The BLUE Prussion

Construction

2011-12-03T23:05:00.000Z

So, what do I say, as I type with a sliced open finger resulting from one of my pieces falling off the wall yesterday - that I need some major improvement as far as my professional practice goes! It's true, but trying to square up 13 pieces into one large piece is easier said than done. This time our project was headlined, "Around the block". So me being me, I was inspired by the dirtier parts of Edinburgh. For some reason, the space under scaffolding intrigued me - goodness knows what people thought as I huddled underneath the scaffolding, hoodie on drawing madly. The first week I did a large painting of the scaffolding, but to be honest, I didn’t have enough information and it just didn't work. While I learnt a lot from it, I thought next time around it would be better to do smaller pieces to make up a large piece. I went out again the next week, felt the need to draw some people, so asked a couple of construction guys if they were okay if I sketched them and the scaffolding for a couple of hours. They were fine with it, I think, but I am sure they felt a bit uncomfortable after a while. Who doesn't, when you're trying to work and someone is looking intently at you! :)

Inspired by Jenny Martin, a local Edinburgh artist, who had a print exhibition at Leith School of Art recently and who likes using fluorescent colour in her work, I painted the ground of the boards in fluorescent yellow and orange (representative of the bright yellow of the construction workers jackets and the orange of the traffic cones). I think this especially freaked out my tutors who thought, I am sure, "Kirralee, not again!" as I have a tendency to pitch my work at the very bright end of the spectrum. I was told by a fellow student yesterday that the colours (when it was purely 13 bright fluorescent boards) were painful to look at, but after all, I am from Australia and the sun is very bright out there, so I honestly think it has influenced my tonal views! :) Anyway, here are a few images, from sketchbook to my final piece, which is currently showing at our first year exhibition at Edinburgh College of Art.

Headland

2011-11-14T17:47:00.000Z

So the photography project - disaster. Getting together 6 photos that worked together with similar lighting and a similar subject somehow ended up getting out of hand. But that's okay. I now have my trusty sister on board and hopefully one day soon we can get together and try to remedy the mess that I made. The sculpture project I had the following week made me a lot happier. Using plaster, chicken wire, paint and then a surform to mould and scratch into the plaster surface made me a very happy camper to say the least. I think I much prefer something I can physically get my hands on and change. The brief was about headland - about me, my head or someone else's and the stuff therein. I was inspired by the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the thought of trying to erase someone from my mind. When I was setting up the half-formed face and fragments in a separate room in order to throw some shadows, it dawned on me that my mind is like a workshop where I have stored certain memories in a corner to block them out and to chip away at them over time. Whether that's healthy or not I don't know, but my dad once said to me that it's okay to put things in a corner of your mind until you're ready to deal with them.

Swept up

2011-10-26T15:28:00.000+01:00

Got the headphones on and listening to reggae. Focus seems to be out of my reach today. I have been taking photos of the city and nature in order to create a flowing cohesive body of work. At the time I thought 6 images was not a lot of work to do but now I have to sort through about 400 photos to choose the images that will work together. While I have discovered tungsten light and how to overexpose things so I get very faint outlines of the subjects I am interested in, I really don't know how I am going to fit these together with everything else. Hence using my blog as a procrastination or should I say space to think? :) Well last week we had an intermedia project which was about drawing in the way we live our life, like footprints in the snow, mist on the window. The difference between art for art's sake and the art of everyday life. So because I like cleaning so much (ha ha only other people's houses or the studio!) I thought about the action of drawing with a broom. Sweeping up layers and layers of dust and the throw away paper and trodden on charcoal of my fellow students. And then I thought about the noise that a broom with stiff bristles makes and I wanted to record that. I had never done any video editing before either so I took the chance to use a broom cam (thank you God for masking tape and my pal Alice!) and edited it to very old school film format so that the viewer would focus on the sound of the sweeping, as the colour of the film somehow made focusing on the sound more difficult. So plug in your headphones....

Museum animals

2011-10-12T12:44:00.002+01:00

As usual my blog has not been updated in months. After going to amazing galleries in places such as Italy and Spain and even seeing the work of fellow students, I am generally a bit hesitate to put what I've been doing online. I am nowhere near to where I would like to be at, but I've been thinking the past few weeks that a baby has to learn to roll over before it can crawl and generally crawl before it can walk, and then the running comes. I think I am still in the rolling over or crawl stage! :)

I have been at Edinburgh College of Art for a few weeks now and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Our first project was on the theme of a collection (menagerie) and so we started our research at the newly opened animal section of the National Museum of Scotland. I think that the new section is very good; however, I think the idea that we stuff animals and then put them behind glass cages is a little strange. Do we feel safer viewing them when they are dead so they can't hurt us? Or is it just easier for children to view and learn about wild animals that way because otherwise they would have to travel to another country? Anyway, what struck me was the jumble of animals they had grouped together. For example a cat facing me with a rabbit in its mouth, but directly behind the cat the backside of a rhinoceros. Or an otter hanging on the wall facing a proud eagle. Perhaps not entirely deep or creative, but this idea of the jumble and the strangeness was what I based my paintings on. In truth, I haven't done many paintings, although I want to do many more. I chose to do the paintings for my first project in acrylic paint. I was interested in the idea of distorting the animals in order to give strangeness to them, but this didn't work for me, particularly in the case of the deer. Anyway, I will share the good with the bad as it is still my journey (cliché I know). I can only learn from my mistakes and also my successes! :)

Drawing of the Quagga and friends

Piece No. 1

Piece No. 2

St Ives

2011-07-07T22:05:00.000+01:00

St Ives. What can I say, except that the week I have just spent there in the sun, overlooking Porthmeor beach, eating Cornish pasties, fish and chips and hanging about sketching, was one of the best weeks I have ever had. I was very pleased with myself and got an art pass and went to the galleries and museums in St Ives and also to a few in Penzance. I recommend all, but I particularly loved Leach Pottery in St Ives, with its film made in the 50s showing how the standard ware was made and the shots of Bernard Leach painting the individual pieces with his Asian influenced designs. I was also lucky enough to be there to see an exhibition of Bill Marshall, the first apprentice taken on at the Leach Pottery. In Penzance, there was a Walter Langley and Birmingham Boys exhibition at Penlee House. I initially thought it would not be my kind of thing, but the way Walter Langley had painted the fisher folk in Newlyn, particularly the women, really got to me. Connected with me. He managed to convey the hearts of these women, the sadness and grief when their men did not come back from sea, the support they gave each other, the memories of their lives in their faces. I can't describe it, except to say, the he painted women like he understood them. And poverty too. That there can be dignity in hard working poverty. Before I left for St Ives, one of my friends got me onto using an A6 sketchbook and I found it really easy to use, as it was much easier to carry around and easier to complete a sketch quickly. The first sketch is overlooking the sea at Porthmeor Beach, the green colour of the sea was incredible. The second is of some things in the place I was staying. And the third is of a house/building sitting directly on one of the beaches there.

