Drawing Tour, New Work, Mark Osterfield and bits of today.

Wednesday: A lovely day.

 However I will take you back to last evenings drawing session where I finished the first drawing in my new whole sketchbook work, as yet untitled. I think this drawing is a good opener and and leads you into the book in a nice clean way with lots of possibilities there after.

Today I took a lovely little group of people out on a drawing tour of the town, buildings and architecture was this mornings theme and off we went to Barnoon Terrace and then onto Norway Square. Hopefully you can tell that if you are familiar with this restful spot. Sometimes however it is a cultural place too, when we have the Lit Fest and the September Festival it is taken over in the early afternoons by Bob Deveraux, artist, poet and generally all round good fella. These events are always worth catching if you get the chance.

Bob in Norway Square.

 After our drawing session in the square concluded I went off to Norway Stores and bumped into Mark Osterfield, current director of Tate St Ives we had a happy little chat on this beautiful afternoon he seemed very chirpy and then we went on our ways. I then went back off to the workshop for lunch and to spend the afternoon working on our art with my wife.

 Above is a drawing I sort of started last evening and then carried on with this afternoon whilst manning the exhibition with my wife while she was painting.

Below are a few shots from around town today to give you a sense of how nice it was today down here. We are blessed to live here no matter how hard it can be.

As usual at this time in the evening I have the television on and tonight I also have a couple of bottles of cider as a reward and am now off to relax and draw. Cheers!

More work in progress and a drawing tour.

Friday:

Above and slightly fuzzy is my work in progress and nearly finished drawing that has taken up three whole drawing sessions and should be finished later. Below are the previous two stages of this work and tomorrow there will be an update.

We received our new sketchbooks today from Seawhites of Brighton, I did a drawing on the front cover of mine. Also inside are a few sketches I did today whilst out on a drawing tour of the coastal path for five and a lovely hour and a half it was too in the sunshine around Man's head.

The rest of today has been spent getting ready for 'The Summer Island Disco' on The Island put on by Tassy Swallow of The Surfhouse, fingers crossed for the weather it should be a cool event.

Since then we have been about town and have bumped into many friends and unfortunately we have missed two opening nights including Bob Deveraux at The Penwith (I must get to see the show asap.) and the new show at Anima Mundi, it is a shame but sometimes in this town you cannot go to everything. :(

Above is a view out towards Godrevy and Gwithian from Lambeth Walk near the Arts Club.

It feels like it has been a really busy day and hopefully it will be tomorrow too.

Terry Frost - The Book Of Ideas and new drawings.

Saturday:

Above is a drawing I did two sessions ago and forgot to share it.

 Above is the the first drawing I completed yesterday in my now habitual evening drawing session that follows after my daily blog post. I sometimes think that I am losing drawing time by blogging daily but I rationalise this as an aid to thinking about what I do and putting those thoughts out there from time to time.

 

Today started for me with an art tour of the town, we have been running these art/drawing tours from Barnoon Workshop 5 days a week for just under 3 weeks and some of the time the weather has been a little against us but this is the first Saturday it has run and I only got one person but it is still a joy to do. So we went on the the tour as I explained about the towns art history we nipped around with me filling in art facts and we ended up on Smeatons Pier for a spot of drawing. Whilst drawing I found out that the lady on the tour had actually been an Irish dancer and had performed with a friend of mine Harry Webley aka Mosschops, small world.

After the tour Zoe and I spent the afternoon at the workshop doing various things and planning future events.

Above and below are two drawings I managed to do this afternoon whilst sitting in the idylic unbroken sunshine of this beautiful day. These drawings just seem to be pouring out of me at the moment, I feel I am in a rich vein of creativity but truly one never knows fully whether that is the case. Time will tell.

Above and the two below are a few drawings I did in my coastal flora and fauna drawing tour on Friday.

As always happens some work better than others but always a joy to do.

Also this afternoon I did an 'Ostraca' profile boxed and drawn on sea pottery.

After leaving the workshop we went for a quick pint in The Pilchard Press before going of to a private view at The Belgrave Gallery. The show is based around a large scale Terry Frost  sketchbook. As someone who does a lot of sketchbook work it was a joy to seen the whole book exhibited and with such a good exhibition title too 'The Book Of Ideas'.

Above is a quick pic at the exhibition featuring Bob Deveraux, Anthony Frost and Paul Vibert.

I am now off to draw.

Cheers.

Friday - Tate Tour, Moving art work around

We had a busy night last night but I still managed to do this blue dot picture. It is on a postcard but probably not part of my introduction series so I now have to think who to send it to.

