The drawing continues and art drop found.

Tuesday: Drawing continues as the world seemingly falls apart.

I have been working on the back cover of my book now for two drawing sessions and I will try and finish it tonight, fingers crossed.

Yesterday my wife got a book out of the library on 'Ballpoint Art' and so I thought I would do a few small biro experiments. This one above and the two below. I seem to be riffing on familiar themes but hey that is me.

Today has not been a great day for me in several ways but hey let us not dwell on that however as I didn't get anyone on my art tour today I did some more work on this piece above, only 14 more grids to fill with more dots. These tasks often take up quite a lot of time, they start off as a small germ of an idea but I don't over consider how long it will take me and just accept it and get on with it, so hopefully this piece will be finished by the end of the week.

Above is photo evidence that one of my small art drops was found today, a cheery moment always.

Today I also found an exhibition to go for but must have my entries in by Friday, The Plymouth Contemporary, there are many competitions/exhibitions that at this time of year I cannot afford to actually enter as this is the quiet season so not so much cash flow but this one is actually free, so it has to be done. This is one reason I have to up my profile for what I do and get more out there in the art world. Last year I was thinking that it was starting to happen as I had gallery representation but sadly that gallery has now had to close so the hard work has begun again to get my drawings out into the world.

If anyone for the moment wants to buy from me feel free to contact me here.

So I am off to draw.

Starting the week.

Sunday/Monday

Above is the first drawing I did last evening and I am very happy with it. It just feels bold and joyful. I was talking on my blog yesterday about how sometimes my work echoes things that I have seen and to a certain extent I think this does but who it is 'after' I know not at this moment. It is one of the last, very very last drawings in my nearly finished altered sketchbook work Obliterarty Volume Two.

Above is the last obliterarty page in the book, quite straightforward and simple but effective.

I have now started to attend to the back cover and have already started continuing with this and hopefully I have kept the pens in the same order as I had them when I did this last night.

Monday is always a day I really look forward to as it is Barnoon Workshop's drawing group, anyone is welcome and today I spent a lot of the time as o model for folk to draw although in the second half we took turns too and I managed to get a couple of drawings in.

In the afternoon I was also a model for Zoe's water colour workshop at Barnoon. Which was also fun. So a reasonably busy day at the workshop today which is good for the time of year. After we went to the library and shopping.

I am now off to carry on sorting out the back cover of my book and contemplate last night's David Hockney documentary which I thought was fabulous but then again I am quite a fan on the quiet, some remarkable work and insights.

Cheers!

New drawings and a bit of a round up of stuff from my early blogs. Day 366

So as last year was a leap year I am celebrating my blogs first birthday over two days, yesterday was 365 days of this daily activity and today is the date anniversary. Skewed logic I know but no more skewed than my eyes. I realised early on that I wasn't doing traditional op-art. I think my work sometimes nods to many different bits of modern art. I don't really try to do that but it does seep out from somewhere. I suppose with all the art I have seen and like comes out in unexpected way.

Above is the first drawing I did last evening in my now nearly finished altered sketchbook and if I was going to stretch the point of influences coming out, when I had completed this drawing I was slightly reminded of Ian McKeever not in it's bright colours but just the circles.

The second drawing done last night is this one it seems to nod to both Andy Warhol and Terry Frost in my head and anyway whatever I am pleased with it.

I am also pleased that my wife, Zoe Eaton is getting over her painting block over the last little while and has been painting again with new ideas behind her and feeding in to her new works. I will share when they are finished.

Sunday started with me going up to Barnoon Workshop, I was meant to be  delivering a days guitar course but I had no bookings this time but thought I would go up there as we had had a couple of enquiries and they might have just decided to turn up, they didn't so I did 40 mins of work on this drawing. I started work on it at an abstract drawing session I did a couple of weeks ago now. It could have been finished but I decided to echo a work I did and is further down this blog with it's riffing from more recent work in my obliterarty books. So thirty more grids to attend to.

I often work in 'sketchbook' mode, when I first started on this drawing and getting deeper with my work and taking it a lot more seriously. I treat my sketchbook work as whole entities and therefore at some point when I find the right gallery or forum will put them up for sale as I would Individual drawings. This all came about from my very first book work. That book as I have mentioned before in these blogs helped steer me in this direction. It was a book of dots done with only one type and size of pen, some of the images took a week of drawing time alone without filling the whole book so it took me 4 or 5 years to complete it. When I started showing it to people they took it as a whole work. I did start showing it as I was working on it to the Crit Group that was run by my wife and the studio that she was in in those days in Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes and even got a commission out of it. I was a bit shy of it at first with the group as they were all art graduates and I came from a non-tutored background. However the reaction was far better than I had expected and spurred me on. It is good to share work with others you respect or people who you don't know. There was a time when we ran an arts cafe in St Ives Cornwall and sometimes we would have our own work up and because we were 'behind the counter' people where free to say what they liked or disliked about the work up on the walls. A recurring favourite of mine was and probably will be again is, 'Anyone could do that' and to that I think yes you could if you had enough time and patience to do so and most people would have the skill base to do so. I actually like that comment and I certainly don't blame them for saying it either. It is certainly number one in the top ten comments I do get about my work and the other close second is more often or not give or take a word or to 'F**k**g Hell, do you do all those dots one by one' answer is always 'Yes'. There is normally a silence after that and swaying heads although I have had that followed by, 'you nutter'.

