New work, work in progress, a day around town and the new Mural in The Pilchard Press.

Thursday:

Above is the new drawing that I finished last evening, it didn't take that much finishing off but here it is now.

Above is the drawing I started immediately after finishing the last, I am I thinking not finished but a bit freer than some of the previous drawings in this whole sketchbook work I have embarked on.

Today we went out to do 'some stuff' and to clear our heads from a big confrontation yesterday that I am still reluctant to mention. That is for some future date.

We also passed this wonderful door that I have been meaning to take a pic of it for an age.

This evening we went out to meet Shanty Baba in The Pilchard Press and I have taken a pic of part of the new murial done by James, I have never known his surname but I have known him for probably six years.

I think it is lovely new addition to the pub and the town....

I am off to draw in a while, see you all tomorrow.

New work nearly finished, Roy Walker and other drawings.

Wednesday:

Above si the drawing I started in last evenings drawing session and I nearly finished it too and will show it tomorrow when finished, it looks like an abstract code to me and I don't know what you see in it.

Today I have been up to our workshop to do a few things and when I left to meet my wife I went down Barnoon Hill, the scaffolding you see has been erected for the works on The Barbara Hepworth Museums roof, apparently it will re-open some time in March.

I met my wife in the library to get some posters copied and above is this Roy Walker from 1989. I never met Roy but I do know his son and wife and indeed in our previous life as art cafe proprietors we held a retrospective exhibition called Ten which was the first exhibition of his work to commemorate ten years since his passing and was organised by his son Leo, wife Peggy and the family it was a lovely show and even got in The Guardian listings. It is good that some of his work is around in this town. Roy Walker was one of the players in getting The Tate to come to St Ives which has certainly changed the dynamic of this town in many ways.

This is going to be quite a short blog today as I have had quite a lot to deal with with people I never want to work with again and would be wrong of me to write out of anger and frustration.

So I am going to share a few previous works and tgry and think happy thoughts.

Above is a drawing I exhibited this time last year at The St Ives Society of Artists, it sold and I have no idea where it is now.

I also draw on many things other than paper and so above and below two examples of me drawing on rocks.

I am now off to draw and forget about the negative things that have happened today.

What I call Contemporary Abstract Drawing.

Tuesday:

I must first report that I have finished another drawing in my latest 'whole sketchboook' work and I am very happy with the way the idea has turned out. I do try to visualise what a drawing will look like when I set out the rules at the start and this one has turned out better than initial thoughts had led me to believe.

I was hoping that the weather would be good enough that I would get people on my art tour and draw but I have to admit it was too cold and windy so after staying about 30 minutes at Barnoon Workshop I went off to distribute leaflets and posters for our future events. Above is the view from above Porthmeor about 11:15 this morning.

Above is a sign that brings sadness to the folk of St Ives and to visitors alike our best grocers have finally closed it will be greatly missed good luck to Mr Trim and co.

Earlier this year my friend and 'the artists friend' Jordan Laurence Jackson came and took some photos of some of my art and here are three pics of one drawing I did about a year ago and I hope his pics give you and idea of the work and the industry it took to get it finished.

It was executed with a uni-pin fine liner .01 pen and took many many days of work.

Another pic that Jordan took on that day is this drawing above that was also a bit of an epic task to complete, they both give you an idea of some of the work I do that I call 'Contemporary Abstract Drawing'.

Today I have started a twitter account to see if that helps me get my art out into the world a bit more. https://twitter.com/BobbyWotnotArt
We will see what happens.

I am soon to be off to draw, cheers.

Drawing Class, Work In Progress and Seaweed.

