Snaps

I haven't put any photos of Geneva on the blog for a while so here are a few as I have no drawing today. This is the mayors office in Thonex (where I live). A few weeks ago when we filled up a load of bin bags with all the pruning and weeding we had been doing, we made sure we put it in re-cycleable bin bags. A neighbour knocked on the door to tell us (very nicely, I might add) that the bin men wouldn't collect the bags since they weren't the proper ones. Mark had noticed yellow bags next to the bins and suspected as much but we hadn't found them in the shops. It turns out that there are special bags available only from the mayor's office. I'm glad he told us, I would never have guessed!














Remember that lovely bus stop in Veyrier where we stayed temporarily? Here is our new local stop. Again, it's right on the border (under the blue signs) and the end of the route. The drivers in Veyrier had a lovely view to enjoy while they smoked their cigarettes which, with luck, gave you an extra minute or two if you were late but here on the main road there isn't much to see (slightly deceptive from this viewpoint) so the bus goes off dead on time or even slightly early. I'm late for everything so this is a bit of a struggle! Can you see the mountain in the background? You can see Mont Blanc on a clear day (I find that amazing, it's not something I thought I'd ever get to see).















A few weeks ago (before the horribly hot weather) I hopped off the bus in Geneva one stop too soon and came across these wonderful roofs.






















This is one of the buildings. It seems to be an apartment block with shops on the ground floor.




















Is there a touch of Gaudi about it?





















Since I've been drawing so much in the last few days I've got to do some dreaded housework - the two activities just don't go together do they?! I have a few other things to do too but my mind isn't on them. In fact, I went to my French class this week and I couldn't get my brain into gear at all. If I'm drawing and someone speaks to me, it takes a few minutes to activate the language part of my brain (admittedly shrivelled and weak anyway - what hope is there for French when I'm still learning English?)* A day later and I'm still feeling the same - I must snap out of it!

*See comments!

Max on the windowsill

#2 of the Cats in the Family series! Things could get a little complicated because Max isn't one of Mum's cats but he does live at the house part-time. After months of sheer determination and simply ignoring Big and Little Cat's attempts to chase him away from the cat biscuits (nipping in the back door every morning), he is now one of the gang. He's a big pussycat in every sense - he has a placid but stubborn temperament and a very thick grey coat. I did the drawing of him from a photo my brother took of him chilling out on the windowsill next to the back door (and conveniently close to the biscuit bowl).

We know his name is Max from his collar but there have been occasional part-time cats at Mum's house. One was a very shy, small black cat who used to come just for the afternoons and just to snooze on the landing upstairs. When Mum made enquiries and found out he lived a couple of doors away, he stopped coming. It was as if all the mystery had gone out of the relationship!

Notes on the drawing - HB pencil on cartridge paper (from the little black sketchbook in the previous post - now filling up with cats rather than family members!). Up until I drew this cat a couple of months ago (previously the only animal I drew was a lemur back in 1988) I would have said I couldn't draw animals so without being immodest, I'm really happy with how the cats are turning out. The first cat drawing put a little seed in my head (I loved drawing it and I'm mad about cats) because when drawing portraits I feel the appeal of the face has a lot to do with how the drawing is judged but cats have a more universal appeal. Also, something just felt 'right' about drawing them. So I've been looking for cat photos but I didn't want to just copy photos of any old cat and, not being the brightest button in the box, it's taken a while to come up with the idea of drawing the various cats in my family.

The difficulty I had with this drawing was how to get the feeling of the texture of the fur on his body. The head was surprisingly easy but that large mass had to look like less of an afterthought. I probably could do more but I'm trying to leave my drawings before that finished stage now - trading quality for quantity. I've left it slightly blurry hoping to concentrate the eye on his head! The whiskers were done by deciding where to draw them and leaving the white of the paper (and, on Little Cat, pulling out highlights with an eraser). When doing hair that is something I really couldn't be bothered working out before, how lazy is that?!

And thanks again for all the comments, I really do appreciate them. I found the ones on the self portraits led me to question my own conclusions and keep a more open mind. I love learning new ways of thinking!

Cool cats

Actually, she's not a cool cat at all but Alex is. This is Little Cat who together with her sister, Big Cat, moved into my Mum's house from next door. We never found out what the neighbours thought about this but they seemed to be fine with the arrangement! She's very greedy (she'll pretend to anyone coming into the kitchen that she hasn't eaten all day) and a bit of a slob and has become so fat I've now named her Big Little Cat - Mum never gave them names, I wish she had because it still seems years later like they are visitors. She appears to have been born with a slightly damaged right eye.

It was too hot to draw last week which was very frustrating, so as soon as the temperature came down a couple of degrees, I got going. The basement is the coolest place in the house and Alex went down there to play a computer game so it seemed like a good place to start.





















Sketches don't scan so well, but here he is, engrossed in his game and listening to music on his earphones. His hair needs a cut and he hasn't had a shower yet so it's a bit of a mess but Alex is definitely not a neat freak! Every morning when he gets out of bed, I could swear he has grown in the night and last week I discovered that is now taller than me which makes me the shortest in the family.

