From Previous Sketchbooks (1)

I've  been looking through some old sketchbooks. Its really surprising the little gems that turn up in them. At some of them I catch myself saying "I can't remember being that good back then." But there you go, even surprised myself. Sketchbooks are by their very nature, a collection of the the good, the bad, and the ugly. Memories are evoked here; times in glorious sunshine or pouring rain. Lovely warm days and others where my hands are frozen into unfeeling claws. The next few blog entries will show some of them.

Let's start back in 1999....

 Plover Scar Lighthouse on the Lune Estuary.

 The Lune Estuary looking across towards Black Combe Fell across Morecambe Bay.

 Northumberland Forest Park.

 Staffa and Mull in the Western Isles.

A wet day on Mull but working in the comfort of a holiday cottage.

Sibelius' Fifth Symphony (2)

The completed work after so many preliminary sketches and the final layout drawing . I'll let the piece speak for itself. See previous entries for commentary.

Detail of the right hand side of the main work. You may need to zoom in to see the finer lines.

From the New Sketchbook

The start of a new sketchbook. Actually it was started back in January this year exploring ideas for "Not all who wander...".  But after the first few pages it has settled down into being a series of studies worked from photograph taken over the last few months. Often in our great British climate it is too cold to stand around too long doing detailed drawings on site so I tend to make rapid sketches then back them up with a photograph. These sketchbook drawings have been made in the comfort of home where its warm and gallons of tea are available. Sketches are on A5 paper.

The process of drawing like this has me reliving the time I was there and perhaps this particular sketchbook will evolve into a journal of my travels both near and far.

 A doorway in a ruined building in a mixed forest near Gatehouse-of-Fleet on the Scots side of the Solway Firth. The greystone walls form a natural frame to the greenery beyond. A picture within a picture I might say.

 A study  of some weathered stonework at Jedburgh Abbey about midway along the A68 between Newcastle and Edinburgh, About ten or so miles into Scotland.

Near Bargoed in the Valleys of South Wales there's a stretch of mainly broadleaf forest which has been left to grow wild though its close proximity to the town means wildlife is relatively scarce. Many of the locals walk their dogs here. However there are a few paths though this which are relatively unfrequented, like the one shown here. I like this area because it has something of a "Middle-Earth" flavour to it. Autumn leaves strewn along the path like golden paving. I mainly draw with graphite pencils of varying grades and use inks or watercolour to highlight features that stand out when seen with my own eyes but may become obscured when in a photograph.

More Satellite Pieces

Four postcard-sized studies looking at how the particular music passages fit in, or should I say hopw my drawings/paintings interpret the music.The music itself can be heard 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.

The Dream of the Rood (2). A page from the current sketchbook where I've developed the initial idea posted earlier.Here I'm looking at how it might work as a stained glass piece set in three lancet windows in a church. 
No particular place in mind except that this would be an ideal setting.
Tom Denny's stained glass work is the obvious influence.

Not all who Wander..... (2)

Not all who wander are lost, the finished piece which has turned out a little different from what I intended. I added some cross-hatching to suggest textile which altered the tone somewhat. I don't think I've "blown" it, let's put it down to the vagaries of the ink. Maybe.

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.

A Small Project.... perhaps

An idea came to mind to make four pieces of work that look back to Saxon and Celtic legend. As seen here there is the initial layout starting with postcard sized sketches along a line above the main pieces which are being drawn on A4 size 200gsm Daler cartridge paper. The photo on the left is a seascape placed over the original figure drawing as a reference for the sea component of that picture. The tree at the top is a study for  the work in progress below. The figure on the right is work-in-progress of a wanderer/pilgrim traversing a windswept fell-top.

The Dream of the Rood. A kneeling figure looks out from a chapel doorway and sees a vision of a tree bearing a cruciform figure. The title is taken from an Anglo-Saxon poem describing the cross, - or tree's version of Christ's crucifixion.

Seven Stanes. On the England-Scotland border not far from the western end of  Kielder Reservoir  stands a fell of that name. Seven stones do indeed sit on that summit but little or no hint of a ruined chapel and the trees are absent too. However, hagiographies and archaeological evidence suggests that the early Christian missionaries such as Patrick, Columba and Aidan built their chapels on the sites of stone circles. These places  had spiritual significance long before the Christians arrived. Stone circles are themselves pre-dated by avenues and circles of trees known as henges. I have brought all three elements together to given it a wraith-like quality where time stands still. I know when I've visited these places I could sense that timelessness.

Caedmon was a deeply religious man who worked alongside St Hilda at her double monastery in Whitby on the North-East coast of England in the 6th  century. "Caedmon's Hymn", written in old Northumbrian, is a paean to the glory of existence.
I hope at some future point I'll be able to feature the words from "Dream of the Rood" and "Caedmon's Hymn."  I have them to hand. Its really a question of finding time to set it out here.

