Monthly Archives: April 2019

NEW STUDIO Week Ten

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Starting with the Easter Bank Holiday this week was truncated. I’d not been in the studio for six days when I arrived on Thursday morning. That’s not to say I’d been entirely idle, besides working on the 3d model for the garden film I’d done some sketches in the garden.

Sketchbook 20th April

Sketchbook 20th April

These are looking for the marks that make the garden and also have notes that point towards the solutions for the models.

When I did get into the studio I moved the screen out into the space and started a new sculpture.

Garden Screen

Garden Screen

The new sculpture ‘go,go,go, said the bird’ is one I started when I first moved in but put to one side.

'go, go, go, said the bird'

‘go, go, go, said the bird’

In common with a lot of the things I’m building this is made from furniture left behind by the previous tenant.

On Friday I painted it white.

'go, go, go, said the bird'

‘go, go, go, said the bird’

Ready to be drawn onto when it’s dry, and then made some sketches towards the newest big drawing.

sketchbook 26th April

sketchbook 26th April

The rest of the day was spent tidying and cleaning off the whiteboards that were left behind.

NEW STUDIO Week Nine: Easter Egg Hunt

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This week began badly, Monday felt like an awful day, one of this where you feel as if nothing is going right without being able to put your finger on what’s wrong.

Rendering the Garden

Rendering the Garden

I took my laptop to the shop to render out some new video while I was working on other stuff. I am encouraged by the idea of what I’m making on the computer and by where it might fit in the overall vision of geranium, but I’m not happy with what I have made yet. The idea is to have the video fade into a drawing that walks you around the garden and then fade back.

I also decided I needed to move ‘Snow Line’ so I broke it, I think this is what put me off the day, I knew I needed to move it and when I moved it was obviously too fragile so I discovered I had to break it. It did help me resolve the top piece that I was unhappy with though.

Snow Line Broken

Snow Line Broken

I also stripped out some of the underside and applied a new coat of blue and made a fillet for the top section that is ripped out which will also be blue.

Screen First Coat

Screen First Coat

and the other side

and the other side

Wednesday was a better day, although still punctuated with the rendering struggles. I continued to paint the screen, hung the drawing and stretched some new paper and fixed the blue fillet into ‘Snow Line’

Snow Line - Compass Points - 17 04 2019

Snow Line – Compass Points – 17 04 2019

The base, added Monday, is deliberate.

Screen Painting Wednesday

Screen Painting Wednesday

and the other side

and the other side

The screen has two sides now, and is progressing.

Garden Drawing

Garden Drawing

The drawing hung upstairs.

I also thought I could use a small desk at the front of the shop so I reclaimed some wood and made one.

Desk

Desk

On Friday, Good Friday, I didn’t get to the studio as I was preparing for the weekend. I did re-submit my Project application to ACE, and I made a sign for Monday!

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter Egg Hunt

Out of studio diversion – ‘Snow Line’ alternatives.

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It was wet & white & ...

It was wet & white & …

When I’m not in the shop building I’m generally either working on the computer or painting/drawing at home. ‘Snow Lines’ has occupied a good amount of this time in the last few weeks, particularly given that my slightly sprained ankle has meant that I couldn’t run. Running is an excellent way to empty your head.

I’ve thought about the poem on and off for a few years and for some reason it has come to the fore now. I don’t imagine why that might be, I’ll let the work that arises reveal its motivation or not. I imagined the ‘character’ of the poem as the space inside a cave, just on the snow line, injured in some way, perhaps falling into and out of existence as the temperature changes. I know, or think I know, that for Berryman Henry is the wounded creature contemplating his abandonment and feeling sorry for himself. I’d rather think of it as a literal piece for my purposes.

Drawing April 2019 - 28

Drawing April 2019 – 28

I began a drawing before I started to build the large sculpture, and I assembled a scrapbook in which I laid out the poem to play around with found materials. The drawing is based on a curled up creature, protecting itself. In this case a pangolin, I’ve seen a lot of news about pangolins lately. Apparently their scales are made of the same material as rhinoceros horn. I also found a hedgehog in the garden a week or two ago, during the day, curled up and obviously not well. The hedgehog hospital told me to put it under a bush and leave it. I buried it the next day. I’m wondering whether the drawing attracted the hedgehog or vice versa. I’m not really.

If I had to do the whole thing ...

If I had to do the whole thing …