Artist's statement

To have work accepted into galleries or shows or to offer commissions, the public wants to know about you. Who you are, why you create, what drives you, etc., etc. This information is contained in an artist's statement. It becomes a marketing piece for you and for your work. And it is something that artist's dread more than a blank white canvas with no ideas. But there are lots of ideas and guides to help you through the process. Its rather like writing a resume in an abbreviated form. It will evolve and change over time to suit your purposes.

I have created my own recently and found that the process made me think carefully about what I do, what medium I enjoy and where my strengths are. I know it will change again, just as I will, but that's fine. Its meant to be. To read it, click on the image.

It is a one page document with a self portrait which allows potential customers to see my background and view my work and me at the same time. Any of your art can be displayed on this document or it can be left plain. I like the idea of adding my work to it; it becomes an effective marketing tool, but it may not be suitable for all situations.

Here are a few guides that I found to help you through the process of creating your own artist's statement:

How to write and use and artist's statement

ArtBusiness

Writing an Effective Artist's Statement
By Tacey A. Rosolowski

The Dreaded Artist's Statement - Artadvice.com

Artists Foundation

I've tried another drawing using the Negative Drawing method. This is of Kit, my horse. The reference image for this was taken last week and is here. I like the way this is going, but it is quite small and started as a test drawing in my sketchbook. Also the background is so busy in this image, however I can change that and put her anywhere I guess. I'll play a little more and see where it leads.

Technorati tags: art, artist statement, drawing, negative drawing, horse

Embden geese

The Embden geese showed rapt attention (well,for the most part) as their pool was refilled. They are large geese, weighing up to 30 pounds but tend to be fairly laid back - for geese. They hiss at me but rarely do a mock charge unlike the Chinese Browns who seem to think aggression is the order of the day, every day.

The other goose has taken a broody spell and is sitting on an egg under a tree near the greenhouse for the last week or more. Goose eggs take about 30 days to hatch so she has a while to go yet. Her mate has given up mooning around and has squeezed himself into the pen with 17 other geese, destined for Christmas tables to find company and a new friend. Just as well he's more identifiable with his larger knob on his head or he may head there too.

This is a sketch done for the scavenger hunt - the word was sleeve but my hand came along with it.

Technorati tags: art, sketch, drawing, geese, [embden, sleeve, hand

Eyes

I was up early this morning and wandered into a drawing thread at WetCanvas and an eye was the reference to draw. I love drawing eyes. Eyes of anything and anyone fascinate me. I love being able to shape the sphere of the eye and capture the moisture and sheen and texture. It doesn't always turn out as I want, but I always enjoy the process.

I've finalized a place to hold the drawing classes, now I just need people to sign up. I'll be busy posting and emailing flyers over the next few days then wait and see what happens. So for people living in Flatrock, Torbay, Pouch Cove or St. John's or surrounding areas, here is an opportunity to learn the basics in drawing. It will be held in the Town Hall in Flatrock starting on September 14th and run for 8 weeks. Email me for details.

Here's my large buddy, Kit. She's such a big dog, even if she is a horse. Unfortunately she still is up for sale. She's young just 4 years old, and needs training. She's wonderful on the lead and knows her basic commands. The guy I bought her from said she was ridden, but she's pretty frisky and I haven't chanced it with her. I'm just too old to bounce well anymore. So in the meantime, she's my big cuddly dog.

She enjoys a good scratch against the fence. Unfortunately, she has a habit of leaning against the fence too much and knocking over sections. Then she stands there looking surprised and all innocent.

Technorati tags: art, drawing, drawing class, Flatrock, eyes, horse

Negative drawing

"Negative drawing is a conscious method of working that isolates and protects areas of your paper. These areas can be entire elements that are often completed later, smaller areas wher eht intention is to leave them as virgin highlights or white shapes against a darker background; or minute ares that, for example, form whit ehairs between their cast shadows. Negative Drawing does not involve any form of erasing."

Mike Sibley

I've started a test drawing for a class with Mike Sibley, who's a wonderful artist and so adept at this method of realistic drawing. I never cease to learn and explore techniques in drawing and each time I fall in love with the medium of graphite all over again. 'Simple pencil' people say with a little disdain and never seem to give this medium the respect that it deserves.