Trad Chinese Woodblock Printing

2011-03-21T21:07:00.000Z

Where do I start? Traditional Chinese Woodblock Printing is not easy. It is a mixture of cutting out the black and colour woodblocks (in my case pine), followed by hand painting the ink (for the black block) and watercolour or oils (for the colour block) onto the blocks and then using the back of a spoon or a similar instrument to ease the ink/paint onto the Xuan paper (in this case processed). I definitely learnt that a sharp engraving tool is essential and cutting as deep into the wood as you can before you start gouging out prevents a lot of slippage accidents (had quite a few - but not too noticeable!). Also, preferable not to have a nose that's running when you're chiseling away bending over because that will just drive you mad!! Well, it drove me mad, woe is me, yes I know. But the results some artists can achieve with woodblock printing are absolutely amazing. The woodblock prints below are from contemporary Chinese artists, with the exception of the fourth one, which is of course mine - can you tell - ha ha. Oh well, it was a first attempt and I have SO MUCH to learn, but I am, as always, up for the challenge :). Oh, and the course I went to was fun, hard work and really informative. It was by Suzanne Chong (www.suzannechongart.com) at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh - highly recommend it.

Chen Qi - Lotus No. 5

Chen Qi - Lotus No. 9

Prof Xiang Silou - Mother of Liangshan

Three friends

2011-02-20T20:37:00.000Z

The Pine Tree

The Bamboo

Three friends of winter. Three pieces of fruit. Three people. Three is one of my favourite numbers, together with seven. I think that two is good, but for some reason, if there are three things, or something happens three times, it seems more concrete. This weekend, I attended a course led by Suzanne Chong on Chinese Brush Painting. It was completely amazing - I really enjoyed it. I never knew bamboo leaves could be so hard to paint or that getting the 5 petals of a plum tree blossom to look good and even is just as difficult. Apparently, the saying is that a plum blossom takes a year to perfect, but bamboo leaves a whole lifetime. The three friends of winter are the pine tree, bamboo and the plum blossom. These plants are a symbol of getting through the hard times; even flourishing and putting forth fruit in the dead of winter. The trees are depicted as old, with tree holes, as this symbolises longevity, strength and power. I definitely learnt that Chinese Brush Painting can look easy, but as soon as I tried it, I realised that it requires a tremendous amount of patience and practise! I also learnt that Xuan paper (raw) absorbs the ink much more readily and gives such a different result to say, standard A4 photocopy paper, that it is sometimes hard to control where the ink bleeds and to get the wash right. Similar to water colours I think - priority - must perfect the consistency of the wash! Here are some of my humble efforts from the weekend.

The Plum Blossom

I also tried oil pastels this week, together with a household candle as a resist for a water colour still life of fruit. I definitely need to do it again, as I messed up the highlights wholeheartedly (didn't have my head screwed on at all this week by any means) and probably went to heavy on the orange (probably because I love orange so much)! I promise to try again and do a better job of the highlights and resists :).

The Oranges

Masking

2011-02-03T22:28:00.000Z

So, I think as I mentioned in my last post I've started working through a book I bought called Painting with Watercolours, Oils, Acrylics and Gouache by Wendy Jelbert and Ian Sidaway. I'm still very much into the early stages of the watercolours section. My most exciting purchases to date have been a mop brush and masking fluid. The mop brush cost a bit but makes me happy so it's worth it. The painting above was a quick exercise I did that they have in the book, using the photo of the vase they've published and masking fluid for the pattern. Sometimes I feel that I am painting a bit like paint by numbers but I know me well enough to know that I tend to learn best by example so it's good for me. I like that the top left hand of the picture captures a bit of Tague's 3D buildings, a kid that drew in my sketch book, together with his sister, one day when I was sketching at the Crags.

There was another exercise about painting a turnip and a pear. So, knowing my luck that day at the supermarket, they didn't have a whole turnip but only half. I actually ended up appreciating the half better, because it stood as some kind of sentinel over the pear. I am also finding it pretty interesting watching how quickly it shrivels in comparison to the pear. A strong timeless turnip becomes a withered crinkly one. The shadows and washes are not the best. I'm still finding it quite difficult to mix the right volume of the wash first up, and get the water to pigment consistency right. Next up are resists and oranges - I love the colour orange!

Travels

2011-01-03T12:33:00.000Z

Brunelleschi's Dome - fresco designed by Vasari & Zucchari

Head of Medusa - Caravaggio

Lino cut - Fire extinguisher print

Harden, NSW - Bridge sketch

So as I stand here listening to Higher State of Consciousness by Josh Wink (Winx), an old track but one I'm still in awe of, as if I just heard it yesterday, I'm reflecting on the past few months since I last posted. Or I have been reflecting. I've decided it is time to stop thinking and just do what I need to do. Get on with it. To be honest, I have barely "done" much art lately.

In Italy, I saw some of the most amazing frescoes (particularly Brunelleschi's Dome in Florence - designed by Vasari and Zucchari), paintings, had a conversation with an Italian artist in Italy, Verdirosi, when all I could speak was 5 words of Italian and somehow I understood his theme, what his work was about. I also saw some of the most amazing scenery and things so old, that I am astounded with the care and love of craftsmanship that these buildings and monuments are still standing. I have gained a new love of Caravaggio's work. His Head of Medusa (above), which was on exhibition on the Uffizi gallery in Florence of course blew me away. Some of the facial expressions he has in his paintings are completely unexpected; take Boy Bitten for a Lizard for example. I bought a number of art books I have to read.

