Merry Christmas!

Only in Switzerland! As it's Sunday today, the shops are closed on what is probably one of the most profitable days of the year elsewhere! So yesterday we hired a car and stocked up. I'm wondering what the Swiss have for Christmas dinner because I haven't seen many turkeys for sale except in the city centre. The few that we did see were enormous and I'm sure ours would feed a party of twenty so I'm seriously considering getting it started today! I feel stuffed just looking at it! Last year, I was looking at the turkeys from Saudi Arabia labelled 'halal slaughtered'. Very tempting. Next year I think I'll start a tradition of eating roast poussin, at least they're prettier!

Posts may be a bit sketchy ('scuse the pun) between now and the new year so I wanted to say a very big thank you for visiting and for the always encouraging and often enlightening comments. Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Christmas market, Carouge

Mark and I went along to the Christmas market in Carouge on Saturday. Sadly, it was a bit of a disappointment! This was the nicest stall we saw.




















We got there early but the little streets were already packed with crowds. It was freezing cold so Mark made a beeline for the Glogg stall! I rarely touch alcohol so a couple of sips of his warmed me up nicely! It was pretty strong stuff with slices of almonds floating on the top.




















We nearly went away with this, it would have looked wonderful in the kitchen, until we realised the hefty price tag referred to just one strand!













Otherwise, it was mainly the type of craft stalls you find all year round. In one of the squares there were food stalls although I think we have been spoilt by the market in Annecy!














We would have bought some spices if the woman at the head of the queue hadn't been chatting so long!














We settled for a packet of fudge, seen here bubbling in the pot, to replace our lost calories! It wasn't an entirely wasted day though, as we did buy a real tree on the way home. Alex has been moaning at us for years for having a fake tree (well, they don't come cheap in Kuwait!) telling us in great detail how his friends have decorated their houses. By the sounds of it they had a blank cheque and interior designers to advise too! So, at last, we have the tree and Christmas can commence!

Life drawing

Last Friday's life class. Unusually I only got two sketches done this week. I tried to 'block in' the figure as Anthony Ryder recommends in his book and wasn't too comfortable with it but obviously I will need to practice it.












The first one I decided I liked as a line drawing so I choose another angle and did a bit of shading on it. I must say, I don't think this is the nicest pose I've seen but it's all practice isn't it?! 2B pencil on cartridge.

Hair raising sketches

Decisions, decisions. To post some sketchy sketches or leave the blog looking neglected? This little dog isn't going to be finished any time soon because his hair is driving me mad! So I've put him aside for a while and decided to take a leaf out of David Malan's book and go through papers and magazines looking for faces to practice sketching every day.




















Looking for faces with interesting angles and trying not to overwork them or fuss about getting a true likeness.




















One problem that never seems to go away is getting the two eyes to match! If I could just master that I'd never complain again - it seems like a problem one should have as a schoolkid, not an adult. One always looks fine, usually the right, the other has to be worked at.

This is a quick sketch of Nicole Kidman, in the papers for visiting Geneva recently promoting watches. I always think if a woman pushes her hair back with her hands like this, she has spent hours in front of the mirror, perfecting 'the look' (not her, her stylists of course) and is afraid to touch anything lest she spoil the effect. A gesture often seen at premiers and award ceremonies!

Hopefully there will be more drawings soon but as it has become bitterly cold here (although I am a bit of a wimp if the temperature goes below 20C!) and I have a very strong urge to hibernate!

Agnostic art?

I don't care for tribes - football, religious, political, etc., but I did read an interesting article on agnosticism last week which rang a few bells for me. The thought that there is a group I might belong to really tickled me!

I was reading a blog by someone who really irritates me because it's pretty clear, to me anyway, that she is trying to subtley manipulate her readers to see that her way is the only way. Why I read it, I don't know, that's another story! Sure, she has all the right answers but if that was the only way, wouldn't we all be doing it? Perhaps it was the combination of those two things that sparked my thought this morning - is art simply another religion? Are art movements necessary in the same way that religions are necessary? We need to invent a group, give it some guidelines or even rules, and believe wholeheartedly that this is IT, this is Art, finally pinned down, defined and definite. When it doesn't quite fit, we break away, tweak the rules and worship a new god?

Do I have to confine myself to appreciating realism if I draw realistically? Why do artists of similar genres stick together? Who thought of creating a heirarchy depending on what medium you use? Another blog entry got me thinking about fashion in art. Such and such a style is popular he says. No point patting yourself on the back if that's the case because your style will go out of fashion just as surely as white flared trousers and platform boots. Surely creating art movements and fashions in art is to all artists' detriment. Sure, it makes us think but I feel, like fashion, it's time that we accept that 'everything goes' and throw out the notion that only an elite few understand the true meaning of art. Surely our brains are developed enough to stop thinking in terms of right and wrong?

Another excuse to visit the chocolatiers!

After Halloween, I wondered on the blog whether the chocolatiers would find something else to decorate their windows with before Christmas. Well the answer is a very definite yes! Had I known my history, it would have been a silly question. This weekend the Genevois will be celebrating their defeat of the invading French army and the story goes that a woman throw her pot of hot vegetable soup over the invading troops and it has become tradition for families buy these chocolate pots and smash them in celebration! There is a better explanation here.

I took this photo very quickly on Tuesday evening. I was hoping to get a better one later in the week in my favourite chocolatier but that night with a cough and a splutter, a bug announced it's presence so drawing and photography have come to a temporary halt. Not that I'm very ill, but it seems like an appropriate time to take a bit of a break for a few days. I came across some amazing blogs in the last week or so and found them very inspiring. I find it's good to stop and take stock every now and then, to think instead of do.

Kim

Kim, my cousin's Siamese, taken from a photo dated 1982. There are two things I resolved never to do after drawing this - never use a fuzzy old photo and try and draw details I can't actually see and never start more than one drawing at a time. I also changed the eyes which were half closed in the photo so this probably looks nothing like Kim! I had to use a lot of other reference photos to see how the hairs grew around the body, how cats ears look inside, and the paws look front on.

The reason it took so long too is that I started two other drawings at the same time and this is my number one 'no no'! I simply cannot concentrate knowing their are other drawings ready to shade. I'm not even sure if this is finished (I'm not completely happy with the face or the paws) or whether I just got fed up with looking at it and procrastinating.

Part of my dissatisfaction may come from reading Anthony Ryder's book and comparing my work, which looks flat, with his, which are exquisite. My Amazon package arrived yesterday and suddenly I'm in the mood for Christmas! All the shops look very festive and I hear that there is a Christmas market in Carouge - I can't wait to see it!

Anyway, at the end of it, I think this came out better than I had been expecting. I thought of binning it half way through! Now I need to do something quick and sketchy!