Exercise: Supermarket Shop

This is my progress so far on the supermarket shop exercise. It isn't finished but it's getting dark so the light isn't very good (hence the photo is a bit dark).  I have to go away from home again for a week tomorrow morning so will look at it with fresh eyes on my return and hope no-one knocks over the set-up. I'm enjoying using some colour. However, given that I'm working on an A2 sheet I'm regretting using pencil crayons as it's taking forever to build up the colours. Also my pencil crayons are cheap ones from WH Smiths and it's difficult to get a good depth of colour with them. A friend in England has some high quality pencil crayons she wants to sell so I'll have a try with them while I'm away.

The good thing about colour is it distracts a bit from the problems with form. There's a bit of a problem with the perspective on the rice box and the baked bean tin is slightly bowed as I struggled with foreshortening. I'm also struggling with the tuna can in the centre. The lid on the marmite pot is off centre and the ellipse looks a bit deep. I've found the lettering very difficult too.

There are some reasons I'm not that keen on pencil crayons as a medium. Firstly because I have to press quite hard to get the colour depth I like it means that I'm a bit restricted and can't use big strokes so I don't find them particularly expressive. It all looks a bit tight and twee. I also found it really difficult to place the highlight on the pasta packet. There are a few highlights missing which I might have to paint on with gouache afterwards. Reflective surfaces seem to be difficult to render in pencil crayon.

Exercise: Jars and Jugs

Sketchbook 1: Pages 19-21

I started this exercise by warming up with a rapid 'blind and peek' contour drawing in pen. This was to overcome my lack of confidence for working in pen because of the inability to rub out errors. The results weren't as bad as I expected. The ellipses were off and there results were generally a bit wonky and spilling off the side of the page but the relationships between the bottles and jars were not too bad.

Next I did quite a free sketch without taking the time to really measure anything. It is noticeable how much more feathery and tentative the use of the pen is when I allow myself to look at the paper. Confidence is reduced by having to commit myself to putting a line in the right place when there's not the excuse of being blind. The ellipses on the jars in the foregrounds are not correct especially the middle of the three which looks as if the lid has been put on cross threaded so that it tilts forwards.

In the next sketch I measured up a bit before starting to draw so that the whole composition fitted on the paper. The ellipses on the jars are a bit better although you can see that I really struggled with the lid of the front one. The coke bottle also looks a bit too tall and thin and the part of the ellipse that corresponds to the back part of the label is too tall. The bottle of olive oil (with the tube in the top) is not symmetrical- I think the one in the previous sketch was actually better. The picture still suffers a bit from tentative lines. On the whole, although this may be the more academically correct of the three it is also the one I like the least. In the other two, the jars spilling off the side of the page give a more dynamic and more three dimensional quality to the image.

So far I was working on a small scale in an A4 sketch book. I remembered from the past that I found working large easier and more satisfying so I tried a different arrangement in a different format on a large scale. Far from being easier, I actually found this  even more difficult as it seemed that my lack of hand control was exaggerated further on a large scale. I tried several different set-ups. At first I was putting too many items in and making the picture really cluttered. I've included a couple of examples here of what I ended up with but I really got frustrated with this in the end. I drew in the basic shapes in pencil then when I was happy with the pencil contour drawings I went over with marker pen. One big mistake I made when going over with the pen was just to look at the paper not the subject. My hand is also not yet steady enough so the contours produced are very wobbly. The fact I was not looking at the subject I think contributes to the way these images look a bit dead and cartoony rather than realistic.

The areas I have particularly struggled with are the base of the wine glass and the vase which is lying on its side. In the second of these two I had rearranged things a bit to try  to fit it all on the paper but ended up almost spilling off the left side of the page while leaving a gap on the right. I also need more practice with placement of objects as I don't have much instinct about making a pleasing composition. I'm frustrated but maybe I'm expecting too much at this early stage. Time to move on to the next exercise - maybe a bit of colour will cheer me up!

10th September: Drawing cylinders

I'm in a motel in San Antonnio Texas and woke up very early because of jet lag so decided to practice a bit of drawing before heading to my conference.

I had limited subjects to choose from in the room, it was still dark outside and the lighting wasn't great. Thought I'd try my hand at some cylinders using my toiletries. The idea was daily practice to build my confidence rather than to produce a finished piece of work so I just used my small A5 sketch book.