Simple pencil is the basis for all art. It puts an idea on a notepad, a napkin in a restaurant or provices the outline for a detailed drawing. In its own right as a medium, graphite in its many forms can be as detailed or as loose as you with to make it. It just depends on the technique that you use.

I prefer realism and tend to be a traditionalist so the medium and the 'fiddlyness' of the art of realism appeals greatly as does the finished product. With Mike's blessing that I'm headed in the right direction, I will tackle this project on a laarger scale and now that I know the process, I can ensure that I take my time and follow the plan.

Technorati tags: art, drawing, negative drawing, mike sibley, realism

Ducklings

Fourteen ducklings hatched last week. They were a mix of purebreed Pekins and mixed Pekins. The colour variation is striking when they are tiny and the dark ones look so appealing with their 'masks'. They are all in the barn now, in a nursery stall where they will stay as they grow. We will keep the dark ones as the purebred Pekins are destined for central Newfoundland as a starter flock.

In the field I found that the herbs have taken off and the elecampane is starting to flower. The plants this year are taller than I am. Obviously they like being on the edge of the horse manure pile!

I have played around with Squidoo in an effort to be seen further afield in terms of art and commissions. My lens provides a little information, but I'm not sure yet if it is more than a simple marker in a new trend of toys. Time will tell.

I haven't had a lot of time for drawing this weekend, except for some sketching for the scavenger hunt. In keeping with the 'growing' theme, there are some of the jalapenos growing in the greenhouse. After harvest, they are destined for drying and for making stuffed jalapeno poppers, yummy.

Technorati tags: art, sketch, moleskine, ducklings, elecampane, herbs, jalapenos

Things you never thought you'd be doing...

Drawing lint.

Yep, that's what I was doing today. And ice cubes. Not ordinary ice cubes,but little ones shaped like fish and pineapples. At 6am. No, I'm not losing my mind - not that I know of anyway. I'm taking part in the 6th Scavenger Hunt at WetCanvas and these are some of the 26 items on a list to complete. As I'm slow and tied up with other tasks, its highly unlikely that I'll ever complete a scavenger hunt, but its fun to make myself draw on a daily basis from life.

I've also been putting together the bones of a beginner's drawing class to teach locally. People keep asking me to start one, and now seems a good time. Once I have a place secured, I will let people know then see what happens. I strongly believe that good drawing is the basis for all art. So many people dive straight into painting without any training in drawing and then wonder why they are frustrated and that nothing ever looks right. Its like trying to stand without a backbone. It just won't happen.

I have a couple of options of places and will offer intermediate and advanced drawing classes perhaps at the same time, working a couple of nights a week if demand is there.

I got the basis of the watercolour of my mother down on paper, but I"m not happy with the tones so far. Its weak and blah looking. I want stronger tones and harder edges in some areas of the face. I'll continue to work on it and see what happens. Watercolour is such a unique medium and so easy to fool up with too. This is a scan as I'm waiting for the batteries to charge for the camera, so I don't think its the true colours of this painting.

Technorati tags: art, drawing, sketches, moleskine, lint, ice cubes, watercolor, portrait

Feline approval

I emailed the final drawing of Horus to his owner, Mallika and this morning I found the following photos in my email. Horus has given the paw of approval! Thanks Mallika and Horus for letting me use the image and for sharing it with the world. Always a pleasure.

Tonight I'm starting a watercolour of my mother from a sketch I did the other day. I'm not sure if its going well yet or not. Perhaps tomorrow I will be brave enough to post something. Right now, its at the 'ugly' stage.

I was asked how many of my drawings never make the cut to be acceptable. I have been thinking about that and its a little difficult to say. All drawings have meaning at some level. But whether or not they are suitable, in my eyes, for framing or selling is another thing. What is the criteria for a 'good' drawing? It is so individual that I can't give a good set of criteria to use. For me, its mostly down to measurements being off and therefore not acheiving a likeness, as most of my drawings and paintings are of people and animals. In the case of commissions, if an image doesn't present what the client had in their minds eye, it can be classed and unacceptable. It is rare and usually then a fe minor tweaks are all that are necessary. Accurate initial line drawings are the essential backbone of any work and if the initial drawing is off, it won't matter what magic you try with paints or other mediums, it won't look good. Drawing is the basis of all works of art, with perhaps the exception of abstracts. And drawing is what makes or breaks the overall image's worth.

