Up close and personal

I've been thinking of doing this for a while - taking close-ups of things around my room just to see how they would look as a group. I have a very vague memory of a TV documentary I watched in the 90's where couples were interviewed in their houses. The visual style was very simple, no music, no clever angles, just sitting on a sofa talking about themselves. But what really made it interesting was that the during the interview simple close up shots of objects around the room were shown. While they were trying to show themselves in their best light, the objects in the room were revealing a very different story! Cameraman as assassin - silent but deadly! Years later I often catch myself looking at one of our ornaments and can see it being zoomed in on for one of those close-ups!


Of course, I get to decide what is shown here but I'm sure they are revealing. I noticed straight away that I looked for colour and yellow and/or orange with blue is a favourite combination of mine.





















Pencils, obviously!





















My favourite beads. I love the colours so much I can't bring myself to use them!




















However I did spare a few for the middle of this little quilt I called Wobbly Bits, now hanging on the wall.
















I got a daylight lamp with magnifying glass this year - it's ginormous but good for tired old eyes! Another quilt and my messy desk is reflected in the glass.





















A little plastic top for a pencil that I've had since the 70's! I used to have a pear and a banana with high heels too. They survived my brother's toyboxes but not my sons'!















Empty CD case. Franz Ferdinand is this weeks backing music.






















A really old box of Berol Venus pencils.
















I love looking at other people's bookshelves, this is the neatest section of mine!






















A paper toy Paul made up in an art class in Kuwait.





















A hanging ornament that Mark and the boys think is a monstrosity!




















On the notice/inspiration board, a favourite bookmark





















and the luggage tags Mark and I had in Madagascar.





















My new laptop - which won't speak to my old scanner!





















Winsor & Newton pans. I keep forgetting the names of the colours I have especially if I haven't painted for a while. I intend to use them more next year!

Cast your vote!

It's that time of year again! Katherine at Making A Mark is hosting the end of year awards for the best artworks posted on blogs. This year, as well as the 'best artwork', there is a new category for 'best portrait by a female artist in 2008' which I have a particular interest in, you might say! You'll just have to get over there to see all the entries and if you haven't discovered Making a Mark yet, where have you been?!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays if you prefer!) to everyone - and thank you as always for stopping by. Here's to a happy, healthy and creative 2009!

Now it's Christmas!

Because my Christmas prezzie to me has arrived! A fabulous new illustrated book called Algerie by Claire and Reno Marca. Their last book, Madagascar is one I go back to again and again for inspiration and I was hoping for something of similar quality and I wasn't disappointed. It has many fold out spreads and not one but four little booklets inside the covers! I can't see how they could possibly better this, it really raises the bar for illustrated travel books, but with these two I wouldn't be surprised if they did, they are such a creative team.

On another note, today is something of an anniversary as it was 20 years ago today that Mark and I got engaged and the course of my life changed. I flew from London to Bergen, Norway, where he was living at the time. So the 21st is always when the Christmas spirit kicks in but also it's a time when I remember another plane that flew over Scotland that day and didn't reach it's destination. A day to count my blessings and remember those less fortunate.

Faces at the Forbidden City

Another page filled in my China sketchbook. I calculate at the rate I'm going, it might be filled in about 10 years or so! I've posted it on my other blog as a work in progress if anyone is interested. But as I said there, I don't have what might be called a technique yet - I tried this just to see if it would work. The photo was taken with a zoom lens and the two faces looked closer together than they actually were. Perhaps I should have just done the man on the right, but I liked the teeth of the other man and how the lines of the back and shoulders almost mirrored each other. Still, you don't know till you try!

I read this, in an article by Hazal Soan the latest edition of Artist's & Illustrators magazine - "When you look at the world you do not notice every detail. You pick out that which interests you and catches your eye. A camera cannot be selective about what it sees but the artist can." It could be used by some to prove why you shouldn't draw from photos, but I think if an artist uses a camera, they are selecting the view anyway - like I did here, knowing I would draw from it later. There were a lot of other things going on in the photo but I selected these two faces and had I time to stop, look and draw I could have taken in a lot more details just like the camera- but I would have still made the same selection. I liked the thought of artists selection though and Soan says "It is this very selection of what really matters to you that makes a painting original".