I spent about half an hour on this. I was happiest with the first objects I drew which were the tallest cans of deodorant and hairspray at the back. I noticed that as time went on I became more tentative and ended up drawing multiple lines especially on the nail varnish pot and remover pads at the front. I realised that my concentration levels had dwindled. Maybe this is because the subject itself was not particularly exciting to me. I know that when I'm studying for written work and it's something I find less than entralling, it works best if I take it in 20 to 30 minute chunks and get up and walk around for 5-10 minutes in between. Note to self: If you notice your lines becoming more hesitatant or you are struggling to concentrate STEP AWAY FROM THE PAPER! Walk abaout a bit or run up and down then come back - but make sure you mark where you were sitting or standing.

Blind Contour and Left-handed Drawing 07.09.12

In transit on the way to a conference and staying in an airport hotel. The light isn't very good in the room and there are a limited number of items to draw. Having got caught up too much in looking at the paper rather than the subject in the boxes exercise I decided to have a go at a bit of blind contour drawing - trying to draw a simple subject (in this case a mug) looking only at the object in front of me without looking at the paper.

The results are hilariously inaccurate but I quite like them! I also really enjoyed this little quick exercise and it could be good one to use to 'loosen me up' before starting a bigger project if I'm feeling nervous.

I then went on to explore the mug further making quick sketches with my left hand so I had to concentrate very hard and finally with my right hand. The last sketch is still quite tentative and suffers a lot from too many outer contour lines where I've been trying to correct the ellipses. I'm hoping this will improve as I practise more and more.

Over the following  few days while I was away I did numerous blind contour drawings. I've included a selection of the results. This technique is an effective antidote to looking at the paper too much as occurred with the boxes and books exercise.

Exercise: Boxes and Books

05.09.12 Exercise: Boxes 

I found this exercise very difficult. I first tried drawing the boxes freehand. Unfortunately it is so long since I last drew on a regular basis that I found it impossible to achieve the control I needed to draw a straight line. I also had very little memory of how to deal with the perspective. 

I used my 11 year old son's school book 'Progetto Laboratorio D'Arte' Katia Brandinardi, Walter Moro (La Nuova Italia 2009 ristampa 2011), which had a concise section on geometric perspective to remind myself how to construct the boxes. 

Unfortunately the placement of my horizon line was such that most of the vanishing points were off the side of the page so I ended up guessing whether the lines I'd drawn looked approximately correct. Towards the end I realised that I'd spent most of my time looking at the paper rather than the subject with the result that the last box I drew (the back one which is upright) ended up being too short and squat relative to the others. Also the third box in the stack is wonky and not symmetrical, particularly the back wall of it is narrower at one end than the other.

The boxes do look three dimensional, but this definitely needs more practice.

Check and Log: Making Marks

How did holding your pen and pencil in a different way affect your drawing?


Holding the pencil near the end and dangling it onto the paper produced some nice expressive marks with the grainy texture of the paper showing through. It was quite difficult to accurately control the tip when drawing in this way. Holding the pencil near the tip gave finer control and varying the pressure meant the marks could get quite intense and strong. 



Which drawing tools suited the different mark-making techniques you used?



Scribbling, hatching and stippling with pigment liners worked well and could be used to create form. Scribbling and hatching in pencil also worked well and a wide variety of marks could be produced. I made some interesting marks by walking the tip of a graphite stick across the paper. Hatching with conte' and thick charcoal sticks seemed very clumsy and I didn't like the results. 

Compressed charcoal made a very intense dark tone when built up. Using a finger I could make strong directional marks coming out from an area of dark charcoal. I liked using the side of the compressed charcoal as the grain of the paper created an interesting texture and overlapping adjacent sweeps of charcoal allowed variations in tone. Lifting out charcoal or graphite with the putty rubber also produced interesting gradations in tone and directional marks.

A dip pen with ink lent it self well to producing many different types of marks and this could give it more potential than the drawing pens to be expressive. 

Pencil works best for tentative feathery marks and there is much more possible variation in intensity with this and graphite that there is with drawing pen.

Did you find that any marks or tools you used matched particular emotions or feelings?

Angular marks made with a Biro held near the nib and pressing hard into the paper felt quite aggressive and almost angry. Similar frenzied mark making could be achieved with a sharp pencil held near the nib. On the other hand using a graphite stick, soft pencil or pencil crayon held lightly and describing soft circular motion produced light marks suffused with a sense of calm.

