Steiner - Real Presences 1.2 Music

Steiner writes: 'I believe the matter of music to be central to that of the meanings of man, of man's access to, or abstention from, metaphysical experience.' p 6

For me, this is another golden sentence. When I arrived in Oxford in 1995, leaving behind job, country and friends of 15 years, husband etc. it was shock to be back in grey UK. I fell below the word line, could hardly write at all, don't know how I managed at work. Music and drawing saved me. I listened to music almost non-stop - it was like a desperation, a soul need, and it worked.

Pictures sit there silent and timeless, keeping their secrets, but music reaches out and touches you, even when you can't move, I think.

2 Heads

Magic memory - re the piece below.

Now theeeeeeere's a thing.... A term that I and a few painters I know use - but most 'know' it intuitively because it is what we all draw on all the time - in our minds eye - those times - those places - that person.
I'm not sure where the term came from -perhaps the S.American magic realists. When you do stuff from memory -you trust it as best you can -you 'hold' it - you believe it - like a bucket to the well.
It is coloured in all sorts of subconcious ways - it is magic memory - it is a distillation of your very particular experience and experiences - no one has the same magic memory of the same thing - but others will recognise your version - because the seeds are the same. Magic memory is also like a doodle - a thing to use. A thing to also encourage and practise in yourself when looking - check the big spaces, the main colour blocks, odd bits of informational detail - whatever you want - but as long as you conciously look and see, even say to yourself - 'I'll remember this' if you want - you've committed it to magic memory somewhere. When working from such memory, you have to be as bold and intuitive as you can - then more will come.

Steiner - Drawings - Itsuki - Flatholm

Heyla Anj,
The disc with 7'retro' digital drawings taken from scribbles and photos taken on Flatholm have finally gone to the printers today, it's a load off - he'll give me a price for framing and mounting them at A2 ish. Now its down to the free painting to do with Marconi - so all in all - at least I'll have something to show.. we hang on the 8th & 9th Dec - opens on the 10th & Rhodri Morgan is officially opening it on the 17th Dec.

The Steiner is still as oddly dense as I remember it to be - but like the quote you put up - it has many many little flashes of sentences here and there that strike a loud chord - and are usefull.
It is an odd book in many ways and a brave one - he has to admit freely that he; like much journalese and his own world of academic thesis and commentary that he has a critical eye on in various passages - is doing the same thing: Providing yet more commentary on the creative process - which is primal and needs no angel to sanctify it let alone a professor.
He tries to do much much more though - and I think he succeeds - because, even though an academic of the deepest learning - and partly because of his history and his families history - he brings a deeper voice to his thinking that has a quiet empathy within it - because he damn well cares - and so is not prepared to be soft or to flinch from any common or elevated truths that work for him as well as possibly against him - he picks his way thru this stuff - always giving examples - which can be very enlightening.
This has been important to me Anj, particulary later when he talks about the possible 'meaning of meaning' ( although that goes thru it all the way) and cuts a huge swath thru post modern posturing to arrive at a position of tranquility ? - that must always include the reality of communication - as a fundimental and emotive thing - not an academic exercise.
That's why after I read it - not understanding half of it - but understanding very well the things in it that spoke to me - but with pieces jumping out at me - I kept using it as a 'dippin in' book and slowly more bits of it joined up.... and are still doing so.

The book helps - mindset - and being an artist is about mindset and 'will' rather than pure technique.

