This week in the garden

In my dreams! No, this is actually a photo taken quite a while ago by my cousin's husband. It's one of the family cats, Kim, I think, but as things are quiet this week I thought it would be nice to show it.

Paul and Alex go back to school next week and Mark is away for two weeks so I'm hoping to get my daily routine back again. Normal blog service will be resumed as soon as possible!

Paul, before and after

I got the phone call about life drawing on Thursday afternoon and I panicked that I might be too rusty so I got Paul to sit for me with a laptop to browse on. He asked me a couple of days ago to take a photo of his hair as it has never been this long before. (He's been refusing to go to the hairdressers as I've had a couple of bad hair cuts and hairdressers in Geneva don't have a great reputation! I've had haircuts in a few different countries but I've never come across the techniques they use here, they're very strange.) Anyway, I planned to do another portrait so now was a good time!

These two drawings are deceptive on the blog as the one above is quite large, A4 size (that's large for me!) and the one below is on a page about 5 or 6 inches across.






















I've posted this before but I've put it up for comparison. He'll be looking like this again next week when he gets his hair cut for school but I wouldn't have known if I hadn't drawn this how long it's been since his hair was cut. This is dated 1st May!

He thinks I've made him look fat in the latest drawing but just to make him feel better I should explain that it's the angle that he's slouching on the couch! It was done with an HB pencil and the shading behind was graphite powder smudged on with my finger.

Life drawing

Life drawing classes started up again yesterday morning. I was feeling very rusty and a bit nervous so I sat near the model and loosened up with a profile of her face. I have a liking for profiles at the moment!
















There were five of us in the room (which is a good number for this group) and as I was a little late I had to squeeze into the only available space. I had more time than I really needed to work on this as the model kept this pose for two hours so after I got the outline done I just filled in time with shading which gave me a chance to explore the muscles and bones in her back.





















Every so often she would sit up for a break and I found the natural poses much nicer. This one was done in just a minute or two. I'm not great at quick sketches but I tried it and was really pleased to get this reasonably well.

I came away with an almighty headache from the combination of the stuffy room and intense concentration. I wonder if there is some way of warming up or building up some physical tolerence for life drawing? It's tougher than it sounds!

EDM #78 Draw a souvenir

It seems like ages since I've done one of the EDM challenges and as this one was my suggestion I thought I had better get on with it! It was the drawing I did of a Bali souvenir that prompted me but that's already on the blog so I had to think again. This little wooden thing is from Madagascar, bought in 1988 in the central highlands. I can't remember much about it but I think it was bought in a shop run by missionaries and someone said something vague about it holding good luck omens. I haven't opened this for over ten years, or maybe since I bought it so I had forgotten what was inside. (You have to undo the string and the top half comes off and it has a little carved out cavity inside). I'm sort of superstitious about opening it (silly, I know) but I had a look inside to perhaps include the contents in the drawing. Hmm. It has a little flat rectangular piece of metal, a little plug of wood (the size of a wine cork) with a flat metal disc on top, and a piece of broken glass - it's probably a mineral but that's what it looks like! Anyway, a bit ugly, so I put them back for another couple of decades!

HB and B pencils.

Slow progress

Michelango painted the wrong ceiling! Alex and I swapped rooms yesterday after I painted the walls and ceiling of mine a few weeks ago. Although the rooms are the same size, because of the arrangements of the built-in wardrobes in our dividing wall, he was having trouble arranging everything to fit. Now we've swapped we both seem to have managed to create more space for ourselves. I also inherited his bookcase and a lovely wooden floor - my study was the only carpeted room in the house. A win-win situation. Except that his room is bright yellow and I'll have to get the paintbrushes out again. Deep joy...