I have a portfolio full of 'mistakes'. I don't discard them, but I don't flaunt them either. There are there as reminders of what I have done and what I can do and what I should do. They represent differnt levels of expertise and experience and provide a record of movement across time. This is an image done 20 years ago of my daughter, compared to one done a few months ago. Aside from the passage of time, I see a difference in style too.

Neither are good or bad sketches, just different from each other.

Technorati tags: drawing, portrait, art, watercolor, what makes a good drawing

Finished

I am calling the two portraits I was working on finished. I am still not completely happy with the first portrait as the beard was causing some concern in rendering it well. But the paper is losing its tooth and won't hold much more pigment so rather than ruin it, I will let it stand.

The cat is complete as well and was an interesting first attempt at an animal portrait in this medium. The pencils work well for animals and provide a softness that doesn't need to be worked at too much.

The cemetery I visited on Sunday opens out onto a lake in the middle of the city, called Quidi Vidi. On the lake every August fixed seat rowing races are held and have done so for the last 186 years, making it the oldest continuous sporting event in North America. To commemorate this, a sculpture was commissioned. This statue, is the work of Morgan MacDonald, BBA ‘04. It took him two years in his spare time to build The Rower using the lost wax process. It is his first major work of public art. Mr. MacDonald is a 24-year-old native of Corner Brook who moved to St. John’s at an early age. His art education includes a year at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College and a three-year apprenticeship at a bronze sculpture foundry. “This sculpture is an attempt to encapsulate the strength, athleticism and elegance of the sport,” said Mr. MacDonald.

Technorati Tags: art, drawing, derwent drawing pencils, portrait, animal portrait, The Rower, Quidi Vidi, sculpture

Updates

I've had a little time to deepen the tones more on Horus. I'm still feeling my way in rendering fur with these pencils, so its a bit hit or miss. They don't erase well either so I have to plan my strokes carefully. Hopefully, one more session and he will be done, then back to more details on the other portrait.

I was sorting out some insurance related details for my mother yesterday and caught her intently reading the letter from the company. I made a quick sketch in my Moleskine and may enlarge it and turn it into a watercolour when I get a chance.

Finally, I'll include the duck image that I mentioned yesterday as Blogger now seems to be cooperating. These are the Pekin ducks lounging in the shade of the laburnum trees.

Technorati tags: art, drawing, portrait, cat, sketch, ducks, moleskine

An eye for art

I find lately that my shopping excursions tend to have me eyeing up vegetables or fruit or interesting arrangements of bowls or glass with a new eye. I'm not there to buy groceries or household items for practical purposes. I'm buying items for their art appeal. I'm thinking about how they would look in a drawing or composing images in my head using the colours or shapes that I see in some of these stores.

That is how this sketch came about. Done in pencil in my Moleskine 8.5 x 5. I was in Shoppers Drug Mart looking for a bottle of water to drink and came across a display of Welsh bottled water - Ty Nant. (you never know what you'll find in Shoppers...) The shape of the bottle was so appealing instantly. It reminded me of an ice sculpture, like those I've seen in the Crystal Garden in Ottawa during Winterlude. For the exhorbitant price of $2.49 or similar, I bought my art treasure home and continue to refill it over and over as I can't bear to part with the bottle. Now I'm wondering how it would look with coloured water in it; with sunlight pouring through it; in shadow; frozen...the possibilities are endless. Good value for $2.49 I think.

The bottle itself has broken new ground it seems, according to Antiques of the Future.

Clear plastic water bottle with organic ripples. This has been noted in engineering magazines for being the first blow-molded, asymmetric PET bottle. The water is bottled in Wales.

Manufacturer: Ty-Nant

Copyright Date: 2001

Materials: PET Plastic

Museums: What is Design Today Exhibition, The Design Center 10/02

Awards: `Premier Award’ from the Bottledwaterworld awards in Italy - March, 2002. ‘Golden’ Grocery Advertising and Marketing Industry Award for best PR campaign 2002. ‘Oscar’s De L ‘Emballage’ Award France, 2002.

