drawing

From Park Walk to Art Work

May 25, 2020Painting, Photo Essay, photography, Uncategorized#discoverWP, Art, Art studio, charcoal drawing, Covid-19, drawing, learning, Pacific Spirit Park, photography, postaday, watercolor, WordPress, Wordpress bloggerAndrew Seal View all 2 comments

Pacific Spirit Regional Park I – 25.5.20

Four years ago I posted From Yardwork to Artwork and was honoured to have it featured as an Editor’s Pick on WordPress Discover, which I posted about in a day like no other.

Pacific Spirit Regional Park II – 25.5.20

To celebrate this special anniversary for thechangingpalettte, yesterday and today in the studio I continued to create Art Works from our daily Park Walks in the beautiful Pacific Spirit Regional Park, which as you know I have featured regularly in the last few weeks since the pandemic started with photos and paintings.

Here’s a look back at the post that WordPress Discover featured for those of you who may not have seen it.

From Yardwork to Artwork: The Photinia Story Part One May 24, 2016

Photinia I 23.05.16

Today’s post is all about learning to find beauty and inspiration in the mundane chore of yard work on a holiday Monday.

Yesterday was Victoria Day here in Canada, the perfect time to prune the photinia and clean all of its dried leaves from the studio roof and gutter.

With the concrete cleaned and swept the afternoon was free for painting and photography in the studio with a rescued photinia branch making for the perfect subject…

and a few of the trimmed branches new tools for drawing with.

Now all I had to do was put the two together. What could be better than an ink drawing of the photinia created with one of its own branches?

Well, perhaps some additional watercolor to complete the picture…

and we’re almost there…

So ended a very satisfying day turning the hard work of yard work into art work.

to be continued…

massacre of the innocents

May 13, 2020Art, UncategorizedArena Chapel, Art, Art studio, crimes against humanity, drawing, giotto, Kabul attack, massacre of the innocents, Remembrance, Scrovegni Chapel, sorrowAndrew Seal View all 4 comments

Yesterday’s Massacre of the Innocents in Kabul was simply heartbreaking. This drawing today includes both a sketch based on a Reuter’s photo together with one of a section of Giotto’s Massacre of the Innocents c. 1305 from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, which moved me so much when we visited twenty years ago. There are no words but a need to express with this drawing outrage, despair and remembrance.

the zen of seeing

April 1, 2020Art, Painting, Pen and Ink, Uncategorized365, anemones, Art, Art studio, drawing, Frederick Franck, meditation, pen and ink drawing, photography, postaday, ZenAndrew Seal View all 4 comments

“Art is that which despite all gives hope” Frederick Franck 1981

Anemones 31.3.20

Since the 100 anemone bulbs I planted have yet to appear I used a bouquet that five years ago was the subject of Day 90 of my daily posts during 2015. I had been re-reading one of my favourite books The Zen of Seeing by Fredrick Franck that week. Here is the original bouquet together with my pen and ink drawing at the time, and if you would like to see the rest of the post and learn a little more about Frederick Franck why not visit Studio 365: Day 90

Anemones 31.3.15

Discover Challenge: Portraits

August 11, 2016Art, Uncategorized#discoverWP, Art, Art studio, drawing, pencil drawing, portraits, weekly photo challenge, WPDiscoverAndrew Seal View all 2 comments

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.

encapsulating the essence

July 19, 2016Art, drawing, Uncategorized#discoverWP, Art, Art studio, drawing, watercolor, worldwatercolormonthAndrew Seal View all 5 comments

“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.

Van Dusen iiib

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.

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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

Studio 365: Day 90

March 31, 2015Studio 365, Uncategorized365, Art, Art studio, drawing, meditation, pen and ink drawing, photography, postaday, ZenAndrew Seal View all 5 comments

Anemones 31.3.15

“We do a lot of looking: we look through lenses, telescopes, television tubes…Our looking is perfected every day – but we see less and less.”

from The Zen of Seeing by Frederick Franck, 1973

This week I am drawing and re-reading one of my favourite books, The Zen of Seeing. I was introduced to it many years ago in a drawing class in which we were all at different levels of ability, some never having drawn before. The book, together with our wonderful instructor inspired us all to achieve wonders. I recommend it to you and hope you are able to find a copy. You will want to pick up a pen or pencil and draw, draw, draw.