If you are near Plymouth this autumn look out for the Open Studios event 22-30th September 2018 which involves nearly 100 artists from the beautiful Tamar Valley who open their doors to show their work. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet the artists and talk to them about what inspires them, as well as […]
Category Archives: charcoal
This inspirational one day symposium was organised by Marie Taylor and Beth Heaney at Ocean Studios in Royal William Yard in Plymouth on 13 April 2018. Papers, posters, workshops and live performances explored relationships between the body and drawing, investigating issues around exhibiting performative works, audience and boundaries. Janette Kerr, action painter of powerful seascapes and […]
Drawing from life models is so inspirational. It becomes a meditative process, as the line follows the body’s contours, recesses, folds and gestures. You become absorbed in the process, working urgently to reproduce the mood, the attitude, or movement of the model. Charcoal is the usual medium, but recently I have been experimenting with inks. […]
I am fortunate to have one of my charcoal drawings, an abstracted landscape, ‘Above Orcombe Point’ showing at the RWA 165 Open Exhibition in Bristol from 1 Oct to 3 Dec 2017. It is hanging in the beautiful Stancomb-Wills Gallery with a high vaulted ceiling and beautiful light, surrounded by other predominantly black and white […]
In a workshop with Nicci Wonnacott we have been drawing without pre-conceptions, sometimes using both hands at once, or long sticks, pampas grass, sponges, ink, chalks, paint, thinking of music, and ‘drawing with the breath’. It is a meditative and rewarding experience, particularly the collaborative work where you feed from and into other people’s ideas […]
Two approaches to ‘abstraction’ were experienced with James Tatum and Nicci Wannacott, although James would describe himself as an expressionist and not an abstract painter. James relies on the emotional impact of a scene, the light and colour, the sensations of wind, rain, sounds and smells, to inspire his plein aire sketches and subsequent paintings, […]