I mention the Itsuki background in Angie2 - so I won't go into that here....I don't want it to get mixed up out of context.
I also talk about drawing there - but I would say that I like the drawings very much and I might cover some ground from Angie2, but that's ok in this case.
The drawing that you put up as a 'logo' for the blog - I've only glanced at -ever- because one look and I said to myself ' Oh, Ok - good choice Anj - from the later Picasso etchings to do with the artist as monkey -or maybe from the Bachus stuff or the Minatour stuff - anyway - nice classic Picasso drawing.'
Now I see and from yr writing that it's yours.
I look from some odd 'classical' viewpoint y'see, that I can't define - I expect the best - and I find that I am hardly ever dissapointed, ( at least not by the work in all its prime innocence or strategies) I'm always only surprised that others can't see it. ie I had no internal reasons to think oh it's 'just'a scribble by so and so - like a lot of the stuff on the paintersonline site, it's all good in some way, but as Steiners book lays out - difficult to talk about directly - or at least in the way one wants to talk of these things.
I've been shown many blobs and swirls and Dalieque meanderings and death metal pain and angst paintings and sexual vanity paintings and sci fi paintings by people I've known over the years - and to use a very old fashioned phrase - 'they are scoundrels' - and I know that anything I say will go directly to that part of their ego. Still: y'look at the work and you speak as y'find - and it is of absolutely no help to them at all in the end - they don't have the mindset - they don't know how to carry things onward -they don't want or invite or embrace the real wonder of it all. It's always. ' Do y'think I could sell it?' 'do you think I could get into art college'
(not a hope in hell - but today, possibly yes!) - ' Do you really really think it's like Van Gogh?' - Bah!

I love that little drawing - and would do a swap for it sometime - IF y want to - if y'still have it.
( It's the only one I can't click on to make bigger!)
All the other drawings - again I cover something of this in Angie2 - about a week away, but what might help you straight off - particulary if you want to try those 3 portraits, Joss, Keith & Jay again a few times and in a few different ways.
Everything occupies space - in music it is layered - in looking with our eyes, it is layered - both have depth. Lets say the sheet of white paper is the whole orchestra and the thing you want to draw is the score. ie it embodies the real thing -the real presence -and again - as Steiner remarks - ALL is interpretation of SOMETHING.

I like the look of the drawings and their scribbly bits and the rubbed out outlines providing hesitant halo's, the tentative curving lines near the edges that try and provide a way for the eye to see them as curved receeding or advancing space, the hesitant highlights.

Here's something to try.
Lets say the first space or sound we'll put down is the major mass, the first uniting chord - rub some pencil lead on with a bit of soft cloth, but not too dark - perhaps it forms half or more of the face and neck and shoulders ( if any) so you have a floating light grey shape - you can try it at a few different densities on paper - ie do a few at a time on A5 - say 3: three shapes for 3 different Joss's, Jay's and keiths - let them differ - let one side of some of the grey mass be darker in some. The second space is definition of the space itself - you arn't drawing closely around the grey soft shape - it has to have space inside the outer defining line ( because that's where some light comes through) Draw that line clearly from whichever direction you want, all at once or in bits - crown, ear, cheek, chin and up the other side, if it doesn't join up -leave it be.
When I say draw directly and cleanly, it doesn't have to be all in one uninterrupted line - the quality of markmaking is up to you. Directly and cleanly draw the neck lines and the shape of a collar or scarf as it lies and falls onto the chest or shoulder. Look at the shapes first from your previous drawing and how the larger mass of the shapes fit together.
We have a soft shape inside, or surrounded by, strong lines. Work into these main shapes with other shapes and marks as if an instrument, a chello here, some pizzicato violins there, but don't crowd it all at onece - check back and fore for the real shapes of the score, the particular accents of sound and shape that speak of the particular person - if its from 'magic memory' or a photograph, choose what pleases you and fits best with what is infront of you so that it helps make a whole sound. Some bits may be out of sync in their sizing, don't worry, let the orchestra carry it, and leave it alone. Once I've played a note, it is gone in time, I can't unplay it, but can listen/look back later and see the whole relationship that it sits within - perception changes.
Add balance and little mark riffs as you think and feel them -the little trills, the decor, but make them clear. ie they may have different stroke weights n strengths, but they are all IN the orchestra and no instrument hides - just give them their voice no matter how small or fast or slow you make the mark. I said to try about 3 of each because experimenting with line weight and density of marks as they balance in a finished work that shouldn't take too long is a way to move quickly and not get bored.
Balance - a load of sqiggles on one side is not neccecerilly balanced by the same on the other, a density of white space can do it or a couple of fullsome marks. ie Blance doesn't equate with symmetry.
Like colour - you need an awfull lot of yellow to balance a small patch of red

I'm going to leave that there Anj - these are drawing exercises about ways to move forward not in how to render things - you do that fine on your own - I'm perhaps trying to clarify the sound here and there or suggest a different way of listening.
Cheers for now -alla glory - Dai

( Haven't had time to spell check - Sam is dying to get on this computer to get some homework done - see y'later)
( Have since come back and re-edited the last bits of the drawing stuff to make it clearer - I hope)

Steiner - Real Presences 1.1

I'm going to make notes as I read the book although it may only be a little at a time.

