A walk to Parc La Grange

It was supposed to be a walk to the lake again with the watercolour artist Jean-Pierre Montmasson, but it was so cold this week we only made it to Park La Grange before the cold got the better of us. But no matter, it was every bit as enjoyable as last week as Jean-Pierre is such an engaging and entertaining speaker.

















This was the little sketch he completed last week. I was completely taken with his tiny sketchbooks so it was wonderful to get a chance to browse through them again.
















He mentioned that he went to the Biennale Carnet de Voyage at Claremont Ferrand last week. Jean-Pierre has travelled all over the world sketching and painting so I wouldn't have been surprised if he had been invited to show his work. He has illustrated the book Versailles and although we didn't see him painting at the lake, he did paint a little dedication for me in his book which was fun to watch!


















He says he chose the paper in the book to look and feel like the watercolour paper he uses. Of course I got a good look at his paints. I'm sure I'd paint mud if mine looked like that, but he knew exactly what shades he wanted and how to mix them!















And just how much pigment and water to get that lovely blending of colours.

In my last post about the walk, I put a footnote about Stefano Faravelli and again he is mentioned here as I asked Jean-Pierre if he saw his sketchbooks at Claremont Ferrand. I'm sure the other ladies on the walk must have wondered what on earth I must have said to get such a big reaction! It was just wonderful to talk to someone who understands and shares the same passions! A friend of his got a little painted dedication from Faravelli and said she could 'now die happy' and I'm sure she wasn't joking! I'll treasure my little dedication and hopefully Jean-Pierre will come back to Geneva next year to inspire us again with his infectious enthusiasm for painting!

Local signs

There is only one factory in Switzerland (as far as I know), so you'd think the sign would be a bit special, a bit more creative, wouldn't you?

Painting at the lake

For the last few weeks I've been feeling like a bit of a change and just by chance a fantastic opportunity came up to go on a walk with a watercolour artist to Lake Geneva. He was giving a talk to 'share his inspired manner of observing and seeing the nuance and truth of the subjects he paints' and it would finish at the lake where he would do a demonstration. Well, it sounded wonderful and it was! His enthusiam was so infectious I got my paints out as soon as I got home and did this little sketch of him sitting at the lakeside. I was wondering whether to post it when Alex looked at it and said 'wow, did you do that?' so here it is. What happens when I put paint to paper is not the effect I'm going for (I'm not even sure what that is) but after his talk about there being no rules, and how the art is not about copying what you see but putting yourself, your personality, into the work, I don't really care if it's considered bad or not. It was just what I needed to hear. His tiny sketchbooks made a big impression on me too as I love working small but popular opinion is artists should work big. Well, I'm not listening to that anymore! I realised that I was making things difficult for myself by using sketchbooks that I was uncomfortable with (particularly drawing in public) and it's perfectly alright to do tiny sketches too. I really like the paper in the watercolour Moleskines so I'm using the small ones to practice in.

It was a cold but glorious afternoon walking through Parc La Grange to the south side of the lake at Quai Gustave Ador, and I enjoyed it so much I'm doing it again next week!

By the way, if anyone is interested in travel sketches, I came across some wonderful links on Stefano Faravelli's website. There are links to videos here, sketchbooks to flick through on screen and even a list of things in his travel palette. I found more videos as I looked for the links so there is plenty to browse and his work is so inspiring it hardly matters that it's all in Italian!

TV sketches - profiles

More Mastermind contestants - I love doing these. 'Ordinary' people are so much more interesting than celebrities with their symetrical faces and Botoxed features! (Why are so many trying so hard to look like so few? Why don't we celebrate our great diversity?) I was surprised to hear that the lady with the long hair (above with the glasses) was 81, she looked amazing for her age.





















I especially enjoy doing profiles and glasses. A student on Sky News, above, with an interesting profile, glasses and hairstyle! A lady on the tram, below.

Ben

At last, something new! Half way through I had to put this one away for a very long time, trying to figure out why it wasn't working. To cut a long story short, I think it has turned out much better than I expected - I nearly gave up on it, like Miriam from the last post! In retrospect it would have been quicker to have simply started again. And strangely, when I compare it to my last large portrait of Steve, I think there are improvements particularly with colour saturation. I hope Ben likes it though - it will be interesting to know how an 8 year old feels about having his portrait done!

Miriam

I was sad to read that Miriam Makeba had died recently. I tried to draw her way back in the early 90's and the portrait became one of my 'failures'.

I have a confession to make - if I had a choice, I'd much rather be a musician than an artist. I think music resonates with our deepest emotions in a way other arts cannot. Even basic drum rythms seem to affect us - it can whip mobs into frenzies, it can drive us mad (think of bad music over loudspeakers directed over enemy lines) or keep us dancing into the small hours! Beautiful melodies and poetic lyrics can melt hearts, soothe our sorrows, send us to sleep or overwhelm our emotions. Whereas spoken language is learned, the language of music seems to be instinctual. (Some might argue the same is true of visual art, but when I think of the arguments about whether this medium is better than that, impressionism is better than realism etc., I just don't see that with music. Whether it's heavy metal or classical we all understand it's valid, it's music, and simply down to preference. We like it or we don't, an artist's statement ain't gonna change anything!)