Sign at the bottle bank

Marketing over matter

"Good drawing always transcends those trends which beset painting and other forms of visual expression within any period. It is a most personal revelation, the DNA, the proof one way or another of calibre. Good drawing is never just about craft or virtuoso skills, nor the dogged science which leads to feats of portrayal. It is about a show of warmth and understanding, a sensitivity and genuine engagement with subject. It is about discovery, awareness and articulacy and it is the core of creativity." Sonia Lawson, Arts Review, May 1996

Omega posted a link to this quote yesterday and it's content and timing were just perfect for me! I'm not sure why I started getting grumpy recently (although it may be the headache after the migraine!) but I think it was an accumulation of things on the groups I'm on. Funny how you join them with a vague idea to get more information and after a while you realise there are subjects on each of them that one mention of them is enough to light the touchpaper! On the quilt groups it's the art versus craft debate, who is an artist and what is art? (They may as well ask what is the meaning of life, or is there a God!) QuiltArt has all those including it's No.1 'no no' Thomas Kincaid - Martha Stewart may be No. 2, but I really couldn't care less as everything seems to tick them off!

On EDM I asked some questions about the Moleskine sketchbooks and thankfully the answers were civilised and informative! I'm very suspicious about things that inspire blind devotion and this book certainly seems to inspire it. It's not so much that the book offends me - I think it's very ordinary - but the cult of celebrity that is invading every part of our lives. The paper is so smooth it rejects watercolours and pencil smudges right off it. It was supposed to be used by Chatwin and Hemingway who were probably using pen anyway, but the point is - who cares about that? If asked, I doubt anyone would admit it, but the celebrity or cult status seems to carry an awful lot of weight! Buying it puts you in an exclusive club.

I'm tired of celebrity. Look at what it does to people! Paris Hilton gets publicity for wearing skimpy clothes and doing nothing. Ditto Victoria Beckham who must spend huge amounts of time either shopping or finding a camera to ignore but certainly not eating. Madonna is not the queen of re-invention, she is in desperate need of attention, constantly, by anyone, everyone. We worship people driven by demons.

Recently, after many years of having only a few cheap, foreign channels, we got satellite TV installed. It's really, really sad. It's worse than sad. The ads are mostly from loan companies who offer to take all your loans, wave a magic wand and make them disappear. Behind the facade of celebrity, looking good, staying thin, having the right brands, there are so many people in debt struggling to keep up with this dream/nightmare.

I guess that's why I don't like the Moleskine. It's a little bit of shallowness which to me is not what art is all about. Artists should make comments on shallowness, not be shallow. But art attracts those wannabes who think black clothes will guarantee their authenticity. Maybe I'm too cynical. I've come to the conclusion recently that using pencil is what I do, it's what I've always done and that's OK, it doesn't matter how lowly others think of it, I can't change my spots. To cut the crap, it's something genuine.

A headline caught my eye on the BBC yesterday
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4793455.stm
about there being more overweight people than undernourished. My theory about why the world is in such a mess is that people have lost the ability to find value in what is genuine. Half the world (or more than, according to the headline) is out shopping to fill the void. It's the new religion. One group I was on started talking about how many sewing machines they owned. All that 'I am an artist' crap fell away! Forget that honey, shopping is what it's all about!

Feeling prickly!

Stop the world, I want to get off! Every now and then the craziness of the world we live in gets to me and I don't want to draw, I need to draw. This beautiful, natural cone was just the job. I'm not too happy with it, I might try it again before it disintegrates.

Quick sketches

Finally, for today, some very quick sketches of one of our new plants. I didn't reach it in time with my camera before the migraine took hold and later when I returned, Mark had already planted it - not only had the rain set in but it has been planted in a little area in front of the basement window, not easily accessible so that it can grow up the side of the house and hopefully along the balcony!

So no photos, just sketches of a stem that broke off. The flowers had decayed slightly but as the edges turned black it made an interesting subject. I can't remember it's name but it's something like a Chinese Trumpet (I'll update the post when I find out) and the flowers are bright, glowing orange turning to red on the inside. The line drawing shows the trumpet before it has opened. It looks like it will just burst open but it has overlapping petals so it must open in a circular motion, one by one. I'm rather pleased to have found it because Mark and I saw one growing on a lovely old wooden building and not only did it's bright orange trumpets look amazing even from across the street but it was obviously a really vigorous climber, covering nearly half of the three storey building.