I read a bit about the book before I bought it and what I understood was that George Steiner was arguing that all works of art manifested the presence of God - real presences.

Hmm that's interesting, and even more so at the moment when thae scientific community are holding entire conferences to see if they should admit the presence of god into scientific thinking. One of the arguments put forward in favour was that human beings seem to be hardwired to incorporate a belief in moral values and that these determine much of our behaviour. Such moral values are not logical but yet they are there. (See New Scientist 11 Nov, 2007 Does God have a place in a rational world http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19626294.200-does-god-have-a-place-in-a-rational-world.html )

I look inside the book and see there are three parts:
1. A Secondary City,
2. The Broken Contract,
3.Presences.

I wonder what these mean.

1.1

'... the wager on the meaning of meaning, on the potential of insight and response when one human voice addresses another, when we come face to face with the text, or work of art, or music, which is to say when we encounter the other in its condition of freedom, is a wager on transcendence.' (Steiner 1991:4)

Just think the music, the pictures, the poems are 'the other in a condition of freedom' - what a wonderful thought, and yes, of course.

--------------------------------
Dai, how are you getting on with your work for the Exhibition? Hope it's going well, no need to respond now.

And one of Joss

Again this is the first time I've sketched Joss, and I always find it harder to draw someone for the first time. This was done with ordinary pencils hb and 2b and Derwent sketching pencils - dark wash and light wash. This looks very ordinary, will have to have another go. I've known Joss for many years, but not really well (but then who do we know really well? What's interesting is to look closely at a person or at anything and then I see things I never saw before). Have included it because it looks different done with the Derwent pencils. I didn't use them much on the face though - next time...

One of the things I like about this blogspace is that you can click on the pics and see them bigger.

Sketch of Keith

Not sure about this one - this is the first time I sketched Keith - partly from life, partly from a photograph. He's a 70 yr old West Indian friend who had a stroke a few years ago. He likes to look good - the scarf he's wearing is from Israel and is a treasured possession. I haven't done it justice, nor him, but I'll try again sometime. This was done in pencil on A5 - using b and hb.

Words with Angie 1 - from Dai Harding

*****************************************************************
Words With Angie: 1 - Nov 3-4: 2007.

A few thoughts on looking at a picture: Like listening to a piece of music - you have the actual thing itself: The image and style and colour - the sound, which directly impinges, impressing or otherwise - and the works presence as it directly and often unknowingly effects ones emotions.
In music it is all readily apparent - we have no difficulty in saying we love this or hate that, we love the rhythm, the instruments, the solos, etc etc. We can be quite vocal and hold strong opinions.

With painting, even tho some of us would not like it to be so: it's different and more difficult. Images are common – but art is not. It is a more rarefied artform and its market has not had ( even tho prints of all kinds are very common) the 'market penetration' that music has had with the introduction of mass production, promotion, and sales, and structure of recorded music as a product reaches a worldwide audience in many formats – including broadcasting.
Because it's a 'time' discipline like film/video, it allies itself with them naturally and each becomes enhanced by the other to mutual sales and promotional benefit. Mostly our culture is so awash and full of images from TV Film, Advertising, products - the humble and silent drawing/painting does not 'give' of itself in a culture that expects to be 'entertained' - that expects to be given the answers - and indeed is supplied well with such. If a painting cannot compete with all the worlds technology and the business of marketing and product - it must have something not found and not available in the daily rush.

This is the thing that excites me about paintings. They are silent.
( Each has an inherent ‘music’ if you like - but they do not give that out, it keeps it like a secret for any looker who may be willing.)

