"Life's a Beach." Exhibition now up and running. Eleven pieces on show made up of groups of 10 x 10 cm squares either in multiples of four or five. All the work features the sea or the shoreline.

"Atlantic Drawing". A graphite drawing on four 10 x 10 cm panels mounted on a 20 x 60 cm board. The density of the graphite varies. The most dense image is on the left and the lightest on the right. Unfortunately this subtlety is not so apparent in the image shown here. This work will feature in "Life's a Beach", my exhibition in Lancaster throughout March.

"Tintagel". The finished painting was done from an original drawing done on site last August. The image here has had a vertical column cut from the drawing and that column split into five separate components which I have since manipulate with photoshop to get some idea how it will turn out. This image was printed then used as a reference for the finished painting.

There's more comment about the upcoming show which you can read about on the other Blog.

Needless to say that as the deadline gets ever nearer, a proportional increase in controlled panic sets in. "Life's a Beach" opens on Tuesday Feb. 27 at 7-30pm. I hang the show on Monday.

Shingle Drawing.

Much of my studio stuff is still in storage. I have managed to complete some eight peices for my upcoming exhibition, some examples I have already posted, but was hoping to put in a couple of triptych's too. But when I looked at the stored stuff all in sealed boxes, which did have our respective names on, there is no knowing what is in which box. I could strike lucky and find what I am looking for on opening the first box, or I could be on a week opening boxes. I gave up. I need about ten pieces for the show. I have eight ready. Just have to make another two.

None of this has anything to do with the drawing posted here. This is a pen and wash design for a card based on some of the beach studies I have made over this last year. I still like to play with tone. The stones run from grey to green while the background runs in the opposite direction.

It makes for an interesting design I think.

The current images you can see on the flickr badge on the left are taken from one of my Cyprus sketchbooks. Apart from the core work of the Mediterranean shore I took a look at Cypriot culture and its ancient origins. Indeed many of the Cypriot artists I met draw their inspiration from these sources. Much of this work of mine is purely experimental.
The poses shown here were taken from life drawing sessions at CYCA from which I later "clothed" them to make this composite Gynekon scene.

"Atlantic #6" Another not on show.This mixed media work was drawn on paper previosly given a random blue watercolour wash after which soft graphite and black ink was used. The preliminary sketches were essentially very quickly done. Porthmeor Beach at St. Ives in a December gale doesn't encourage one to linger. I took a photograph from which I did most of the work before quickly retiring to the warmth of the Tate Gallery Cafe.

"Atlantic #1" This will not be in my forthcoming show at the end of February as it won't be framed in time along with another five, "Atlantics #2 through #5" which I will subsequently post over the next few days.

This one is pure drawing using pencil only. As usual with this series the frames are 10 x 10 cm each.

"Life is a Beach." That's the title of my upcoming exhibition at the LUDUS Dance Centre's Foyer Gallery in Lancaster. It will run from Feb 26 through to April 2. I am still preparing work for this show of paintings similar to the drawing shown here. This is one of the preliminary drawings for "Sands". Each square is 10 x 10 cms. As I've [probably] mentioned before, these imiges explore the photographic concepts where some are in monochrome and others in colour and I try to show the transition twixt the two. Each frame is meant to be a progression not only through colour and form but serves to illustrate transition through the physical landscape.

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.