And yes, I am finally getting my act together and going to work through a painting book to improve my technical skills. Which I will post as I go. When I got back from my travels I did a weekend course on lino printing (I like colour so chose the red fire extinguishers). I also did a few hours quick sketching in Harden, in New South Wales (I liked the bridge). I've got some art courses coming up early this year which I am very much looking forward to. Apologies for the long ramble of this post, but something in me wanted to speak so speak I must!

The Crags

2010-08-25T18:29:00.000+01:00

So I'm thinking my latest project is drawing one of the places I love most in Edinburgh, the Crags, with a view to doing some printmaking over winter. I wanted to draw so much more this summer, but other things it's true have taken precedence. I think I love the Crags even more when it's windy and the clouds are dark, mixed with some patches of white and it's all a bit wild just before it begins to rain.

Freedom

2010-08-25T18:28:00.000+01:00

This is my final piece relating to the last blog post I wrote, which was all the way back in May. I read in a book, The Creative Gift by HR Rookmaaker, that freedom is not freedom from something but freedom to do something, freedom to act (to paraphrase). When I did this piece I was thinking about freedom from depression. Freedom from slavery, freedom from fear, but what about freedom to stop slavery, freedom to stop fear. I think that there's just something so much more powerful about using "to" instead of "from". How great it would be to always want to run to and not from something.

Germination

2010-05-01T19:50:00.000+01:00

Well, I went to see the RSA New Contemporaries Exhibition. Some interesting pieces and a couple I found a bit disturbing. But needless to say that is just my POV. My favourites pieces had to be those by Jonathan Richards http://www.jpfrichards.com/. I loved the way that the stretched linen (painted with acrylic) on canvas reminded me of the fragility of filo pastry, and that something folded and white could engage me to the extent that I didn't want to stop looking at it. Strongly resisted the urge to touch. This is one of his pieces, but my favourite was a smaller canvas with a lot more folds that were tucked and twisted under and through.

Duncan (2009) - Jonathan Richards

My current project is about what it feels like for me to be free of depression - moving from a place of restriction and darkness to one of openness, light and growth. I've been looking at plants pushing through fences (one of my sketches below) and open and closed doors. I've also planted some lupin seeds to watch new growth and I'm so excited, my first seed sprouted today and pushed its way up through the soil. Below is a photo of the little seedling. As an aside, one of the doors this week was one at St Triduana's Chapel. Apparently St Triduana was one of the virgins who accompanied St Regulas to Scotland in the 6th Century. The story goes that while residing in Angus, she was pursued by Nechtan, the local chieftan who was struck by the beauty of her eyes. Her response to this unwanted affection was to pluck them out and send them to him impaled on a thorn. I've been trying to figure out whether a simple "no" just wasn't working or whether she was trying to point out that admiring her solely for the beauty of her eyes was a bit shallow. Either way, it must've hurt both of them quite badly. Maybe it was for the best??

Cement

2010-04-08T15:02:00.005+01:00

Inspired by the desire to convey strong tonal contrasts and by The Baths of Caracalla (below) by Sir David Young Cameron (1865 - 1945), I spent a few days out in a park near me with lots of overcast weather and little shadow, trying to capture some stark whites and deep blacks. But when the sun broke through the clouds it was pretty amazing! I had the usual dogs trying to eat my work and the little kids peering over my pages to see what I was doing (which I always find quite cute). Unfortunately, both dogs and kids got into trouble by owners and parents, particularly as I was standing drawing in a puddle at one stage to get a good vantage point. I also went to an Alan Davie (Scottish Prints) exhibition for inspiration. Some of his prints reminded me of Aboriginal art in Australia. What I probably found most interesting were those of his prints that used thick chunky lines and opaque black. Anyway, the sum of my inspiration are my prints above. I got asked why I printed one with purple ink and I think the answer to that is that I've discovered I find purple romantic and almost moody. This ties in nicely with my current reading of the gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. I love all the discussion of noble sentiment and the reading aloud of great works of genius and taste. I also love Emily's repeated fainting fits. I'm planning to go see The RSA New Contemporaries Exhibition next week, see http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/pages/exhibition_frame.asp?id=242. Other than that, I'm off to the Yorkshire countryside for a few days for some exploration, laughs and R&R.

Be Thou My Vision

2010-03-19T20:51:00.002Z

Yes, guilty as charged. No post for over 2 months. Although people have been using my Titian post as some kind of weird forum and I have to keep using comment moderation to reject their comments. I don't have the heart to delete the post to get rid of the problem as I like the image of Boy with a Pipe too much. So as promised to members of my family, here are photos of my paintings inspired by the last verse of the hymn Be Thou My Vision

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

I'm currently doing a project based on strong tonal contrasts (light and dark) on buildings/walls, but unfortunately, the sun didn't shine (well it did, but just behind the dense clouds!) this week so I'm having a few difficulties with getting a good composition. I've been messing around with etching on metal and perspex though which is fun and new for me. Other than that life alternates from being crazy out of control to being bored and not knowing what to do with myself. Well, adios my dear amigos for now. Hope your life is going sweetly and the sun is shining for you!

Snow shelter

2010-01-10T16:27:00.001Z

This is a photo I took of my final interactive Shelter sculpture, with some photo tweaking by my sister (thank you!). While there was some idea of photographing it at Portobello beach, I thought the snow would also make a good setting due to the white outer of my sculpture and the contrast of the smooth shell to the crunchy snow. I've now started a new project based around the last verse of a hymn and Christian symbolism. It's at the baby stage, but I'm thinking one of the hard things will be to try to pull it all together in an original, fresh, unstilted way. I'm planning to do a painting or print this time, so it should be less blood as no planned use of sharp implements, but I am sure there will still be sweat and tears! Will keep you updated.