The 70's was an absolutely fantastic time to be a teenager. I have musical memories as a child in the 60's, of course- one of the first songs I remember was Downtown by Petula Clark and I was a big fan of The Monkees when I was about six! Growing up, I went through the Donny phase, then the more mature David phase (or was it the other way round?!), had a brief fling with the Bay City Rollers but all that ended abruptly the moment I heard Queen singing Seven Seas of Rhye on Top of the Pops. Freddie designed the album covers and they seemed to be from another wonderful, creative, outrageous world so far removed from mine. (Actually, bizarrely, they did cross the following year when I was in the back of a school bus coming back from a swimming lesson and just as it passed the English National Opera building, Queen came out of the entrance! My friends mimicked the look on my face for ages after that!) They seemed to bridge the gap between music and art. But while I was mad about Queen, I used to listen to the radio most nights and I'd enjoy Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Eric Clapton, Hendrix, Lennon - everything from what was called 'progressive rock' to the silly ditties that were in the charts. It was all fun and all so exciting and new.

Too much fun for my Dad's liking because I got packed off to boarding school in the middle of nowhere (that was just outside Dublin in those days!) and at that time it was like stepping back into the 50's. I started in September 1976 and came home for the Christmas holidays and was horrified to find out the world I'd left behind in London only months before no longer existed - punk had arrived and I hated it! I tried to like the Jam, the Police and the Stranglers. I got into the Cure and Joy Division but my heart wasn't in it. It was depressing, negative and cynical and I didn't need that, not then. Spandau Ballet were fun, at last, and the 80's had a few good moments but it was nothing compared to the 70's.

By that time (the love of art having been supposedly educated out of me), I was then a battery hen, working in a dreary office, and travel became a passion. In 1984, I took myself off to The Gambia in West Africa as it was just opening itself up to tourism. There was a very long, hot dusty walk into the capital Banjul, from the hotel which I enjoyed and one day, half way along, I stopped off at a little bar for a drink. I heard the most amazing sound coming from the tinny little radio and asked who was singing. I couldn't quite get the name right so when I got home I went up to a music shop in North London and asked if they recognised it. Yes, it was Youssou N'Dour, from Senegal (The Gambia is a tiny country surrounded on all sides by Senegal.) The love of music was finally re-ignited! I discovered the great sounds coming out of places like Zaire, Rwanda, Mali, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Madagascar and of course, South Africa - a year or two before Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon made their discoveries! But from those first notes on that tinny radio and those haunting vocals, there was no mistaking these sounds were something special. I tuned in to Charlie Gillett's world music show and it really seemed like Africa was emerging from the darkness. The music was so full of hope, the time for change had come. But there was big trouble brewing in Rwanda and I remember hearing Charlie talking about how the climate in that region was changing and effecting the musicians and the music.

Listening to Miriam Mekeba takes me back to those hopeful days. It's sad to think of what has happened to Africa in the intervening years but after last week's elections in the US, who knows, it might inspire change in ways we can't yet imagine.

Mags and migraines

This month is the 'Travel and Adventure' issue and one I was looking forward to seeing. It was interesting to see which drawings the editor chose and the layout of the page. I'm really glad she included the little sketch of the Great Wall as that was such a special day for me, sketching up there on a deserted stretch of the wall with just the noise of the breeze - really magical.

I hope to have something more up-to-date to post soon. I had a bit of a block with a portrait I started and had to put it away for quite a while to see what the problem was. (The good news was, the solution just popped into my head as I woke up one morning, the bad news was I'd done too much to erase and re-work!) Just as I was getting back into it, a migraine struck this week so I'll have to try and finish over the weekend.

The migraine was expected and I knew it would be a bad one too. During the summer I thought I'd finally sort out my food 'intolerances' and had some tests done. I explained quite a few times that I didn't have allergies, I had intolerances, but when I returned for the results I was told I had no allergies. I was cross (even more so when I saw the bill!) but she insisted that nothing had shown up for wheat and the other things I mentioned. So, a few weeks ago, and for the first time in 11 years I started eating bread again. No serious symptoms, so I tried cakes and biscuits too! It seemed fine at first, I was thrilled that I was finally eating normally. I wouldn't have to worry about finding something suitable while travelling, or going out to eat. But very gradually I started to feel really sluggish, very depressed, I was putting on weight and my skin looked like I had a bad case of acne! So, start of the week - detox time. I knew there was nothing for it but to go cold turkey and it only took 24 hours for that migraine to kick in! Much as I love bread, it'll be at least another 11 years before I'll try that again! My skin already feels better and I'm sure I'll have a lot more energy next week. Might even get that portrait finished!