Taking Things Slowly

As October draws to a close I'm preparing for a trip to Ireland - a chance to rest, recharge my batteries and hopefully do a bit of sketching, painting and photo-taking (weather permitting).  A busy time at work, wedding preparations,  and -  this weekend - a nasty cold, have prevented me from doing much art recently: the underdrawing for my next painting is sitting in my studio waiting patiently for attention.  It might turn out to be a straight watercolour; or a pen & watercolour wash; or even an illustration in gouache;  I haven't quite decided yet. 

I first thought about tackling the subject (Yavanna from JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion) a couple of years ago, and it's taken me all this time to get anything usable down on paper.  This weekend I've had several good ideas about how to proceed, which need a little thought.  So I hope she won't feel too neglected if I make her wait a little longer!

Sketchy details

two hand reel
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

I was watching a TV programme about Raphael last night, when they showed some of his sketches - lovingly preserved and mounted to protect them down the centuries.  "Originally these would just have been scraps of paper lying around in Raphael's studio" said the presenter.  Much like my own sketches, then LOL.  I'm guiltily aware that I don't do enough drawing;  self-help books about art are stuffed with advice such as "a true artist draws something every day" and "always carry a sketchbook with you".  And I do carry one with me most days; it commutes to London with me, and home again, usually unopened.  It's not that I haven't tried; I could produce some lively impressions of the travelling public at City Thameslink if they (and I) could only stay still long enough for me to get something down on paper.  If I had the courage, I could easily get my book out on the train itself and cover page after page with images of commuters reading their books or listening to their i-Pods.  And if I could get out of the office at lunchtime I could happily sketch the tourists milling around the Tate and the Millenium Bridge (but I'd never get the chance to eat lunch, or check my private emails).

lavender in a pot
© Teresa Kirkaptrick 2010

So in the main my sketchbooks tend to come into their own on holiday or at home.  I jotted Two Hand Reel down during a set dance workshop in Portmagee; together with a whole bunch of photos it may make a painting one day. But - another confession - I really don't much like drawing with pencil.  I spent the two Life Drawing courses I attended at Central St Martins trying to avoid it; preferring to use charcoal, messy though it is, or ink - which is permanent and doesn't allow for mistakes.  This summer I bought some small sketching pens which use waterproof ink, and I've been much happier with those (and therefore more inclined to get the sketchbook out).   Lavender in a Pot is my favourite part of a much larger sketch, much of which is out of perspective LOL.

beach huts, Wells-next-the-Sea
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

During our long weekend at Wells-next-the-Sea I not only managed to do some sketching but had time to add some watercolour washes in an attempt to bring the drawing to life.  I do sometimes try sketching direct with watercolour, without drawing first, but inevitably the result is a soggy mass of colour which only I can interpret.   Still, that's the point of a sketch; they are reminders of what the artist actually sees.  Sometimes I will sketch from a photograph before I paint a scene; that way there's a chance I will actually paint the scene itself rather than the photo.  And I can't be sure what will turn out to be of use in the end;  I might not "need" a drawing of a dressed-up stallholder at the Shire Festival but if I ever decide to paint Gandalf sitting down, he'll come in very handy!  and if I ever have an urge to depict a whole bunch of plants in flowerpots I can use the sketch I made sitting outside the Talbot Building at Lady Margaret Hall during Oxonmoot.  You never know . . .

flowerpots, Lady Margaret Hall
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Taking a View

View from my Back Bedroom Window
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

I've had paintings, prints and photos all over the place during September.  Most of my recent stuff is still at Artscape for Open Studios until the end of the month, while May Evening Harpenden Common has been on show at Wesley's Café at the Methodist Church in the High Street all month as part of the publicity for the event.  I took He Cast Him a Lappet, my most recent Tolkien painting (despite being a year old) to Oxonmoot (the annual Tolkien Society get-together) last weekend, while Red Tulips in a Blue Glass Vase and Flying Kites at Rossbeigh Beach are on their way to Letchworth tomorrow for the annual Open Exhibition.  I would have had two more paintings on show last weekend at the St Albans Summer Art Exhibition, but it was cancelled.  I was almost relieved . .  .

Amidst all this chaos I've managed to produce another painting. I did it over two Saturdays spent at Artscape as part of Open Studios, and the subject is the View from my Back Bedroom Window. Ironically Open Studios isn't the best place to paint; you are constantly interrupted by visitors (which is, after all, the whole point of Open Studios) and last year I found I couldn't concentrate at all.  So I was delighted when I got this little pen and wash piece home and realised that I rather liked it.  It's pretty accurate, and gives a nice insight into how my neighbours use their gardens.  The view is one I never tire of - it's quite an ordinary scene but constantly changing; birds fly in and out, you can often see horses at the farm over the back (although I didn't dare attempt to depict one!) and of course the seasons come and go.  This is the view at the height of summer, which is already over.   Such happy memories!

