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.

Cyprus Goddess

Cy Goddess, originally uploaded by Wulfric.

Probably not one of my best drawings but while here in Cyprus i have indulged a little bit of artistic anarchy. This image was drawn while exploring the Aphrodite myth, not surprising I suppose. A common technique among modern Cypriot artists is to lay down colour as a background then to draw over this. Much of Cypriot art is reminiscent of Marc Chagall.
Cypriot tastes tend towards painting rather than drawing. So it comes as no surprise to find a strong painterly aspect in most of the work.

Aphrodite is a small project I have completed here in Cyprus.I have run a feature on my other Blog. Quite frankly the whole thing started as a joke but as these things do, it developed into something more serious. Using the Paphos statue as a starting point I then went on to upstage Botticelli's famous Birth of Aphrodite by portraying her in a wet tee shirt. The above image is a study in gouache exploring this idea.

Drawing of the Paphos Aphrodite in the Cyprus Museum, Nicosia.

Two images from the current Cyprus sketchbook. Detailed drawings of the pebbles on the beach. I spend long hours watch/observing the sea before drawing it. The constant shift in tempo requires concentration. Waves tend to follow a repeat pattern. Sailors reckon on every seventh wave repeating. It is about right. But the trick is not so much to draw an individual wave but to capture the ebb and flow.

Another small drawing experiment alongside the main project. It is of a group of stones under the water at a beach in Limassol. Each horizontal series is a different interpretation of the same subject. I have as usual shown the split images as progressions.

The main project while in Cyprus is a twelve part frieze which I will show on here later. Probably after I have returned to England and edited the images to a manageable size.
In the meantime I have made a few ink drawings in contour line only. An example is shown here.

Anna Georghiou is a half English, half Cypriot painter who is doing her MA at the Cyprus College of Art in Limassol. Her work is typically Cypriot yet she has her own individual style. Most of the modern Cyprus art I have seen so far has a very painterly quality to is. But this particular artist uses line to enhance this painterly quality to good effect.
She was shortlisted for the Celeste prize last year.

The use of pure line, - albeit with a little colour. Way back in the 1950s when I was serving my time as a draughtsman in structural engineering I came across architect's drawings from time to time and noticed how, unlike us in engineering, they used tone and colour to give their ideas more readable form. Needless to say the Chief Draughtsman took a very dim view of my attempts to emulate this. "Colour and shading is the realm of the artist" I was told. Draughtsmen only deal in facts or proposed facts.
Anyway, the firm went "to the wall" and I finished up in art school.
But the echoes of my involvement with technical drawing/architectural drawing remain. This image was drawn two or three years ago during a stay in St. Ives in Cornwall. Sometimes line is enough. I did this drawing on site and added some watercolour later, rather in the manner of those architects from my youth.

This figure on my Flickr badge at the moment and may rouse some curiosity. I did it a couple of years ago when I was experimenting with printing techniques. I had made the drawing from a fashion magazine photograph and then made a plate from the drawing. Drawing at a second remove as it were.The image shown here is on a piece of paper already imprinted with the pattern of annular rings that were taken from a transected tree trunk in much the same way as brass rubbings are made. This print, - no bigger than a postcard, - is the result.
The print has sat pasted to a wall in the corner of my studio since then and only recently grabbed my attention as I was taking it down from the wall. We at Luneside are in the process of clearing up. A Compulsory Purchase Order is now in force on the property we occupy so we will have to find a new home. Lancaster appears to be a city being taken over by developers. I suppose that is true for a number of places.
One positive thing I suppose, to this enforced move, is it gives us the chance to look at some archive material, some of which can be surprisingly good but some is best left forgotten. Other artists who read this blog will know exactly what I mean.

Emma Hunter is an artist at Luneside Studios in Lancaster who does abstracts with draughtsmanly qualities which I find rather exciting. An example is posted here.She makes abstract images on the paper in a very painterly way and follows this up by drawing meticulous geometric patterns. A wonderful juxtaposition.

During last year's sojourn in Cyprus we had a series of life-drawing sessions on the Saturday afternoons. For three of theses sessions we had the model in the same pose: taken from Euan Uglow's "Point Five Nude". I have an image in the Abbott Hall catalogue but am unable to reproduce it here because its too big to fit in the scanner.
However, this image is a three layer work. First it was painted as a watercolour on a piece of paper 60 cms long. The following two weeks of two hours each had me doing a finished drawing over the painted image.
Close examination will reveal that the original painting is on a different scale to the overlying drawing. This was deliberate as I wanted a certain random factor in the work. The drawing itself was executed in the same way as Euan Uglow did; precise measurement and point marking. Key reference points remained obvious. As is usual for me, the drawing was done using soft graphite.

High speed drawing, - at 70 mph. I wasn't driving I hasten to add, but sat in the front passenger seat. It made for an interesting exercise.
In life-drawing classes, sometimes the students are asked to draw very quickly with the model changing poses every 30 seconds or so. It heightens observational powers.You have to quickly decide which is the important information you need to put on the paper. I call it "outrunning a camera" which you could do in the days of mechanical, non-automatic SLRs but now with digital you just point and shoot. It can make you lazy.
But drawing just for its own sake is stil fun I guess.
Well I enjoy doing it!

Same sketchbook (2004) but the following day. This time as an outpatient at the local hospital. I was having a few hormone problems at the time and had to go in for a blood test. Lots of waiting. So I drew my right foot. The plant samples are from a garden seen through the waiting room window.
Well the drawing was a better diversion than reading the two year old women's magazines that litter NHS waiting rooms.