an aubergine...

I had a small panic last week because I realised I had no examples of pencil sketches to show the class I was teaching on Monday, other than drawings of lemurs, which I decided were probably not very relevant. So I ransacked the house for random objects with interesting texture and drew them whilst watching Ice Road Truckers on Channel Five. Genius programme.

I liked drawing the aubergine the best.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is 'Blue Woman'. I painted her yesterday at a marathon life drawing class. She wasn't actually blue but I found it suited her rather well. I painted quickly in acrylic on blue cartridge paper, on a preliminary charcoal drawing.

Working on a non-white background is often very effective, for both drawing and painting. I find it makes me consider tonal values differently. You start from the middle point, and add shadows and highlights, whereas when you work on white you are starting from the lightest tones and always working backwards, as it were.

Barnacle Geese

I saw a flock of these beautiful geese grazing on the fields by Ullswater in the Lake District. Barnacle geese are winter visitors to the UK, and they only come to certain places. The Ullswater flock is small, but huge numbers come to Caerlaverock on the Solway Coast, from Svalbard in Norway. Probably the Ullswater ones also come from Svalbard.

There is some really odd and fascinating folklore associated with barnacle geese. People used to believe that they hatched out of barnacle shells, or grew on trees, because they never saw them nest or hatch young. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnacle_Goose explains some of the folklore in more depth. I love this engraving from 1552 which shows the geese growing and hatching from a tree.
Barnacle Geese.--Facsimile of an Engraving on Wood, from the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster, folio, Basle, 1552.

Down t'owd Mill: Photos from my studio

I took these photos yesterday as the afternoon sun caught the west side of the mill opposite my studio. Winter sunlight can somehow lend a nostalgic quality to photos, it's also great to paint.

I still need some clog dancers, whippets, and a few child labourers to complete this über cliched Lancastrian vision.