Open for Business

All set up - Judi Menges' glass art and a few drinks & nibbles to help the Open Evening go with a swing!
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

This year's Herts Open Studios is under way, and for those of us exhibiting under the Artscape Arts banner it's been a great start!  as usual we were convinced that nobody much would turn up to our Open Evening last Friday.  And once again our predictions proved groundless, with around seventy visitors during the hour and a half party.  All five of us had managed to find room to display what we wanted to - from wall hung art to cards and jewellery - and we had room for a table of drinks & snacks so we could offer the guests some refreshment.

Our display of cards etc in front of my paintings
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Our first guest was the Town Mayor, who brought along some of his family; closely followed by a printmaker friend of Helen's; and then I lost count.  J played his usual role of Artist's Assistant, handing out drinks and bonhomie;  the rest of us chatted to visitors and family members, and - yes - made some sales!  To my delight a variety of cards, a photo poster (Curiosity), a giclée print of Cardinal's Wharf and one of my very first monoprints all made it out the door clutched in the hands of what appeared to be extremely satisfied customers.   Sue was doing a roaring trade in cards &  prints, and best of all sold one of her originals - you can see her work here.   Helen's linocuts were proving popular and Judi and Hillary were also taking orders!

Some of Hillary's & Helen's exhibits and a thoughtfully provided chair

© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

We were thrilled by the success of the evening.  It was busy, but not too crowded;  everyone enjoyed themselves enough to linger rather than rush off; and we got excellent feedback.  People ate, drank, chatted, and admired the art.  Downstairs, Artscape's David even made some sales on the shop floor.  The hour and a half rushed by and we realised we hadn't had a chance to eat anything ourselves . . . but we'd all had so much fun!

The Town Mayor admiring Sue's paintings

© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Hanging around

My watercolours along the short wall with Sue's to the right
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

The Artscape Arts 2010 exhibition is up - more or less - and nobody is more surprised than the five of us taking part this year.  We'd been warned that the upstairs room at Artscape would have a little less hanging space than usual, so I guess we'd all brought along pieces which could be hung in a variety of ways;  and several of us had been prepared to take stuff home again if there wasn't room to hang it.

Helen's colourful linocuts
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

We arrived promptly - a little too promptly as it turned out, they weren't quite ready for us.  As it was a lovely sunny day we sat outside a local café with coffee and doughnuts for a while; then returned to get hanging.  Everyone had decided to put up their work in at least two tiers (Sue went for three) and we worked solidly for a couple of hours, with J helping out as usual - he hung all of my stuff and quite a bit of Helen's too, bless him!  Judi finished first; I don't have a photo of her glass display so that will have to wait for a future blog.  When she left I think the rest of us had about half of our work in place . . .

Hillary's display of photos and 3D work starting to take shape . . .
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Undaunted, we pressed on, until - amazement!  Helen had found hanging space for far more prints than she'd expected, Hillary had room for everything she wanted to show.  Sue was planning to print and frame an additional black and white photo to finish her wall, and I had to send J home to bring a couple of extra canvas photo prints to fill mine.  How did that happen?  we even had room for Hillary's funky bubble wrap snake!

my photo canvases, Helen's mono linocuts and Hillary's funky snake
© Teresa Kirkaptrick 2010

The Artscape Arts exhibition is open for the whole of September (not Sundays or Friday mornings) and at least one of us - more likely two - will be at Artscape on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from September 11th onwards as part of Herts Open Studios (Thursdays and Saturdays 10am - 4pm, Fridays 1pm - 4pm).  Hope to see you there!

Posters and Preparations

Portmagee Sunset
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Preparations for Herts Open Studios are now in full swing, with participating artists up to their ears in brochures, mail-outs, leaflets and the other publicity-related and admin stuff which is essential to publicise the event.  Tomorrow we're spending most of the day at the Farmers' Market in Harpenden to promote the Harpenden artists taking part.  Paintings are about to go up in some local shop windows and in Wesley's, the Methodist Church café in the High Street - it's all go!!

Lavender One
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

All this is intended to generate interest, of course, and with this in mind I've reorganised my Pro Gallery on Photobox in an attempt to make it more user-friendly.  I haven't introduced a lot of new photos this year, but my range of Pro Posters with A4 images on an A3 backbround has been expanded to include some new images, including a couple of experimental layouts of lavender in flower pots.  I had great fun playing with these, and who knows?  somebody might like them!

Lavender Two
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Full details of the exhibition at Artscape, in which I'm showing various pieces along with four other local artists, can be found here.  For general information about Herts Open Studios click here.

