Discover Challenge: Here and Now
“Choose a moment and capture it in the medium of your choice.”
Bouquet 14.9.16
Nothing could be more now than being here in the studio this afternoon.
Here and Now: Part One
#discoverWP
spirit wind
For last week’s Discover Challenge Ben asked us to show “something that stands out from the everyday.” This second submission is to share one of those rare moments to be savoured both visually and aurally. Last week on our favourite walk along the Admiralty Trail in the Pacific Spirit Regional Park the sun was illuminating the trees swaying in the warm afternoon wind creating a symphony of light and sound.
This week is our daughter and son-in-law’s second wedding anniversary and our forty second. A time to celebrate and be thankful, but this year I cannot help but think of the families and friends so callously murdered and injured at their own wedding celebrations last week in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border in Turkey, and to whom I dedicate today’s post. There are no words that can begin to understand their sorrow and pain. Not being religious I will let the wind in the trees of the Pacific Spirit Park be my prayer.
the list’s the thing
For this week’s Discover Challenge from WordPress we are asked by Erica to explore the artistic side of list-making.
“Using the list form as your foundation, turn it into something unexpectedly beautiful.”
This seems the perfect excuse for another dip into my prized Journal from our Italian travels in 1999, which you may remember accompanied the Italian series of paintings last year during my Studio 365 day challenge.
Writing the journal at the end of each day became a labor of love. Each list of the day’s activities took on a life of its own, and as I look back through it again today memories of those lovingly documented moments come flooding back, which explains why the journal became the subject of my post for another Discover Challenge in April: Memory…
…the surgical instruments designed by Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla in the Museo Galileo in Florence…
….meeting Alessandro Menghini in the medieval garden he had designed in Perugia, which he describes in his book Il Giardino Dello Spirito…
…and the welcome gelati break in the Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, lying in the warm afternoon sun.
But perhaps the most important lists of all from our trip were to be found in the train timetable book from Italian Railways, which became our bible as we travelled across this most beautiful of countries.
Definitely time for a return visit I think…maybe next year 🙂
Discover Challenge: Portraits
For this week’s Discover Challenge Michelle asks us to “…share a portrait.”
I loved this challenge as it took me to the bottom drawer in the studio once again to re-discover drawings of mine from many years ago, some from my schoolboy days in the sixties. The feature portrait of course is of my wife and daughter, just a few months old in 1976, who now forty years later has a beautiful baby daughter of her own.
After delving through the files and folders here is a selection of the portraits
some of whom you may well recognize.
…and just one more for my daughter.
we happy few
Discover Challenge: Shared Journeys.
“For this week’s challenge, tell a story that shows the value of company.”
I think these pictures speak for themselves. I am always happy to have the opportunity to revisit our six day trek to Machu Pichu three years ago with Mountain Lodges of Peru in the company of a great group of individuals who came together for the first time and parted as the closest of friends, having shared in the adventure of a lifetime.
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”…and sisters 🙂
encapsulating the essence
“I’ve always loved the dry landscape gardens of the Zen Temples. In these tiny gardens a small rock in a raked area of sand may represent a mighty mountain in a vast ocean,
which in its simplicity encapsulates the essence of all mountains.”
Tony Smibert in Chapter 11 of Painting Landscapes from your Imagination.
This second exercise in Chapter 11 was entitled “Using rocks to suggest mountains.” Tony describes how he developed a great affection for Japanese gardens during his travels in Japan and suggests using interesting rocks to create imagined mountainous landscapes. It just so happens that some years ago I produced four drawings of the Sino Himalayan Garden at VanDusen Botanical Gardens here in Vancouver.
Inspired by Tony’s exercise today I thought I would create an imagined landscape of mountains, sky and water using the drawings as a starting point.
<p/.
Fortunately I didn’t leave these drawings behind thirty four years ago and it has been a treat to revisit them today, thanks to Tony’s exercise.