That silence speaks to all minds, of whatever culture, upbringing and quality of intelligence and learning. If one doubts this – think of the paintings on the caves of Lascoux etc. – they range from some 40,000 to 10.000 years old, many predating european language – certainly written language – and done for who knows what purpose – but they still speak today even tho they hold their magnificent silence. They are human and they are our heritage of the astounding early stirrings of the creative mind. It’s like the life of Mozart – we can read volumes and volumes – which I have by the way- and listen and listen – even see the flawed film Amadeus – read all his letters and weep, like those of van Gogh - but he eludes us. We have the material, it penetrates us – so which is the most opaque, us to ourselves or the material. Also like the fresco’s in The House Of Mysteries in Pompey – all silent and singing quietly, of a Romanic people in a pre Christian culture, still singing for us.

These are the kind of ideas and allied thinking that allows an artist in some way to have a quality of distance – not in an uncaring way – but as armament – say f’rinstance against those who say ‘ you are not an artist’ or whatever. Were the prehistoric cave painters artists? – certainly not in the sense that we mean it today – well, that heritage is denied to no one. Yet the most Modern paintings, and all artists of any worth agree, that you can see, are still those prehistoric animal paintings. Their magnificence is everyone’s.

So Angie - what is to be done: First, like ‘classical’ music – painting has a friend – it is a difficult friend, but it’s at the root of many human experiences and expressions.
It is Poesy. Poetry resides in music and poetry resides in all good art and painting – it can be put there by design or it can be hinted at or it can fall into ones hands like a gift – sometimes an unknown gift.

Angie it has fallen into your hands – your own piece of poesy has come with you – and is speaking. If you think about it, it has probably been with you all your life in one way or another. It is no small thing – that’s important – It Is No Small Thing.
It can move almost effortlessly over everything – think of the poetry that Lowry found in those then dismal midland cotton mill towns. Think of – and you said you liked him – of the stark, and in a way terrible and almost confessional poetry Lucian Freud finds in the body – think of the your painting Hidden Woman – I have it up on screen as I pop away at this keyboard. Goodness knows it’s not my place or job – or need or want – to be overly personal or to give psycho-drama to my observations.

( In theatre one must be careful with students when going into those areas, we are all different, and the experiences each of us have, and have had are invisible to most people – so good drama teachers – must be on watch for those students that need a pastoral care in some situations. When one is dealing with emotions – and creativity deals in them – care is needed.)
I think the woman has BEEN hidden, it is not so much that it is simply ‘Hidden Woman’ – think on it – It’s not ‘Hidden Figure’. Maybe in the act of painting, first in acrylics perhaps, there was a figure – a woman - then you covered her up. I don’t know Angie but it is a terrific title for both its clarity and its simple poetry. It speaks easily without convolution.

I have many pieces that I either haven’t had time to pursue further or I’m not sure how to – I put them in a place that I adopted long ago called ‘The House Of Mysteries’ that gallery used to be part of my website once – it’s a limbo place that I can go back to and retrieve lost little ideas and unfinished thinking.
My point is – it would be good for you to be able to catch onto what I’m saying about ‘Hidden Woman’ and do a series of them – say – 6 paintings about ‘Hidden Woman’.
Hidden Woman 1 – Hidden Woman 2 – etc. Remember you are not overtly making a political statement about ‘hidden women’ – you are not ‘illustrating’ hidden women as in trying to paint someone in a Burka – you are trying to contact the deeper poetry that resides in those two words – you are trying to see ( again). It will come to you when you are working with a brush in your hand – or it will flash and send you to the brushes. Don’t get caught up too much in ‘I haven’t got it right’ and those things – you have to work with the techniques that you have at the moment, as we all do - just trust the idea that you carry all the poetry you need to playfully work with it – not against it by being ‘overmind’ critical of your efforts. Breath with it and be gentle on yourself. They will stand as themselves outside you and one day it woyuld be great to see them in an exhibition. In some ways you aught to keep in the back of your mind that you are working toward an exhibition called ‘Hidden Woman’ You could sell a title for a show like that and sometime next year –wherever you are it would be worth me helping you to organise such a show. Why not.

Think of Georgia O Keefe’s flower paintings. It’s a good example: Flower painting!! what could be more innocuous? - what could be more worldwide and common – think of all the Leisure painters who are painting flowers – but what O’Keefe did with her own person poetry and visual sense was to make us look again at flowers in a new way.