How did the introduction of colour affect your mark making?

Colour added an extra dimension to the mark making and made me more conscious of the layering of different marks as it was possible to mix colours on the paper by cross hatching different colours across each other or building stippling of different colours up together.

Which of these experiments have you found most interesting and rewarding?

I particularly liked the phase of experimentation and discovered some effects I might never have come across by using a variety of other drawing implements (such as pencil, charcoal, graphite sticks) to apply ink from a pot.

I also enjoyed the freedom of experimenting with charcoal without any pressure to produce a representational image.

Research Point: Eric Ravilious

Eric Ravilious 

Eric Ravilious (1903 - 1942), was an artist, designer, illustrator and wood engraver. I was asked to find out more about the artist and his techniques as part of the project 'Making Marks'. In the example of his work shown in the folder the artist had used a sharp implement to scrape into the paint to give the effect of grass. I approached this by first looking for images of this artist's work online. I found many landscapes, scenes from the interior of houses and war scenes painted in watercolours. There were also lithograph and wood engraving illustrations as well as Wedgewood pottery designs.

Link to The Wilmington Giant 1939

Link to Wiltshire Landscape 1937

Link to Attic Bedroom 1932

I must admit that when I first looked at the landscape and empty interiors (without people) they left  me cold. The artist has used subdued and muted colours to describe the landscape. Because of the limited tonal range they look a bit flat and the van in the landscape and the clutter in the bedroom have a naive 'toy-townish' quality. 
However, on looking more closely I could see the variety of marks he has managed to make using watercolour paints. There are lots of hatching marks and striations here, something I would associate more with pen and ink than the medium used. The artist has scraped the paint about and left stripes and patches of blank paper. There's no splashy wet-into-wet work here it's all quite dry and scratchy.

Link to HMS Glorious in the Arctic

The images are also stylised, and the naive quality is probably deliberate . It doesn't appear that Ravilious was looking to create a realistic landscape but to break it up into simple shapes. This is particularly evident in the image of HMS Glorious in the Arctic where the reflection of the sun on the sea creates a strong geometric zig-zag.

Link To Barrage Balloons Outside a British Port

It is also striking that even in his war paintings this style on the aeroplanes and barrage balloons make them seem child-like and therefore not threatening. There is no sense of danger or suffering apparent in Ravilious's recordings of the second world war.

I read a bit more  about the artist in order to try to place these images in context. I got some idea of where Ravilious's landscapes originate from when reading Frances Spalding's book 'British Art Since 1900' (World of Art- Thames and Hudson 1986) - this is quite an old text which I picked up a cheap second hand copy of - it was nevertheless an interesting read. In Chapter 3 'Painting and Printmaking in the 1920s' Spalding says of France and England:

'In the aftermath of war both countries underwent social and economic reorganisation..... Artists in both countries felt a need for a return to order. ......Because there was a widespread return to traditional subjects, this post war period is often regarded as reactionary. But it was also a period of great diversity, producing in some instances, a richly imaginative art, inventive and original . It also saw a revival of the British landscape tradition, its sense of place now made poignantly fragile by the more rootless nature of twentieth-century life'

Eric Ravilious and his friend Edward Bawden were part of this landscape revival and both used unusual handling of watercolour paint:

'Both Ravilious and Bawden allowed their experience of wood engraving to direct their handling of watercolour. Often the brush drives its way over the white paper creating striated patterns much like those found in wood engraving. In Ravilious's watercolours angular recession often enhances their tautness. He strains conventions, introducing to landscape painting an understated melancholy. His scenes are usually lit by a chill winter light; even when the sun does appear, it does not warm the scene . This use of light gives to his pictures a severe beauty, a detachment that excludes not only the viewer but also the artist, and which allows for a predominantly mental grasp of the landscape'

Link to Wood Cut Print of Garden Tea Table 1936

You can clearly see the similarity of the striations on the woodcut above and the marks on the watercolour landscapes.