Shelter work in progress

2009-12-04T22:24:00.003Z

Ok, so it has been forever since I last posted anything on my blog. So long in fact, that blogger have changed the way you can do things - yay for that (oh but I seem to have lost the spell check)! I've been working on the above project for the past 4 weeks. No small amount of tears have been shed, not to mention all that blood from cutting myself on wire. I dread to think what people at the gym must think on seeing all these cuts on my hands!! The main aim of the project was to convey the idea of shelter being warm, safe and surrounding via a sculpture piece that invited viewers to be active participants. I had a few fellow students who were so cosy and warm they were reluctant to get out - so that must mean success at some level :). Secondary to this was the idea of an outer protective shell protecting an inner being, inspired by Henry Moore's Helmet Head series. So the aim now is to make the outer more shell like and hopefully take photos of people around Leith using the shelter - will see how that goes. I am hoping my sculpture will be in the Leith School of Art Christmas Exhibition on Thursday 17 December (evening private view), Friday 18 December and Saturday 19 December between 10am and 4pm if you're interested.

Brown box boat

2009-10-22T22:11:00.018+01:00

Okay, brown box cardboard is not easy to work with (in my view anyway). Pablo Picasso obviously knew what he was doing when he made his cardboard Guitar, needless to say I think his use of cardboard in the piece was very smooth and sophisticated. It's strange, cardboard boxes look quite sturdy but when I started to rip them apart I found them quite fragile, easily rippable, breakable. Anyway, Day 1 was spent drawing a fry pan and a metal/machine like object (the latter Eduardo Paolozzi had found in Leith and donated to the school and I happened to pick off the table unknowingly - how cool is that!) with the aim of integrating them into one object. Day 2 was spent designing and making maquettes, and yes, my maquette did actually look like a fry pan, well, it also kind of looked like something between a sting ray and a craft ready to embark into outer space. Day 3 was "make it big" and as doing the "big sting ray" was not working so smoothly, I modified the design, flipping the base into more of a boat like shape. Somehow, I think I succeeded in making a sculpture akin to Noah's ark. Yes I confess, the likeness to Noah's ark was unintentional, all I can think is that I had been thinking about shelter all week and maybe those thoughts had worked their way subconsciously into the sculpture.

The Shore

2009-10-05T18:00:00.018+01:00

On a windy Monday last week, class was spent out at the Shore gathering "information" on co-existence. The days that followed were used to push the ideas further through lino prints and collage (above). For some unknown reason, I was attracted to a set of handles bolted to old wood, overlooking the water. Perhaps it was the contrast of the smoothness of the handles to the rough, graininess of the wood, or these elements co-existing against the ever-changing surface of the water. Trying to capture the quality of the water was difficult to say the least. Sometimes the wind would lap elliptical shapes into it, sometimes peaklike, sometimes short little choppy strokes. We have this saying now in class about woody wood, peoply people, watery water or one of my favourites has been the bootiness of boots. I think I managed to capture the woodiness of the wood and hopefully the wateriness of the water. This week we are looking at Visual Communication further and it's doing my head in a bit. I think the subject I've chosen is a bit troublesome - I'm trying to tie the waxing and waning of a person's life with the crescendo/decrescendo of noise, so I will see how that goes.

Inside/outside

2009-09-27T21:59:00.015+01:00

So I think I have finally learnt to do Friday projects on Friday, though because the time I finish is usually around midnight, the projects all seem to have a dark feel about them. The first two projects were spent looking inside my wardrobe, one in pencil (above) and the other in chalk pastels. I initially killed the pastel one by using a heavy blue outline so had to redo, but there is still this slight buzzing blue around it. This Friday, yes, you guessed it, was self-portrait time in the medium I think I find the most difficult to get to grips with, charcoal. I really should have done a head and shoulders shot as by midnight, I had this tiny little bit of charcoal and white chalk trying to figure out my face. I was trying to figure out what makes me, me - what is my distinctive characteristic. What makes the essence of who I am, externally and internally? The day before we were doing portraits of each other in class, and I thought I was getting to grips with capturing people's distinctive characteristics, but when it comes to me, poof. My dad thinks it's difficult because I can't see myself objectively, which makes sense. So any comments on what you think makes me me for future reference would be greatly helpful. I was reading the other day that when Lorenzo Ghiberti was making a sample of his work in order to gain a commission for the doors of San Giovanni, he continuously asked the townspeople and even foreigners what they thought of his

work, which apparently the other sculptors didn't. Vasari is of the view that the advice sought was the reason why Ghiberti executed a model which was very well worked out and without any defect whatsoever. So comments always welcome.

Summer project

2009-09-11T16:55:00.017+01:00

Well, managed to finish the summer project (left) just in time for class on Monday. After doing my maquettes I felt I had no choice but to finally overcome my fear of bonding my fingers together and was finally free to discover the magic of superglue. Managed to get superglued to the sculpture only once, that was a bit freaky, but by some miracle managed to free myself with minimal damage. Exhibitions - went to the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art and the Dean Gallery on Monday. Favourite was the Eduardo Paolozzi sculptures (Scottish sculptor and artist born in Leith in 1924). They had a setup of what his studios would have looked like which was interesting. And, very happily, I found Paolozzi's Vulcan just as incredible and inspirational as the last time I saw it. I also realised this time that the Paolozzi sculpture out in the gardens is based on William Blake's print Newton which I had only seen for the first time this week. It was fun to know the art history I'd learnt in the morning had already paid off by the afternoon. Books - I'm currently reading Giorgio Vasari's The Lives of the Artists. Vasari is so animated and bubbling over with enthusiasm about his subjects I cannot help but wish I could have met the man in person and had a conversation with him. I almost wish I could skip ahead to the chapter on Michaelangelo, but I am trying to be a good girl and and read the book in order.