Monday:

Well here I am 21 months into doing my daily blog, it maps out my daily output to show that art is not all about glamour or wafting around with an ego. I am sure both have their place in the art world but I am just an artist trying to find my way through in a complicated world and to keep up my practice and get my work more out there. So I try to draw every day I possibly can, I carry such a wealth of ideas and I do a lot of thinking whilst working on a drawing. In truth ideas for each drawing comes quite easily and is generally a reaction to the previous drawing or drawings. So above is a new work in progress that has taken two sessions so far, I reckon that is about 7 or more hours work so far. I tend not to take much notice of the time actually taken on each drawing, maybe I should document a whole drawing in that manner. That is something I played with for a while when I was doing a series of drawings on wood and they would have the radio and television programs that were on whilst I was drawing. I very rarely draw in silence unless I am drawing in the outside world which does happen more these days.

So Monday starts as Monday does, that phrase is becoming a bit of a mantra in my life as is the regular start the week drawing class I attend and very occasionally lead that my wife Zoe Eaton generally does. Today's theme was 'Ink, Seaweed and Bleach' and in this session I didn't get to grips with the bleach to well but I was in love with the seaweed forms and ink washes, so below are my experiments from this morning lovely session.

Seaweed with Inks and Fine Liner

Seaweed and half a Quince.

Towards the end of the session I ended up experimenting with Quink ink and a small but wide brush and drew/painted these three slightly abstracted seaweed pics and I really enjoyed them, it was pretty liberating and I must try and find more time to explore this.

Since the I have done workshop work, website and things and above is random pic of the day, our bulbs have started to sprout in the back garden. It always surprises me slightly how far ahead the growing season is in the far south west.

New work in progress and some other drawings to show some of what I do.

Sunday:

 Above is a drawing I started yesterday and got quite far with in last nights drawing session so I would think about 4 hours work so far and I will continue it when I get to draw later.

Today I have not done 'art' so far because I had a client for my guitar course and it was a good starter session with a good student who worked very hard.

Above is a larger scale drawing and now it is heading into winter I will hopefully have a bit of time to get a few more larger scale works and below are some examples of drawings from various points in the last two years. I have spent some time being more colourful but I always like to be rooted in monochrome. Although the new drawing I am working on is monochrome at the moment I will be adding colour in the second phase.

The above drawing is from my whole sketchbook work 'The Monochrome Set'

Above another drawing from a whole sketchbook work but using my obliterarty style.

Above is a large A1 size drawing that took rather a lot of time it seemed like a huge task but day after day and in spare moments I added dots into each grid. I did it in non evening drawing session time and it must have taken 6 to 8 weeks of fitting drawing in with life and that can be a logistic problem but I have to fir it in.

Above is a post Monochrome Set drawing using the same initial ideas but then adding colour, it seemed a logical extension of what I had been doing earlier this year.

Above and below are two drawings from another whole sketchbook that I did to accompany the Hand Held View Exhibition we had at Barnoon a short while ago,

Above is a much older drawing from my first whole sketchbook work which was my first serious journey into what I do now, which is mostly about mark making, dots and lines and over recent years adding colour too.

I am off to draw now so I have something to show the world tomorrow. It is important to me that I keep creating and work hard to explore my ideas.

Cheers.

The St Ives Society Of Artists, new works etc

Saturday:

Above is a drawing I started a couple of days ago and as you can see it is now finished and I have now started the next drawing in the book and I should bring you progress on that tomorrow.

This afternoon I went up to the workshop on the way to the private view at The Mariners Gallery and yet again we both have works in the open exhibition. The viewing at The St Ives Society of Artists was a busy affair as usual. It is always nice to bump into familiar faces at these things, Marie Keeling, John Watson etc. It is always nice to see unfamiliar faces too.

Above is my wife's sculpture that she put in and he it is looking good on Marie Keeling's table, they look good together.

Above an below are my two entries and I think they look and different to any of the other works in the show, fingers crossed I might sell them, I have had a reasonable hit rate in the Society shows so far so hey you never know. The exhibition is on until the beginning of January and it is good to have work on show again. I always find it interesting to be in a show in a gallery that has so much history and such big names that were once members, The Society was started in 1927, that is 90 years ago.

Here is a brief history.