Publications: Modern Plastics 8/02, Bon Voyage, France Graphique, Joyce, L'uisine Nouvelle, and Emballages Magazin

When I arrived home today, the Pekin ducks were lounging in the grass (well more weeds than grass) and looking very relaxed in the shade. They are my favourite ducks, noisy and lively, always sifting through the grass with their beaks as if they're perpetually looking for something they've lost.

It seems Blogger is having problems again loading photos so the duck photo will have to wait awhile.

Technorati tags: art, sketch, moleskine, ty nant water, bottle, pekin ducks

Production

Everything in the greenhouse seems to be bursting with fruit or flowers right now. The grapes are so laden down on one of the vines that they have had to be propped up to keep the vine from sagging to the ground. These are white Interlaken grapes, seedless and sweet, wonderful for eating.

The other vine in the greenhouse is Pinot Noir, which produces small black berries that yield the famous French Burgundy wines. Neither variety are ripe yet, likely in September they will begin to be harvested and finish in October.

Cucumbers, and tomatoes are ripening fast and furiously to the point where I have to either do something with them or give them away. I am trying to grow eggplants this year and the large sturdy plants are flowering now.

Magnificent pale violet flowers that are works of art in themselves. I hope they do set fruit, it would be wonderful to have organic eggplants and make moussaka or ratatouille.

Then the updates on the birds. The baby geese are nine weeks old now and nearly as big as the parents. They stride around chasing the ducks or chickens for sport given half a chance. They will all have to be penned soon as they really are taking over the garden and becoming a bit of a pest. The second male goose's mate is sitting on some eggs now and he wanders aimlessly around all day, muttering to himself sounding rather like a trumpeting elephant. If you stand still long enough he rubs up against your leg like and old cat, asking 'Will you be my girlfriend?' Silly goose!

Then there are the Pekin ducks hatching today. As of writing, seven have hatched with 11 more due to hatch. Ducklings are always so sweet, but them I'm a sucker for most animals.

Finally, a sketch I started of Kit, the horse. Kits is such a sweet creature without a bone of malice in her. She is currently up for sale and I will miss her when she's gone.

Technorati Tags: produce, greenhouse, tomatoes, eggplant, geese, duckling, art, sketch, horse, grapes

Cemeteries

It all started today with a friend providing me a link to customs surrounding the Jewish grave, called unveiling. It doesn't differ a lot from other religions whose rites around life and death follow similar paths. But it started a day of discovery in cemeteries.

I went out this afternoon and we had to make a stop at a friends house to look at a lawnmower that wouldn't work. So while my husband looked at that, I wandered into the churchyard further down the road. St. Nicholas church is located in Torbay and overlooks the bay surrounded by cliffs. At the edge of the churchyard is a cemetery. I walked down the steep path to get closer to the water and something caught my eye. A grave, freshly dug, with a pile of earth and stones next to it and in the grave a pine box. There was no one around, not a soul and I couldn't figure out why a grave would be left open. It was as if it had been abandoned mid-funeral ceremony.

One thought did cross my mind and I'm hoping it is the right one as, out of curiousity, I stopped by the churchyard on the way home and the grave was still there, casket in it, untouched and still no one around.

There is a national program created and performed by Newfoundland actors called Hatching, Matching and Dispatching.

In outport Newfoundland, it is often left to one enterprising family to literally taxi the residents of the town from cradle to grave—offering wedding, funeral and ambulance services all under the same roof. Hatching, Matching & Dispatching is a new comedy about one such family—the Fureys.

Laced with Newfoundland’s singular black humour Hatching, Matching & Dispatching follows the adventures of the Furey family and their daily dealings with the lovesick, the plain sick, the old, the infirm, the newborn, the automotively challenged, the bereaved, the heartbroken, the dead and the dead drunk.

The ensemble cast includes Mary Walsh (Mambo Italiano, This Hour Has 22 Minutes) as the family matriarch, along with Mark McKinney (Saddest Music In The World, Kids inthe Hall), Shaun Majumder (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Cedric The Entertainer), Rick Boland (The Divine Ryans), Susan Kent (Violet) and Sherry White (The Bread Maker).

Looking at some of the photos on the CBC site, it looks very similar to what I saw there and I'm hoping it was a leftover 'prop' for one of the shows as Hatching, Matching and Dispatching is filmed in Torbay and Petty Harbour. If not, someone may have a little explaining to do as to why the gravesite was left open...

