Woods #7

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Woods #6

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Woods #5

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Woods #4

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Woods #3

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

In & Out of the Woods Again

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

As with the previous example, this drawing takes as its immediate visual source a photograph of the woods as recently featured as subject matter - on this occasion a scene dappled with sunlight - & proceeds to be processed accordingly...

Re-emergence (of sorts)

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

Although the uncharacteristically long silence over the last six weeks might have hinted at such, TOoT hasn't in fact been lost in the woods that, at the beginning of June & the last incidence of blogging, we were to be found deep within, but the foot has undoubtedly been taken off the drawing pedal during this period, which, given the availability of longer, precious daylight hours, is nothing short of a disgraceful abdication of responsibility to one's practice.

Notwithstanding, (a) drawing has taken place, yesterday, again taking the woods as subject matter, but this time using an aesthetically distancing photograph of as direct source material rather than being made in place as the previous example. Observing the scene thus, & becoming particularly aware of the network of crisscrossing branches & twigs that form part of the formal structure of the whole along with the verticals & horizontals of the trees, the drawing proceeded, in largely scribbly mark-making mode, thus...

Deep in the Woods

graphite & putty eraser/30x20cm

For quite possibly the first time since TOoT began, a little al fresco drawing has taken place (at least of a bona fide outdoors subject, recalling that one of the 'roadkill’ flattened cans was drawn one fine morning whilst sitting out in & enjoying the sunshine), making an initial exploratory foray in the extensive woodland to be found beyond the rear boundary of the Bungalow, a rather fabulous walking resource that one hopes might also inspire creatively.

The main attraction in terms of raw material from which to produce drawings is the presence of a mixture of, primarily, Corsican Pine & also substantial numbers of Japanese Larch as planted in rows upon the site of a former quarry, with the trees’ lovely tall, straight trunks & off-shooting branches forming a firm & fine structure of verticals & horizontals (well, -ish), as might be appreciated from the small selection of photographs below, although such a mechan-aesthetically ‘distanced’ view offers no real sense of the experience of being within the woods, amongst the towering trees, whose cumulative presence looms dense and darker than appears in the images.

One would hope, therefore, that, should the drawings progress, should the subject matter’s potential be realised, such might come to be communicated – the initial drawing being merely a gentle toe in the water, as it were, of interest in that the mark-making technique & process became influenced by the forms & scene observed as the drawing progressed.

Lean Times

(Re)presenting the same pair of Chinese pears as featured in the previous watercolour drawing, this time arranged in such a manner as they actually make slight contact with each other.

graphite & watercolour/355 x 254cm

Soundtrack:

Japan ‘Tin Drum’

A real blast from the musical past, tracked down after being inspired to do so following a couple of the tracks from the album being featured on a recent ‘Gardeners’ World’ TV programme.

[untitled]

graphite & watercolour/355 x254mm

Another pair(ing) of the Chinese pears, one leaning slightly ‘this’ way, the other ‘that’, arranged according to that familiar attempt to create some form of ‘charge’ between the objects, as ascribed to a feature of a particular composition of Euan Uglow’s by Andrew Forge, although no drawn or painted marks link this pair in quite such a manner: on this occasion, as numerous before, just picking up Uglow's 'Complete Paintings' provided the necessary, irresistible inspiration to draw.
Again, the pale creamy-golden skins of the pears present the challenge of representing form via subtle variations of colour & tone.

Soundtrack:

Jesca Hoop ‘Hunting My Dress’
The Go-Betweens ‘The Friends of Rachel Worth’ & ‘Bright Yellow, Bright Orange’