"

ST. IVES SOCIETY OF ARTISTS 1927-2008 

On the 26th January 1927, the marine artist Commander George Fagan Bradshaw proposed the foundation of a society to raise the standards of the colony and to exhibit works which ‘mattered’ in artistic circles. Lanham’s Gallery was the temporary home of this fledgling Society, but by 1928 it had moved to Julius Olsson’s old studio in Back Road West. The following year all the studios were offered for sale and Moffat Lindner purchased the whole block to avoid them being turned into shops. Borlase Smart said that Lindner had prevented what might have been a serious crisis in the history of St. Ives art. Lindner was very supportive and enabled the Society to continue to use Olsson’s studio at a very favourable rent. In 1932 the adjacent studio, number four, was also rented due to the growth of the Society. Lindner became President and remained in the post for the first eighteen years. 

 

Many Royal Academicians became members of this new Society: the leader of the Newlyn School, Stanhope Forbes, Lamorna Birch, Julius Olsson, the Principal of the first private art school in St. Ives, Adrian Stokes, Dame Laura Knight, Sir John Arnesby Brown, Algernon Talmage, Sir Alfred Munnings, Sir Stanley Spencer, Sir Frank Brangwyn, Sydney Lee, Dod Proctor, Bernard Fleetwood-Walker and many other notable artists including John Park and Borlase Smart. 

 

The decision that transformed the fortunes of the Society was a brave one, taken in 1931 at the height of the Depression. This was to stage a series of touring exhibitions at municipal art galleries around the country; the first, in Huddersfield, was very popular. Subsequently over twenty-five separate art galleries hosted shows by the Society between 1931 and 1947. In 1947 a touring show was even staged in South Africa to coincide with the King’s visit. 

 

Borlase Smart, Secretary of the Society from 1933 until his death, was also its later President. He was the driving force behind its astonishing early success."

 

If you want to read more see their website on this link http://www.stisa.co.uk/history/ 

Above is one of Graham Dilley's works in the 'open' it and another one are companion pieces to the ones we saw at yesterdays opening at The PZ Gallery and it is nice to see his work in town too.

Above is a pic I took from the far end of the gallery to give you an idea of the scale of this exhibition.

I have had a nice quiet day and now I am off to draw more and get ready for a day guitar course I am giving tomorrow.

Cheers.

Raw Rich, Penzance, St Ives and friends.

Friday:

Above is my latest drawing, still a work in progress but I think it shows where it is going now and I will attempt to finish it in tonights drawing session. I like to keep my work rate up and the flow of ideas, even if I lose some along the way.

Below are Berol pens I am using to add the colour.

Last evening we also had pals around for dinner and banter and our friends Lauren and Graham made it out for the first time with 10 week old Stormy and here she is being serenaded by mum and Dad. The guitar being played was made by Graham who is now a fully fledged maker and Lauren is an artist in town with a studio at The Sloop Craft Market.

This morning we did a little bit of running around, up to the workshop and stuff and this afternoon, so we set off with our guest to Penzance for a couple of reasons one to pick up some art surplies and two to go to a private view at The PZ Gallery.

Above and below showing what a lovely day it had turned out to be after early heavy rain and the sun still had some warmth to give.

After we had got around Penzance we ended up down by the prom and The Jubilee Pool and popped into to restaurant there for a very quick bite before we went to The Raw Rich private view. Our friend and regular attendee to our Monday drawing group Graham Dilley. For the past year Graham has been on the 'Monitoring Program' run by The Newlyn School of Art and this is the culmination of all that hard work. Eleven artists in all took part and filled this large gallery with their works done over the last year.

For the past year Graham has been on the 'Monitoring Program' run by The Newlyn School of Art and this is the culmination of all that hard work. Eleven artists in all took part and filled this large gallery with their works done over the last year. Above are some of Graham's works, the hang of his images was very professional and contemporary too and it was good to see him still working answering people questions. I am now interested in where he goes next with his work.

Above and below are a couple of shots to give you and idea of this vibrant opening. Overall it is a very good show and I really didn't dislike anything although I was more drawn to some artist more than other. Well done to everybody involved.