On the Painter site – soooo many flower painters, all deep down recognising the silent poetry there – but it’s like a whisper they can’t quite catch and they paint the ‘ flower thing’ that’s ok, it makes people happy and gives a great feeling of some connection to nature - and some people aren’t interested in a piece of advice anyway unless it’s directly about liking or not liking the painting at hand and the small technical qualities. Having said that – it’s not that I don’t appreciate peoples need and complete right to paint ‘the flower thing’ – it’s that I often say too much from too wide a perspective to be of any use to them. Often no comment is the best comment.

I just popped over there and lifted a few comment I made that you might not have seen, to illustrate: – work posted by ‘Linda Miles’
‘ Hi Linda -I've been a looking at y'r folio here. You obviously love painting and the colour and physicality of it - and probably had some training - or been doing it for a while - don't know yr situation - but my eyes tell me this: Forget about Picasso - except for the early stuff - he's no good for you - you need to look n look n look at Matisse more and see how the flowers above fit in with the abstracts that you want to let yrself go on - you need to LOOK and re integrate these two things into one vision - and then y' might really do some stuff - and stop y'rself doing things like homage to Picasso - as if he needs 'em.’
Perhaps I wasn’t diplomatic enough there – but no one else had said anything about her stuff ( I think Chris Salt dropped a line in)and she didn’t bother to reply. Ce la vie.

Here’s another:- Summer In A Blue Jug – posted by Sara Rigby
Hi, You need a better photograph of this. what you have here - and have 'chosen' - as much as it has chosen you - is absolutely timeless. The timelessness of a still life? no, there is often a too composed element within them i.e. they are the 'subject' - this is clear and unadorned - just simple budding flora in a plain jug. A plain jug has clarity and beauty of purpose - and the buds have their own universal poetry. A timelessness of Landscape? no, that is specific; this subject crosses all culture, and place. It allows all poetry. In the past I've favoured Oranges in a dish to do that - but it is, in the end a needful subject because of course Oranges arn't available everywhere. If these spring/ summer flowers were in a vase - it wouldn't have it's quiet understated power. People think they can - but not everyone can do something like this. Stay with the clear and the unadorned. All the best - Cheers. Dai Harding.

I was and still am ‘jealous’ of her little watercolour – I need to do that simplicity of subject again.

Hidden Woman is worth working with – it will help you. Note that it shouldn’t be THE Hidden Woman. Too specific, too self involved. That in many ways are what artists are of course – self involved – but not in a Narcissistic way – you must look at your work like a stranger - often.
Just seen your Blue Woman on the site – great to see something not overly worked by you for a change - That would certainly form part of a ‘Hidden Woman’ series in a show.

I would like you to find a little time to do some colour work specifically – carry on with what you want to paint and I’ll comment and answer any questions about anything – but a bit of colour work will help in all sorts of ways – that’s why I was asking if you had a palette knife, not for painting with but to put down a strokes of pure colour next to each other.
It’s one thirty now so I’ll leave this now and write about what I want us to do with colour v soon.

E8 - Lisi's Theory of Everything

What have I learned so far?

I've learned two really important things from you, Dai, or should I say, I'm learning - have started but still a long way to go.

1) Own my work

This is so important. You made me realise that even when I like what I'm doing (have done), or like its possibilities, I still talk it down when I show other people. I do believe in my work, but I have to admit it. It is easier to learn from this point.

(I printed out photos of 19 of my pictures and made them into postcards. Felt surprised that I liked them so much. This was a step towards owning my work.)

2) Learn to look and understand

I usually say things like 'I like it but don't know why'. You've made me start finding reasons for why one way is better than another.

-----------------------------------------------
Have spent all evening painting the Itsuki picture.

It's still not right but is better than it was. Might have to change it again. Am going to have a break now. Hope your work is going well.

Work in progress

Hello Dai

How are you getting on with your preparations? The exhibition sounds so exciting - wish I could be there to come and look and cheer but no chance this December, I fear. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of it.

It's a non-stop mad house here with people coming and going, eating, drinking, talking (not sleeping much). I skive off from time to time and hide upstairs.

