Someone I know kindly abbreviated this to S.A.D- and the Monday Art.... well, you get the picture.
This week- I can go to The Ball! I've probably sold two pictures at the Seegallery in Rossendale and one at Colin Jellicoe in Manchester.
All three were small collaged drawings of Manchester views- the Cornerhouse, Central Library, and Sunlight House.
Encouraged by the carrot of success and driven by the whip of a rapidly diminishing log-pile, I finished another one yesterday- of Deansgate.
The building's in collaged parcel paper, the drawing's in pen and ink and- spot this- I've included myself rummaging in my bag for my sketchbook. Or was it my camera?

Pictures: Deansgate Girls, Sunlight House Distant.

Sunday 1 February 2009

“Baby It’s Cold Outside!”



It certainly is, and they say there’s more to come, so any artwork en plein air has to wait ‘til the warmer weather.
Even when sketching in the car there’s about a fifteen minute threshold before my hands get cold. Turner lashed himself to a mast to see the effects of a storm at sea, but I see no advantage to wearing a hogshair shirt and beating myself with a bunch of paintbrushes in order to produce.



The last few weeks have seen The Ladies Who Sketch group gathering in each other’s warm kitchens…. I’ve been drawing friends’ kitchens for a couple of years now. At heart it's a place of work and I like the tools, the gadgets and the clutter. And the tea. And the cake.