St Anthony's Chapel

2009-08-09T20:15:00.008+01:00

Finally, a subject for my summer art project. More than an ornament but perhaps arguably less than a monument as it's in ruins, I'm thinking I may just be able to squeeze St Anthony's Chapel in Edinburgh into the object category. Overlooking the Firth of Forth, it is certainly a gorgeous spot to sketch on a beautiful summer's day. I found a brief description of the Chapel at http://members.fortunecity.com/gillonj/stanthonyschapel/ as follows: "The picturesque ruin of St Anthony's Chapel stands on a flat outcrop of rock, overlooking St Margaret's Loch, on the northern side of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. The Chapel was originally a simple slate-capped building with a 40 foot high tower, and appears in a view of the city as early as 1544. It remains an enigma, however, for neither the date of its construction nor its purpose is known. There is a clear view of the Chapel from Leith and the Firth of Forth, and it is possible that a light was hung in the tower to guide ships so that they could acknowledge the Saint. There was almost certainly a connection between the Chapel and the Knights Hospitallers of St Anthony in Leith. St Anthony was born in 250AD and founded the first monastery in history. His relics were associated with cures for the painful skin disease, erysipelas, which was known as St Anthony's Fire. This disease was a serious problem in Edinburgh in the 15th century and a hospital was established in Leith in 1430 for its treatment. Another tradition says that the Chapel was founded for reasons connected with St Anthony's Well, a spring which rises on the slopes immediately below the Chapel."

Globular masses

2009-07-24T17:08:00.004+01:00

At the moment I'm reading a book called Sculpture since 1945 by Andrew Causey. Excellent so far if you ever get the chance to read it. Inspired by Otto Piene's Fire Flower Power and my school's Lunar and Solar theme, I was trying to capture this afternoon some aspects of his flower power machine and the light that it created on the walls. I think I am quite, what's the word, intrigued/absorbed/enamoured by these globular masses that we call the sun and moon. The roundness of them, the weightiness of them. I need to start my summer project soon and it would be good in some way if I could find an object near my house that I could somehow base a spherical sculpture on. Not that that's the right way to go about it perhaps. Hoping to see the Spain Goya to Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery tomorrow. I've found it interesting that Picasso was a bit of a sculptor. I hadn't realised that before, only really being aware of his cubist paintings.

Pushing

2009-06-26T14:43:00.009+01:00

Life has been a bit hectic lately, so I haven't done or read as much as I would have liked to as far as art goes. I've been told to push my work further, so in the bottom sketches I started with a blue ink drawing and then pushed it further into a colour study. I still have further ideas on what to do next (in process) but interestingly enough, I seem to be pushed for time. Last week I visited the the Isle of Iona. A tiny but beautiful place. It goes without saying that I saw the Iona Abbey while there. The Abbey Cloisters had some amazing carvings, particularly the above, which I found out today were done by Scottish sculptor, Chris Hall. - http://www.chrishallsculptures.co.uk/index.htm. I was also struck with the care and beauty of the carvings/stonework on some of the tomb lids that have been placed in a building in the Abbey complex (am assuming to protect them from the elements). There are a couple in particular that I don't think I'll forget.

Light/Dark

2009-05-21T21:59:00.008+01:00

I've been getting back into the swing of art classes since coming back. Had a great time a couple of weeks back working with oil bar and pencil . The picture on the left is a bit awry but I was told that was part of its charm. As far as exhibitions go, I recently went to the Joseph Turner exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland. Joseph Turner loved Italy and by the look of his work he loved the Italian sun! What I liked most about his work is how the light is pre-eminent, so much so, that one of his Venetian paintings is so bright that the buildings are barely visible. The painting on the right here is Venice: Shipping Moored off the Riva delgi Schiavoni, which I like because of the strong light/dark contrast. Another exhibition I went to recently was David Martin at the The Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh, which was based on his travels in Ethiopia. His work was so vivid, rich with texture and I think done with great skill and energy. I was insanely jealous because he is only a few years older than me!

Rocks at Yass

2009-05-04T16:28:00.016+01:00

Inspired by my brother-in-law's lino prints of Japanese style mountains, I travelled the Yass country side with my sister for landscapes I could sketch and then convert into lino cuts. Well, perhaps not travelled so greatly. We only needed to head out to the local watering hole for this rock inspired lino cut and out onto the road to Wee Jasper for some amazing rolling hills, winding roads and tree dotted landscapes. Lino cuts of which I am still to cut.

Last day term 2

2009-03-28T18:39:00.007Z

And so ended term 2. Looking back over my blog, I think that these are a definite improvement on last term. I think I'm starting to get the drift of flesh tones and how colour is traced through a work to move a person's eye in and through the work. If only my camera could capture the images a bit better, or should I be truthful and say that if only my hands could be steady, I could stop the blur! Off to Oz tomorrow. Unpacked and pretty much unprepared, but by some miracle hopefully all will sort itself out by the time the plane is ready to leave. Looking forward to seeing my wonderful family and Oz friends, together with lots of opportunities to get my visual diary happening once more. Adios Scottish amigos, or should that be au revoir?

Self-portraits

2009-01-24T19:54:00.007Z

I am currently reading a fascinating book by Frances Borzello titled Seeing Ourselves women's self-portraits. I am only up to the 17th century section but have been utterly inspired already. From women in the 12th century who copied, wrote and illustrated manuscrips and put their own portrait into letters of the alphabet, to Sofonisba Anguissola in the 16th century who depicted herself in self portraits with amazing skill and wit from the age of 12 or so to old age, to Clara Peeters who in the 17th century put distorted reflections of herself at work in the shiny surface of the bowls and jugs in her still-lifes. I was inspired by this and painted a still-life the other day with the aim of putting my reflection in the surface, but got so absorbed, completely forgot to try. Next time! I also really like the self-portrait by Judith Lyester left. Apparently it may have an intellectual programme i.e. the artist is allying herself with the intellectual ideas of her age about the equality of painting to poetry. The author states that Artists claimed that if poetry is a speaking image then painting should be equally respected as mute poetry. The more I get into art, the more I am thinking this may be true. The books also has Self-portrait as 'La Pittura' by Artemisa Gentileschi, the original which I got to see at The Queen's Gallery The Art of Italy The Baroque last week so that was very cool.

Mono prints

2009-01-06T20:57:00.006Z

Back to class this week. Had a great time with mono prints - rolling ink onto aluminium plates, and tracing onto paper with pastels, pencils and charcoal and then pulling off the paper to see what lay underneath. Sometimes disappointment due to too much ink or not enough, othertimes pleasant surprise at what was revealed. I found myself at one time, for the first time perhaps, lost in the enjoyment of tracing the face of the model and not worrying about the end outcome. This print was done using pastels to trace and I had some comments that it looked like Spring, which was cool.