After drawing Alex, I made up for lost time by starting three cat drawings, with another I'd like to do so there will be a series of 'cats in the family' soon!


















Since I like to see other people's materials, I thought I would post mine. The novelty of the Moleskine has worn off slightly (wish they would make them with proper cartridge paper - the pages remind me of those old buff folders of the sort you used to find in office stationers) so this weekend I decided I was going to use one of the three books I've been afraid of spoiling. One is a lovely leather sketchbook that Mark bought me in Budapest, the other two are pictured. The brown one is from Winsor & Newton, has the perfect paper and feels and looks gorgeous. The black one has lovely paper, just a little thinner than I like but it's absolutely the perfect size and shape - not too small and not too rectangular. It came in a box with The Sketchbook Kit which is a super little book but it means I'll have to buy another if I want the sketchbook!

I picked up the black one and started drawing a leaf from the Hibiscus plant. Almost straight away the fear evaporated. I don't use up so many sketchbooks that I need to catagorise them but I think it would be nice to keep sketches of the family in this one. There is something about it that inspires confidence!

Also in the photo, my Faber Castell HB pencils (sharpened to needles), a piece of bark from a plane tree, and two of the lenses I normally use on my Canon camera - a 28-90mm and a 75-300mm (photo taken with a 10-22mm), my trusty laptop and Danny Gregory's Creative License which arrived last week (excellent!).

This week in the garden

We've had some visitors!















I'm fond of Blackbirds so it's lovely to see them close up.

















Last week it was so hot that it went by in a haze - all most of us could manage during the hottest part of the day was to lift a drink to our lips! I put a pot stand with water out for the birds and they are really enjoying it! The blackbirds most of all and boy do they make a splash! We bought some wood shavings to cover the soil in the patio beds but now I realise I've got a lot of tidying up to do after the blackbirds have scraped it out of the way in their quest for a juicy worm!

These are the new roses for the back garden. They're in a bed near the back doors and the fragrance is wonderful! The heat made them wilt for a couple of days but they seem to have recovered now, whereas one of the fushias (my favourtite one) is struggling. I'm not sure what the last flower's name is but it adds to the riot of colour!

Ice?

We were in Iceland exactly a year ago. Why do I mention this? Because I'd love to be there right now instead of melting in this heatwave!

Did I say that?

Did I really say that the garden was boring?! The first thing I want to do when I get up in the morning now is check how the plants are doing! No two days are the same, there is always something new to see or discover. These Crocosmia (I'll forget that again in five minutes from now!) popped up in the rockery this week. They are one of my favourites and that colour combination of red, orange, purple and green is another!




















The rose bush is bursting with buds again. We're buying more this week so this bed will be full of roses.















The garden is teaching me to be still, look and listen. I had never watched a spider making a web before, or rather I had looked briefly and thought I knew how a spider made a web. If you've never done this, you really should! It's amazing to see the spider making the general structure and then building it up with such precision. That tiny little thing has a purpose and it just gets on with the business. The web gets destroyed by the weather, debris, us and it just starts all over again. No ifs, buts, what's my motivation here?, is it art?, is it the best? angst that we humans have!

Life and death

On my way to the bus stop I pass this shrine tucked away behind the church. Just a few yards from where we live is the local cemetery. Some might find it spooky but it actually looks bright and attractive and there are nearly always visitors there. The shrine is always well kept and the flowers fresh too.





















I rarely have my camera with me now that I'm using the buses (too much to carry) but I had it with me today when I went to my French class. Somebody had left a shopping bag full of fake flowers at the shrine.

I found out last week why the church bells ring so often - for weddings and funerals. It didn't really occur to me that by living near the cemetery we might see more than our fair share of hearses! One went by me as I came out of our close but it didn't spook me as they usually do probably because it was so beautifully decorated. There was no entourage, only the hearse but as I passed the church all the mourners were outside laughing, hugging and chatting - not a sad face to be seen. I thought that having a happy send off would be the best kind of funeral but then again maybe it was some old tyrant that they were happy to see the back of?!

The following day, I was walking towards the church, laden down with shopping bags, with no-one else around when suddenly the bells started ringing and out of the church came the bride and groom. They looked like a vision and the bride was dressed in a fabulous strapless cream dress. We almost walked into each other and I thought the juxtaposition of the old and the new wife kind of amusing!

Pottering in the garden

We have a convenient sprinkler system in the back garden and in the beds surrounding the patio at the front. The one next to this Rhododendrum sprays a little too high but makes for a good photo opportunity!




















I'm not fond of this plant, I find the green too dull (scrubs up well in PhotoShop though!) and it's always covered in spider's webs. Not the regular, more attractive kind with the spider in the middle but that messy, multi-layered sort with lots of unfortunate victims and old leaves suspended in it.




















Another quilt idea I have is for overlapping leaves like this.




















I couldn't decide which of the two photos to use so I'll show them both!




