A View of St Paul's

A View of St Paul's
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

For the latest painting in my London series I've moved north of the river - just - to St Paul's Cathedral.  It's quite a big deal moving from south to north, and vice versa - I was born north of the river and until a few years ago I'd always worked north of the river, too; it seemed strange to start crossing bridges to Bankside when I moved offices.  The north end of the Millenium Bridge leads you across the hustle and bustle of Queen Victoria Street straight towards the south door of the cathedral, with its imposing columned portico.  Sets of steps and a gentle slope lead enticingly towards the building:  at the top of the slope the visitor is greeted by a small area of parkland before crossing St Paul's Churchyard (which is a street, despite the name) to the Cathedral itself.

It's frustratingly difficult, if not impossible, to get a complete view of the front or side of St Paul's;  it's too big to fit into the camera frame, and there are no places to stand back and view the whole thing.  The front (west) entrance is approached via Ludgate Hill, and I've spotted many a tourist risking life and limb in the traffic for that perfect shot which isn't going to happen.  I used to curse the post-war town planners for hemming in St Paul's with surrounding buildings; and only discovered quite recently that the layout of this part of the City of London goes back to the Great Fire of London in 1666. 

The fire itself only wreaked so much devastation because various aldermen were reluctant to let their houses be razed to the ground to make a firebreak;  afterwards, Sir Christopher Wren drew up plans for a new City of piazzas approached by wide boulevards.  But interested parties were at work again, and by the time he got round to putting his plans into action, the houses around St Paul's had started to be rebuilt and their owners wouldn't sell up.  Londoners have always been cussed. The City fathers were uncomfortable with Wren's plans for the cathedral, particularly the dome, so he pretended to be building a different design, and by the time they noticed, it was too late (you can read more about this here).

The southerly approach to the Cathedral has a special character all its own.  There's a café and a pub at the top of the steps to the left of my painting which will serve you breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between. At quiet times skateboarders use the series of steps and the flat areas between them for practice.  During the annual City of London Festival, a "play your own" piano is set up behind the bench in my painting, for passers by to entertain the crowds; many sit on the steps to listen as the area becomes an impromptu outdoor concert hall.  And in December that slope leads you up to the St Paul's Christmas tree, decked out in silver, while fairy lights are hung in the trees round about.

The painting shows an ordinary sunny summer's afternoon; tourists and visitors from all over the world mingling with City types going about their business as the Cathedral looks on, unmoved and unmovable.  That Wren knew a thing or two . . .

Skellig Sunset

Skellig Sunset
watercolour
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

rose-golden hills in the last rays of sun
wild weather stilled as the day's course is run
two mighty rocks in the wide open sea
Skelligs in silent age-old mystery

cry of the seabird at rest from its flight
prayer of the holy man seeking the light
thanks of the sailor for lighthouse-lens beams:
Skelligs the keepers of hopes, wishes, dreams

Little and Great Skellig: distant they lie
at the edge of the world under wide open sky;
past, present, future, feel time itself cease -
Skelligs unchanging, forever at peace

Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Something to (Ho)sho for it

Lavender Fields in the window of Bells Chemist, Bancroft, HItchin
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Halfway through the year - how did that happen?  I thought I'd had a quiet six months, with little time to paint, yet I already have enough paintings, along with my floral photo canvases, to stage a reasonable exhibition at Open Studios in September.   Although I haven't been able to take advantage of all the exhibition opportunities which came my way, I have managed to do Art on the Common.  What's more, two of my paintings (Lavender Fields and Paula's Pansy) are currently being displayed in shop windows in Hitchin as part of the Hitchin Art Trail, during the month of the Hitchin Festival.  And a print of Swan is one of the lots at an auction this Friday to raise money for a Da Vinci scanner at Stevenage Hospital.

Paula's Pansy in the window of Rubarb, Churchyard, Hitchin
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010


And last weekend I produced some more reduction linocut prints, this time using Japanese Hosho paper. The ink clings to it like a baby to its mother. I'm still grappling with the colours (remembering too late that I'd intended to mix a pale blue for the background) and the registration is slightly off while I learn to handle this new paper. But on the whole I'm pleased with my progress. Let's hope the next six months is as productive!

red and yellow tulip print

© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Gales, Gazebos & a Game of Two Halves

all set up on Saturday morning
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010


Last weekend thirty local artists erected their gazebos on Harpenden Common for the annual Art on the Common fundraiser. As a first-timer I was nervous: would we be ready in time? could we strike our exhibition on the Saturday evening and put it up again on the Sunday morning? would we get any visitors? it never occured to me that in the middle of June the main problem would be: could the gazebos withstand the gusty winds and make it through to the end of the day?