Skull

2008-12-28T21:01:00.009Z

I recently bought myself an anatomy book to help out with my life drawing. My sister tells me skulls have been 'in' for a couple of years, and as usual, being the laggard I am, I have only just recently bought myself a skull tshirt. Given this, I thought it might be appropriate to start my anatomy drawing skills with a skull, who somehow seems to look inordinately happy with himself. It must be those nice shiny teeth!

Saturdays

2008-12-06T16:02:00.011Z

This is some of the work I've done in the class I have on Saturdays. It's always a total struggle to get out of bed to make it to class, but it's definitely been worth it. The first one is using tertiary colours, which were really cool to mix and to work with. The charcoal one is based on a 3D construction I did in class which itself was based on drawings of dead plant matter. Part of the piece I've then recreated into an oil painting which it sounds like it will be part of the student exhibition at Leith School of Art in December. My first time being in an exhibition, pretty exciting! It's cool to now look back and see where the Saturday morning class was headed and to have some output to show. I'm also glad to have such good lecturers!

Colour pastel

2008-11-10T20:53:00.018Z

More life drawing, this time in colour pastels. I enjoyed drawing this model.

Pastel figure

2008-10-28T20:14:00.005Z

My figure drawing class is proving somewhat challenging but I'm slowly getting into the swing of things. Last night we worked on 3 sketches of the same pose in pastels. This is the most finished one though as you can see her arm still has a bit of a way to go. I'm still struggling with tones, and mid-tones especially. I recently went to an exhibition of Astrid Trugg at the henderson gallery www.thehendersongallery.com/current.html. I really enjoyed her pieces, especially the boats (and was checking out her use of tones) and the way she collaged pieces of newspaper into her work, which I thought worked really well. I am also very much in love with one of the paintings showing at the moment at the Open Eye Galley but it doesn't look like they have it on the website http://www.openeyegallery.co.uk/. I'll have to find out the artist - I wish you could see it.

Starter nudes

2008-09-08T21:04:00.004+01:00

I went to my first figure drawing class tonight, which was cool. We did contour drawings. I faithfully stuck to the not taking the pencil off the page, hence the wobbly legs and feet, but I always get a kick out of contour drawings, so maybe was also bit more creative that I was meant to be. I think my flatmate was a bit shocked about me drawing nudes, hence the "You draw naked people??!") comment, but drawing people is the best thing. Other news, went to see Impressionism & Scotland at the Royal Scottish Academy yesterday. Stand-outs for me were William McTaggart's "The Storm". Awesome, passionate painting, you have to see it full-size but for a little taste see http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/online_az/4:322/result/0/5139?initial=M&artistId=3308&artistName=William%20McTaggart&submit=1 . At first all I saw were the stormy waters, but then the more I looked, the more I picked out other things in the painting. There was this amazing figure of a woman in the painting, so small, yet you could see her hands tucked up tight to keep her cloak close, with the wind sweeping her skirts against and away from her. Other stand-outs for me were James Guthrie's paintings with their gold hues and dappled lights.

Portrait of a friend

2008-09-02T23:34:00.002+01:00

This is a portrait of my friend taken from a photo when we were in Bristol lately. She wouldn't let me sketch her on the spot, so mmm, I've had to resort to underhanded means, but hey, my friend, if you see this and you want it deleted, no problemos. One of my flatmates recently let me sketch her while watching tv which was cool. It turned out differently, but had more hard lines in, which was good for me, because I want to put more contrast in my work. Other things going on - went to Vanity Fair exhibition last weekend. Very cool. There was some very cool 1920s/30s shots of celebs and there was one of the more recent ones which for some reason I really liked. It was of an artist wearing t-shirt and shorts standing front-on to the camera in his studio with his painting to the left and his art gear strewn around the room. I thought it was not so much "arty" but just very honest. I liked that. I've been writing some poetry lately and I've taken inspiration from this book of women Scottish poets I'm reading and find that there too, I like the poems which are honest. I don't think I'm doing a very good job of explaining this "honest" concept, so I'm going to go. Starting a figure drawing class next week, so hope to post some stuff from that soon. Adios amigos.

Cavalier No. 4

2008-08-08T20:59:00.004+01:00

This is me capturing the Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, 1624. He was an unknown gentleman who was apparently 26 at the time he was portrayed. It doesn't have much in common with Hals work but I am trying these days to catch the vibrancy and the spirit of things otherwise I get too bogged down in the detail. I am completely, however, in absolutely awe of the old-school painters. They were incredible and it would be my dream to be able to paint as they painted. However, in the mean time, I read an article on Liza Minnelli the other day and apparently Judy Garland had said to her that it's better to be a first-rate version of yourself than a second-rate version of someone else. So that's the plan...just got to get there...somehow!

The green man

2008-07-10T21:37:00.005+01:00

I have discovered a passion for bright colours, probably inherited from my mother. I think I must have loved them when I was younger too - this bright green gouache paint I bought last weekend reminded me of finger painting in kindergarten. I used to love that and still would if I could be 5 again! I tried something similar to finger painting with this painting, but it got lost, so I figure I need a canvas that can take lots of paint and some other tools to make what I want to happen in the future.

Well, I'm off travelling for a few weeks, so hopefully I'll have a chance to do a bit of outdoor sketching and will have something of interest to post for you when I get back.

17th century men with attitude

2008-06-28T20:56:00.006+01:00

I went to the Edinburgh College of Art degree show last weekend (in new shoes, so new blisters has meant no wandering this weekend!). I particularly enjoyed the Illustration room, which had some great visual diaries, together with books (both comic and children's books) illustrated and written by the students - some were really fantastic. I am rambling, however, I have noticed a tendency for the comic books I've seen to have buccaneers and I've also picked up the pirate theme in things I've seen elsewhere in Edinburgh. So I thought I would try my own hand at drawing buccaneers, with their flamboyant fashion and big attitudes. So far, I have found a few pictures of 17th century men's fashion to base the drawings on mainly at http://www.costumes.org/. These ones are just starters, but I haven't posted anything in my blog for so long, I wanted to post something so you know I haven't disappeared.