Brahms' German Requiem Part 2

Completed at last! Its only taken the best part of four months to complete this 70 x 50 cm work on a sheet of 300 gsm Fabriano5 paper. Black ink line drawing with FW acrylic inks for the more painterly aspects.
This is part of the art/music project. This piece is titled "Brahms' German Requiem, second stanza". The stanza is part two of a nine-part work. I intend only to do two of the stanzas. There are other composer's works in the pipeline.
I've already made preliminary sketches for "Elgar's Dream" (Gerontius), Mahler's second symphony "The Resurrection" (Finale) and the Finale of Sibelius' fifth symphony.
As ever the work is intended to portray the imagery that the actual music sounds generates but also the patterns of the written music on the stave

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?

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.

.

 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.

Sketchbook Pages (5)

Two pages eof studies for the "German Requiem" pictures.

Sketchbook Items (4)

I've recently returned from a holiday visiting family down in South Wales which included a few days excursion  on the Isle of Wight. Just little more than a hundred yards from the house in South Wales there is a path that leads into an oak forest where many of the trees have twisted into fantastical shapes making the place look like a set for a "Lord of the Rings" or "Hobbit" film. Most of the trees are stunted and moss covered sessile oaks which I think established themselves on  the embankments of a defunct railway  that ran from a long-gone coal mine towards Merthyr Tydfyl. These trees have grown seemingly unmolested for years. There is evidence of coppicing along the main path which is now a cycleway.Recently the area has been designated as a park. Parc Cwm Darran.

           

                 Twisted oaks. Graphite drawings tinted with water-colour pencils.

Also some trees on the skyline. 6B pencil drawing.

Not forgetting some work done at St.Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight.

Various pencils: 0.7 mm, 2.0 mm and 3 mm leads ranging from B to 4B.

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.

Something I did a few Years Earlier

The Three Marys was an idea that came to mind while at Lemba in Cyprus back in 2008. Two influences; Hellenic Art extant in the Cyprus Museum and images of sculpture at the doorway of Chartres Cathedral. I got the idea of making a sculpture of the "Three Marys" mentioned in the Christian Gospels, reading from left to right of the picture, Mary Magdalene, Mary Mother of Christ and the "Other Mary" featured in the story of Mary and Martha.
However, the sculpture never materialised, only this drawing of the figures, a design for a sculpture drawn on a sheet of A2 cartridge.

Another drawing was done on the same format of the Three Fates of Greek mythology; the one who spins the yarn of life, the one who measures it and the one who cuts it. These three determine the life-span of each individual born. It too is the same size as the one above. The preparatory work was all done in Lemba and the finished drawings at my studio in Lancaster.

St Helena's Chapel - Cape Cornwall

In the latter part of Sketchbook Item (2) mention was made of the numerous sites and remains of chapels attributed to just as many minor saints and solitary religious. This is one such which can be found just north of Land's End in Cornwall about a half mile or so out of St. Just. It is marked on OS Explorer maps.

This drawing was done quite some time ago in the middle of a December gale blowing straight in off  the Atlantic. I have memories of sheltering behind a stone wall and making preliminary sketches with hands that were rapidly turning into frozen claws and finally giving up by taking a photo to work from later. The finished piece is about A4 size and as usual on 300 gramme Snowdon cartridge.

As for the claw-like hands; I have a memory of sitting in a café in St. Just with said claws around a cup of steaming Cappuccino and trying not to cry out as feeling returned. Now that is what I call suffering in the name of Art! Then again perhaps not.

Sketchbook Items (3)

High up on the summit ridge of a Pennine Fell in Northumberland or Cumberland there's a shepherd's cott. In fact they can be found dotted all over the place. Some have found new life as resting places for the grouse-shooting fraternity while others have been restored by the MBA (Mountain Bothies Association) and many more  allowed to fall into ruin or even disappear altogether.
The sequence of sketches shown here are of one such in the last category. It no longer exists.  The fell featured on the middle right page is where it was , Halton- Lea Fell overlooking the village where I lived nearly forty years ago. So the building shown here is how I imagined it might look having noted the placing of the foundations and the faint path leading to where the door could have been.The cliff is no more than five or six feet high and my guess is the bothy would be a lead-to affair.
Its an interesting little side-project, -  another work-in-progress.

Sketchbook Items (2)

The Dream of the Rood shown yesterday is only a part of a larger ongoing project made up of several parts.
This double-page spread plus the one below, from the current sketchbook form fragments of a story that's been germinating in my mind for quite some time. A bit of a romantic quasi-legend that looks back towards a long forgotten solitary hermit who lived in a tiny two-roomed cottage deep in the trackless midst of a very ancient forest. It is the changes that the cottage sees is what the sequence of sketches is about; it's coming into being, subsequent decline then veneration as a Holy Site then the forest reclaiming the Site.

Many such ancient ruined or semi ruined chapels can be found all over the remoter parts of the British Isles. Many are marked on Ordnance Survey maps and some are attributed to some sage lost in the mists of antiquity. Needless to say I've made a number of on-site drawings or, if the weather won't permit or for that matter whilst travelling with others, a photograph is taken to work on later. I'm quite fascinated by these little chapels. What was it like living in them? and why were they put there in the first place and for that matter, what is the story behind it all?