I know you won't have time at the moment to read this or comment, but thought I'd just make a few notes about what I'm doing.

I've got 3 paintings on the go:

1) Statue looking at sky - not a painting yet, but it will be
have made 2 sketches (first one A5 in sketch book, second one A2, second one a bit different) for the statue looking at the sky - or whatever it turns out to be - thought it was 2 heads 3 (2 heads 1 is the drawing on the right of the blog, then there was another scribbly thing that turned into 2 heads 2) , but maybe it isn't. It might be another hidden woman (in fact nearly every painting I do contains a hidden woman). The image came from the impression of looking at the fiery sky outside Leeds Art Gallery just before closing time. Somehow this image developed and translated into a continuation of the heads pictures. With the second sketch though it seems to be developing into something else. I'm not ready to paint this yet, but it will come.

2) Gledhow Valley Woods
drew this from photograph - loved the shapes and the colours - feel frustrated that I did it with polychromos - they're not bright enough and their edges are too contained. Will change the paths to white and grey (from yellow and orange), I think. Might paint it again. It's much too dull and pretty as it is - an embarrassment. This was an attempt at a landscape but it failed. I started off representationally, as drawing practice, but got carried away. Then it ended up looking pretty. But it has possibilities ..... I do like the shapes, and the magenta, grey, white and green of the original impression. Must have a go with those colours and ban my insistent yellow for a while.

3) Going down
based on photograph of stairs down from top floor, have painted the lines - now I just have to paint the shapes and the colours, the spaces in between, the important bits. I'm enjoying looking at this before I go further. It feels v. satisfying so far. Need a few hours when I won't be disturbed so I can do the next bit.

Drawings

1) Have done a couple of sketches of Jay - they've got mistakes in them. I like one of them. I'll do some more. Need to use hard pencils as well as soft.

2) Did a sketch of Keith, an old friend, 70 now and he had a stroke a couple of years ago. It's not good because I haven't got any depth to him - it's all too pretty. Used only hard pencil - must use mixture.

3) Nothing further from the course book - will get back to it soon.

And hallelujah! Palette knives and Steiner's Real Presences have arrived all at once - as I was writing this.

NB

My posts are often Spelling free zones i'm afraid.

Heyla - so lets nitpick with words a little - we must - it's part of the parcel I'm trying to 'teach' and part of the parcel that you will give and take within, as we misunderstand each other - and as I overly explain. like two submarines down in the dark, echoes pinging, knowing their close, but in the end dense shodows slipping by - that is the nature of the dialogue.
Angie - why is the painting better upside down - why is it better?why, is it better??? You know an awful lot about language and poetry - so why is it better??? the other way up?? - I certainly think it is.
I'll tell you -: it's about Import: it's about taking responsibility for the small and the very small things in ones poesy. Ones paintings - even if the answer is the truthfull -'It was the only colour I had' THAT, is what one stands with, and stands behind - the simple truth of the thing, the occams razor of it - which is indeed what you have told.
But HOW do you create from there: and that is what i've been talking about really even within 'words with Angie 1.'
What is it that makes the difference between something and nothing. If one does not stand behind the work - in the end how can it stand -and it's not about being verbose, big headed or upfront about it. When I was touting my folio around literary and illustration agents, I only had to be one thing: smiling and well presented. I open the folio, and it speaks for me as it will - no ammount of book reading - fancy philosophy - or persuasion will do: the work has to stand on its own.
The same with painting, it will speak for you as you really already know, but perhaps are afraid of the implications, or of people seeing a naive side of you, or the poetry of it. Most people don't understand that so much is laid bare - y'have to let them have their say and let it go.
It's not so much about the painting or oneself either - it's about that word - responsibility - the responsibility to others to be direct, serious, happy, fun,clear, and to stand by ones professed love. Art, Society, The Individual, Ritual, Relationship, Nature - in all this one can say, THIS is what I do and is the greater part of me as a human being.
Not in so many words but with that understated power of the image that speaks to others and thru ones own silence and it's own silence, it will, if one works have presence. Presence can ideed meet presence - this is the wager on qualities of trancendance that Steiner talks of. All within the wider philosophical question of what are we ruddy here for anyway? As Dylan T. said ' For the wages of the secret heart' It effects people in their deeper silence - and we try and banish silence.
One walks it and talks it - but in art - as usual silence is the better part of colour. That seems a good quip to finish off a fairly rambly piece Angie - but I know you'll get most if not all of it.
Thanks for the African Writing Mag, will pass on news of it and the word n visual artists to Antonio Brito, a 2nd generation Cape Verdi Islander who lives down the Docks in Cardiff - but we've since learned to call it the Bay. He is a sculptor, photographer and perhaps will look into trying to organise some kind of exhibition at Butetown History and Arts Centre. I don't know, but sometimes I bump into him where I often catch a full English Breakfst - yea - the covered market that used to be a womens prison.
OK - I'm fuzzy......that's it....I can't edit it anymore....
Hey! a bottle of merlot is always a good idea. Much love - Dai.