Worldwatercolormonth Day 19
the right road
This week’s Discover Challenge from WordPress “brings out the positive: tell us about a piece of advice you’ve received — and would like to share with others.”
Tony suggests making small loose drawings and washes as notes, and not to worry about the consequences. Some are very abstract but some became quite specific and more detailed as they developed, as you can see. Each was intended to convey the sense of a fork in the road with a choice of direction between the light and the dark.
The Right Road 14.7.16
When I was a young boy my beloved grandfather said to me:
” In life Andrew there are always two roads, the right road and the wrong road.
Make sure you always choose the right one.”
His advice has stayed with me all of my life and echoed in my mind over the years whenever an important decision has needed to be made or a life-changing direction to be followed. It has been the best advice a young boy could have ever have hoped.
To complement this week’s Discover Challenge, and particularly as this month I am working through Tony Smibert’s Painting Landscapes from your Imagination, and also painting as part of Worldwatercolormonth, I thought I would continue the exercises of Chapter 8 in the book with imagined images that reflect the spirit of my grandfather’s advice to me.
Tony suggests making small loose drawings and washes as notes, and not to worry about the consequences. Some are very abstract but some became quite specific and more detailed as they developed, as you can see. Each was intended to convey the sense of a fork in the road with a choice of direction between the light and the dark.
This last image is perhaps the darkest of all and reflects what might have been.
Dedicated to the memory of my wonderful grandpa from his grandson,
now a besotted grandpa himself.
my muse awaits me
The Story Behind The Door…or the muse that meows.
As I arrive at the studio today behind the door my unclothed muse awaits me…
purring quietly and sitting patiently, ready to inspire me with her presence.
Her name is Sunday and she is greatly loved by us all.
From Yardwork to Artwork: The Photinia Story Part Three
branch lines I 6.6.16
After the success of From Yardwork to Artwork: The Photinia Story Part One and Part Two, today Part Three will feature the photinia branches themselves that I have discovered make such versatile drawing tools.
One branch in particular has become a favourite as it takes on so many roles as you will see in the video later in the post. The wonderful marks it can make depend on so many factors. They can be either broad or fine depending on the angle at which it is being held it, and opaque or transparent depending on the pressure exerted. Plus the extra bonus is the frottage that the underlying wood of the drawing board produces within the lines themselves.
I think I’ll let the bough take a bow.
Why not find your own branch, buy some drawing ink and paper, and make your own branch lines. Let me know how it goes.
branch lines II 6.6.16
branch lines III 7.6.16
over my shoulder IV – the making of branch lines III
If you would like to see more over my shoulder videos here are the links:
The texture of the lines reminded me of figure drawings of mine from over thirty years ago, which I have now taken out from a drawer in the studio and pinned to the studio wall. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s coming next.
Finally, I’m linking today’s post to this week’s Discover Challenge: Origin Story for two reasons.
First, The Photinia Story Parts One, Two, and Three are all about the origin of an image and the story behind how it is created.Second, and the main reason with Father’s Day so close at hand, is to dedicate this post to the memory of my late father who set me on the path of making art from a very early age. He was an amateur artist himself and this painting of his hangs proudly in my office at home. It is a constant reminder of the true gentle man that he was.
Thanks Dad
Machu Picchu Revisited
Machu Picchu 1.6.16
Every day is an adventure in the studio and today was no exception. With a sparkling new Arches pad, together with Krista’s prompt to choose our own adventure for this week’s Discover Challenge, Machu Picchu seemed to be the obvious subject to revisit.
Those of you who follow my blog will know that the greatest adventure of our lives was the six day trek my wife and I took in 2013 to Machu Picchu. I started the blog in May that year before we left so that family and friends could be part of the adventure, albeit virtually.
Over the past three years I have posted many photos from the trip, including a gallery in response to Krista’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward last year, but with her prompt today and my pristine new Arches pad, I think June may become Machu Picchu month in the studio.
Stay tuned…
thechangingpalette 