Artemis. Definitely the women's goddess. Were she revered today I have no doubt she would be the patron goddess of the feminist movement. Protector of women, upholder of female chastity and honour, patron deity of the Amazons of Ephesus, goddess of the Moon, protector of the wild places, (she has my support in that one). But us men need to beware in her presence. She'd kill you as soon as look at you. Just think of what happened to poor Aktaion who stumbled on her skinny-dipping in a Grecian glade. Find out more on Wikipedia.

Anyway, - the drawing. This is copied from a colour photo of the statue on display at a museum in Athens. It is in almost perfect condition: only the hands are missing. Traces of the original paint remain on the hair. Archeological evidence suggests statues were painted in lifelike colours at the time and much of the paint has eroded away with time. Consequently we look at these works in a rather monochrome way. The viridian and red oxide on the statue is probably from time and weathering, - or is it? In a way it looks as if it was meant to be that way. An interesting piece of surmise and conjecture. Drawn on A3 size 180 gsm cartridge paper with various media. It was an enjoyable piece to draw.

"Fade" is a large-ish work, 100 x 70 cms drawn entirely with pencils. That is, not graphite sticks or other blocking-in agent except for the central tree which has had some water colour wash added. The work is part of my forest series based on the Northumberland/Border Forest Park. The scene is in a particularly dense part of the forest where the mist can linger all day even when the sun does break through and pick out individual trees.

My eight year old grand-daughter paid us a visit over the week end (along with Mum and Dad I hasten to add). This morning, Sunday, as we walked through the park, she announced she would like to be a fashion designer. At the moment she is very keen on ballet and has attended classes for some time now. However, at the end of the walk, when we got back to my place she sat down with some photocopy paper, borrowed a few graphite sticks [HB, 4B and 9B} and produced the above image. What is remarkable is she was using this media for the first time.

Afterwards, I demonstated colour mixing and she produced this face image using water colour which I believe is also first time. She told me she has poster [tempera] colour at home.

She worked with a resricted pallette; Prussian Blue, Viridian, Red Oxide and Yellow Ochre.

It'll be interesting to see how she develops in a year or so.

"Priestess" painted by Bouguereau in the 19# century. At first sight it looked like a typical grecian style woman. As part of this current project I did a copy of it.

I liked the flowing lines of the garments but, in the light of what I've seen on statuary of the period and bearing in mind this dress would be worn on a daily basis I wondered if it was very practical. The chiton certainly seems to have been a practical garment; it hardly changed in style for a millenium. I did rather wonder about the huge swathe of cloth about the midriff and the seeming lack of support for the breasts. (Bras are a much more recent invention).

Undaunted, I developed the contour drawing into a tonal work and came to the conclusion that this was a fanciful idea of the artist.

Fron this I changed the garb a little to more closely resemble that worn by such images as Hera, Artemis, Athene, etc. Perhaps I was trying to move away from 19# century/Victoria romatic idealism?

Images by Alma Tadema might also be worth a look. But then I think greek statuary and vase decoration will probably have a better provenance.

Nike of Samothrace. The headless sculpture in the Louvre, Paris; a long way from Samothiki whence it came. What I like about the image is the way the figure's clothing sways and the folds forming around it. Greek Art has a B.C. history as long as, if not longer than our own western European post-Christian period.
I've had to use some imagination here. How were the head and arms configured? What remains of the statue and what it represents suggests a victorious gesture hence the ghosted in head thrown back and arms outstretched.
This image is A3 size graphite drawing with red oxide wash.
I have just about filled a sketchbook with draped images of "ancient grecian" women taken from various sources. I'll post a few more of them anon.

I didn't spend my entire time during my last sojourn in Cyprus solely drawing the sea. I did spend some time looking at parts of the old town such as this arch in the Turkish Quarter of Limassol. As is usual with me I tend to pre-colour the paper. With marine drawings it tendes to be blue but here I have used yellow ochre, red oxide and viridian green. I did wonder why this seemed the most natural colouring to use until I realised that most of the Cypriot folk art tends to use these [colours] or a combination of them. Sure enough, on field trips I discovered these pigments are readily available. Red oxide from an area to the east of Limassol, yellow ochre from Pafos and the viridian from the vurdigris of the copper belt.

These pigments are often seen in the glazes on Cypriot pottery.

A ready-made still life. The objects were in no way contrived. A shackle and two links attached to an eyelet cemented into stonework at St. George's Quay on the banks of the River Lune in Lancaster. The whole composition made for a very interesting study. Dawn in 3B, and 6B pencil.

Wet cobbles in a Lancaster back street. Very appropriate for this time of year. Sorry about the long absence. My last computer died. But a brand spanking new one has me up and running once again.

This drawing was, as can be seen, drawn some time ago in January 2004. We sometimes travel miles on "art trips" for miles and miles looking for something to draw, and there it is, right under our feet. Literally at the bottom of my back yard.

Having said that, it won't stop me from going to the Eastern Mediterranean again.