Friday afternoon coffee and a (very late) lunch at Ellenbrook shops on the way home from work. Perfect fix for one of those days is a sketch break. Uniball Eye Micro pen in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook – watercolour added later.
A couple of views in the carpark.
“I believe keeping a sketchbook is the single most important thing you can do as an artist, not only for developing drawing skills but also for developing a point of view.” Everett Peck quoted in An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory
Govo tanks. Again. Watercolour in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook.
I only popped down to Bullsbrook to pick up a book from the library… but it wasn’t open yet. Honest.
Both watercolour in an A5 Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook.
The library. Looks good with the recent landscaping.
And right next door: the new primary school (which looks more like a prison…).
Bullsbrook, Western Australia. The hardware store with it’s corrugated iron roof, a hulking, but practical vehicle, and the ubiquitous pine pole railing. A typical Australian country town. This one is Bullsbrook. Is it the same elsewhere in the world?
Watercolour and Pitt pen in A5 Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook.
Colour pencil and watercolour in a sketchbook.
Crazy sketchbook experiment in mixed media while waiting for the offspring attending a music lesson. (That’s something they don’t mention in the parenting classes: you will spend a large portion of your life waiting…)
First go with watercolour in a Stillman & Birn Alpha – which is rated for light washes. I guess this counts as a light wash – the paper soaked up the wash making it patchy. Hence, the colour pencil additions. If I put more water on to get a smooth wash is it still a light wash? Or does the paper cockle and spoil the paint on the next page too?
Malaga, Western Australia, not Malaga, Spain. (Though I did visit there very briefly a long time ago.) Watercolour in a very cheap A5 landscape hardbound sketchbook. The paper is surprisingly good – with light washes it doesn’t ruin the next page. It’s a Mont Marte brand – odd that this seller says 110gsm – mine definitely said 150gsm on the sticker. Buckles a little but mostly fixes if allowed to dry with a weight on top…
Same place in the other direction. Sea containers everywhere behind this office block.
Watercolour and Pitt pen in a sketchbook.
A seedhead from the Bull Bay Magnolia which grows near the studio door.
This week’s Artist Safari is looking out for a city. Or rather it going to the city to look out. Or the city is looking out for the safari. No, no, no the good Safarians are off to the lookout in King’s Park to look at the city. Jeff suggests a change of pace – bring your paints as well as your chair, hat, sun cream, drinking water, easel and the usual materials.
Meeting time and point: 2:30pm Sunday 16th August, in the carpark at the end of Fraser Avenue. If you get lost or are running late try phoning: 0402563841 More information: Artist Safari website.
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Have fun, Amanda
Time to get out of the studio again for a bit of fresh air and convivial company without so much of the winter wet-stuff pelting on the pastels… (how’s that for poetic?)
We’re off to the Fish Market Reserve in Guildford at 2:00pm Sunday 2nd August. (Yes, that’s this Sunday.) See Artist Safari website for more details.
The last Art Safari was properly promoted and perpetrated as frottage involving the portrait of a sheep called Hamish. These works of art were achieved with assorted media including, but not limited too, charcoal, rocks, and newsprint as per Wikipedia’s definition:
In frottage the artist takes a pencil or other drawing tool and makes a “rubbing” over a textured surface. The drawing can be left as is or used as the basis for further refinement. While superficially similar to brass rubbing and other forms of rubbing intended to reproduce an existing subject
Unfortunately, to quote our esteemed leader:
It has been gleefully pointed out to me that frottage has a rather different meaning – at least outside the realms of art. I’ll let the gentle reader find it out for themselves. For the speculation about whether I am a New Zealander and consequently have odd affections for sheep – it is not true; although I would have to say that Hamish is a particularly lovable specimen of the breed. Given that the technique of frottage was popularised by the French Surrealists I suspect that it’s addtional meaning may have provided those artists some extra frisson. Jeff
I shall save the equally uninformed the trouble of looking it up, again resorting the ever informative Wikipedia:
In psychiatry, the clinical term frotteurism (no longer called frottage, although commonly called toucherism) refers to a specific paraphilia which involves the non-consensual rubbing against another person to achieve sexual arousal. The contact is usually with the hands or the genitals and may involve touching any part of the body including the genital area. …In common speech frotteurism is called groping…
What more can a girl do other than say “I’m of good English origin” and splutter “oh my…” accompanied by a red face. (Not to mention thoughts of trying it out with a beloved human being!)
Embarrassed, Amanda
