Eternal City - early days yet!

I was in Rome for the second time a few years ago, and did this sketch of the Teatro Marcellus. There was something about it, and I knew it was a foil to my painting that I was working on at the time, Fractured City. So the intention to paint this was always there, the sketch a little kernel for the future.

For Incognito 2017, the fundraiser for the Jack & Jill Foundation, I conceived of three "cityscape" postcards. So  still the painting was on my mind.

I took a printmaking workshop at the beginning of April this year in order to learn the Chine collé technique and quickly did an intaglio from my sketch.

Finally, I unrolled some canvas, quite a large piece (takes up most of the wall in my attic studio) and blocked in Eternal City.

I started to apply metal leaf in the negative areas behind the architectural structures.

I had applied some texture before blocking in the painting, but then decided that I wanted some rougher texture on the older part of the Teatro building.

I will gesso over this scrim burlap and re-block before I get into the meat of painting.

The texture of the columns is mostly smooth rather than canvas.

Preparations for work

I have been doing a lot of administration and organisation this past week. The administration has involved preparing proposals for various upcoming opportunities. This does involve a lot of work sitting at the computer, but it also affords me the headspace to clarify my ideas. I am looking forward then to creating new paintings, prints and books in the (hopefully) near future. With this in mind I am also trying to clean up and organise my studio. This sketch I did on National Drawing Day a few years ago used a corner of my studio as subject. If only the studio looked that tidy! I think at the time I was in the middle of working on a painting, so even though it looks a little chaotic, that is simply one corner. At the moment the entire studio looks chaotic and it would be completely impossible to work on anything. I am slowly making some headway though, proof being that I have filled 6 bags with shredded paper, have recycled and thrown out quite a lot of things. Still more to go.

Planning a holiday is always something to bring my spirits around. Last week I won a break to Edinburgh from a radio station that I listen to and yesterday I filled out all the required paperwork for the promoters, choosing my preferred dates to take the break. Something else to look forward to!

Grey Box Archive 2

 I mentioned a few posts ago that I discovered a box of drawings and sketches while looking for some paperwork. So I thought I would post a few more. The pencil sketch below is from the early 1980s, of the basement bar at the house where I grew up in Toronto. My parents returned to Ireland in 1983, so I was probably getting maudlin or nervous about the impending doom!

The wind is absolutely howling outside my window so this charcoal sketch seems appropriate. It is of the Irish Sea on a stormy day in either 1989 or 1990 when I had my earlier (second bout?) of living in this country.

In the summer of 1990 I returned to Toronto, and participated in a group show "Me & 9 Others" at the Orient Building at Queen & Bathurst. This is a sketch of the piece I later put together as part of an installation. It is an elongated house on a trellis. My Dad helped me build the house and the trellis (which in the final piece I painted yellow). In the final piece, you could peer in the window to see a figure surrounded by floating stars (made of fimo) and I wove live roses into the trellis, rather than scattering them; over the course of the exhibition they wilted and dried. Behind the sculpture was a large piece of paper, half left blank and the other half with an oilstick drawing of two waterspouts over a stormy sea. This piece is not documented very well -- I have a couple of polaroid details (somewhere...), The sculptural element was bought by poet Janette Platana, but that was 25 years ago, so I don't know if she still has it!

 This watercolour is from 1990 and was created in Ireland, but I don't remember exactly where -- Bray or Howth perhaps?

Gare d'Antibes - new painting in progress

This is the view from the third floor apartment in Antibes, where we have stayed a few times with relatives. This is looking to the left, north. at the maritime alps at sunset over Gare d'Antibes. The view right is gorgeous too, looking south the harbour is only a 5-10 minute walk away with the scultpure, Le Nomade looking out over the Mediterranean. This picture was taken last August.

 If I had turned the camera left at the time, the picture would have been of yachts and a floodlit Le Nomade. 

But I digress. I did a quick sketch last August of the parts of the view that intrigued me: the line of the mountains and the large tree in front of the station. The sketchbook I was using at the time is one of my own, pocket sized using recycled materials.

A few months ago my husband was assisting me in putting up some kraft paper so that I could start a new painting of the sunset over Gare d'Antibes.

I first did a preliminary chalk drawing. Immediate changes are apparent once I started to add paint. 

And so the process of painting begins with some blocks of colour...

Summer sketching

There has recently been a spate of summery weather which has been facilitating lazy days of sketching. I don't always have to go somewhere else. Sitting out the back there was lots of flora to choose from. We have a large pot of azaleas and delicate flowers are appearing on the rosemary plant.

I recently re-located my flat drawing pencil -- like a carpenter's pencil except it has a 4B lead in it. I used it to do a quick sketch of our curry plant.

This sketch of my daughter reading in the front yard makes her look older than she is. I thought she was disturbed by something she read, but when I asked her later why she was frowning, she told me she overheard the neighbourhood children "playing" -- they were collecting bees in bottles to kill them.

I am happier with the pencil drawing of my daughter concentrating on her book in the sunshine.

More Shinrinyoku!