a noodle

I just seem to be dropping in at the mo - while having a break from trying to recover lost files and re install software.

Thing is Angie - a noodle or a doodle is part of the whole thing - the whole creative thing - and should be accepted as part of the ongoing and expanding process of seeing - don't be too tempted to write it off because it only took a few mins - many a great composition has been banged down on a table napkin or the provebial back of a fag packet. What you should take from it as you look - is pretty much what you need, or what you want it to become. For me its the green world, and looks very flora within a glade of some kind. But that's me. How you work with these things is to say 'Yes it only took a few minutes - that's fine - I'll look at it later.'

Or something may ring out to you from it straight away ( from its unsourced poetry within yourself or froma purely visual effect). When one paints like this, one is back in touch with the unconcious self - the child some may say - so it shouldn't either be completely dismissed - or taken overly seriously - which I know you don't - but these things can be very usefull as a springboard into other things. Just hold to these small and large things as part of the 'ongoing' rather than 'finished thing'. Perhaps a natural composition form has sprung there you hadn't used before - perhaps a loose and bravura handling of shapes that would be good to use on other things. Some people keep copies of their telephone doodlings, and as you know they can turn into dense and massive flowerings of god knows what - but all usefull if you want to use them. For most, just to have that unconcious activity of 'doodling' is a release from pressure - it just - comes out - stuff just dribbles n splodges and constructs itself as if it had a life of its own -the old organic. Picasso's famous answer when asked why was that painted blue was of course -'That was the only colour I had at that time.' So the blue is fine fine fine - and couldn't be better - such a great serious colour -and you would do well to perhaps put this up where you can glimpse it now and again - so that - the point being - IF - you want to - IF - you see something, you can work from it again the small series idea - and for me simply because Blue is such a 'spiritual' colour but the painting looks like the 'green world' - there are great possibilities - but you must keep the bravura of handling, let your brushstrokes stand proud like brush strokes, even if you scribble and scrabble some parts - let them look like scribble scrabble - but work in your minds eye with what you have found - ie something like ' The Green World Blue' or whatever takes your edge on the poetry of it without overegging.

Again -I don't want to be overly serious about doodles - but they are part of it all - the more instant and unconcious part where value is in the ongoing, even if you have a 20 foot high pile of 'em. I sit for ages with a guitar or my sax and just play - who knows what - it's noodling, muso's could spend eternity noodling - and then hey! - along comes a phrase that's usefull - or fits the bill the moment - it's as part of the tradition of music just like it is in art. Leonardo used to do his heuristic drawings -you know - let his brush make a splodge and then turn it into something -kids still like doing it as y'know.

Cor - I only dropped by - right back to the software installation..... Dai

Heres one of my doodles that I've kept and love - ( I have it on my studio wall and still keep sneaking glances at it -as if it's going to say something more or where to fit me in)

P.S.

.. At least I think it looks better reversed, but the longer I look at it, the less sure I am. I think I did originally paint it the way up that I first had it. But it's essentially a doodle so it doesn't really matter, does it?. Maybe my mind was hanging upside down at the time...... I'm off back to work now, catch you later. What are you working on? I keep going to your site to look at your pictures - what a pleasure.

