Our Lady of Walsingham (OLW)

Watercolour and black ink line drawing of the Madonna in the Shrine at Walsingham, Norfolk, usually referred to by the faithful as Our Lady of Walsingham.
This particular piece by me is in fact, a composite made up from three images of her. Primarily the one at the Anglican shrine and taking in other versions I have seen. This is my own interpretation wherein the rose window behind her is an addition by me to enhance the halo effect.

Madonna (1)

Not the famous pop singer but art related to the Virgin Mary, sometimes referred to in Catholic circles as "Our Lady". There has been throughout Christian history many and various interpretations of this.
I have visited several holy sites from wayside shrines to majestic cathedrals on my travels over the years; sometimes stumbling across them by happenstance as well as making journeys to specific sites. I think its safe to say that these visits have become something of a lifelong hobby.
I do have regard for the paintings and drawings of the subject but must admit its the sculpture that usually grabs my attention to the point of photographing and subsequently settling down with sketchbook and pencils. Invariably the subject finishes up being further developed on the drawing board back at the studio. This is not usually done the instant I return to the studio, - sometimes I make further exploratory sketches or just leave it lying about to mature, - like a fine wine. This is one such.

 This large statue stands as a door jamb to the great west door of Lichfield Cathedral  just north of Birmingham. I've seen photographs of similar work at Chartres and other cathedrals in Northern France.  I took this picture on a fine summer's day of clear blue skies last year (2018).

This piece, drawn on my usual 300 gsm smooth cartridge paper, is 50 cms wide by 70 cms tall. Simply called "Lichfield" there are other works in progress in the same genre which could include studies of church architecture and will simply be titled with where it was. Closer examination of this work shows it is primarily line drawing which is done initially as precise measured drawing rather in the style of Euan Uglow whose work I greatly admire but taken a step further using architectural drawing instruments, e.g. Tee-square and set-square. But after that, once I've established where things are on the paper, I take a more painterly approach so here we have a heavy line drawing of the figure set against a fine-line matrix with watercolour and later ink wash applied.

New Sketchbook Series

Because of changes in family circumstances visits to the studio have been a bit sporadic of late, hence the slow progress of the larger work, "Dream of the Rood". However it has not stopped me from working at home using sketchbooks. I usually carry an A5 hardback one with me; it is a useful "go anywhere" size but for now I've bought an A4 book instead, a proper desktop size and am using it to make mainly pen-and-wash/watercolour work working from a huge amount of photographs accumulated over the years. I'll try to keep this book for finished or semi-finished work rather than the quickly scribbled ideas. We'll see....

I visited Lichfield Cathedral in November last year. I find myself attracted to the  not so  obvious bits that tourists flock to, but rather the obscure and sometimes apparently neglected corners which probably have their own story to tell, making me speculate what these little niches are about. This is one such outside the South Wall of the nave. It must have served some purpose in the past.
All the pages are A4 as pointed out earlier and drawn on 150 gsm cartridge paper. Line drawing with a 0.3 mm. black ink micro-pen with watercolour.

 There is a ruined Saxon Monastery at Heysham Head near Lancaster. The photo was taken in August 2015 whilst showing a friend of mine from Cambridge around. We had a good afternoon at the site doing quite a bit of Plein Air sketching. I only completed this piece  this morning.
Drawn on A4 150 gsm cartridge paper. Line drawing with a 0.3 mm. black ink micro-pen with watercolour.

Dream of the Rood - update

Slow progress made even slower. My wife took ill at the end of August. Consequently I can't get to my studio as often as I'd have liked.
Here's the work so far. All three windows (or lights as they are called in the stained glass world) now have the images in place and it only remains to put in some fine line detail. That could take up just as much time as the work so far.

The work is on a sheet of 300 grammes per square metre smooth drawing paper.

In the meantime I have taken this opportunity to work at home editing the many sketchbooks I've accumulated over the years and intend to show some pages from the past here.

Previous Sketchbooks (4)

Tunisia 2000. I'd just turned 60 at the time and I was given the holiday of a lifetime to celebrate.A tour of the country and some time in the desert. Within that fortnight I filled a whole sketchbook doing speed drawings whilst on the move on various means of transport from a coach to a Land Rover and even the back of a camel. Many of the drawings were rather rough because of the uneven movements of our transports across variable terrain. This group of  drawings are more finished as we had stopped at the particular venue so I could take my time and with a coffee to hand..... need I say more?
The first one in monochrome is done in water soluble pencil. The other three are pen and watercolour wash.

A corridor in a Roman Amphitheatre at El_Jem on the North-East coast. The Roman Remains here are remarkably well preserved, probably because of the dry climate and perhaps a lot of it may have spent a large part of the last two millennia buried under the sands of the Sahara.Who knows? Its quite unlike the Roman remains found here on this cold, windswept and wet island of Britain.
On many of these sketchbook pages I wrote down where I was at the time so some will hardly need further explanation.

 Douga lies in the far north of Tunisia, well out of the desert area. There's a whole Roman town here. It only needs the woodwork replacing.

  A Belly Dancer who obligingly performed her routine staying on one part of the floor just long enough for me to get the information down on paper.

Carthage. The Romans were not best pleased with Hannibal giving them a drubbing so they crossed the Mediterranean and demolished the Carthaginian town.There's quite a bit more to the story than that but even the ruins show that these North African people were no mean builders.

Sketchbook Item.

There hasn't been a lot of time of late to get on with work on the Artech board  but I can always find time to do a bit of sketchbook work of one sort or another, be it little more than doodling an idea or working out how it might look as a finished piece.

Those who have followed these page(s) may have noticed I feature trees and arches, especially ecclesiastical ones. For quite some time now I've been exploring some way of bringing these elements together. After all, ancient sites have evidence of arcades of trees incorporated in them. The lines of pillars and connecting arches in churches and cathedrals seem to have more to them than merely holding the roof up. There may well be theological explanations but I am only looking at the aesthetic aspects.

This sketchbook page shows two pillars replaced as trees. It has something of a surrealist look about it but is a work in progress. There'll be more to come, I'm sure.

This sketch is being worked up into a drawing 50 x 35 cm. currently as a graphite/pencil drawing but other media may be used later on. Who knows where this could lead?

Detail from an on-going Project

Detail of top right corner of a piece on the drawing board right now. I'm showing this as it demonstrates how I am trying to incorporate some technical drawing technique alongside a more loose "arty" form, such as the trees on the background skyline. More of this piece anon as the work develops. Albeit somewhat slowly as I'm working on a separate commission at the moment.

Sketchbook Items (1)

If I may move away from the "music themed" work for a while I'll post some items from my much-used sketchbook. One idea I'm looking at is the Saxon Writing, "The Dream of the Rood" by an unknown author but has an archaic English translation.   What is shown  is a concept of a chancel arch based on the one in Jarrow. There is a similar church in Sunderland. Both have connections to the Venerable Bede, a famous 7th. century monk. Whether or not Bede was involved with the poem is uncertain.

Archaeological evidence elsewhere suggests Saxon roods were stone affairs built in to the very structure of the building unlike their mediaeval wooden counterparts. A "rood" is a form of the Christian's cross.

This image is an exploration of the above idea incorporating verses from the "Dream".

The verse I've put into the sketch is shown below.

The choicest vision I do tell

Which came as a midnight dream

I saw a wondrous tree

Borne aloft - wound with light

The brightest of beams.

All was that beacon sprinkled with gold.....

..... All beheld the angel of God

Fair through pre-destiny.

[This] was no malefactor's gallows,

As holy souls beheld it.

I saw the Glory Tree....

Full text etc. here.