Painting Frocks (And Some Jackets)

Thurs 4th Feb

On thursday I began to tackle A Century Of Style , an exhibition I'd been to a couple of weeks ago at Kelvingrove. I was very taken by the exhibition, especially the mirror used so we could see right round the clothes, and thought they's be a good basis fr exploring space and composition as well as colour.

Two Frocks

Three Frocks

Masculine Red

These three paintings are the result and I am fairly pleased with them, but am aware they are a beginning - this is very much a theme I will be returning to later.

Inspired by Mackintosh

So the challenge of the day was to make work inspired/based on a particular artist - I chose Mackintosh, since he is such a local hero and his work is quite different from mine, loads of sharp edges and geometry as opposed to soft organic curves.

Relatively pleased with the results, learned a fair bit and the second painting's viewpoint is something I will develop into bigger paintings later on.

Comic Con Glasgow 2015

No work in progress this week, as I spent the weekend at Glasgow Comic Con then had to do much more boring things the rest of the week.

P Last year was the first year I went to this comic con and I enjoyed myself tremendously, talked to loads of people (friends and strangers), drank wine, and bought comics.

So this year I did it all again, only with a mission to spend some money, get some new inspiration as well as previous favourites.

From the bottom up, I got (for free) Alan Grant and Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips's Criminal: The Last of the Innocent - I got a drawing from Sean which is lovely, and it was fascinating to watch him do it - both similar and different from what I do. Looking at his webpage he does paintings as well as illustrations/comics - there is a blog, which looks fascinating (a few entries down is his reference/art books - what's not to love about that?). If I like this one, I suspect I'll soon be gathering all the rest of his work.

IDP 2043 is a collaborative effort overseen by Denise Mina whom I saw talking about the book with http://hannahberry.co.uk/ at last year's comic con so it was lovely to pick up a copy. It seems to be stuffed full of good writers and artists so should be a treat. Collaboration also produced Who On Earth Was Thaddeus Mist which is described as a visionary gothic novel and looks beautiful. Both books were from stands held by the publisher's rather than the authors/artists it's nice to see them making the effort. Accent Comics in particular had a lot of very, very tempting books so choosing one was difficult - but I just had to go with the victorian gothic vibe, since that's close to my heart at the moment.

Saga 4 by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples was on my to-buy list, having already got volumes 1-3. And my, they are beautiful - so much so that my friend Fiona was oohing over the book, asking me where she could but the comic with the legless person and tv headed baby. The answer was the Forbidden Planet stall and I was really impressed by the range of titles they had - I have always rather put them down as being very TV and film based. Maybe I'll actually wander in to their store the next time I'm in town.

Tillie Walden's The End Of Summer also comes from a publisher's page and was pretty much chosen becasue it looks beautiful and had a cat on the front cover. Avery Hill Publishing told me it's a first book by a 19 year old, so maybe I'm supporting the next big talent - who knows?

Clare Forrest's Mighty Women Of Science had me sold just at the title - never mind she is a charming illustrator. She was also helping run the drawing room up in the CCA so unfortunately I didn't really get to chat with her much as she was really busy helping all the kids - but most definitely one to look out for in the future.

Dungeon Fun issues 3 and 4 are lying on the top of the pile and were also on my to-buy list - since I missed the party for issue 4 last Thursday. Issues 1 and 2 were random buys for me last year and were utterly charming, so I'm going to re-read them and then finish the tale. Neil Slorance is the illustrator and Colin Bell the writer - both are local lads and £16 for all four copies seems a real steal to me, for the amount of pleasure I'm going to get from these comics.

Tim Bird's Grey Area From The City to The Sea is another impulse purchase from Avery Hill Publishing - it just looks so elegant.

Lastly is The Curse of Barry Starkey by Neill Cameron and Adam Murphy . Adam's Corpse Talk was one of the hits of last years show - so much so, he had sold out on the first day. Because of this he was offering a drawing to everyone who ordered a book - I got mine of Alice Liddel and was very pleased when it was delivered suprisingly promptly. There will be a Cropse Talk 2, but not for another few months sadly.

So, that's my round up. What did you get, what would you recommend?

Flights Of Fancy At Mansfield Park Gallery

Time For Some Fun

Last weekend was a busy one, as the Flights Of Fancy exhibition opened at Mansfield Park Gallery on the sunday and on the saturday I was at the Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair - non stop art!

The afternoon was great fun, long chats with many artists surrounded by beautiful painted birds. If you weren't lucky enough to be there the show is on till the 16th of May and I very much recommend taking the time to go see it - it really is a delightful mix of work by many of the best artists working in the area (and me).

Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair

Miss Dotty

Miss Dotty is going on show along with a selection of my other work, both figurative and still lifes (and one cat), at Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair with Art Exposure Gallery next weekend - it promises to be a really exciting event, with a huge variety of work from many galleries and I am really excited about going along to see all the work.

The Uncharted Butterfly

The same weekend but on the Sunday, Mansfield Park Gallery opens its Flights of Fancy themed exhibition - the private view invite card is fab and this is another show I'm really looking forward to seeing the other artists work - it is going to be an art filled weekend next weekend, can't wait - and hopefully see you there.

Stretch - Artgraf Watersoluble Graphite - Day 23

This was done with water soluble graphite from Artgraf, that comes in a little tin I bought at the Royal Academy last week. I thought that graphite might suit a picture of kitty with the grey winter trees behind her and I am fairly pleased with the results although as always with new media I can think of a few ways to do better next time. I used a chinese brush, which is my favourite for life drawing - I can really see this stuff being very useful indeed in the life class, especially if using pencils as well. The finished work has a lovely granulated, slightly sparkly look, which might suit a future project I'm thinking about. So although not entirely pleased with this drawing really glad I did it as I think it will lead to lots of other, better works.

Reach For The Stars - Day 11

After yesterday's drawing I had a wee think about what it was I hated about charcoal (the mess, the difficulty in getting different tones, the lack of accuracy) and on spotting a big thick bit of charcoal in the box thought I'd try a diffemore direct approach.

And enjoyed myself much much more.

Me and Mrs Cat - day 10

Have I mentioned how much I hate vine charcoal? No? That may be because I've been wise enough to avoid the stuff for the last few years - when I have used charcoal, it has been charcoal pencils and dust, and has been at an easel.

Using it in a small scale (about a4) on the couch was just murder - at one stage I had to open a window to shake all the dust off as it was just moving about the paper and not adhering. Gah!

Anyway, done now and I hope you like it - a wee picture of us together, even if she is clearly just putting up with me.

All Black - day 7

Day 7 and I went shopping today for art materials - I realised that I didn't have any good, dark, 8b pencils - I think I must have used them all as I really, really loved these pencils once upon a time.

Now my hand has cramp as I'm really not used to this kind of intensive drawing any more, using a brush is so very much quicker. But being forced to take longer is possibly a good thing, I certainly felt that I was making more adjustments and decisions as I went along than I do when using watercolour so that it actually felt more like oil painting.

Next time, maybe a more scribbly, line based style - we'll see. There were a few other purchases which I'll use before the month is up - one of my aims this year is to broaden my drawing skills, both in what materials I use and how I use them - I hope you are enjoying my efforts so far.

Day 6 - Relaxed Kitty

Day 6 and I didn't have much time at all this morning. Kitty here was determined to be awkward, refusing to let me draw her on her chair by keeping moving, then following me through and jumping up to be stroked as soon as I sat down - very nice, but no drawing could be done. Eventually though (when I was almost late leaving the house) she got bored and decided to stretch out in the hall instead - hence this very quick brush and ink sketch. Then I threw her out and went to work!

Let Sleeping Cats Lie - day 4

This morning I felt I wanted to do some fine line work and use a brush and watercolour, after the annoyance of yesterday's pencil. This is a technique I am more familiar with, having used it for years at life drawing to get quick poses down fast.

The paper I used was also my favourite paper - mi-teintes touch, which comes in a good colour range, doesn't seem to fade and comes in 335gsm so is fairly robust feeling - this was my first try at adding a waterbased media, and it behaved perfectly. My only complaint is the size - a maximum 50x65cm.

Todays drawing was on a quarter sheet, so around A4 size and I was happy with Dr Martin's liquid watercolour. Not so happy with Derwent's white ink - ended up having to apply around 3 layers as it seemed to sink in and fade - not sure if not was the paper's fault, or the ink's - I'll try watercolour and gouache in later drawings so will be able to compare.

Oh, and I meant to go back and add in the black pads of her feet, but forgot. May do it when I get home tonight!

Nosy Cat Day 3

Had a bit more time today so thought I'd try a ore detailed pencil drawing. Unfortunately black fur doesn't lend itself to that kind of work and I chose the wrong pencil - a derwent sketching light wash hb. It just wouldn't go dark, or layer satisfactory - I tried adding water, and that seemed to help a little, but still not happy with it. Oh well.

One reason I had more time was because although today was a studio day, I had to do various collecting/delivering paintings type of stuff. But I thought it would be nice to share how the studio looks presently - a tip, as I have been photographing for still lifes and everything has been pulled out. Anyway, here are some photos.