But what about the war scenes. Why do they seem so 'jolly'? Part of this may come from the personality of the man himself. He was apparently a generally very cheerful man. Paul Laity, writing a book review in The Guardian on 30.4.11. describes him as' the very opposite of a tortured artist.' 
and clearly his relentless cheerfulness comes across in his designs. 
However, it was not just the man's personality but also the prevailing attitude around the second world war which may have influenced his output.  As Spalding Says:

' The horror and pity of war were now too familiar to make necessary the savage anti-heroic message seen in some of the first world War paintings. Most artists regarded the 1939-1945 war as a fact and necessity, not a political crusade. Like the poetry of this period, the mood was low key, the stance not one of protest but passive and celebratory. The war was to be accepted, endured and observed'.

The War Artists' Advisory Committee gave artists full time salaries to 'record the war' so effectively many of the artists around that time were part of the 'propaganda machine' and this might help to explain these cheerful images which go along with the 'keep calm and carry on' message from the government. If you compare Ravilious's work with the Paul Nash's work from WWI (Ravilious studied under Paul Nash) you will see that the latter's work is much darker and also more stylised.

Link to Paul Nash: We Are Making a New World

Link to Paul Nash: Wire 1918

From my 21st century perspective as someone who in common with many is fed up and exasperated with the 'War on Terror' I find I am much more drawn to the paintings created by Nash and his sarcastic tone in the title of the first image. I can also see why, confronted by such images a person might be tempted to go out and paint the beautiful British countryside.

This was an interesting exercise for me. If I had not been asked to look at this artist I doubt if I would have found his work or looked at it closely independently. It has helped me to see that you do not have to immediately like a piece of work to learn something from it and also that placing the work in the context of history can help to explain why the artist worked in the way that they did.

Research Point:Van Gogh Pen and Ink Drawing

Sketchbook 1: Page 14-15

Link to Drawing of Cottage Garden - Reed Pen and Ink

I chose this particular drawing because of the large variety of marks employed by the artist. The composition is pleasing with converging lines drawing the eye up towards the house in the distance.

Stippling:
Fine stippling is used over the sky to create an overall pale tone allowing the lightest area of the gable end of the house to stand out.
More robust, larger and darker stipples are used in the foreground to suggest the texture of a gravel path. Larger, more widely spaced and directional stipples and dashes in the bottom left corner suggest a concave and textured surface.

Hatching.
The artist has used a multitude of different types of hatching and cross-hatching marks.
Starting from the focal area - the house which sits in the upper third of the paper and is almost central horizontally. Deliberate and dark cross- hatching has been used to describe the roof tiles. There are longer slightly converging lines which appear to go away from us into the distance. These are attached to short lines which are deliberately drawn at an angle to the longitudinal lines creating an oblique space consisitent with tiles. There is a horizontal wiggly line under this area which further suggests the angle of the tiling and the eaves.  The other roof which is off to the left hand side of the picture is described with finer short hatching marks which are lighter in tone. This allows this roof to recede behind the vegetation and stops it drawing the eye out of the picture (atmospheric pesrpective has been employed here).

Closely spaced long and light-toned hatching is used to suggest fence panelling. To the Right of the midline this is vertical in orientation. Variations in the lengths of the vertical marks with their central portions being adjacent to each other seems to suggest that the fence is not completely straight but thet the panels are bowed in places. In the central area below the main house, horizintal lines have been used in a similar way to the above. They are light in tone (in the distance) and they are fine and very close to each other. There are three sections of these lines and they overlap each other giving a darker tone at the overlap to suggest the junction between the fence panels or the weaving of a wickerwork or bamboo fence.

In the central foreground, Van Gogh has used short, thick, dark hatching lines radiating out in a 'starburst' pattern from a central point. He has repeated this multiple times in this area to describe flowers in a crowded flowerbed.These marks become smaller and lighter in tone as they recede up the garden. Further flowers (probably sunflowers) are described by placing a dark central circle some of which are surrounded by lighter hatching, but most of them lack hatching (petals) altogether. Again, these circles get smaller as the move up towards the house suggesting distance and depth.

Slightly to the right of centre at the bottom of the page there squiggly hatching marks in a branching pattern and very dark suggest a stiff little shrub. Crossing over the stippled path over to the right side of the paper there is multidirectional hatching to suggest chaotic rather than well- manicured vegetation. There are small gaps in this dense hatching suggesting rocks. Horizontal lines extending out from this dark area describe the shadow of this vegetation on the gravel path.