Anyway that aside above and below are two examples of double pages from more recent 'whole book' works.

So as part of me having done a leap year of blogs I am showing some of the works from my early blogs. Above is one of my pebble/stone drawings. I still really like it too.

Above is a larger rock piece, I wasn't thinking of drawing on larger bits of rocks or minerals but as luck would having I was taking a walk around Barnoon and came across this that was rather randomly left on the side of a path, it wasn't part of anything so it just felt a very inviting thing to use for another drawing and a couple of hours later it was a completed work and we still have it.

Above is a work using a set of sharpies and this is the bleed through side and it looks even better that the originally intended drawing on the reverse. It sort of reminds me now that it is a bit like a hand drawn window of pixels.

This one is from the sketch book a few pics above but I thought it would go nicely with the previous drawing however this one was done with gel pens.

Above is a much larger drawing completed in the last year or so and was quite a mammoth feet and where the echo came from for the colourful grid drawing near the top of this blog.

I am now off to do would you believe more drawing and I will be back tomorrow to let you know what I have done. Cheers!

The first year of my comtemporary abstract drawing blog plus extras........

365 days ago I started to blog and I have done it everyday since.

Why did I start it?

• As an added discipline to my work.
• To Share my drawing and parts of my life.
• To show how I work and think.
• To get my art out to more people.

One of the main features of my blog is me showing the work I have done over the last 24 hours so above is a drawing I finished last evening, I had started the previous evening but hadn't managed to complete it, so that is just what I did.

Above is a drawing I started and finished in last evenings session and yet again which seems to be a feature of my recent drawings, especially on this work I embarked on over the last three weeks or so. It is an altered sketchbook and doing something to it that I have now christened 'obliterarty', I feel it is a playful term and thus sums it up really. I am on the last few pages now but I am happy that it is working well in my eyes.

To celebrate that I have now been doing this blog for a year below are a few of the first images I shared into the blog world.

Above is a close up of one of my larger drawings that I have done in slightly over a year and gives you an insight into the kind of work I do, I like to be lose but detailed and some works can take many many hours or even sometimes days that can sometimes be spread over weeks and months. The bigger pieces I work on can only be done normally in free time and snatched moments although I work everyday on smaller stuff and on average a few hours every evening.

The drawing above was started in Oxford when we were last up there visiting family just after Christmas last year, I was just starting to explore a new pen type that I hadn't explored much but I was given some Letraset Pro-Markers as a present and had to use them. It is by no means a large drawing but took many hours and has a lot of dots and no I am not counting however you are welcome to if you wish.

Above is a drawing done on mount board. This one took probably 3 sessions to complete and looking back at it again I like it and fits well with my work in general.

Above is another drawing on mount board and I do love drawing on it and it is also good that these scraps get used to bring something into the world.

Above is one of the first photos of me actually drawing and thank you to Jordan Jackson for taking this pic and so many others for me over the last year or so.

 So the question in my head having just got to this first year in the blog world what have I got out of it?

• I have gained a greater idea of what I am doing with all this thing I call contemporary abstract drawing.
•  I have shown off what I do on a daily basis to a small part of the online world who want to look.
•  It has made me think and order my thoughts so I am able to talk more in depth about my art if required.
• I am surprised that in this last year that over 10,000 people have viewed my blog.
• I have received some lovely comments from a few buyers and quite a few people who have found my 'art drops'.
• I have thanks for all that have read and shared.  

• I feel more cohesive about what I do having written about what it all.

So as per usual I am off to draw and I think I will continue sharing.

Friday: Anima Mundi: New Drawing: Environtemtal Scuplture

Friday, busy interesting day.

Above is the only drawing I completed in last nights session and a little spin on my lines and grids but different and changed slightly. I am pleased yet again.

Above is the second drawing I started but didn't finish, although since then I might just have done that but more later.

Recently we have been trying to develop new workshops to do, if you read my blog or are a friend you know that my wife Zoe Eaton and I run Barnoon Workshop here in St Ives Cornwall. One of the recent courses we have come up with is Environmental Sculpture. It is something Zoe and I have always done when the opportunity strikes but today we needed some new photos for our event. So we opened up the workshop for Erin Lacy's Lino Printing For Beginners and then went off to Porthmeor Beach to play and here are some of the works I did.

