More Drawing....

‘They look too rushed-you can’t take those to the gallery’, my wife said as I showed her my new drawings on Saturday, just as I was about to take them to the gallery. ‘You’ve got to think, ‘Are people going to want to buy those?’ Somewhat defeated ( I never think about whether someone is going to want to buy them when I make something) I took them back to the studio, pinned them back up and over the next few days spent many hours refining them, and pushing them much further, trying to get greater depth in the colours, and also simplifying them. I tended to work across all of them at the same time. I also made some new ones such as the one above, which I am pleased with. This is a view of an enormous pile of pallets behind a wall seen and reflected in the canalside.

In my defense (your honour), it is not so much that they were rushed, but more that they were my first attempts to develop some new work from my recent trip to the motorway outside Oldbury. In my experience, it can take a long time to ‘key’ into ways of translating the imagery into drawing, and their rough quality reflected this. Also, working to order for the gallery, is just not something I’m used to so I felt quite a bit of pressure too in what was already a stressful time at work last week during an Ofsted visit. Still, at the end of the day, the missus was right as usual, and when I took them to the gallery on Wednesday I felt much happier with them. They seemed pleased too.

It was good to get back to the studio, and sweep up all the pastel dust, but strange and unsettling to have completed such a chunk of work, and it to have it disappeared from the walls no sooner than it was made…

Drawing

pastel on paper, 31 x 42cms

I’ve been working on these new drawings for Park View Art Gallery in the last few evenings. It has been an intense week, with an Ofsted visit at work, so lots of pressure, and trying to do these in those circumstances has been difficult. I’ve made about eight so far, trying not to think too much about it, and not sure if I liked them at all, but with the last couple I think some things are beginning to shape up. The more I do, the more able I feel to begin to make decisions about what I do and don’t like in the imagery, but also how to manipulate the media, in this case pastel, more successfully. Some of them are quite small, which are the ones I like working on best. I enjoy the intimacy of working on this scale., and things become more simplified, but they are complicated little drawings to deal with.

 pastel on paper, 31 x 42cms

pastel on paper, 21 x 32cms

pastel on paper, 21 x 31cms

pastel on paper, 31 x 21cms

pastel on paper, 21 x 31cms

Of course, the gallery may not like them, but I can’t think about those issues…. 

Exhale....

Norwegian Lake (The Red Cabin), pastel on paper, 31 x 42cms

Despite my reservations expressed in a recent post about the work based around my trip to Scandinavia, I realized the other evening that I have made over 50 new pieces in the form of drawings, paintings on paper, I-Pad studies, and larger canvasses inspired by the trip. It feels like the more I do, the more compelled I am to do more. Any larger paintings made have not really been successful, but since I returned to pastel drawing on a smaller scale, I have really found myself enjoying making new things much more. The physicality of the pastels and their spontaneity has been useful in helping me explore my interests in greater depth and speed. Certain themes seem to be emerging now. I’m not done yet, and I think I feel more prepared to tackle some larger paintings now, but in may ways these smaller works I think this is the work I needed to make from the trip. I still want to dig deeper though, as I feel I’m beginning to get things out of my system now….

Here are a few of my current favourite pieces, including some ones that were originally made ‘en plein air’ in Norway and Denmark last year.  

Norwegian Wood (Purple Trees), oil on paper, 42 x 31cms

Norwegian Wood (Sun Going Down), oil on paper, 31 x 21cms

Norwegian Wood (The Red Hitter), pastel on paper, 41 x 31cms

Cezanne always makes an appearance in a crisis...!

Norwegian Lake (The Red Canoe), pastel on paper, 21 x 31cms

Norwegian Wood (Ghosts), pastel on paper, 41 x 31cms

Norwegian Wood (Pink Ghosts), pastel on paper, 31 x 21cms

Norwegian Wood (Watchers), pastel on paper, 31 x 41cms

North Sea From Denmark, oil on paper, 21 x 31cms

North Sea From Denmark, oil on paper, 21 x 31cms

The North Sea From Denmark (Green Ribbon), oil on paper, 31 x 41cms

Heather Hills (Edge of Denmark), pastel on paper, 41 x 31cms

Heather Hills 2 (Edge of Denmark), oil on paper, 41 x 31cms

Heather Hills 3 (Edge of Denmark), pastel on paper, 41 x 31cms

North Sea from Denmark (Green Rocks), pastel on paper, 41 x 31cms

This is just a selection from the current work. I feel like I'm moving forward with it now, and really enjoying exploring colour as you can probably see...although not the 'edgelands' of the Midlands, they represent a different sort of edgelands altogether, but still the edges....