On the left side of the the picture about 2/3rds of the way up there is a thicket of what appear to be palms or a thick type of bamboo. This has been rendered using fine vertical lines (for stalks). For the folliage the artist has used dark and slightly curved hatching marks which are in rows at various angles with the length getting shorter into the distance - in some places it almost looks like and arrowhead appearance.

Oval and Circular Marks

In addition to the obviously darkly drawn circles for the centres of flowers there are numerous other curved, oval and circular marks. in the top left there there are curved squiggly marks to suggest the foliage of a tree. In the central portion there are many, many small ovals. These get smaller proceeding up the page and lighter in tone again contributing to the three-dimensional feeling of depth.  Towards the left, these are interspersed with curved light hatching. These may, therefore be a suggestion of flowers rather than pebbles.

I have enjoyed this exercise. It is impressive to see how large the variety of marks employed by Van Gogh in this one work is. It would never have occurred to me to examine the work in such detail on my own. My eye would naturally have been drawn to the primary focal point and it has been interesting for me to notice how Van Gogh has used the various marks to point my attention in this way and to create a variety of textures. It is also striking how he has managed to convey the appearance of depth and three dimensionality on the flat page.

Project: Making Marks 31st August - 3rd September

Sketchbook 1 Pages 1- 19

Exercise: Holding Pens and Pencils

I'm very out of practice so this was a good exercise to get me back into the handling of drawing implements without the pressure to produce a work of art and also a good way to overcome the fear of a completely blank sketchbook.
Holding the pencil near the end and dangling it onto the paper produced some nice expressive marks with the grainy texture of the paper showing through. It was quite difficult to accurately control the tip when drawing in this way. Holding the pencil near the tip gave finer control and varying the pressure meant the marks could get quite intense and strong. Using the 0.05 pigment liner held near the end produced very scratchy results which looked tentative. Holding near the tip produced a smoother line.
I particularly enjoyed doing the sweeping marks on large paper (especially with charcoal). I could put my whole arm into this and produced some strong gestural curves - nothing tentative there. This didn't work so well with the pigment liners as I was afraid of ruining their tips with the vigorous application.
I really liked the feel of the graphite sitcks on paper. They glide smoothly across the paper it's a lovely sensation through my hand. Varying the pressure with them allowed the grainy texture of the paper to show through.

Exercise: Doodling

I loved this - the freedom to play and experiment was liberating. I did have to really fight the temptation to try to produce a drawing though as my overly-analytical side kept trying to make sense of the doodles.

Exercise: Mark- Making Techniques

Scribbling, hatching and stippling with pigment liners worked well and could be used to create form. Scribbling and hatching in pencil also worked well and a wide variety of marks could be produced. I made some interesting marks by walking the tip of a graphite stick across the paper. Hatching with conte' and thick charcoal sticks seemed very clumsy and I didn't like the results. 
When picking up the biro  I found I automatically held it near the tip as if to write. This promoted pressing hard on the paper and the marks produced were quite aggressive. I found I could produce scratchy/sketchy marks with the biro by using it more on the side of the nib. 
Compressed charcoal made a very intense dark tone when built up. Using a finger I could make strong directional marks coming out from an area of dark charcoal. I liked using the side of the compressed charcoal as the grain of the paper created an interesting texture and overlapping adjacent sweeps of charcoal allowed variations in tone. Lifting out charcoal or graphite with the putty rubber also produced interesting gradations in tone and directional marks.

31.08.12 Exercise: Mark Making Techniques 

31.08.12 Exercise: Mark Making Techniques

Hatching with pancil crayon allowed the building up of layers and the mixing of colours on the paper. I started with strong lines and then tried building up multiple  layers of very fine hatching. I liked this effect - the two colours were suffused into each other and the individual hatching lines were almost lost. Stippling with pencil crayon was arduous. This medium didn't lend itself well to producing spots of colour and I ended making small dashes instead of dots
I found the oil pastels very difficult to handle. They seemed to work best when colour was applied in thick layers.
Stippling with felt tip and marker allowed the mixing of colour and representation of form and tone but I couldn't produce a great variety of different lines with them. In contrast, a dip pen with ink lent it self well to producing many different types of marks and this could give it more potential than the drawing pens to be expressive.