Today we had a little lie in because we deserved it, so we did a little admin at home and the got to the Tate St Ives building site for a members tour and I would like to thank Jordan Jackson for getting us booked on it. We arrived at the site just before 1pm and got taken by our guide Cherish to change into our steel toe caps, high vis jackets, hard hats and gloves and then we were led around the building site. First we visited the new art handling port which is enormous and The Tate are very excited about the possibilities this brings in terms of what they will be now be able exhibit. We then started going down underground to have the new gallery space revealed to us. It is obviously not finished yet but it is very impressive can't wait to see the first show in there (Autumn 2017).
After that we were then led to the older part of the Tate, opened in 1993, which was the first year I visited this gallery. In those days I was a tourist with a 320 mile journey to get to St Ives. I never imagined actually living here and being involved in a business right next to Tate St Ives. However times change and I have now lived in St Ives for just over 6 years.
We we shown around as much of the old Tate as was possible and also given an insight into the bowels of the building to, where they are hoping to get some interesting art projects going.
After this fascinating insight into what has been going on next to us for the last while, well what seems like years. I for one will welcome the re-opening with open arms, for the benefit of the town and the increased amount of art tourism it will bring and I am sure that will bring more folk into our workshops at Barnoon.

Follow this link to find out more from The Tate http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/tate-st-ives-project

After that I picked up the art we had left at Barnoon and took them down to Melanie at The UYS Gallery, she is rehanging for The September Festival which starts tomorrow. On arrival I was given the news that the lady who popped in for a chat with me when I was manning the gallery the other day had bought one of my drawings on paper, here it is below. Thank you Lena.

Link to The Uys Gallery http://www.uysgallery.co.uk/

After being at the gallery and having some lovely elderflower and grape drink we went over to cafe art for Zoe to swap a picture back to the Uys and then finally onto The Crypt to quickly catch up with Bob Deveraux and Pauline about maybe doing some writing workshops at Barnoon. After that coffee was needed so we went for one at The Rum and Crab Shack where I left a tip, which you can see below.

After the shack we collected sea glass and sea pottery, these will all be used for workshops or art pieces in the future I am sure.

I now have to write a bit of blurb about our 'Art Lovers' exhibition at CafeArt it now has an extended run through the September Festival. I also want to see if I can get a bit of work done on my new big drawing. We will see in due course.

Farewell all....

Tuesday, Tour day, more work, Bob Deveraux,

Above is a new drawing from nearly the end of my 'whole sketchbook work' started at the end of April, when I have finished all the pages I will go back through to see what I missed or haven't quite finished of and then complete the covers too.

Above is the reverse bleed of the first drawing as you can see two of my more minimal works.

Today was Tour and Draw day and on the tour today I was able to do this little continuos line drawing as we sat on the end of Smeatons Pier just before midday.

Also on the tour we found this carving on a house towards the Island. I was asked if it had a significance. I had to admit I had never noticed it be and whether it was there as decoration or for a purpose I know not.

After our tie dye workshop was over and I had returned to the workshop for Philps' pastie lunch. We then went off to get a new sketchbook each from The St Ives Society of Artists at The Mariners Gallery and the visited the show in The Crypt to see Bob Deveraux's exhibition, it is a group show featuring Bob's wife Paulines work and also their friend Ruth's textiles. One of the better exhibitions I have seen there this year. It was really nice to see Bob's new works. Should have taken a photo, ooops

We then went on for a coffee at Mount Zion and then headed back up to the workshop, picked up stuff for tea and went home. So I thought I would get my blog done a bit earlier than sometimes.

So I have more work to do after dinner.

Cheers!

Barnoon Workshop, Alfred Wallis, Bob Deveraux

Above and below are two works done at our Workshop on Alfred Wallis today, at this point I have to admit that the top one is mine. It is always good art practice to study others work even if you don't work in that area as I don't.

I love Alfred Wallis' work and have a feeling that he was a more complex painter than it first seems, his vision/memories seem to be very complete. The effect he has had on so many artist and copyists has been remarkable.

Today has been an interesting day for many reasons some good, some not so good. It looks like we have a meeting next week to discuss and forward the St Ives Lantern Parade 2016 that is based at Barnoon and looks like year 2 will be much bigger. More funding is need and it looks like we will get some good funding this year.

The above pic is something I did a few months ago it took a good few hours work. I remember really being in the chill-out zone doing this one, I have put this up as I have not taken a pic of the work I did last night as it is still unfinished.

Last night was the third part of Waldemar Janusczyk's Art in The Dark Ages was a great view into Islamic art, some wonderful mosaics.

My head is now full of art from my own and others work. I am also thinking that now being based at The Workshop and not in our old cafe we are away from the Literary Festival that is put on by Bob Deveraux. So for tonight I will leave you with a pic of Bob doing his thing with Laurence Crallan a couple of years ago or so in Cafe Art, the back drop is and exhibition by my wife Zoe Eaton.

Cheers