Then on the Anglican Cemetery Forest Road in St. John's. This cemetery is one of the older ones in the city and has spread out of the years. Forest Road Cemetery had burials beginning in 1839 or 1849 and the older section has the ambience created by time in such a place. The trees tower over the graves which are close together and segmented by paths which tree roots compete with for space.

The headstones and markers are scarely visible in some, the letters worn away by over 100 years of rain, and snow and sleet pounding on them. Others have succumbed to the effects of frost and thaw and have splintered and cracked, toppling the stone pillars or crosses into the grass. The fragmented sunlight coming through the trees adds to the scene and always fascinates me. A number of my relatives are buried there, including my maternal grandmother and a number of her sisters - my great aunts.

I have visited cemeteries for years,exploring the older ones, especially in England, where Highgate Cemetery was my favourite. The age and architecture of momuments to people are an endless source of inspiration for drawing and for thought.

Finally, to the drawing update for today. If you've reaching this far, you've the patience of Job. This is an update of Horus, the sweet little grey tabby in Mallika's blog Under the Shade. I have deepened more of the face and started on the coat of the body. I'm still having a challenge with his eyes in achieving that luminous quality that I'm looking for. I'll work on those a little more and hopefully have the piece finished within the next couple of days.

Technorati Tags: cemetery, unveiling, Torbay, Forest Road, Highgate Cemetery, drawing, art, cat, portrait

Painting with M & M's

Its pouring rain. I've done my shopping chores and now have some time to myself. Surfing around the net I came across this article in the NY Times which captured my imagination.

CRESCENT CITY, Calif., July 16 — The morning after the opening of a show of his recent work, the artist was in his studio, a concrete cell in the Pelican Bay State Prison, where he is serving three life terms in solitary confinement for murder and for slashing a prison guard’s throat. He was checking his supplies, taking inventory.

Mr. Johnson's paintbrush is made of plastic wrap, foil and strands of his own hair.

His paintbrush, made of plastic wrap, foil and strands of his own hair, lay on the lower bunk. So did his paints, leached from M&M’s and sitting in little white plastic containers that once held packets of grape jelly. Next to them was a stack of the blank postcards that are his canvases.

I'm still in portrait mode and am slowly building up my portfolio again with a variety of people and animals. Here are a couple of starts from today, both done in Derwent Drawing Pencils. They're my favourite medium of the moment as I can build a drawing so quickly with them. The first is the start of a friend's portrait, the second a lovely grey tabby.



And news just in---Moleskine has been sold to a French company...

I have taken the liberty of translating the piece from the orignal French only version.(which can be found here.)
Please bear with this version as translation programs do tend to translate quite literally at times

Moleskine was the travelling companion of the large adventurers and the confidant of the great writers.

Funds of investment of the general Company repurchases the small notebooks at an Italian company.

IT IS transfers of companies which exhale a perfume of nostalgia. Moleskine, celebrates manufacturer of small notebooks of voyage, changes hand. For 60 million euros, funds private of the general Company comes to repurchase this so French mark and which however was not it any more. In 1998, the Milanese company Modo & Modo had started again it, for the greatest pleasure of the amateurs.

With this transfer with a financial investor of French extraction, small SME returns a little to the “fold” with the same desire for building its future by also exploiting its past.

Moleskine was the travelling companion of the large adventurers, the confidant of the great writers, the witness of the anguishes of the great painters. Of Van Gogh with Picasso while passing through Matisse and Hemingway, plethora of artists of last century adopted Moleskine like notebook of voyage, sketch or notes.

Pablo Picasso had a whole collection of it. One of them, the scratch pad n° 53, a notebook of 9 centimetres over 13,5 with the annotation “June/September 1912”, is exposed to the Picasso Museum of Paris. Oscar Wilde never travelled by train without its notebook: “It is always necessary to have something of sensational to read”, said it. Ernest Hemingway was accustomed to sitting at table with the Small estate of the Lilacs in his “favorite angle”: “I ordered a white coffee and I spent long afternoon to be written on my scratch pad.”