Other way up

Hello Dai - how clever of you! I sit here grinning. You're right - it does look better this way up. Can't remember now, how I painted it - probably just took a quick pic because I liked the colours. I must have a look for it and then I should be able to tell which way I painted it. But I can't remember. Still, never mind - it does look better this way up.

looking at it the other way

Playing with colours

Did this a while ago - using up left over paint one night after I'd finished painting something else, but I liked it so I kept it. I'm looking forward to getting going with a palette knife and playing with colours. Meanwhile I'm busy drawing a statue looking at the sky, and in fact, must leave all this stuff for the moment and get on with the day job.

Got some polychromos today

and couldn't resist trying them out. (I read about them on the painters site and thought they might be worth trying. I've never got on very well with crayons, but would welcome some colours that are not messy to take with me when I move about.)

Not a very good pic - in fact it's awful, but nice to find out how the colours work. I'm pleased with them because you can put one colour on top of another, and that's what you usually can't do with colouring crayons. I don't think they'll ever become a favoured medium for me though. I prefer charcoal, pastel, paint - stuff that you can move about. I like pencils, too, because you can swirl about with them.

I keep feeling a great urge to take down all this scrappy stuff (including the sketches on the painters site - I put them up after contributing to Alison's discussion list, and had referred to them), and will do soon, but it might be good for me to leave them for a little while so I can look to see exactly why they are scrappy.

Two very quick drawings

Hello Dai - nice to see you here. Hope Gaynor arrived back safely. (Yes, it's strange how animals know where people are and when they're coming, or at least some animals do.)

Here are two very quick drawings. All of these drawings are crappy and scrappy (as I said in the email). I do keep wondering whether it's worth posting them at all, but I will for a bit. Please don't feel compelled to comment though.

As you can see, the glass has got the imprint of the soup bowl on top of it.

Both these were done in an A4 sketch book with soft pencils - b and 2b.

I'm here

Hi Angie - very good idea to have a space to just be able to put stuff up as we want. Gayn due home from N.Y. any min -It's funny the cats are circling -they usually know the sound of her car - but she's coming in a taxi from Cardiff Bus Station.
Yes it's ok to quote
Will check out the drawing and writing in detail soon.
Cheers. Dai

Basic Single Object - Teapot

Exercise - p 26 Basic Single Objects from Barrington Barber's HTDE

Here are - a pastel sketch (quick) and a drawing (approx 2 hours) of the teapot.

I like the pastel sketch much more than the drawing although the drawing is a more accurate representation. The pastel seemed to capture the spirit of the teapot more than the drawing. I enjoyed doing both but don't like either of the finished drawings much, especially not the pencil drawing because it looks a bit 'pretty' .

With the drawing, I learned or remembered:

1) that I couldn't draw a kitchen roll with a straight line - it didn't look like paper. It must seem obvious to other people that you need to draw a soft wavyish line for this, but it took me a while to figure it out.

2) shadows - I could draw the shape of the shadows, but then didn't know which way to make the lines go in the shading. First of all I drew them in the direction the shadow fell, but they didn't look right. Eventually I realised that I had to just accentuate whatever lines were in the drawing anyway, so the wooden floor had to have the grains running in the same direction that they did run, just made darker. Once again, this seems so obvious now, but I struggled with this for quite a while. I see that you can still see some of the wrong lines. Never mind.

3) that I need softer pencils - I've got plenty but I was being lazy, just using my old papermate non-stop because it's got a nice fine point and a rubber on the other end.

Another thing I thought afterwards was that the teapot looked better on the table downstairs than either on a desk upstairs where the pastel sketch was done or on the floor upstairs where I eventually drew it.

Basic Single Object - Bottle

This is an exercise from page 26 Basic Single Objects of How to Draw Everything by Barrington Barber.

Here are - a pastel sketch (very quick) and a pencil drawing (an hour or so). The bottle was in a different place each time.

The pastel sketch seems much better than the drawing, even though the drawing took so much longer. The drawing looks terribly laboured, partly because I did it first of all with an hb pencil which was too hard for the shading (and only added a bit of b later).

What was difficult with the drawing was the shadow - it should have been easy but somehow it didn't look right. I think I'm gradually realising what is wrong with the shadow - please see next post of teapot.