HB and B pencils.

Update: It's a Chinese Trumpet Creeper.

More discoveries in the basement!

No, not Big Bunny, he's mine but can you see what he is holding? Mark was having a clear out in the workshop (full of tools that the previous owners left behind) and found, in amongst the flammable substances, a flare! Thank goodness it wasn't me who found it because I wouldn't have recognised it and may have set it off, said I. Ten minutes later, Mark handed me another can and asked 'what do you think this is?' I had no idea, but would you have recognised a can of CS gas? I don't know whether it's legal or not, but it has now been disposed off!

This week in the garden

The last rose for our little rose garden. I knew this one had to come home with us as soon as I set eyes on it! A stripey rose - fabulous!




















It's interesting the way the petals curl back too.




















This one and the next two are Hibiscus I think. (The gardening expert has gone out this evening and now I can't ask him!)















I really like this one as the leaves add interest too. All the buds are only just coming out so we haven't seen the flowers yet but it should be lovely.




















This one looks like it has two different colour flowers but the pink turn to purple as they age.















An exotic visitor - although he did look a bit drunk as he waddled away!
















Three leaves I picked up in the garden. I like the green veins of the one on the left, it looked as if it had been Photoshopped!

Migraine stopped play

Yep, that's my excuse for my lack of posts on the blog this week. Since I'm going to show what plants we bought for the garden, I thought I should explain something about the migraines (like how can I be shopping with a migraine). Skip to next blog post if this bores you! I got a migraine in the small hours of Tuesday so I took an Imigran tablet. Since the digestive system starts shutting down with the onset of a migraine, they have to be taken at the right time in order to work properly. These days the tablets work OK but not as well as they used to so I'm up and about, looking reasonably human but feeling like a zombie. Six or seven hours later the tablet wears off, I'm back in bed and waiting for the next tablet to take effect. And so it goes for three days, sometimes fine, sometimes very sore, up and down like a yo-yo. Very confusing for the family!

On Thursday morning, I woke feeling fine and Mark and I went off to the garden centre. But the migraine wasn't watching the clock and came back again as I was taking the photos of the plants later, so not brilliant photos and a little late getting on the blog! Since the family get a bit neglected during this time, I haven't been drawing but cooking - working my way through Jamie Oliver's wonderful recipes!

Place des Fetes

A few weeks ago I mentioned that a paraglider landed in a field behind our house. When the schools broke up for the summer and a huge party went on into the night (2.30am to be exact!) we found out that the field has a name - Place des Fetes! August 1st is National Day and I had been dreading it for weeks - the music from the previous party was so loud it must have been heard for miles around. On Tuesday afternoon they started testing the sound system. Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond wafted over the house. Well, the early seventies are my golden era and listening to Pink Floyd at high volume was almost compulsory for a teenager then! It was a good omen.














At sunset, we strolled over to see what was going on. The whole of Thonex must have been there.














I was hoping to see something typically Swiss - this was not it!





















Maybe these? Mark thought they might be fondues but they were full of soup.














I love the smell of barbeques - plenty of smoke here!















A fire station overlooks the green. An ideal place for the bonfire later!





















There was a 'guy' on the top to start with - I wonder who that was supposed to be? In parts of Geneva, fireworks have been banned because of the hot, dry weather we've had so there were none tonight- unusually because the Swiss love them. I heard that the Bastille day celebrations in July are watched carefully so that the Swiss can beat them for their National day!

The music didn't improve on Pink Floyd but the live band were quite good and surprisingly laidback. I was expecting more of a knees-up! However, we did see the posters advertising the next event taking place in September. A country and western music festival. I'm sure that will be a lot of fun but Mark has dubbed it the Fete Worse Than Death!