We are getting lots of gorgeous days, plenty of time for shinrinyoku (Japanese for "a walk in the woods for relaxation"). A few weeks ago we had passed a road sign for Knocksink Woods and had never been there, so Saturday we decided to explore - it was less than 10 mins by car from our house! The woods were fabulous, with all kinds of gnarly trees and exposed roots continuous up the side of the mountain.

 The Glencullen River passes through these woods, and there are lots of little waterfalls, and what I would describe as a creek. Of course I brought my sketchbook and trusty watercolour pencils. I found a rock to sit on beneath a bridge and opened my sketchbook...

We crossed the bridge to walk back on the other side of the river and were stunned that areas of wild garlic were as far as the eye could see, providing ground cover in the woods.

Of course I had to pick some and made two more batches of pesto (using walnuts this time) dividing in meal-size portions for the recently defrosted freezer. Yum!

Sketching!

I have been enjoying sketching again lately and using the opportunity of receiving flowers to have a subject which I have always loved, tulips. I thought I would post a few of these sketches. The sketch below is done using a 3B or 4B pencil.

I am also having fun with watercolour pencils. A friend recently mentioned "water pen" to me, something I have not yet come across -- must investigate!

Tulips are sometimes exhibitionists!

Another soft pencil sketch.

As I am reusing some old sketchbooks with blank pages, I am also coming across older sketches. This is an avocado pencil sketch from 2001.

This sketch is from the last Umha Aois; Experimental Bronze Casting symposium I attended (Ventry, Co. Kerry, Aug-Sept 2001). It is a drawing of my husband's pit furnace and handmade bellows.

Of course sketches may contain kernels for new paintings. My recent trip to Rome obviously inspired this as a counterpoint to my recent painting "Fractured City".

Old Sketchbook Portrait Drawings

When I was looking for the cityscape sketches in my old sketchbooks prior to painting "Fractured City", I came across loads of sketches of people (family & friends) where I had used a variety of media. Here is a sample:

This is a pencil drawing of one of my sisters from a 1981 sketchbook. Her bed was next to mine, so I have loads of "Sleeping Dee Dee" drawings.

This is another sketch of my sister Dee Dee, this time awake. It is done in bue pencil crayon, perhaps I wanted to be atmospheric - but it is the only time I have ever used blue pencil crayon to sketch! The sketch is dated Aug 6 1981.

This pen sketch of my brother-in-law, Paddy, is dated May 16 1981, and was drawn while in the back seat of the car on the way to Pearson Int'l Airport in Toronto. One of my older sisters, Geni, her husband and baby daughter, Jesse, were returning to Ireland to live (at least Paddy & Geni were!).

Using a regular pen I wanted to show the form of the cat, Yoko, in my friend Sandy's arms. The sketch is dated July 21 1981.

 

This is a watercolour sketch of my friend Jay, June 27 1983.

This sketch of my (now) husband James was done in our first home in Ireland, Darby's Bridge, Co. Kerry in April 1994. Since I abhor "brown" I doubt I was using pencil crayon, more likely conté.

A pencil sketch of my husband from August 2001, reading in bed, at our first home in Bray, Co. Wicklow.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was my 20th wedding anniversary! It has been a great 20 years, and has just flown by. Our wedding date was chosen haphazardly as a day to correspond with a party my husband had in the 1980s, which was also close to Valentine's Day. So making a card for our anniversary doubles as a Valentine's Day card. Am I lazy or what? For this year's card I used some paper that I had picked up in Chinatown in Toronto on my first visit back there in 1995 (I moved to Ireland in 1993). The bundle of Chinese paper squares already had applied metal leaf and some paint on them; I used a piece as a backdrop for my abstract cityscape of ripped blue card. The additional heart and gold leaf is like a sunrise. 

In the spring of 1988, I started going out with this young man (the host of the above-mentioned party!). This portrait is from one of my sketchbooks of that year.

In 1991 we were living together in Toronto, and my job at the time allowed my spouse, including common-law spouse, to avail of my dental plan. It was a good time to get needed work done, including the removal of wisdom teeth. He was very smart, taking all the dental surgeon's advice seriously. My partner James is not holding a heart to his face, but ice packs to ease the swelling after surgery, and he is smartly wearing gloves so that his hands don't get cold!

In this portrait from a 1994 sketchbook, I suspect James was reading as he is looking down. Because of the colouring, I think I was using a conté pencil to do this sketch.

This drawing of James is from a 2001 sketchbook and I know he was reading because I have written "James reading" on the left page!

In this painting, Daddy Kiss, from 2012 from the Moments series, I have painted James with our new-born baby. Our baby is now heading for 13 years old so it is high time I did some new sketches of my husband!

Reading and Art

I have been getting back to my Van Gogh letters book, reluctant to finish it as I know the ending... But I was glad that this edition of the letters includes some of the sketches he made and sent off with letters when talking about his art. Like this sketch of his bedroom, which he sent to Theo when he was describing the painting of his bedroom that he was working on.

The letter was dated the 16 October 1888. In a letter from 8 days later, he seems to be speaking to me directly - and I dare to hope it is the truth: "I cannot help it that my pictures do not sell...The day will come, however, when people will see they are worth more than the price of the paint and my living expenses, very meagre on the whole, which we put into them."