More saddened was Bruce Chatwin

At the time, Moleskine was produced in an artisanal way by a small family paper mill of Turns. The amateurs appreciated his rigid cover out of paperboard covered with fabric of black or brown color, the elastic band which held it closed and the mitre which made it possible to open it without the pages not flying away. In 1986, the owner of the paper mill being deceased, the production ended.

More saddened was Bruce Chatwin. Collector, journalist, author of novels and accounts of voyage on Patagonie and the Aboriginals of Australia, it was accustomed to saying: “To lose my passport is the last of my concern. To mislay my scratch pad would be a catastrophe.” Chatwin told its fright when its paper maker, installed street of the Old-Comedy in Paris, taught him laconically that “Moleskine truth is not any more”. It sought of it a hundred for one of its tours.

It is a small Milanese company, Modo and Modo, which in started again the production in 1998 by depositing the mark that nobody had taken care to patent. Success was quickly with go. Notebooks, scratch pads, books lined, squared, into small and large size are sold today to 4,5 million specimens per annum in about thirty country. JNF Productions, created in 1977 by Jean-Christmas Flammarion, secured the exclusive rights of distribution for France.

Modo and Modo, whose Moleskine is the single activity, carries out approximately 70 million euros of sales turnover. Its owners, Mario Baruzzi and Francesco Franceschi, did not make any comment yesterday.

Technorati tags: art, drawing, derwent drawing pencils, portraits, M & M's, prison, tabby cat, moleskine,

Terrier

I painted this little terrier in my Moleskine tonight. It is one of the reference images from the Weekend Drawing Event at Wet Canvas. It is a terrier, perhaps a crossbreed, but to me looks more like a fox, or is that my rendition of it?

Since my own dog was put to sleep on December 1, 2005, I haven't considered the prospect of having another dog. Not seriously. And I don't think that I will have another dog. While they are great fun to have around and make good companions, my time is limiteid and circumstances make it difficult to have a dog again and give it the attention it deserves.

So for now I will content myself with painting or drawing and adding to my collection of virtual dogs. That is, unless some waif and stray turns up on my doorstep unexpectedly. It has been known to happen...

Technorati tags: art, moleskine, painting, watercolor, terrier, dog

TS Elliot & Mungo Jerry

Extremes you think? Not so in reality. Their name was inspired by the poem "Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer", from T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and the musical CATS.

The image here is of Paul King in his heyday - and me similar circuit. Probably around 1975 or 1976. This photo of me was taken in a pub in Ireland - in Youghal - after a trip on a sailing yacht. Not my favourite activity! Its interesting too look back and remember what we were,how we looked and remember what our dreams were way back then.

Mungojerrie and his partner in crime, Rumpleteazer, specialize in petty theft and mischief. In Eliot's original poem "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer", they are depicted knocking over Ming vases and stealing items from their human family. Mungojerrie is also mentioned in the poem "Macavity, the Mystery Cat" as being one of Macavity's agents.

Onstage, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are usually costumed as orange, black and brown calico cats. In the original Broadway production, Mungojerrie doubled as another character, Coricopat. The "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" song was sung by Mister Mistoffelees. Both of these were changed a few years into the run of the show (So that in more recent productions, it is Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer who perform the number to there own unique dance number where both latch onto each other and do a "double windmill" across the stage). By the end of the recent number both are eventually spooked out of the junkyard by the jellicles. In addition, two distinct versions of the "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" music exist; one is upbeat, the other has a slower tempo.

So what's the connection here, you're asking?

A long time ago, in the mid - late 70's, in the days of my mis-spent youth, I lived in Sunbury on Thames, Middlesex, in England. For awhile I lived and worked in a pub, called The Magpie, right on the river. And there I met a number of famous and infamous people. One of those people was Paul King Paul is a very talented artist and worked at Shepperton studios as a prop maker on the Bond film, Casino Royale. He also formed a folk band, 'The Russian Front' with Steve Bloomfield who later found great success with pop/rockabilly cross–over band 'Matchbox'. Steve was co–producer on 'Lyin' Again' and 'Rosalyn'.

He had been to see local band, The Good Earth several times whilst back in England, sat in at some of the gigs and eventually became a full time member. Primarily a jug band, they played some memorable gigs, none more so than their appearance at the 1970 Hollywood music festival on the bill with such luminaries as – Black Sabbath, Traffic, Jose Feliciano and the Grateful Dead.

