Teo Gonzalez, Agnes Martin, Finished Drawing and The Drawing Room.

Saturday:

So I finally finished this first drawing in my new book in last evenings session. I normally manage to do at least three hours work a night and the first part of yesterdays was completing the work above.

I paused for only a few minutes and then started the next work, drawing number two in the book and this is another one that is going to take a while and seems so far to be the theme of this sketchbook work so far. Below is a close up so you get a better idea of what is going on. I will be getting on with this drawing when I have finished this blog.

Well Saturday started with a difference, we got the workshop ready for 50th Birthday portrait session for 18. It was a lively couple of hours with birthday boy Paul having friends and family 'trained' up to do his portrait. By 11:20 a very lively and good natured session and the pic below shows a bit of what transpired. By 1pm all was done and we went off for a well earned lunch after doing a part tidy up. Oh by the way thanks to Paul for the champagne, not every weekend starts like this.

We finally returned home in the rain and hunkered down to relax and research.

Today I have rediscovered Agnes Martin's beautiful work and discovered an artist new to me Teo Gonzalez. Although my work is quite different to theirs I feel there is a connection. I first discovered Agnes Martin when I visited Kettles Yard in Cambridge with my now wife. I remember a stillness to her work and the mood it created in the gallery space. I like a lot of art in many diverse forms but just sometimes someone's work really speaks to me in a more personal fashion.
So I have spent the afternoon and early evening reading up on The Drawing Room and the Contemporary Art Society and exploring where it led such is the internet and it's algorithms many hours can be lost trying to get more informed.

Well I am off to draw and think about all the art I have seen today.

Cheers!

Hollow Dots, Sketchbook Works.

Friday:

 Above is the drawing I have now been working on for five evenings so far I think I should get it finished tonight as I only have an inch to do.

Above is a close up of the same drawing just to show the 'devil in the detail' and to give you the viewer the idea of why it has taken so many hours work with each small circle or hollow dot as I often think of them drawn with ten separate pens in ordered groups.

This drawing is the opening statement for my next sketchbook work and it kind of sets a tone to what I will create as I make the whole book. This time I intend to not use my 'bleeding narrative' technique which has become a bit of a theme with many of my sketchbook works.

Above are some images from 'Obliterarty Volume 3' one my Sketchbook Works.

Above are another 3 from The Bleeding Narrative book.

Above are a bunch of drawings I did in a hand made sketchbook.

I am off to draw and continue with my latest book.

Four days in and more to go.

Thursday:

Above is the drawing I have been doing for four evening sessions so far, perhaps some 15 or 16 hours work . I will continue on this the first drawing in my new whole sketchbook work. I feel that if the work continues in this initial manner it might take some time. We will see if this is the case when I finish this first drawing and see how the second one starts, I have a number of options in my head.

Today started for me with a beach life drawing session with a couple from Lancaster. we went down to Porthmeor to take in the scene and draw some of it, I gave a few pointers and then as we draw conversation flowed on many topics, half way through the session two seals turned up and spent quite a lot of time checking out the surfers and presumably catching a few fish.

Porthmeor Today

As I clambered back up the hill from Porthmeor back up to Barnoon Workshop and the beds at the side of the flats have finally been planted and I think it looks good and will lead up in a proper fashion to the new roof garden above the new underground gallery that is ready to opened on 14th October.

This afternoon has been spent doing some website work and getting organised for this weekend and next week too.

I am off to draw.

Lost Gardens of Heligan Breathe Compliations Album Artwork and download etc.

Wednesday:

Yesterday evening it was confirmed that a drawing of mine has become the art work for a new album on Breathe Compilations from Mexico. I have a history with this net label, if memory serves me right they have released three of musical works in the past and now I have provided a cover for one of their albums. So thanks to Breathe and to Quetzal, it is an honour.

Below is a link so you can listen to the music or even download it for free, My online music mate Transmission 13 from Manchester is on it too.

http://breathecompilations.org/v-a-oir-cosas-nunca-vistas/

Also last evening I continued working on the drawing above, it is growing but not very fast but hey that is the nature of a work like this so I will continue tonight and probably tomorrow too.

Today has been a different day for us as we delivered a soap making workshop at The Lost Gardens of Heligan. We had a lovely day Zoe and were taken to Heligan by Erin from Pick Pretty Paints and below are some random snap shots from our day. It was such a shame it rained all day as we had planned to spend the afternoon sketching our way around the Gardens but it was a grand day never the less.

I am off to draw now. Cheers.

New A5 Sketchbook Work Started, Tour and Draw and more.

Tuesday:

Above I have started a new whole sketchbook work, It doesn't look like I have got very far with it yet and indeed I haven't but believe it or not this is some two hours work and a statement of intent on what the book will become. We have just received 50 new A5 sketchbooks that I use on my tour and draws and we felt for a change we could have one each instead of keeping them as stock. I am using this one for some abstract work for a change.

Talking of tour and draws this drawing above is one I did this morning on my tour as we were bathed in early autumn sunshine. It was beautiful, warm and quite calm except the odd shrieking gull and child. In many ways you can't beat St Ives at this time of year especially when the weather is so clement.