TV sketches

I taped and watched the third and final episode of Wallander this week. Wallander is a well known fictional police inspector in Sweden but new to UK TV. As soon as I saw the first few minutes I knew I was going to enjoy it very much. I'm truly sick of the trend in dumbed down, over-stylised murder series to show long, lingering, gratuitous, oft-repeated shots of horribly mutilated bodies, so Wallander was a breath of fresh air! Kenneth Branagh's acting was really impressive - Wallander is diabetic but doesn't realise it and Brannagh looked suitably exhausted and ill! I loved the slow pace, the focus on Wallander as a person and the wonderful Swedish scenery, beautifully shot. I do hope they will make more than just these three shows. (I used 'pause' to do these three drawings.)



















These are the last TV sketches I did (from Sky News) - I haven't done any in a while. Top is Tim Marshall, Foreign Affairs Editor (I'm getting to know all the names and job titles now. Even what football teams some of them support - which must mean I'm watching way too much news!) Below him is Lord Digby Jones. I've forgotten what the subject was but, at a guess, it was probably the global financial crisis!



















Two sketches I was happy with until I put some colour on them. Top is David Kuo, financial advisor. He talks in plain English and always has some really good tips - that even I can understand! I forgot to make a note the name of the man below but I drew him as I thought he had a sinister look about him!

...and put up a parking lot

I'm sorry. After those lovely, positive, life affirming comments (which confirmed that I'm a very negative thinker!) it's with regret that I post the second, and perhaps last, installment in the life of the brave little twig that fought single-handedly against the onslaught of the urban planners. Joni's song didn't have a happy ending either...Probably why I like her. I bet she hates slushy snow too.

They paved paradise...

The local route I take to the shops has to be the most boring stretch of road in Geneva. Nothing but long stretches of hedges or concrete walls. Every time I go out I think there must surely be something I can draw, something I've missed because it's so quiet it would be an ideal place for me to start getting in the habit.




















Well, today something new and exciting appeared! So exciting I nearly missed it. Can you see it?





















Here is a close up. I'm not sure I could do it justice...

Rocking in the aisles - in defence of 'muzak'!

Led Zeppelin! I couldn't believe it. I put the coin in the trolley and headed for the fruit and veg...

Muzak - it's hard to even say the word without pulling your face into an expression of disgust! Everyone seems to be agreed that muzak is a curse of the modern age. I would have agreed until I came to live in Geneva.

I don't have a car so I spend much more time than I'd like food shopping. There are two main supermarket chains here which more or less dominate the market, Coop and Migros, and I prefer the Coop. Coop looks more modern, the food is a bit better presented, the staff don't scowl at you but most importantly they sell Lindt chocolate and Jamie Oliver's ranges which, for some reason, Migros does not! But on some days I'm racing for the checkouts before I become a complete emotional wreck!

On Wednesday, as got my trolley, I noticed they were playing Led Zepellin. Oh oh, this could be a bad day. Thank God it wasn't 'Kashmir' or I would have left there and then! (I love that song!) Then Nik Kershaw's I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me distracted me at the cereals- 'when was the last time I heard that old thing?!' - next, at the kitchen towels, a 70's disco hit - 'oh God yes, what was her name again?' - followed, near the shampoos, by Terence Trent D'arby's Sign Your Name by which time I'd not only forgotten what I was supposed to be looking for but I was having trouble not singing along!

I wonder who gets to decide on the playlist? Because whoever it is seems to be missing the point about background music. Musak may be mildly or even very irritating but the emotional volume is virtually mute. The Coop has a great line in 80's power ballads - Mister Mister's Kyrie is one of the most often played. I used to play that over and over too - it reminds me of being stuck at home for two or three weeks with chicken-pox (in my twenties!) and glad of a break from the stress of the office. Another popular track is Nickelback's Photograph -love it or hate it, it is a bit much when you're prodding the avocados!

But it was George Michael by the bin liners that got me, not so long ago. I'm afraid there are some songs I can't sing along to as they are just so emotional. There is a time and a place for them and it is not at 10 o'clock in the morning in a supermarket aisle! I love George Michael and I love this song, but a live version?! Try listening to this all the way through and imagine you've left your shopping list at home. The bin bags never made it to the checkout.

But is it...terrorism?

I read this quote, from an article called Celebrity Terrorism by Paul Cornish, in relation to the terrorist attacks on Mumbai -

'These individuals indulge in terrorism simply because they can, while their audience concocts a rationale on their behalf .'

Try swapping the word 'terrorism' for 'art'...

And then read his final paragraph -

'The invitation to the world's D-list malcontents reads as follows: No matter how corrupt your moral sense, how contorted your view of the world, how vapid and inarticulate your ideas, how talentless you are and how exaggerated your grievance, an obsessive audience will watch your every move and turn you into what you most want to be...'

Faces at the Forbidden City