 

we had cards, paintings and photos on display
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

Things started well enough; it was breezy but between us my fellow exhibitor S and partner J and I got the gazebo up and the side panels on. Luckily J is a six-footer - oh, to be a few inches taller!! S had already thought about how we should organise the display and before long we had a good mix of paintings, prints, photos and cards out on tables, and our browsers out front.  J went off and the two of us settled down, well wrapped up in our fleeces. It was so chilly I began to wish I'd worn gloves. The Art show was running alongside the Harpenden Common Discovery Day, so every now and then some volunteers came by offering tea to the stallholders - we were pathetically grateful - and one or two of the visiting public also bought a cuppa! because, in True Brit fashion, people had come out to look. Some were on their way to, or back from, the Discovery Day, and many stopped to browse and chat. We had quite a lot of interest, and sold the odd card or two. But nobody was lingering long enough to make that decision to buy something larger.

visitors braved the cold to talk to the artists
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

We were lucky. The jeweller next to us had set up her display in a gazebo with no side panels at all; the stiffening breeze knocked over some of her stands and she broke four pieces. Less than two hours after opening, she was taking everything down; her helpers had left for the day and a passing gent took down her gazebo for her. A large gust of wind caught us unawares and two of my paintings went flying; luckily the only damage was to one of the frames.  I couldn't sort it out - I was outside hanging on to the back of the tent to stop it billowing in.  My browser had also gone crashing and a visitor retrieved it for me - S was hanging onto the gazebo frame - our knight in shining armour also re-attached the roof cover to the frame for us.   J returned with lunch and we pegged down what bits of the gazebo we could, then ate watching the passers by, some pausing to take a look, others just rushing home. Most people were dressed for the arctic, but across the way a fellow artist was shivering in her summer skirt and leggings, still gamely demo-ing her beautiful acrylics with a coat thrown round her.

anyone who hadn't wrapped up warm was freezing!
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

After lunch it got worse.  We knew that the leg weights I'd luckily bought would prevent the gazebo from taking off, but the wind was starting to bend the frame of the gazebo on one side. Instead of going home to watch the football, J spent his afternoon holding  the frame straight with one hand and reading a book with the other. I thought we'd set our gazebo up wrongly until I saw the chap in the next one along doing the same . . . all around we could see billowing canvas, and hear the occasional crash and shriek as something fell over. S and I were hanging on to the front of the gazebo, J to the side, all I could think of was how glad I was I'd got third party insurance! Still people came in to take a look . . . a little rain fell and we whipped the browsers inside. It was only 4pm, we were due to stay open until 5pm but all round us others were packing up, so we cut and ran with the rest.

real-live-guy rope.  We replaced him on the Sunday with a piece of string . . .
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

We took longer to set up on Sunday because (a) we were tired out from clinging on to that gazebo and (b) we were determined to secure it firmly against the wind which was still blowing, although not so strongly. I even had a bit of sandpaper with me to sort out that damaged picture frame. Although we were due to open at 11am, potential customers were around by 10 o'clock . . . . the weather was slightly warmer and looking hopeful. More and more visitors started to arrive. Lots of folk who'd thought about coming to see Art on the Common had sensibly decided to wait unti the Sunday. I never did get time to sandpaper that picture frame and S was still trying to finish her lunch at 4pm because people kept talking to her about her pictures. J delivered lunch and managed to get home to spend an afternoon watching the football (we'd replaced him on gazebo bracing duty with a piece of string).

the sun started to peek through on Sunday morning . . .
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

My Dad turned up. Lots of friends came alongto encourage us, and other artists who weren't exhibiting - Mel & Julie from B Gallery, Betty who did Open Studios with us last year, Kim Major-George . . . . Card sales were so brisk I was concerned we might lose track of them and S was thrilled to sell some prints. The wind dropped, the sun came out, my fleece came off and before I knew it I was burning and had to use S's factor 50 (by the next day my nose was so red I looked like a clown). Gosh, it was hot!! Eventually things quietened down enough for me to take a look around the other stalls to see what was on offer and how they'd done their displays. Some stallholders had opted to exhibit with no side panels, some with just a couple and one with just a panel at the back (I did wonder if that was all they had left LOL).  After 5pm we still had visitors as we were trying to take it all down!

blue skies and sunshine at last!
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010

By the end of the weekend I was completely exhausted but what a sense of achievement! I'd had some wonderful feedback, learnt a lot, chatted to some lovely people, met the Town Mayor and sold enough bits and bobs to give a respectable amount of commission to Cancer Research. Do it again? oh yes. Bizarrely, I loved every minute LOL.

finally able to abandon our fleeces . . .
© Teresa Kirkpatrick 2010