Exercise: Using Charcoal

I love charcoal. I like anything inherently messy. I tried different thicknesses of willow charcoal as well as compressed charcoal. It was good for producing variations in tone and interesting textures with the grain of paper showing through. I especially liked the strong curves produced when I was making patterns with a piece of a charcoal stick on its side.
Charcoal would be good to use for tonal studies, particularly large scale drawings and gestural drawings. It isn't much good for small, fine details because of its tendency to smdge. 




01.09.12 Exercise: Using Charcoal

01.09.12 Exercise: Using Charcoal

Exercise: Line and Other Marks

Pencil works best for tentative feathery marks and there is much more possible variation in intesity with this and graphite that there is with drawing pen. Ink can be used in a myriad of different ways. A dip pen can produce a large variety of lines ranging from very scratchy, pale impressions to very intense thick lines. I experimented with lots of ways of applying ink to the paper from a fork to a dry crust of stale bread and a scrunched up piece of kitchen roll. I especially liked the effect when I dipped a stick of willow charcoal into the ink and made rapid bold strokes. This produced gestural marks with a very intense deep accent at one end petering to a grainy texture at the other end.

03.09.12 Exercise: Lines and Other Marks

Visit to Tate Liverpool 28th August 2012

Annotated Postcards on Page 2 and 18 of Sketchbook 1

The week before I started the course I visited Tate Liverpool and looked at everything that I could see free of charge. I wandered around aimlessly and liked certain pieces but not others but realised that I lacked the language to describe and the ability to interpret what I saw. I've never studied history of art or art criticism and I came away feeling that I could have got more out of the experience.

When my course materials arrived, it so happened that I was going back through Liverpool so I decided to go back to the Tate and visit the exhibition- 'Turner, Monet, Twombly - Later Paintings'. Before I went I read through the OCA booklet ' Looking at Other Artists'. I decided to look at the exhibition and then choose one or two images to annotate.

First Impressions

The exhibition was divided into sections in which works by each artist dealing with similar themes were juxtaposed to allow comparison of their different ways of tackling the subject matter. 

I had never heard of Cy Twombly nor seen his work before the exhibition but I was immediately drawn to it. The large- scale colourful pieces were arresting. Getting up close I could see that the paint had been applied thickly, sometimes by squeezing it directly onto the board and then mixing it with the fingers. I could see the artist's finger marks and in some cases bits of paintbrush embedded in the paint. I imagined the artist working quickly and the sensual experience of applying the paint in this way. In some cases liquid paint had been allowed to run down the board or canvas without any attempt to control it. I got the impression that the artist wanted us to look at the medium and allowed the paint itself to become central to the effect of his work rather than being secondary to the image produced. I chose to annotate one of Twombly's paintings.

Hero and Leandro (To Christopher Marlowe), 1985

Click Here for Image in the Guardian Obituary of the Artist

This is a large painting 202x245cm and the artist has used a limited palette with crimson and dark green dominating the lower left corner and greys and whites across the central diagonal  becoming lighter up into the upper right corner. There is a strong diagonal feeling to the painting and this along with the paint application makes it seem dynamic. In the lower left hand corner the paint is thickly applied and finger marks can be seen as well as small rivers and drips of paint which have been allowed to flow down the canvas. White paint has been allowed to run down over the red. In the central portion, almost horizontal irregular marks of thick white paint have been applied over a background of a variety of greys. Moving towards the upper right corner, the paint application is flatter with fewer runs of liquid and overall a lighter tone of grey. There is a lot of movement in this painting with emphasis on the lower left and central portions of the canvas with the upper right corner being quieter.

I thought I would try to interpret this 'cold' without knowing anything about Twombly, Hero and Leandro or Marlowe. I got a feeling of sensuality (from the paint application) and maybe even violence from the painting and my first thought was that maybe it represented a clash between two very different personalities. Perhaps the crimson represented someone filled with passion and anger and the central agitation was to do with conflict with a quieter personality in the upper right. My second thought was that it might represent an act of violence with the reds representing blood in a more literal way.

On the opposite wall to this painting was a painting by Turner entitled 'The Parting of Hero and Leander' painted in 1837.

Click Here for Image Reproduced in The Times

This painting also has a diagonal aspect to the composition and on the right side of the painting there is an almost circular arrangement of clouds and rocks drawing the eye in to the reflected light on a stormy sea at the centre. Turning back to the Twombly, I realised that the white marks in the centre could be read as waves or reflected light on the sea. It was possible that Twombly was directly referencing the earlier work by Turner.

