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.

Sibelius' Fifth Symphony

The Symphonic Music of Jean Sibelius invokes the spirit of the landscape of his native Finland. Extending northwards from the northern edge of the Baltic to deep into the Arctic Circle and is a wild landscape of moorland, lakes and coniferous forests and for much of the year, snow. Sibelius is reputed to have said his Fifth Symphony described a walk in the snow with the empty  sky relieved by a flight of geese (or was it swans?) passing overhead and he felt his spirit soar with them.The final ten minutes of the work strongly alludes to this.
When I was younger I often walked through a similar landscape in the Border Forest area of Northumberland; especially in winter. Granted the Sitka spruces in Northumberland are an imported species, making up a much younger forest than its Finnish counterpart. Another essential factor is that unlike the Scandinavian forests, Northumberland's is man-made. It is arguably one of the the largest, if not the largest  man-made forest in Western Europe.
Needless to say it has the same "feel" about it as the Nordic pines; - especially in winter.
The above black and white line drawing is a layout of the idea. The elements of the picture are meant to echo the  musical structure of Sibelius's work. This layout is on a sheet of A4 cartridge paper. Another sheet of Fabriano 50 x 70 cms  is stretched on the Artech  board and the first pencil lines drawn. I will show this as "work in progress" at a later stage when some of the lines have been inked-in thus making it easier to see on a screen.

Meanwhile, some satellite pieces are evolving as I work out some of the detail. Some of these could, I suppose, be little works in their own right. These are postcard(ish) sized being 11 x 16 cms and on Bockingford paper in some cases or Fabriano. This one here is made with Daler's FW acrylic inks using a watercolour technique. The stave is the opening bars of the finale as played by violins played at allegro (fairly fast).

Then the flight of geese. Played at the same speed but each note is double the length of the quivering violins' [notes]. This majestic scene is played by the horns in the orchestra.

The tall pines reach up and point to the enormous sky. The musical stave is in place but I have yet to add the notes. Likewise these foreground trees need to be developed further. This post card is far from finished. A work in progress within a work in progress. I was working on this particular piece late on last Tuesday afternoon when I had to leave it. Dinner would soon be on the table and I had to catch the bus home across town.

Not All Who Wander......

Not all who wander are lost. A line taken from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings referring to the the Rangers who drop in to the Inn of the Prancing Pony  from time to time. Something of a cross between a monk, a pilgrim and a wizard but this "wizard" is no Gandalf. I like the idea of these wanderers that  have no particular role except to hint at the main characters and the unfolding story.
This is the fourth picture of the set posted earlier. It too is on a sheet of A4, 200 gsm cartridge paper and is so far unfinished, - a work in progress. The main drawing  and painterly components are complete and there only remains the drawing in of finer detail. I'll be back at my studio to finish it in a few days time.

The initial study that sets out the idea. A postcard-sized pencil sketch with a 0.7mm micro pencil. The idea has been a long time in coming since I first conceived of it whilst taking a walk from Ambleside in the English Lake District up to High Sweden Bridge. I remember it was  a winter's day in the off season, - consequently very few tourists to interrupt my reverie.

Study for "Dream of the Rood"

Study of the tree envisioned in the "Dream of the Rood".  Drawn and painted on Fabriano paper 300 gsm. Size of image, 10 x 13 cms but here enhanced to A4 with increased resolution. As usual I used Daler FW acrylic drawing inks. To get an idea of the true colour I used Prussian Blue for the area surrounding the tree roots and for the the corpora, Vermilion with the merest touch of Prussian Blue added. The lines were drawn using  0.1mm and 0.3mm pens.

As the poem implies, this was a dream and to facilitate this I chose to have the sun just about peering between the branches at the top of the trunk and the corpora to appear as a trick of the light.

Its been an interesting little project and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't stop there.

Current Main Project

"German Requiem Part 2" (after Brahms) is progressing, albeit slowly. It is a large-ish work on Fabriano 5 paper, 300 gsm, 70 x 50 cms. and being drawn with micro-pens and several ink glazes being applied means this is not going to be finished in anything like a hurry. Indeed, some thirty or so hours have been spent on it already and there's still a long way to go.

 This is an overall view of the work so far. There are changes and improvements taking place as the thing progresses.

From time to time in all my work where full colour and monochrome are juxtaposed I take a photo (top picture) and desaturate it to check the tone balance. A useful guide for when adjustments need to be made, on paper, not digitally.

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 Some of the trees are half-hidden in the mists and I show this by cross-hatching. The depth of tone varies according to what the lines are made with and some side-experiments are necessary as shown here on this postcard-sized piece. It is seen better when zoomed in.

Here a detail of the tree roots on the right hand side foreground. Again, zooming in will show how the use of technical drawing methods are being applied. It is a far more time-consuming  than freehand but it serves to show more starkly the  differences between the two techniques.
Although the entire piece is an interpretation of the second stanza of Brahms' German Requiem, while doing the cross hatching shown here I was listening the Bach's Cello Suite Nr. 1 which was ideal for filligree lines drawn with a 0.1 micro pen. For the coloured sections I use diluted FW ink and a ruling pen.
Modern acrylic inks with a good old-fashioned traditional pen. I like that.

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.