New Drawings

I've been sorting through sketch books and drawing recently.

There is something quite satisfying about a simple line drawing, I often do them in ink.
I might use these as reference for other works or colour them in some way, but at the moment I like them as simple lines.

Some taken from my Venice holiday images and two Buddha heads.

Drawing at the british Museum

Last week saw me having a few days to draw at the British Museum, through a WEA course. 2 or 3 years ago I went drawing at the museum with the Princes Drawing School and a lovely tutor Francis Hoyland. So when I saw this course advertised I thought it would be great to go back to the British museum collections and do some drawings. Pages from my sketch book here.



Jane was our tutor knowledgeable about the museum, encouraging and thoughtful. It was good to work with a range of materials conte, graphite, watercolour pencils and pen and ink. We spent time drawing in the Greek and Roman galleries, the Asian, African and Japanese galleries and I went into the Americas Gallery. Jane set us some tasks using materials and composition. I think it is good for me to work within some parameters sometimes, it helps break patterns of work, style and subject matter.

I also took photographs in the galleries, drawing really helps to see things more clearly, and this reflected in my photographic eye. There were still some objects that resisted being photographed but I was happy not to pursue them.

New work and E17 Designers fair, Lloyd Park

I carried on with more of my small paintings, a secondary theme of butterflies emerging as I was painting. Some of the images, like the Buddha with butterflies I will develop as a larger painting and the unicorn too.

E17 Designers were part of the Green Fair and new symphony inspired by work by William Morris at Lloyd and Avelling park in Walthamstow a short while ago. We were lucky with the weather, in that it only rained for moments, though it was very cold for July! It probably wasn't the best idea by the council to split the events so distinctly across the parks, but we had a fair number of visitors to our stalls. I am trying out new ranges of prints and ideas for these events, and it's good to get feedback from the public, and that a number of people recognised my work from local exhibitions.



There was an exhibition of art work in the theatre and these fish on the windows threw out lovely reflections on the corridor.

New paintings walthamstow market and Columbia road market.

I have been busy painting some very small pictures, exploring my Buddhist and symbolic connections in this small scale. I enjoyed taking part of the image over the edges of the deeper box canvases. The images arrived as it were, when I was painting them, changing form a number of times in this process. This can be one of the frustrations in this intuitive way of working, but It also brings I find the element of surprise in the work which I enjoy very much.






I am trying to remember to take my camera out with me, and use it, when I am out and about more generally,like shopping. I do remember it more when I'm traveling around the city, as part of my documenting the public transport journeys I make, but when I pop out to the market etc I can forget. These are a few shots taken last week in Walthamstow market and Columbia road market.

Oxfam Windows Exhibition

These last few weeks have seen me busy working on some pictures for the Oxfam windows in Walthamstow. I had originally intended to show some local photographs, but then began working on other areas as well, triggered by the place ( a charity shop ) and recycling christmas paper.

What emerged was the symbol of the Buddha on wrapping paper of part made of wrapping paper, and a local image of the High street with wrapping paper and paint. Some images of work in progress here.
I haven't got all the written work together yet, but the issues and ideas are about the environment re-using items and objects and the Buddha and Buddhist teachings if you like being re-used here in the West. There is also something about finding beauty in what is discarded and that we use the materials of our life as part of our spiritual path.

The exhibition goes up next week, and I'll have more info on my main site.