The blurb below the Turner outlined the myth of Hero and Leander. "Leander is engulfed by the sea as he swims across the Hellespont to visit the beautiful Hero. " So there is a violent death in the painting and perhaps the crimson represents the blood of Leandro. The upper right corner representing his loss under the water. 

Since returning home I have read the exhibition catalogue which sheds more light on the interpretation of the painting and it's reference to Christopher Marlowe's poem. " Twombly alludes to the roses strewn about Hero's floor, the gift of her virginity, represented by the runs of bloody paint that mingle with Leandro's sexual discharge, and her tears, a 'stream of liquid pearl, which down her face/ Made milk white paths' that eventually form the colour of the pearly sea". Turner, Monet, Twombly - Later Paintings. Jeremy Lewinson. Tate Publishing 2012 pp 84.

I enjoyed this exercise, and although my interpretation of the painting was not exactly what the artist intended I did get the feelings of sensuality and violence that were intended by the artist. In that respect I do think that the painting is successful in that an an uneducated person can respond to it and yet the narrative aspect of the painting is not obvious and the viewer is forced to ask questions and think about the interpretation.

Another question raised, is why Twombly, working in the late 20th century would choose such a subject. In Turner's day, Greek and Roman mythology would be familiar to the educated classes who viewed his works. In the late 20th century less emphasis is placed on this in education so Twombly could not have expected that viewers (such as myself) would necessarily know about the mythological subjects he chose. That, it seems is part of the point. " Twombly's mythical paintings are about loss: loss of memory, loss of learning, loss of culture" " What Twombly presents is the fragment of the myth, just as what  he saw around his home in Italy  were the archaeological fragments of Roman, Greek or Etruscan civilisations long gone". Turner, Monet, Twombly - Later Paintings. Jeremy Lewinson. Tate Publishing. 2012 pp. 19. Strangely, this aspect also resonates with me as I live about and hour's drive from Gaeta which is a place where Twombly did a lot of his work. It is true that there are many archeological fragments in this area. Within a 10 mile radius of our house there is a roman amphitheatre which is completely overgrown in a farmer's field and two roman bridges, one of which has been completely ruined by a well meaning but unsympathetic attempt at restoration. In addition, looking at his painting, although enjoyable, did give me an acute sense of some of the big gaps in my education!

Getting Started

This blog will act as my learning log to fulfil the requirements for the course I'm enrolled on with the Open College of the Arts. I'm currently tackling 'Drawing One: Drawing Skills'. 

I previously have only studied art and design as far as A-level but that was over 25 years ago. For that course I kept sketchbooks sometimes with written reflections and notes on the work produced but I've never written a detailed learning log. I'm also new to blogging so will hopefully get to grips with creating links as well as photographing and uploading my work over the coming weeks.

My Hopes, Plans, Expectations

Over the last few years I've almost completely stopped producing any creative work as the demands of career and family have relegated this activity to 'something I'll sit down and do when I have time'. Of course, that time will never miraculously appear as there are always other mundane activities such as housework which expand to fill the time available. 

When I was much younger, expressing myself using marks on paper and canvas was an important part of my identity. Some of my oldest friends would still identify me as being 'arty' but I feel that I've stifled and buried that part of me. The longer I've been inactive the more difficult it has become to start again. Fear of the blank page results in a deluge of excuses and procrastination. My main hope, therefore is that the course will act as a stimulus to make me do do something that I've always claimed I want to do! It will give me a reason to do the activity which has a stronger pull than the reasons not to. I hope that after that difficult first step, the work will gain its own momentum so that I regain that old sensation of being completely absorbed in what I'm doing. Currently that feeling of 'flow' is not possible because I'm very self conscious.

I plan to complete this first course within 12 months. I think that is a realistic target given the number of other commitments I have. I am also planning to have my work assessed with a view to building towards a degree - however, I'll make a decision on  whether to go for the degree as I work through the course and see how realistic this might be.

I expect to encounter frustration especially in the early stages of the course as I'm out of practice with pens and pencils. However, I also expect that if I keep in the habit of daily drawing that the skills I've lost will return and I'll begin to enjoy the process more and feel more confident to experiment. I'm also looking forward to looking at other artists for inspiration and techniques.