Exhibitions and inspiration

We went to see the Da Vinci Drawings Exhibition and the "lost in Lace" exhibition at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.   The queue for the Da Vinci was quite long so we decided to leave it until another day. On the way back we came across an exhibition called "A Life in Prints"  -the Tessa Sidley bequest. Tessa Sidley was the curator for prints and drawings for almost 30 years and died in 2011. She left her collection of prints to the Museum.  A lovely surprise to find so many displayed. 

I was particularly taken by a Lucien Freud etching - " Woman with an arm tattoo".There is also a copy in the Tate and the image can be viewed on their website at www.tate.org.uk. This is the same model as the very controversial painting that was sold for several million a couple of years ago - she was a very large lady and several critics seemed offended by her size, that she was not an appropriate model. I wasn't a fan of the painting which was nothing to do with the size of the lady.  However, the etching is a different story.  The marks Lucien Freud made were wonderful and truly inspiring as I have realised recently that I need to expand my "alphabet" of mark making for both my prints and my paintings/drawings. 

 Another wonderful image was a woodcut by Elaine Kowalsky  called "Woman catching a dream".  The movement in the hair really gives energy to the piece.  It wasn't until I got home and looked at my photos (yes you are allowed to photograph most of the work in the museum - we checked) that I realised that there was a profile in the left hand bottom corner.  I spent so much time with my nose pressed up against the glass of the prints looking at the technique and marks that I forgot to step back and get the bigger picture.

 If you get the chance to visit the museum to see the collection they will repay your interest.  Have also discovered that you can arrange a special visit to see prints in the BMAG collection of over 3000 items, that are not usually on display - so that is another date for the calendar.

Next to the "Lost on Lace" exhibition.  After passing through a small exhibition of very traditional lace and in the main gallery also showing the various tools of the trade, we went over to the Gas Hall. This is a truly stupendous building inside, made marvellous by the exhibits. Not sure what to call them - sculptures spring to mind. They are incredible - I will never think of lace in the same way again!  Difficult to describe as each was so different. Each artist had interpreted the work "lace" in a different way. I was also fascinated with the shadows that the pieces throw on the floor - an incredible event. www.bmag.org.uk/events

One thing I did notice that the lace was accompanied by tools and explanation of how lace is made but the prints were not. The labels just said etchings, woodcut, lino cut etc.  I think it would be a useful addition to have a short explanation of the various methods that are used to produce the prints.  I have found in the past that when I have been explaining to my husband the different methods used I get a small audience listening. Quite disconcerting, but showing that people are interested in knowing more about the techniques involved. Some plates would be good to see as well as the inks and tools.

After the exhibitions we went on to spend an enjoyable 3 hours at Dr Sketchy's  Anti-Art School Birmingham.  A lovely mixture of burlesque show and life drawing. The artistes entertain the audience and then spend between 10 and 20 minutes posing. The artiste then chooses their favourite picture and the artist wins a prize. Quite nerve racking - far more so than the regular life drawing session I attend.  I finally relaxed and concentrated on a portrait of the final model - Miss Tiffany Beau.   www.drsketchybirmingham.co.uk

All in all a fascinating, quite tiring and long day.

What makes a masterpiece?

This was an amazing programme on TV the other evening.  It was presented by a scientist who looked at various items of research such as tracking eye patterns over a piece of art, what colour was favourite amongst the viewing public, what happened in people's brains when they viewed art - all to see if a formula for a masterpiece could be evolved.  At the end of the programme the presenter attempted to put all he had learnt into a piece of art in collaboration with an artist who ended up actually putting paint onto the canvas for him.  I won't spoil the punchline - but suffice it to say that the word "humanity" figured heavily in the result.

If you haven't seen it, look out for a repeat - it is well worth the hour - an informative and very interesting hour - no matter what your particular form of creativity is.