Paintbrush

This must be the first instance of a paintbrush creating a work of art without the artist! I left a brush in a plastic container overnight (it was old anyway!) and when I removed it the next morning it left an image behind which I thought looked wonderful, I wish I could have painted it myself.

Little Big Cat

Meet Little Big Cat! She's Big Little Cat's older sister or at least we think she is because she was the larger of the two when they first arrived at Mum's house. Now, although she's podgy, she looks slimline against her very greedy sister! She is everything that Big Little Cat isn't - quiet, unassuming, ladylike, gentle - in fact I get the impression when I smile and talk to her, she's going to say 'who me? You really want to talk to me?!' When you stroke her, her sister will butt in and push her away and Little Big Cat will go, assuming she's not wanted anymore. I'm very fond of her, she's such a sweet cat!

My brother sent me the photo of her to draw from and she was out in the back garden minding her own business. Even the way she sits with her paws together looks ladylike!

Notes/waffle on the drawing - in a word it would be 'aarrgh' or something like that! It was done with HB and B pencil and after I started it we were supposed to have visitors at the weekend. They had to cancel and I was left with lots of food. The meat went into the freezer but I had to get the recipe books out to think of imaginative ways to use up the veg! The good news is that it kick-started my love of cooking again (with no alcohol or pork in Kuwait, I got bored with trying to make chicken interesting). As there has been a break in the weather and Mark had some days off, we've been doing some of the jobs that needed doing around the house. So the bad news is I've had little time for drawing and trying to snatch moments to finish Little Big Cat has made me feel disconnected from it and it became a chore to finish. It felt heavy and over worked and now I'm eager to draw from life and keep it simple before I do more cats.






















I thought it would be a good time to post these two quick sketches from my 'scribbles' sketchbook. Above is my favourite fushia. I tried to capture the beautiful colours of the bud and how they faded into one another. Sadly, it's not looking so good after the heatwave.













This one is a drawing of a white chocolate crispy bar that I've become addicted to! (I don't normally eat white chocolate but the combination of rice crispy bits and fudge is rather more-ish!) I've done a really bad job of the lettering but somehow I like the drawing. I thought it was too awful for the blog but Alex said he liked it so it mustn't be too bad! It was done with a Pigma pen but I'll try another with the Lamy Safari and see if there is a difference.

The language of art

I remember watching a TV programme about a jacket that was featured on the front cover of Vogue magazine. It was modeled by one of the supermodels of the time, like Linda Evangelista or Christy Turlington and, although I can't remember exactly, I'm fairly sure it was Chanel. The programme followed the making, marketing, promotion and selling of the jacket. To cut a long story short, this jacket was made by a few women in an obscure part of the world using a very precious bolt of fabric, cost a large four figure sum and - here's the rub - sold to about five rich women. So that jacket that was to represent a new fashion movement, featured on a popular magazine, was as attainable to the average woman as Linda's face and figure.

I was surfing some art blogs this morning and yet again I find that even though the artist is speaking English, I cannot understand a word they are saying! They say the Americans and the Brits are two peoples separated by a common language and I find this so true when reading certain (modern) art blogs! Are they speaking a language only those in a certain area of New York can understand? Are they trying to mask something that is lacking in their work? It's really not that I don't like modern art but I'm finding that with some artists who speak in an indecipherable (artsy fartsy?) language, their art doesn't speak to me either.

My Dad was a very conservative person so I was surprised when one day he said how much he liked one of Salvador Dali's paintings. I'm sure Dad would have had no time for Dali's affectations! But to me it represented something more important- that Dali's art was communicating and speaking a universal language. If you travel to remote parts of the world, you find that every human being understands it.

Isn't the whole point about art to communicate (for want of a better word)? Perhaps I'm missing something - that the point of these artists (or should they be called club members?) is only to communicate in code so that only the Chosen Ones understand? What then are they trying to say with their art, and who is their audience? Or is it an in-joke? Are they thumbing their noses at the masses perhaps, like that expensive jacket?