Private Views, New Drawings and gubbins.

FRIDAY:

Above is the first drawing I completed last night and then I got stuck into the one below and finished it too. I still have no idea of what the final destination of this whole sketchbook work will be but it has started with a monochrome manner I wonder where it will end up.

Here is the final drawing I finished last night and seems to be keeping a theme.

Today has been a day of many parts, there was a one watercolour workshop up at Barnoon. When that had finished I went up to help clear up and took this pic of the pathway work down the side of our workshop. It has been closed for very nearly 6 months and has had quite an impact on our business. It is promised that it will be open on 7th May. From the pic below it doesn't look like it will be.

We then went off to get a coffee at The Rum & Crab Shack and relax before a couple of private views. On the way I took a pic of our windy bay from the corner of Barnoon Terrace.

 When our coffee arrived Zoe did a bit of a 'wotnot' on the top of her drink.

After our little relax we went off to the private view of Colin T Johnson's paintings at Cafe Art a bit sad but mainly joyous as it is the first retrospective since his death a few weeks ago. Interesting work and although having known Colin and seen many many paintings of his but never so many circular pieces all in one place.

After some time we then headed off to the Penwith Gallery to the second private view of Public Hanging 2 featuring Anthony Frost, Rod Walker, David Kemp and more who's names elude me now.

I have started to think about what I will be drawing next, In a few gaps today I have already started the next drawing in my book. So I believe I have finished this blog.

See you tomorrow.

New drawings, a funeral and stuff.

Friday:

Above is a drawing that I started the night before but hadn't finished and here it is finished. It was almost an automatic almost unconsidered reaction to the previous drawings in this book that I am working on and it is getting nearly to the end of the project.

Above is the drawing that also just flowed out and looking at it, it seems 'after Terry Frost but also seems to relate a lot to my work in this 'obliterarty' book that has now been quite a long time in the making.

Today has been quite an emotional day. We had a workshop that didn't run this morning but I did start to get the workshop ready for our portrait studio on Saturday.

I then had to get my suit out which is something I do not wear very often but I had a funeral to go to of our dear friend and fellow artist Colin T. Johnson. This was held at Longstone Cemetary Carbis Bay. It was a lovely ceremony full of feeling. At the end of proceedings I helped take the coffin to the grave side and we all said our goodbyes.

We then all transferred to Tregenna Castle for the wake. This part of seeing Colin off was quite an uplifting affair with a great mix of people. I spent quite a lot of time speaking to Nick and Audrey who were old customers of our arts cafe in St Ives and Audrey was one of our Stalwart poetry people at the Lit fest and The September Festival. It was lovely to see them again even at this sad event.

So many people talked to it all seems a bit of a blur.

This is a bit of a late blog but we have spent a very enjoyable evening at a friend and supporter of Barnoon chewing the fat on the modern world over a few drinkies and bread and cheese.

Another very mixed and unusual/usual varied day in this artistic town we live in......

New work, art drops, Barnoon Workshop and Colin T Johnson RIP.

Monday:

 Above is the drawing I did in last evenings drawing session, I am happy with it as another spin on what I am doing in this current book and am hoping to finish this whole book before the end of the month, we will see.

Today started with our drawing class and the theme was about making and starting a holiday journal, a few of our regulars had already done this workshop so I took those off to Norway Square as the weather was clement to do so, If the weather had been less good we would have gone into the Society of St Ives Artists to draw inside. We ended up with plenty to draw from in the square. Zoe led the session back at the workshop, both went very well. We ended up back at the workshop to conclude our morning. I had quite a lot of interest in my book which is always welcome but still surprises me a little.

We then had a quick spot of lunch and then I had a quick dip into town to pick a couple of bits up for this afternoons water colour session 'All About Colour'. Zoe led this session and I went off to sort some other stuff at home and did some art drops on the way.

I returned just before the workshop finished to find a very vibrant atmosphere and some happy people. Some of the good folk on the workshop had been to us before and one lady saw my drawings on rocks and announced that she had bought one from the now defunct Uys Gallery on their last visit and uses it as an art paper weight. Another had taken a lot of interest in my current unfinished whole sketchbook. It is always good to get unsolicited feedback and it gives me heart that I am doing work that people connect with.

After clearing up we decided that we deserved a little treat on the way home, we have been a bit short on treats recently due to circumstances so we went for a bit of decompression at The Rum and Crab Shack for a coffee. I started work on a new drawing in there as we worked out a bit of a plan for later in the week.

I also left a little art drop before we left.

It has been a very good day workshop wise but we did receive some very sad news earlier that our friend and fellow artist Colin T Johnson had died early on Saturday morning. He had been ill for a while and had rallied several times before he finally parted company with this world.

Colin was one of the first artists we had met when we came to St Ives when we started our arts cafe, Cafe Art here. We put on several exhibitions of his work and had him round for dinner a few times. He had been in failing health for quite a few years now but it is still a bit of a shock he has finally departed. A very interesting character has left our world. Time to digest this fact.

I am now off to draw and get ready for tomorrow, hopefully I will have some folk on my Tour and Draw tomorrow morning and also have to get ready for our Drawing with Sharpies workshop tomorrow afternoon.

Cheers