OK. I admit it. This is the real subject of the post but I don't want this at the top of the page!
















I can't believe there are more of these ornaments still in the garden. Mark has now put a few of them down at the bottom of the garden in a dark corner under the tall flowering bushes and calls it the Pumpkin Patch! This, I can tell you, will NOT be joining them!

Jana, I use a Canon 300D with a 28-90mm lens usually. It doesn't have a macro but zooming in on details from a distance provides some nice effects. I don't draw from my photos, although I used to for portraits. Now that I think of it, I suppose I like to think of them as separate from the drawings, a slightly different 'take' (if that makes sense).

New arrivals

I'm no slacker when it comes to buying things and one beautiful, very large fushia in a hanging basket found it's way to our house this week. I especially love the delicate mauves and deep purples so I had to have this one even though the weight of it nearly killed me getting it home!




















When I had a good look at it, I realised there were two varieties in the pot! It's still sitting on the patio because I can't decide where to hang it so I can see it all the time! There is a hook outside the front door but I hadn't noticed till I got the plant home that it was placed too close to the wall. (There is a fake conifer hanging in the pot, but I won't go into that).




















Two of these went into the small beds by the patio.




















A little novelty.




















I've shown this before but the white Hibiscus opened two flowers yesterday and they were as big as plates! It also illustrates nicely my feeling that perfection does exist in nature. Just look at the shading in the centre and the design of those overlapping petals. Does it have appeal from a distance to draw you in and wow you with the details?!














I found a little inspiration in the back garden too. Those bright red edges are not a trick of PhotoShop.





















The only flowering plant now the pink roses have finished.




















We have lots of snails!
















I'm not sure if this is a good sign but it made a good subject for a photo!

Improvement?

I got a comment about my drawings the other day which has prompted me to explain something about them.




















This is a drawing of Paul I did in 1991/2. In those days I was using very hard pencils (2H and 3H with HB for the darkest areas) and building up my drawings in layers.























Forgive me using these drawings again but I don't assume anyone has the time to look at blog archives! This is the one, drawn a couple of weeks ago, that got the most negative comments (not from anyone posting here I hasten to add). Done with soft pencils and probably took a couple of hours.





















And this was the much 'better' portrait.

Now I don't like the first one and I agree the second is more pleasing to the eye but why is it better? The first one expresses how I feel about my face. It emphasises the best and worst in a slightly exaggerated way but because it's not so realistic does that make it 'worse'? Actually, it was the word improvement with regard to my drawing skills that really got me thinking(and this from someone who has seen my drawings). Surely if I could draw Paul the way I did over 10 years ago then trying to draw realistically is not my aim?





















This drawing of Paul is now framed and hanging on the wall or I would scan it to show it more clearly. It was drawn around the same time as the other but it represents a big turning point for me. It was the closest I've come to my (then) quest for perfection. I knew what I wanted to achieve, how long it would take, what materials and techniques to use and it came out exactly as I envisioned. There is nothing I would change, no more marks that would make it any more perfect than it is.

Since I've joined on-line quilting groups I've realised that perfectionism is one of the seven deadly sins so I should explain that this is my version of the words. Perfect in the sense of having acheived what I wanted.

But then I was left with a very odd feeling. Now what? And what for?


















I can barely see this on the screen but it's a page in a sketchbook I had at the time. I must have filled about six pages in total but only one with sketches of Paul. In these few marks I can see, feel, hear, smell, touch Paul and remember so clearly what he was like but those highly polished drawings don't capture that at all. Here is Paul looking at a toy on his highchair that had a suction pad to keep it on. His eyelid when he was sleeping had a slight gap as if he was about to wake. His hands were always curled and collected little clumps of dust! At the bottom of the page I actually put his foot on the page and drew around it so I'd remember the exact size of them!

How much more is there in those few sketches! Yes, I do love my earlier drawings but they took months of my life. While they had another important function for me at the time, I do regret that in trying to achieve perfection I missed the point. Or rather I wasn't brave enough at the time to fail (just to sketch) and risk the criticism. Ironically, by posting that 'not so great' portrait of myself I feel I've come a long way. It may be a snail's pace but it's better than nothing!

Ring a bell?

I'm not one for making lists which is probably why I'm so disorganised but here's one I came across in the stack of papers the previous owners left behind. This believe it or not is the list of tunes on our doorbell. I can always tell when it's Alex or Mark at the door because they ring it more than once to make me cringe. Paul is above this sort of behaviour!

Home Sweet Home
Waltzing Matilda
William Tell Overture
Long Long Ago
American Patrol
Amazing Grace
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Sawanee River
Toreador's Song
Oh Susannah
De Camptown Races
Frere Jacques
O' Solo Mio
Did You Ever See a Lassie
Oh My Darling Clemintine
Dixie Land
Santa Lucia
Home on the Range
America the Beautiful
The Yellow Rose of Texas
Three Blind Mice
Laura Lee
Silver Threads Among the Gold
My Wild Irish Rose
She'll be Coming Round the Mountain


Find anything you like?

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