1970’s…
The band was now called Mungo Jerry and their debut single, In The Summertime became an enormous hit worldwide with Paul on banjo and jug. More hit singles and albums followed, including tours all over the world before the ‘inevitable’ break-up in 1972.

Working on the south of England pub and club circuit, Paul eventually joined forces with old friend and washboard player Joe Rush, Colin Pattenden (bass, Manfred Mann’s Earthband) and violin/mandolin man Mike Pigott in the Jigilo Jug Band during 1977. They recorded a five track 12” single – 'Live At The Limping Whippet'.

During 1978 and 1979 Paul continued his association with Denny Laine and members of Wings in a new band called Rhode Island Red. The band line up included Colin Pattenden, Jamie Moses (Merlin and Paper Lace) and John Hollywood (Hellraisers).

Paul used to come into the bar in the pub where I also worked part time. The landlord persuaded Paul to use his artistic talents in the form of a mural in the upstairs bar of the Magpie and I used to help when I had time. His band used to play there on Thursday nights and the bar was PACKED - five deep on those nights. It was where I learned how to be a barmaid for the first time...pull several pints of beer at once, learn what shandy was and not to pull a face when the customer asked for Pernod and Coke. Bleeeeech

On to the present - but the past too. A sketch of a surfer contemplating the waves in California.


Technorati Tags: Mungo Jerry, Paul King,TS Elliot, sketch, Moleskine, watercolour

Aging

There is something very satisfying about drawing portraits of mature people. Their faces have character and substance. Its as if you can read their life from looking at their faces.

Yet people, especially in North America, do everything in their power to avoid aging-
hair dye, cosmetic surgery, lotions and potions, diet and excessive fitness regimes - and most end up looking like characatures of themselves. Seventy-five year olds pretending to be 30 and looking like clowns instead. There is something to be said for growing old gracefully.

No, I don't mean that you should lie there and wait for death but just not try to be something you are not. I came across this site dealing with 45 signs of aging and how to address them. The ironic thing is, even if you do all these things, guess what? You will still age and you'll still die eventually. Its programmed into your body and there is nothing that you can do to prevent it. The people and organizations that promise you youth and longevity are happily lining their pockets with your naievity.

So why do so many people frantically try to turn the clock back? Do they want health, flexibility, and opportunity or do they long for freedom and the ability to make their own decisions independently once more. After all, by trying to be youthful, what do you acheive? Why are people so scared of saying how old they are?

I truly never understand the fear that is associated with aging. My fear of aging is lack of health and lack of finances, both which will most like affect me. But whether I have grey hair and wrinkles while I am old,sick and poor really makes no difference. Its hardly likely that I'll be roaming the streets looking for a sugar daddy at 80 years old.

Why do we age? Why can’t we be like sea anemones that live indefinitely (barring some awful accident, such as a whale chomping it into bits)? Or why can’t we stay 11 years old, the age when our regenerative capacity is strongest? Some scientists figure that if we maintained 11-year-old bodies throughout our lives, we could live 1,200 years, barring any significant diseases or accidents!

Aging is one of the least understood processes in science. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some perfectly sensible and likely theories, and very possibly you’ve heard one or two. Like the theory that our cells get hit over time by oxygen radicals (oxidants) that eventually damage our organs (which is why you hear so much about eating foods rich in anti-oxidants). Or that our genes control aging, switching on and off sequentially through the course of our lives. Even just the conventional "wear and tear" theory, which hypothesizes we’re built like machines whose vital parts eventually just wear out and die. Nobody knows for sure what causes aging.

On a note closer to home, in fact in a small town that I lived in and is only 7km away from me this news comes:

A gallery that has served as a retreat for more than 500 painters, sculptors and other artists from around the world has been forced to close after repeated safety violations that its director denounces as bogus. The Pouch Cove Foundation, with its picturesque view of the Atlantic Ocean that has drawn artisans and the curious alike from Toronto, New York and London since 1990, was ordered to shut down June 6. The building was first inspected by the province's fire commissioner in December 2004 at the request of the town council. Since then it failed repeated safety checks and the deficiencies worsened. Joanne Charette, a spokeswoman with the National Gallery of Canada, said while the gallery was not large it was well-known in art circles. "It does entertain a lot of travelling exhibitions, not only from the National Gallery, but from other centres as well," Charette said from Ottawa. "By losing a centre where artists can meet or where artists can showcase their work, it takes away the opportunity for new artists to be able to take their art to a different level."