P S an apology to readers

I had great trouble posting my last post "Logbooks and sketchbooks". I am still not sure what I was doing wrong, but kept losing what I had typed and had to start again. Still this, together with the fact that I am a two finger typist, is no excuse for mistakes especially spelling. So one of my promises to myself is to be more careful and remember to spell check etc before I post.

Logbooks and sketchbooks

Every student signing on to an OCA course is expected to keep a logbook/journal. Since I have
kept a logbook recording exhibitions, workshops, critical assessments of my own work and images that inspire or are thought provoking in any way for a several years, I was not concerned about this concept although I realised that I do need to develop my thoughts and think more about why a particular image is inspiring or not. It is not enough just to paste a pretty image in a book and say “this is good”! which is what I have, lazily, been prone to do.

A student studying any fine art courses is expected to also keep sketchbooks. These are seen by the tutor assigned to the student and also as part of the assessment process. Not a problem for an artist surely?

However, although I have kept sketchbooks for as long as I have rediscovered art, I do not like people looking at them.   Until I read a comment by an artist calledLinda Wu in Jane Stobart’s new book – Extraordinary Sketchbooks – I hadn’t understood why I felt so secretive about my sketchbooks. Linda says that she found the idea of keeping a sketchbook “quite alien” to her and would produce sketchbooks retrospectively purely for assessment purposes.  This sounded like a good idea! She did not “want to expose my ideas and obsessions to criticism”.  Now she says that “once I became more comfortable with the concept I regretted not having valued the process earlier”.

So criticism of my sketchbooks, perhaps being too untidy, too illogical, not “good enough” lay at the bottom of my unease.  On looking through "Extraordinary Sketchbooks" with a critical eye i.e. by looking and deciding what appealed to me and what didn’t – a very subjective decision I know - I found that one sketchbook that was immaculate, very organised, looking ready to be printed as a book and the one that I envisaged as the “correct” way to keep a sketchbook and the one that I had assumed I should aspire to was the one that inspired me the least! 

I have decided to keep specific sketchbooks for the project work, but will include other sketchbooks for the assessment.  One of the books I will include is what I refer to as my doodle book. This is the book I keep by my chair and often doodle in when watching TV. Immediately I call it a doodle, rather than a drawing, it loses the preciousness and I feel free to make mistakes and to play around with shapes and designs. Weird how the brain works.

I had just started a new doodle book and decided to play around in it with a couple of idea I had had for the first project.   I have chosen the Cedars at Attingham Park, a National Trust property in Shropshire that I love and visit most weeks. I love the Cedars – and always visit them – feel almost a spiritual connection to them – so they were the most obvious subject to choose for the project.  As I sketched them I had noticed the negative shapes of the trunks and branches and also the outline of the top of the trees against the sky, so decided to play with the ides in my doodle book. 

I enjoyed the process and have concluded that perhaps there is not a right way or a wrong way – the only way is what works for the individual.

Sketchbook Project

I signed up for the sketchbook project in October. www.sketchbookproject.com.

The idea is that you have a small sketchbook, supplied by the organisers and you fill this with whatever you want. The sketchbook is returned to the Brooklyn Art Library by 31st January at the latest.

Each sketchbook has a unique barcode which enables it to be loaned from the collection when the collection goes on tour. The books will tour several locations in America before returning to the Brooklyn Art Library where they stay and can be borrowed.

This year, for the first time, the sketchbooks completed and returned from people in UK and Europe will be able to be viewed in London sometime during 2012.

I chose "Along the line" as a title and chose to use the sketchbooks for my daily doodles - taking a line for a walk so to speak through doodles. I also decide to then use 4 of the doodles as inspiration for small linocuts and drawings which I have taped into the sketchbook to indicate how the doodles have been used to create different images. This is the first time I have used the doodles in tis way and this project has made me look back at more of them to play with

I really enjoyed this project although never quite got over the thought"I mustn't make a mistake in this book" which was a bit inhibiting. But I do find that when I start doodling, especially when watching television, I tend to let my mind wander and don't really noticed what I have drawn until after the event.

So, the sketchbook is complete and ready to post. On to the next project