Titian

2008-06-07T22:07:00.015+01:00

Today I did my usual Saturday afternoon in Edinburgh and went out hunting for an art gallery and something to sketch. I went to The Queen's Gallery to see the Art of Italy Renaissance exhibition and fell into the hands of Titian (or attributed to Titian) via the Boy with a Pipe (on the right). The work swallowed my heart whole. The work is so beautiful, the Boy is so beautiful and thoughtful, it amazes me. After the gallery, I traipsed down Calton Road and chanced upon this monument (on the left). Its only a quick sketch, as I'm trying to change my focus to expressing my impression of what I see not what's exactly there. Also trying to learn to cope with all the distractions of sketching in a live area, with people walking by having serious conversations about what to tell their boyfriend about stuff, crazy hyperactive people running and laughing, people taking photos and looking over my shoulders.

Royal Botanic Garden flowers

2008-05-25T21:09:00.006+01:00

Ads, this is for you. I believe you left a little message on Facebook that you expected to see a painting of this photo I took and because your wish is my command, here it is. Hope you like it. Missing you, play my piano for me won't you, it's a bit hard living without it.

I went to artists gathering again last Wednesday - they had a Maestro swordsman/fencer speak on how to make swords and the reasons for different sword forms in different centures. Also had a free form fencing fight which was cool. I now know a pommel on a sword actually is there for a reason, as well as all the pretty swirly steel on rapiers. It means I will now watch my favourite medieval tv shows and movies with renewed enthusiasm and ofcouse, greater understanding!

The tissue box

2008-05-09T19:08:00.006+01:00

Yes, inspired by a tissue box. I know, it makes you want to cry doesn't it... go ahead, grab a tissue, I know you want to. Mmm, I think it was the photo of the flowers, the way the petals opened and the creases in the tissue that compelled me to draw it. I would like to give credit to the photographer of the flowers, but unfortunately I can't as the name of photographer is not on the box. I went to an artists gathering the other night, where there was a script-reading and a forum after to give feedback on the reading. Very cool and very inspirational, not that it's related to the tissue box, except that it made me want to try harder so I can improve and maybe give people enjoyment of my art in an exhibition one day as the script-reading gave me enjoyment.

On site

2008-05-01T16:34:00.010+01:00

I sketched this tree while in East Princes St Gardens this morning. A young Brazil man told me it was beautiful. If only I could speak Spanish! I'm proud of the wine glass because I used the idea in The Art of Travel with a Sketchbook (by Mari Le Glatin Keis) to use materials on site - so the wine is painted with the cab merlot I was drinking!

Have a little faith in me

2008-04-25T20:07:00.005+01:00

Pencil. I was going to give this sketch a depressing title, but I think God just reminded me to "have a little faith in me". So I did and am and he's been good so I'm all good. Cheers. Think I'll go down to the shore this weekend if the weather holds up and maybe try to get some of those sea scenes.

Edinburgh beginnings

2008-04-22T20:00:00.003+01:00

To my Pa, who wanted me to keep my blog updated and to my Ma, who keeps sending me parcels from home. Left - top of the Royal Mile, Right - Self-portrait (kinda looks like me - the nose anyhow!). Finally found an art supply shop in Edinburgh today, just past the North Bridge. Got an artist journal with different colour paper which I look forward to using. Also went to Museum of Scotland and got half way through and the fire alarm went off. Good what I saw though and early BC/AD jewellery was cool.

Contour at Airports

2008-04-14T18:12:00.009+01:00

Blue ink on paper. Waiting at Singapore and Heathrow airports I thought I would try some contour drawings. Stumbled across Scottish National Portrait Gallery today. Portraits completely blew me away. Looks like I'm going to have to try drawing my own face again!

3 Fruit

2008-03-24T07:31:00.003Z

4B Pencil. The standard kitchen fruit - apple, orange and banana. I wonder if people are made so that some like fruit green and some overripe and some inbetween so that none ever goes to waste. Not personally into overripe fruit but after staring at it for about an hour, felt obliged to eat it anyway! Haven't had much time to be creative with all the packing I've been doing but I'm very much hoping to do some real-life seascapes in a few weeks.

Set of 5 teapots

2008-02-16T13:10:00.007Z

Oil Pastels on paper. People seem to like giving me teapots and I like receiving them. So I decided to do a little ode to my teapots and a bit of a dedication to those who have given them to me. You know who you are. Finished my visual diary tonight, so I think that it must be my visual diary and blog 1 year anniversary this month. I wonder what the new year will hold?

My Hand

2008-01-20T13:02:00.000Z

Drawn with a Pitt Artist Pen. I never realised how many lines hands have. I think I could spend the next 50 years tracing every single line on my hand. There are so many, some shallow, some broken, some deep, some crossing over one another, some arch-like. Proportions aren't exactly the best on this drawing but I was trying to emphasise that palms, well my palms anyway, are bigger than they appear. Next project: a series of teapots in pastels I think.

Shores of the grey lake

2008-01-01T03:18:00.000Z

Painting of the shore of the Grey Lake in Loughrea, Ireland using a painting knife and brush with acrylics. This is the first time I've used a painting knife. It's a bit difficult to see in the picture, but it enabled clear, smaller lines and a build up of texture, particularly with the grass and fence posts.

Goomalling Geranium

2007-12-24T06:51:00.000Z

I bought myself a Christmas present from amazon.com this year, titled The Art of Travel With A Sketchbook by Mari Le Glatin Keis. Mari points out that sketching is not about doing "good" drawings or paintings but about being in the moment and putting aside expectations and judgement. This was encouraging!! I've decided from now on to try to sketch and collage when I'm on the scene to try to really see what I'm looking at when I'm there and so record my travels. This is the first of my look and see phase, with a Geranium in Goomalling sketched in grey pastel with colour pencils filling in the background.