Where one door shuts, another opens. Perhaps its my turn to become involved in some local art creation and opportunity...

Technorati tags: art, portrait, aging, artist's retreat, Newfoundland

Lost

Some months ago, a couple of lost beagles arrived at our driveway, exhausted and hungry and scared. With no animal services available til the next day or so (its always a weekend), we kept them in the house. They were the sweetest little dogs and part of me wanted to keep them myself.

To make a long story short, animal control collected them but the person who did so also worked as a volunteer for Beagle Paws, as beagle rescue organization who have a 'no kill' policy and rehouse beagles,both in Newfoundland and elsewhere.

It turned out that one of the beagles had a severe bladder infection and was treated. Both the male and female were neutered and spayed then put up for adoption. I still looked at that page each day to see where they were going and if I should take one or both.

The owner of the dogs finally reared his head and the usual policy of Beagle Paws is not to return animals to a situation where they are caged, but for some reason they let the female go back to this person who paid $600 in vet fees before he could have her. The little male, who was my favourite, so tiny and cute, was adopted to a family in Alberta. Hopefully all well that ends well for these dogs. Now for all the other beagles out there that are caged, ill or mistreated. I hope they turn up at my door too.

For over 187 years the Royal St. John's Regatta has been held at Quidi Vidi Lake in the heart of the east end of St. John's, Newfoundland.

The Holiday is held on the First Wednesday in August - Weather permitting - with the decision made early that morning (if not it "goes" the next day).

The day is a civic holiday for the entire St. John's area and is a full day of Fixed Seat Rowing Races.

So tomorrow I may have a day off work - or not - depending on the weather. Heavy rain or wind especially are the prime factors which would affect the running of it. I usually don't attend any more. Its very crowded and I don't enjoy the jostling and noise. Its appeal seems to be that of younger children and older adults reminiscing of races gone past in their youth.

Technorati tags: beagles, beagle rescue, dogs, royal st. john's regatta, holiday

Happy Birthday

Old age: A great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold, you may have escaped, not from one master but from many.
Plato

Today is my mother's 82nd birthday. Yesterday we celebrated with a party with all the trimmings and I cooked a huge roast chicken dinner for about a dozen people on likely one of the warmest, most humid days of the year. Well, what I gained in calories from all I ate, I lost in weight from running around in the heat all day!

Here she is, the birthday girl, with her cake. It was an 'orange' themed birthday as at her age, she doesn't want to count numbers anymore. Every present she had was orange in colour, or orange related, taste or scent. It seemed to work...

Happy Birthday!

Technorati tags: birthday, orange

Choosing the medium

I have so many images in my head of so many different things in so many different mediums. As someone recently said to me, 'You have the makings of several art shows here, just choose which medium you're going to use.'

I am still finding my most comfortable medium, but it seems that each one I use is the one that I am inspired by at the time that I use it. But I keep coming back to pencil based work - graphite, coloured pencil derwents. I like the effects of them and the precision I can acheive too. But I do drift from one medium to another continually - pen & ink, watercolour, acrylics, pencils...it depends on so many things and what calls me at the time.

I did a draft of a portrait of my eldest daughter. I'm not completely happy with it as its too small so I haven't acheived the detail that I wanted with it in this medium and I'm still not sure about the pose. It was difficult to get a good reference photo of her as she kept goofing around as I was taking photos so I had to kind of sneak up on her.

I'll keep working on it and see what comes of of, perhaps enlarging it to see if that helps with the image that I'm looking for.

The goslings are 8 weeks old now and this is their weekly update photo. They are nearly as large as the adults who are teaching them how to be just as noisy as they are and practice their mock charges at everything that moves. They still have their little baby voices which just doesn't match their much larger bodies. They made an excursion into the greenhouse today - not a good idea. They helped themselves to greenbeans and some peppers before being banished with great protests on their behalf, back to the garden. No wonder they grow so fast, they're eating all my food!

Technoratie tags: art, drawing, derwent drawing pencils, mediums, choosing art medium,portrait, geese