Above and below are two more recent drawings from my tour sketchbook above is one from The Rum & Crab Shack and below a stylised minimal one of Porthmeor Beach with Clodgy Head on the left and The Island on the right. Of course I have shrunk the beach a little to get both ends in. I keep coming back to this because I want to do a definitive one on a slightly larger scale.

 

After the tour I made it back up Barnoon Hill and took this view over the bay and then as I got to the top. I found this exotic plant below and it caught my eye.

This afternoon I have been zesting lemons for our soap making workshop at The Lost Gardens of Heligan tomorrow which should be fun and then lots of little things that needed to be done before our away day workshop.

 I am off to draw and get this first labour intensive little work more finished. Why do I have these funny little ideas that then take ages to finish. I am hoping that when this book is complete I might be able to find a buyer for it, well here's hoping.

Cheers!

Barnoon Workshop, Contemporary Abstract Drawing and just drawing.

Monday:

Above is the drawing I started and after last evenings that is the third session. When I got to the conclusion and laid it to rest I for once had no idea of whether it was finished or not. I am now looking at it in that light to see if I have an idea of where to go next. I will probably start with looking through my pen bag for inspiration and then see if I start a new drawing or continue.

I always look forward to Monday mornings and I always help and attend Draw! at Barnoon Workshop. So from 10 am to midday my wife Zoe leads the drawing group and there is a dedicated group of people who like to start the week this way too and we are often joined by visitors to St Ives who want to start the week as we do. We all seem to get a lot of drawing done and it is always a nice chatty atmosphere as we get on with the theme of the session. Today as we had reasonable weather we went out just outside the workshop to draw the new view that we now have since Tate St Ives has nearly completed their building works and the hoardings have come down. We were given a 5B Koh-I-Noor graphite pencil to do a large pencil drawing/sketch of our new view.

Above is what I managed to do in two hours although not a completed drawing I really do want to finish it, I hope I get the time. Before we started we were shown some lovely pencil drawings by Paul Noble that didn't worry too much about perspective so I didn't and I like it that way.

Three years ago I was now way happy with anything that I drew from life but I am not surprised as nearly all the drawing work I did was abstract and had been for years I was rapidly exploring although I don't seemed to have slowed down much if at all. However I did not spend much time drawing from reality. Now I draw real things every day except on Sundays. I now lead drawing tours of St Ives 5 days a week, what a great way of developing with these regular sessions and actually getting some earnings too. It is only just over seven years since we left our previous existence after giving up our jobs as teachers and relocated to St Ives Cornwall draw by its art and art history and the beauty of the area that had been in our hearts for so long.
We started here as proprietors of and arts cafe and if you would have said then or even when I was a teacher that I would be leading drawing tours of this beautiful inspiring seaside town that I would be doing that I don't think I would have believed. Many things have changed in these years here and my small conclusion on this with relevance to my drawing is that I feel I have developed a style of drawing in both abstract and non abstract work now. In some ways I feel have made a lot of progress over the last while.

Well I am off to draw and continue to see where I am going with all this.

Cheers!

New finished drawing, work in progress and non abstract drawings.

Sunday:

Above is the drawing I finished off last evening and I am very pleased with it indeed. It has a certain delicacy that some of my drawings don't.

After I spent a few minutes taking in my last finished drawing I then set about going on to the next one. I chose two pens to do three things and then I will later chose a third pen after I have finished with the second one.

Today had a bit of a slow morning and a bit of a lay in and after we went up to Barnoon to tidy up and get ready for the drawing group and then watercolour tomorrow.

On the way down town after leaving the workshop to get some supplies for tonight and to get lemons for our soap workshops at The Lost Gardens of Heligan this coming week on Wednesday and Friday. It was really sunny on top of Barnoon Hill but looking over to The Island and towards Godrevy the sea mist had really closed in and obscured them.

 Over the last couple of years and through the course of writing these blogs for over 550 daily missives I have focused in on what I am doing as an artist. Mainly I now know that most of my work seems to fit the description of 'Contemporary Abstract Drawing'. I am happy with that as a definition but I am sure others might argue otherwise. Whilst this has come into focus I have also been developing a more minimal way of drawing non abstract works. I am going to maybe do some larger ones over the winter period, I want to explore it more. Above and the three below are examples of two strands I want to explore more.

I am off to do more to my work in progress......

Art Drops and new work.

Saturday:

Above is the work in progress I continued with last evening but I cannot make my mind up if it is finished yet. Hmmm.

Today we had a quiet days portrait session and so it became a bit of a social and I got on with my other drawing that I showed yesterday that I have now finished, see below.

After we all left the workshop we all decided a fitting ending to The September Festival was to have a quick one in The Castle Inn on Fore Street and for our entertainment The Bamaluz Bootleggers were performing and brought a fun informal attitude to the proceedings. A good ending to the last 15 days.

Today I did a little art drop in the same place that I did one the other day and I found out they had been taken so two new ones placed. Above is a selection of previous art drop pieces. I normally do these on small shards of 'sea pottery' and it is nice to leave them around for people to find.

Off to draw more.