So yesterday was the big day and I went to Sprogense at Galleri Knægt and obviously nothing ever goes as expected. First of our car would not start, on a Saturday morning, right? When the mechanic is closed and you cannot get a substitute car for a million :( So my hubby and I walked to the shopping center got a little breakfast thinking on what to do, while the daughter slept quietly at home. In the end, we settled for checking the local bus, it seemed like the obvious way to go, and the bus was actually good. I must say that on the Fyn island, extra urban buses work better than the urban buses in Odense ;) So in the end, I packed my material tight in my backpack, I took: 1 A4 Talens mixed media sketchbook spiral bound 2 A3 Hanemühle watercolor sketchbook glued 3 Teddybear pencil case with water based markers, 1 black 1 grey 4 Palette knife to cut the glues watercolor sheet 5 watercolor pans my usual portable palette 6 Three good brushes 1 kolinksky 6 and 1 one large synthetic 16 to quickly cover large areas 7 a glass jar for water 8 A 1/2 liter water bottle, not to drink but for the colours just in case ;) We got the local bus to the shopping center, changed for the tram to the bus stations, quite annoying that we do not have direct connection anymore, and then the bus to Bogense, we arrived one hour earlier so that we could take it easy. The weather was lovely as well as the view on the countryside :) We took a walk in the center and then I came back to prepare my stuff and I met the managers of the Gallery, two kind men, and the other artists, two other nice men, interestingly we all had different styles, but we were all representational realist artists, which was surprising as often abstract art is more common at such events. As people was entering the room, I warmed up doing some quick sketches. During the event a guitarists played his guitar and an actress read passages from famous Danish writers like Vita Andersen. I got very focused and tried to condense impressions I had from the stories being read and the music, so I ended up mixing narrative elements with the abstract recurring patterns from the music, which was shifting the same patterns. I was surprised how much I could get from the Danish text being read, but in the end I was very tired. The participants seemed impressed by how quickly I was painting, and I got two sold in the end :) Here are the paintings I have sold and some images of me talking to people about my paintings and my table during the break: Here are some of the others: My goal was to create a series of paintings so I felt pressured by time. So I am not totally satisfied by the details, some hues did not work so well with textures, I guess I know better which colors I must buy and avoid next time I go shopping ;)
Thank you for stopping by Bertie
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We are getting further into fall, actually not my favourite season, I fight with the will of getting out, bike and stuff because of the Danish rain and windy weather, sour throat and ice cold hands is my fall-condition. And I mean that word FALL in English is already hinting at something sinister like... falling, falling short of resources, going back to work and so on... Anyhow some good things are happening, together with my colleagues we wrote a methodological book for our Media Science students and now it is being published. My contribution to the book is one chapter focusing on drawing and live sketching as an ethnographic practice for gathering data in the field during observations and for analysis and representation of data. My chapter leverages techniques and methods from the brilliant book by Betty Edwards: Drawing on the right side of the brain. This book is a classic and has been a game changer for many, as I have discovered participating in discussions with various online groups of painters and illustrators. The method proposed by Edward is especially effective in training the eye to perceive reality as it is, capturing relevant details from small subject to great scenes. The more I practiced these technique the more proficient I became as I gradually acquired more control on the subjects I was drawing from reality but also from imagination. My aim was actually to create drawings from imagination that could have the same degree of authenticity that you can see in well done drawing from reality. I think I have achieved that goal, but there is still room for improvement, for instance in keeping some of the spontaneity of drawing from imagination, not getting too stiff, so my goal now is to develop my technique so to be able to fly back and forth from reality to imagination. In my chapter I try to show how drawing can actually become simple and approachable, when knowing what to do, some stuff is impossible to acquire just by trying. In that respect I reference to some artists, who are active online in the urban sketching or sketchbook movements such as Koosje Koene (https://www.koosjekoene.com/), I am personally fond of her Draw Tip Tuesday videos on Youtube, and Danny Gregory. They both offer tutorials aiming at showing how drawing from reality can become simple and enjoyable also for adults who do not have formal training. In this respects, their online resources complement well Betty Edward's method, in terms of enabling adults to draw from reality without to many worries. I see my role as experimenting with drawing in capturing reality from experimental settings and in elaborating an ethnographic drawing method, that could appear non-intimidating to Media Studies students without formal training in drawing. In that respect digital technologies can provide valuable tools in enabling editing and cleaning up simple sketches, to make them usable as research documentation. At the same time I am interested in art as a social practice, entangling several artists and makers, and also their audience. The live event at Galleri Knægt is approaching and my plan is to practice some sketchy watercolor paintings, drawing with a brush pen that can fade with water and then outline shadows and lines with watercolours. I have started preparing my equipment like: 1. A3+ Mixed Media sketchbook 2. Checking my colour palette 3. Get a larger brush to use during the event 4. And practicing forms of quick watercolouring as I have applied it to these paintings. Here I have tried to work further my technique, in order to feel more confident in my line work, reducing details, but keeping some nuances and details. In the painting above, I tried to practice to do a quick sketch with my grey brush pen and then simply adding water and simple layers of colours. In order to do the painting quickly, but still giving it a fine touch, I have painted geometrical shadows, which in the end gave my sketch a sculptural look. I think I might want to explore this further ;) Here you can see the unfinished and the finished work: I was lucky enough to start a cooperation with Nelle's café in Odense, where I was asked to create a series of watercolour with "Latte Art" theme. Besides the challenge of making time for it, I am enjoying any minute. Drawing food has always been exciting for me, maybe being the daughter of a patissier, I see in food more than a still life motive. I see life, organic forms, dynamic lines and warm lively colours.
Accessories like ceramics, in this case cups, and the wooden tables have always captured my imaginations. Wooden lines are like waves in a golden sea, flat yet wildly dynamic, looking right at you with its dark eyes. Ceramics, glass and metals have all reflecting qualities, they enable you to look at yourself, admire how natural or artificial lights hit their smooth surfaces and create thousands of shadows and waves of movement, like an unstoppable dance, ever changing through the objects being moved by our hands, but also by the changing lights during the day, into an eternal shining dance. In this painting, I worked at the curves of the wooden table as if they were a counterpart to the curves of the foam milk inside the cappucino and latte inside the cup and the glass. The foam milk creating dynamic, soft and articulated forms of aquatic vegetable life, seaweed moved by the currents. The cup and glass providing stabilizing area together with the grey napkins, containing and separating the currents of the wooden lines and of the foam milk. I drew this panting with quick linework with a non-water resistant brush pen, and I tried not to worry too much of the precision of my lines. And then I have worked with a 4-size kolinsky brush. I have started with adding water along the brush pen lines, creating grey shadows and textures on the paper. And then I gradually added colours, to create nuances and bring the drawing to life. The wet ink of the brush pen contributed to the raw organic appeal of the painting. I hope to be able to work in a similar way, this Saturday at Galleri Knægt :) Thank you for stopping by :) XXX Bertie |
AuthorFreelance illustrator and painter. Archives
May 2023
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