Experimental Gouache, Free Coffee and Wisdom from Kathryn Maple
In this weeks “Drawing a Head” class I spent the morning warming up with charcoal and then the afternoon with my beloved gouache. Once again building what I learnt off William Kentridge, I applied charcoal dust with a brush for soft midtones that I worked on top of with darker lines and a putty rubber for highlights. As the morning was a series of shorter drawings, I ended up doing quite a few but here are the two of the best results:
Charcoal Morning Studies on Paper
As for the afternoon I had the painter Mamma Andersson on my mind and in particular thinking about her long, landscape formats filled with figures in interior settings. Working at a smaller scale, I used some of the studio to set a scene for the two models and also included one of my classmates (ended up looking rather ominous).
Afternoon Study, Gouache on Paper
Before moving on wanted to give a quick shoutout to origin coffee in Shoreditch - had some excellent hot chocolate there and they gave us some free drinks only due to an extra two minute wait (top guys).
A Somewhat Cubist Eye at The National Gallery
This week I was meeting tutor Michelle Cioccoloni for the first time and in this week’s class we were focusing on a geometrical approach to our chosen works. I began the day studying “The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine” by Parmigianino (https://youtube.com/shorts/OWyDCDWYSv0?feature=share) as I was interested in the ambiguous space created by the mirror in the background.
Mystic Marriage Study, Pencil on Paper
After lunch, I spoke to Michelle for a while about my work and how I was going to move forward in the National Gallery. I realised that compared to other Museums and collections I’ve studied from, I’ve felt slightly less engaged since tackling work at The National Gallery. After taking a look at my paintings and other work, she advised I should start bringing colour with me so I ended up getting a load of Faber Castell colouring pencils (let’s see what happens next week).
The afternoon focused more on the task at hand, and I ended up with a rather cubist-like drawing of a painting God knows where (I should really document properly where I am and what I’m working from).
Anyone recognize the painting? (It's a Michelangelo)
Fascinating Insights from Kathryn Maple
On Wednesday evening I had the privilege of listening to artist (and tutor) Kathryn Maple speak about her work and new solo show coming up in Liverpool. She introduced us to a variety of work she's been producing over the years since winning the John Moores painting prize, and gave some great practical insight into her work.
As I scan my notes now here are a few takeaways:
If something isn't meant for one painting, you can take it to another.
One way of doing this is keeping old works and using them for collage.
She works in a "scattered" way and allows imagery to emerge from the process of painting, also references drawings.
Her works in oil pastels (limited colour pallette) are fantastic, she has a show coming up in London soon displaying a years worth of drawing.
So much can happen in the world between the start and end of a painting, painting can be a means of documenting a very specific moment in time.
"Collage as a placeholder of visual ideas".
Drawing a Story
For “Drawing a Story” we were all back with tutor Mark Cazalet and once again dove into a Chekhov short story. This week was “In the Cart”, and as someone interested in both the figure and the landscape I was very pleased with the imagery the text was conjuring this week. We started off the day with some quick drawings to warm up, and I used these poses to construct additional characters in the gouache paintings I worked on for the rest of the day.
My first piece (I actually think this was my strongest), depicts the protagonist on the back of a horse and cart making its way through a wild, icy road slowly being thawed by an emerging spring sun.
On the Road, Gouache on Paper
For my second piece I tried to scale up further, using some abstract brushwork to depict space - I didn’t feel like the composition sat well for this piece, but I did enjoy the textured look I managed to create for the figure’s skin.
Larger, slightly abstract experiment - Gouache on Paper
Detail of texture
Last but not least are my final two pieces; one back into a longer landscape format and the other flipped into a long portrait format. These were quick paintings so I didn’t have as much time to clarify the pieces, but there are elements that I think work quite well such as the pose of the figures in the landscape piece, and the overall colour scheme of the portrait piece.
The Cart Enters the River, Gouache on Paper
A look into the Past, Gouache on Paper
So that’s it for this week, look forward to my first ever coloured pencil studies from The National Gallery and do sign up if you want to be notified!
See ya next week,
Tomas