Day 2 - Being A Dafty Cat

Day 2 and I've drawn kitty-cat in one of her characteristic dafty poses - this is "please scritch me under my chin".

The drawing is in charcoal and chalk again, using pencils, and less than 10 cm. The paper is Strathmore 500 charcoal paper. I was excited when this first became available in the UK, as I have read a lot it about it from american artists - but was terribly disappointed - it is very thin and creases at the drop of a hat. The colours are reasonable, although not generally as dark as I'd like them to be.

28 Drawings Later 2015 - day 1

Hello everyone again - it's 28 Drawings Later time of year again.

This year, my plan is to draw my neighbour's cat, Vader, every day - she's not always up, so some will be drawn from life (like today) while others will be from photographs - she really doesn't seem to like being photographed, though.

I'm going to be using all the bits and pieces of stuff that have been shoved to the back of drawers. Today's drawing is on a piece of ampersand pastelbord I brought back from New York. It was quite lovely to draw on, using pan pastel initially, then chalk and charcoal pencils.

If you'd like to see previous years, they are at 2014 , when I was preparing for my first solo show, 2013 , when there wasn't an organised thing, so I blogged every day instead. In 2012 I just kinda drew what was around me, similar to 2011 which was the very first one and I was new to sketching, new to blogging and just generally a beginner - the encouragement I got that year really encouraged me to keep developing ever since.

RGI Postcard Exhibition

Two Forks

A couple of weeks ago I listed the christmas shows that'll have my work in this december - but I forgot one - the RGI Kelly Gallery Christmas exhibition .
As I was included in the last RGI show, they've asked me to put in a postcard sized work - The Two Forks, above, for sale unframed at £250 along with everyone else's small works. The private view will be next friday (the 5th) from 5 til 7 - the chances of picking up a bargain are fairly high, so I'm disappointed I'll probably miss it - maybe next year I'll declare the last week of november/first of december a holiday and just float around all the openings without having to worry about getting some stuff done - might be fun!

Drawing Tank Girl, Mew Ichigo and a Skyrim Warrior

Painting people has made me think a lot about how we present ourselves using clothing, hairstyles, make up and so on. Therefore when I went along to the Glasgow comic con in July I was fascinated by all the cosplayers - it was amazing to see how far appearance could be pushed and fascinating to see 2d images like Harlequin come to life.

So I thought of them when I decided that going back to basics by spending some time drawing.

There are a few compositional things I'd like to explore, tonal stuff to work out, and some basically just messing about to see what happens - this is much easier and quicker with drawing than painting. For example, with the Mew Ichigo drawing I was thinking about telling the story more with the white than the black. The Skyrim drawing explores vagueness versus sharp line whereas Tank Girl was my first drawing on white for many years - much harder to get the tonal balance right.

Anyway, these drawings and others will be for sale at Hanson St Open Studios, 4th and 5th October - come along and tell me what you think.

Hanson Street Wasps Open Studios 4th and 5th October

It is Open Studios time of year again and Hanson St will be open for 12 till 5 Saturday the 4th and Sunday the 5th of October.

This year I will have several paintings on show from the recent exhibition as well as drawings and colour studies, so a wide range of sizes and prices.

My studio mates are as always showing terrific stuff - you can see more and keep up to date at Facebook .

WASPS other studios are open on different weekends throughout October - details at WASPS open studios

Last Chance To See The Performance

The Reader was the last painting in the show to be finished, but in many ways is my favourite as there is more of me in her than any of the others - always reading, always dreaming.

What I'm dreaming about now is drawing, new paintings, developing some of the themes that have arisen during making this show - it is time for me to take stock and move on. The show closes Sunday afternoon and I get some of the paintings back next week - but they will never all be together again. But some of them will be mixing with other paintings by other artists in new shows, which is quite exciting.

As for what book she is holding? I left it blank in the painting but in reality it was Alice In Wonderland.

The White Witch

The White Witch was the very first painting painted for the show, after Fran was nice enough to pose for me. She also worked as a sounding board for all the ideas I had and in many ways I felt as if the portrait was keeping an eye on us the whole time, making sure I was at least trying to do all the things I said I wanted to do.

She also brought a fair bit of her own taxidermy with her, but sadly I have not yet been able to incorporate any of them - except this little mouse.

But the show finishes this Sunday so sadly The White Witch won't have her little group of unruly women to watch over much longer, as they all go their separate ways.

Mansfield Park Gallery -

A few folk have asked me about shots of the paintings hung in the gallery - so here they are.