Looking at Artists who have inspired me....

Heartened by the kind and constructive comments I've received I've been spending time drawing some subjects that I wanted to prior to completing my first Assignment. I've also been re looking at work by the artists who have particularly inspired me, and who made me want to draw and paint.....


Edmund Burne-Jones - I love the work of the Pre Raphaelites with a passion, I would be hard pressed to choose a favourite artist or painting, but, have always thought this interpretation of "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid" very striking, and love the imagery.

Samuel Palmer, first seen when I was 9 or 10. I loved the mystic quality to his work, and the sense of "other worldliness" he creates.

Breughel the Elder - transports me to the frozen European wastes. Wonderful detail and vibrancy in this imaginary landscape.


William de Morgan - simply exquisite design and wonderful use of colour. A visit to his home some years ago was a revelation.


Richard Tuft - I found him on a trip to Ikea! I completely fell in love with "St Ives Vista", and the print is hanging on the wall beside me. I love his use of colour and juxtaposition of shapes and tones. This created an interest in naive art, especially early American.

John Duncan - "St Bride" Seeing this in the National Gallery of Scotland blew me away, detail, colour, vibrancy, naturalism, I was stunned.

Edmund Dulac - creator of breathtakingly lovely fantasy and fairy tale art.

Jill Barklem - Talented author and illustrator of the charming "Brambly Hedge" books for childrenBeatrix Potter - a heroine for many years, and very underrated in my view. Her botanical studies, particularly her work with fungi, is astonishing, and her stories and poems are joyful.


Brian Froud - Another wonderful fantasy artist, who is able to transport me instantly into his magical world of faerie, goblins and mythical creatures.


Paul Nash - "Wood on the Downs" filled me with awe when I first saw it aged about 9. I had never seen anything quite like it, and again, felt the air of mystery and the wonder of the landscape. I was greatly moved by his WW2 paintings and savage and desolate landscapes.

Jessie M King - Another heroine and a wonderful illustrator from the Golden Age, who created the most beautiful and subtle work.

Local Artist Kathy Lewis "May Hill Triptych" A view of a beloved landscape close to home, which has a wonderful esoteric quality.

Looking at my choices I can see similar threads appearing:

• the natural world
• landscape
• the mysterious and other worldly
  
• mythology and fairy tale
  
• history
  
• love of detail
• elements of design
  

This has been an interesting exercise, I'm aware of my feelings but I've never really sat down and thought about why each of these artists evoke a strong response in me.

There are some big contrasts, for example, the work of Richard Tuft compared to, say, the paintings of Beatrix Potter, or Paul Nash's abstract works compared to the work of the Pre Raphs ! I think though, that my love of fantasy/the natural world comes through very strongly, together with my passion for detail, and illustration.

A new beginning - and using texture...

There's been a rather lengthy absence from this blog due to ill health. I feel I've lost a lot of my confidence during my enforced break, and it's going to be quite challenging getting back on track. I had done some of this work in October, but then couldn't get around to updating my learning blog. I would like to thank all of you who sent kind messages of support, they were much very appreciated!

I've decided to change the way I approach this process, and begin to include a much wider perspective about my art, and how I feel about it. This process should be about thinking, questioning, becoming more reflective and more self aware. One thing the break has done is to made me reflect a lot about why I wanted to do this course.

I think when I began, I was much too worried about doing the "right" thing- this is key issue which affects my artwork, placing restrictions on myself. I won't grow and develop as an artist unless I change. I'm conscious that I have trouble in letting go, and am fearful if things don't "look" right. This has to stop. From now on I'm photographing and posting everything. Doing that "in public", will be very important for me.

Just to try and explain; I have drawn and created since before I began school, but am still haunted by the words on my report as a 9 year old, "not good at craft or games". I did not conform to what was expected of me, I found it so boring. To my teacher, craft meant us making a space rocket out of washing up bottles, or building a construction out of drinking straws! I wanted to play with collage, and make fairies, and invent tiny villages just like I did at home.

I desperately wanted to do art at secondary level, but went to a very traditional and highly academic girls grammar school, where it was seen as a second, no, a third, class subject. Our art teacher appeared at the beginning of the lesson and again at the end. There was no tuition or guidance, and at GCSE O level we were still using children's poster paint and sugar paper. Interestingly that year only three people in the entire school passed the examination.....
I received a grade D.

I firmly believed that I must be completely useless at anything creative. As for showing anyone my art, well, that simply couldn't happen. It took me many, many years and much encouragement by kind and supportive people before before I realised that I wasn't useless, and I am a creative person. But even now, those memories run deep, and I'm often plagued by self doubt. I think I need a way to prove to myself that "I can"by doing something in a more formal way.

The OCA notes say that there are no right or wrongs regarding the log, it's a document which is unique to the individual. So, this will be a new beginning, and to mark that I've re-named the blog and made a few changes too the format too.

And so, on to the work I've been doing....

The final exercise before my Still Life assignment is all about texture. The brief was to first experiment, creating a range of different textures in small squares, building up to creating a drawing about texture, with a series of found objects, using the knowledge gained.






























I really enjoyed the exercise, but, I found that, as usual, I was continually going back to using pencil as my preferred medium, and trying to be very detailed. I can't seem to get away from this. In the words of Freddie Mercury, " I want to break free"!






























To try and break my habit I attempted a first drawing using charcoal. It didn't go as badly as I had thought, but I'm conscious I'm still working much too small. I did like the composition though and was particularly pleased with how the appearance of the driftwood. In the pencil drawing, I decided to change the composition and use some oak leaves I had found instead of the poppy heads, as I thought they would be a good contrast against the crystal.




Now on to the final challenge in the still life module - my first assignment! But before then, I am going to try a do some work to loosen up, and try to develop a more" painterly" approach to my drawing.