So off around the beach we went gathering stuff and ideas as we went. I went off to collect limpet shells and other things, also sadly coming across a dead young dolphin that had been washed up, I guess it had met it's demise in yesterday's storm 'Doris'. Above is the first arrangement of limpets that I made, the sand was so trampled by people and dogs that I smoothed out a section with a piece of driftwood pallet and then set about placing the limpets into a pattern that I thought worked.

Above is the same arrangement from another angle, with the previous pic I like the way it balances and with this shot I like the way it has a long perspective.

Above and below is the same idea but with using the limpets upside down and I really love them this way up, the colours and the patterns inside, they are subtly beautiful objects in their own right.

On the beach there were quite a lot of cuttle fish bones and I had a small amount of time to arrange a few of them in the fissures of this rock. I would quite like to go back and collect a lot more and really max this idea out.

After the beach and then returning to the workshop I did three small drawings on finds from the beach and the used them for an art drop in The Castle Pub later.

Above is a quick snap shot of what was going on at the workshop, looks fun.

A little view of surfing in february.

We then left the Workshop and ended up having a couple of drinks in The Castle with Erin and plan some further courses. After a very pleasant couple of hours we then went off to Samuel Bassett's private view at Anima Mundi Gallery show and pretty impressive it was too. It was also nice to bump into quite a few friends, even had a quick chat with Sax Impey.

So I am now off to draw and relax. Cheers all!

New drawings again and Thursday stuff.

Thursday:

Above is the drawing I finished last night and another that I am very happy with, each day my altered sketchbook is nearer completion.

Above is the second drawing I did last night, not sure if it is finished looking at it now and I will find out when I start drawing later.

I also did a small art drop.

I also have been set a bit of a challenge to hone my drawing style so I can do small drawings for 'Your Face My Art' art portrait studio up and coming events.

After coming back from a meeting with my wife and Lauren Sebastien at her studio space in The Sloop art and crafts market. I looked in our garden and found this growing an avocado sprouting in february, wow.

Lots of other stuff happened today some of it quite boring and some website work.

I am off to draw and think.

New Drawings, Wednesday etc

Wednesday:

Above is a ceramic tile I have drawn on and for several reasons here it is. Today we had a workshop 'Drawing With Sharpies' and this was an example I did using oil based sharpies to make the work. After two days drying you can then pop it in the oven on a low heat to really fix it.

Above is the first drawing I did last night where I am just continuing with finishing my latest altered sketchbook work.

So onward I went but actually I am not sure this one above is finished yet, I will decide tonight or when I have filled all the pages and go back and review the whole.

Above and below are the intermediary drawings on the bits inbetween and onward I will go. I am off to draw and plot.

Tuesday: Terry Frost: Barnoon Workshop: Art Tour and new drawings.

Tuesday:

Above is yet another in my recent series of obliterarty drawings and I am starting to head into what could be the last few days work before completion. This one was done in two sessions and was the first finished. I then attended to the small bits of pages inbetween the full pages and I moved on.

Above is the second work from last night and I am again very happy with it an how it fits in the whole book.

Above is the final drawing from last night a light free one just to bring a little relief from the previous saturated colours.

Tuesday started in a very pleasant way. I walked from home to Barnoon Workshop to see if I had anyone on my Art Tour around St Ives. I found that I had four people and the weather wasn't that great so they decided photography over drawing and off we went, first up to Alfred Walliss's grave and then around town we me showing and talking about some of the interesting and historic art spot around the town. Until last year I had never thought or imagined that I could and would do an art tour. I have had many jobs in the past some creative some less so from manual work to teaching but now my life is more dedicated to the arts and creativity being a tour guide once a week fits in and I do enjoy it. This was my first tour of the year and a very nice start. One of the people on the tour was Jenny Hurst a painter with works in The Porthminster Gallery.

After the tour I returned home for a quick lunch then we both went back to Barnoon where my wife delivered a workshop Paint A Mini Masterpiece like Terry Frost, my role is as teaching assistant. We only had two takers but it was fun. When I first discovered art for myself Terry Frost was one of the my 'big three' of 'St Ives Artists' that I first really started to get and wanted to see much much more of and where I began to get it

Above is a small work I produced as part of the workshop and not exactly a homage to Terry Frost but made up of spare bits, acrylic on cardboard collage.

Above is the work that I did as a homage and I enjoyed doing it and am enjoying looking at it now. It is good to explore another artist every now and again and it can inform your own work too.

Above is one I made at a previous Terry Frost workshop but I don't think I have photographed it before, so here it is.

Since then we have had a little planning meeting over a much earned pint in The Castle and then returned home. Once home I got a message from a good friend saying her partner had had a heart attack yesterday and he is alright and should be home by the weekend. A bit of a scare and makes you think.

I am off to draw soon and relax and get ready for tomorrow's workshop.

Cheers!