2007-11-14T04:10:00.002Z

The cherry the banana

2007-11-14T03:30:00.000Z

I was inspired to draw fruit (in graphite pencil) the other night by a scene in the film Across the Universe. In the scene, one of the main characters pins rows of strawberries to a canvas and the juice from each strawberry flows down the canvas like blood. It was a very romantic and passionate scene, and whilst I was tempted to do this at home, I was stopped by the thought that strawberries pinned to a canvas may perhaps not be so romantic after a sitting there a week or two. Anyway, I may try it yet. Just need to get into a fit of passionate frustration first...

County Kerry Pass

2007-10-24T11:46:00.000+01:00

Pass in County Kerry in Ireland in oil pastels. And yes, not "ripped-off" someone else's photo this time :). he he. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't show up the texture as in the real thing, which I'm quite excited about because I'm working out how to use the pastels better in that way. Well maybe it does, but being a techno-phobe I haven't bothered to read the instructions and as usual am using the camera at its basic level!

Baby portrait

2007-10-14T09:31:00.000+01:00

Portrait of my niece as baby with ink, graphite pencil and white chalk (based on Kathleen's photo - see Tiny Purple Fish June). The likeness isn't really there, however, after watching Star Portraits with Rolf Harris I think from now on I need to do a number of sketches to get the face likeness first and then get serious. I don't think getting serious up front works, particularly with ink as once ink is on paper, the damage is done! (Except white chalk does help to cover it up).

Duck dedication

2007-09-15T12:29:00.000+01:00

Polychromas pastels on paper. Ads this one is for you! Drawn from Waterbirds of South-West Wetlands, photographers Bert and Bab Wells/Conservation and Land Management. Woke up one morning wanting to draw ducks. Weird its true, but apparently ducks are a symbol for resourcefulness. And trying to find books on ducks is definitely something that you need resources to do! Not an easy task.

Wire wrapped jewellery

2007-08-31T15:10:00.000+01:00

Choker and bracelet using wire wrapping technique. Not the best photo, bit blurry for some reason. Used brown gauge wire for the bracelet and used some really cool indian glass beads. Choker I think has 6 gauge wire. Think I want to do some sculpture next but not sure where to start. Any ideas appreciated!

The cup

2007-08-25T07:01:00.000+01:00

Oil pastels on paper. Inspired by Justin's (Wasserproof) coffee plunger piece. It made me remember that sometimes one item on a page is all that you need. Back to wire jewellery again today, not great for keeping your hands pretty though, and really time consuming, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Too many ciders

2007-08-18T15:02:00.000+01:00

Oil pastels on a night after some ciders.

Self-portrait

2007-07-09T05:56:00.000+01:00

Self-portrait in acrylics on canvas. Decided that stretched canvas is more forgiving than canvas board.

County Wicklow Creek

2007-05-17T01:21:00.000+01:00

I thought I should start practising my painting since I have no idea what I'm doing in that arena. Hence my interpretation of a stream/creek near the Monastery ruins in County Wicklow and hence the time lag between this and my last blog entry. Went and saw a Nigel Hewitt exhibition at Greenhill Galleries yesterday which was great. Something very much to aspire to.

After the Bath

2007-04-27T01:36:00.000+01:00

My copy (very poor one!) of Edgar Degas' "After the Bath" about circa 1890. His nudes done in pastel are awesome as they show women doing every day things not like some kind of pin-up. If you get the chance, check these out. http://www.expo-degas.com/1_5.cfm By the way, there seems to a number of Edgar Degas "After the Bath" works so it might be a bit hard to find this one! Unfortunately the camera picked up the white spaces in my copy which didn't seem to be there on paper. Probably needs some more work. Hopefully going to start some jewellery courses soon to get onto something different.

Monastery ruins

2007-04-11T01:13:00.000+01:00

Steel nib and ink sketch of monastic ruins in County Wicklow. I gather from my friend Holly that the monks used to run up the tower when attacked by vikings. Pity, the entry to the tower is actually sealed up now, I am assuming for public liability reasons.

Sketch Cliffs of Moher

2007-04-02T01:16:00.000+01:00

Quick sketch of Cliffs of Moher, County Clare Ireland. Spent more time trying to do a self-portrait - amazing how I can look at myself everyday and yet find it so difficult to capture me!

Bunratty Performer

2007-03-26T01:21:00.000+01:00

Decided to go A1 this weekend which was a good change from my little sketch book. This is one of the perfomers at the Bunratty Medieval Banquet at Bunratty Castle, County Clare, Ireland, making some important point to one of the guests I'm guessing!

Black & White

2007-03-18T23:34:00.000Z

My impression of the church at Loughrea, County Galway using simultaneous contrast. Not really a lot of output this week as feeling a bit frustrated. Will get to it tonight and probably try a seascape.

Da Vinci

2007-03-11T23:35:00.000Z

I've been messing around with copying (trying!) some of Da Vinci's works to learn from the Master. His work, even his sketches are awesome. Hence, this, my poor rendition of the Herculean Portrait of a Warrior (c 1508). Anyway, it was a nice change from landscapes, which I will get back to this week...

Forest Newmarket-on-Fergus

2007-03-06T00:08:00.000Z

This is my impression of an ancient forest in Newmarket-on-Fergus, Ireland using Faber-Castell Albert-Durer pencils. The biggest difficulty I had with this picture was trying to show the endlessness of the forest.

Bluish-Greenish

2007-02-22T23:37:00.001Z

This is my impression of Dunloe Gap, Ring of Kerry, Ireland, using a Faber-Castell Cobalt Bluish-Greenish Pencil. I am fast discovering that colour pencils are more exciting to draw with and give a more interesting finish at times than the usual soft lead pencil. I have been playing with composition and trying to make my pictures have a more natual look as they tend to be on the heavy side at times.

6MileBridge

2007-02-22T23:08:00.001Z

This is my interpretation of Holly with her first taste of guiness at Six Mile Bridge in Ireland, done in Faber-Castell Polychromas Pastels. I used the idea from Damien Rice's 9 CD cover where there is a drawing in colour pastels. Holly may not be particularly impressed with the likeness but I love how the pastels can work together and make for a really interesting picture. When I first bought them I was a bit disappointed, but now I am just beginning to see the opportunities they offer!