Stone arch again

Laguna Arch

5 x 7 oil on canvas panel
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I seem to have an affinity for this scene, as I've draw it several times in pastel and now in oil paints. I wanted to explore a bit more with oils and tested the waters with a triangular knife that was quite fun to use again.

I used the oils straight from the tube more or less. The less, being a touch of turps to thin the paint a little as some colours were stiffer than others out of the tube. Previous attempts were rather thin on the canvas and although the concept was there, it wasn't what I wanted. I want to get those bold strokes of colour that blend together at a distance into perfect sense, but make no sense viewed up close.

This still lacks quite what I want, but is heading there. I need more colours and stronger values in this painting. The stones were quite pale as was the sand around it, but some reddish browns in there would bring it more to where I want it I believe.

So here's the stone arch at Laguna Beach again.

Life cycles

Tomorrow the three pigs will go to the processsor along with a pig from another farm close by. Processor is just a polite term for slaughterhouse, a term that always makes me cringe.

Living on a farm one is supposed to become steeled to the fact that animals are part of the food chain and in some ways I have come to terms with that. But the pigs.... The pigs are more amicable. You can scratch behind their ears and they make grunting noises. You can pat their solid backs and sides and they snort. You can rub their pink, rubbery noses and they look at you trustingly. Am I turning the pigs into my own versions of Babe?

I've tried to push it to the back of my mind all day but each time I think of their fate, I feel rather sick. They've had good lives. They've eaten corn and apples and potatoes and had the best accomodation, clean water, listened to CBC in the absence of humans and had geese and baby ducks for pen mates. They've had heat lamps to take off the chill of night when they were small and large fans to cool them in the hottest days. They've lived a good life. Just rather short. They are 24 weeks old and weigh about 180 pounds each. There are people waiting for the meat, but I still don't know if I can eat them.

Farm life sucks sometimes.

So I draw. The beginning of a sketch of Tripod. That accusing stare. His right eye I think was affected by the loss of his leg on that side and is sometimes closed more. Its more apparent in this drawing and makes it look lopsided, but the eyes really are shaped differently.

Opera with soul

Luciano Pavarotti 1935 - 2007

Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown. Their legacies are their music and together, what music they create.

Many years ago I had my first taste of real opera in a small after hours club in Ealing. Some Covent Garden opera singers were having a drink and relaxing and decided to sing a little. I remember distinctly how their voices became almost palpable and filled the large room. I was amazed at the tones and volume and wondered just how a human voice could produce such beautiful sound.

I still do whenever I hear Pavarotti. This morning I heard him talking about his work and life and music. ....it is the oxygen of my life.... he said. How many of us can say that we do what we love so much every day that it becomes vital to our existance?

Ruby completed

Ruby
9 x 12 colored pencil on Canson
copyright Jeanette Jobson

This is the update of Ruby, the boxer, which I am now calling done. I'm not completely pleased with the nose as the nostrils look a little outlined. I may tweak those a little later to soften them. Its funny how you can see something so clearly on screen that you can't see when you look at the image in front of you or even stand back from it in your own studio.

I had taken an extra day to make the Labour Day weekend longer for me in the hopes that I woudl fit more drawing into it. And I did do a reasonable amount of drawing and painting but also a lot of cleaning and sorting at my mother's house too. I feel as if I need another weekend to make up for lost time.

The eagled eyed of you may notice that I've expanded my list of links to other artists' work. While I thoroughly enjoy my visits to all the 'regulars', I am exploring more of other forms and techniques, especially oils. In wandering through the sea of sites, there were a number that I came across which struck a chord with me for several reasons. It could be subject matter, content, style, technique - a range of things that make me stop and think.

My links are not only to share my finds with others, but to act as reminders to myself of where to go to find inspiration, assistance and friendship. I hope you enjoy them too.

Comfrey

Turkeys are curious birds and need to be occupied, like most living things, or they get bored in the confines of even a large pen. So they are provided with bunches of herbs and ears of corn suspended from the ceiling for them to pick at.

In this photo, it is comfrey that they are eating. Comfrey is one of my staple herbs that I use frequently when making topical creams or lotions. Comfrey contains allantoin which causes cells to divide at an increased rate, thus healing bones and wounds more quickly. Comfrey may be used topically -- as a salve or poultice -- on cuts, bruises, abrasions, and burns.

For turkeys, comfrey is pure protein and they seem to love it. They get a bunch about once a week as a supplement and to amuse them with.

Figs

Figs
Oil on canvas panel 5 x 7
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I am determined to find my legs again in oil paints so did this little piece last night and today of some Mission figs that I bought. I had drawn the curtains to block out the hot sun on me as I painted and the resulting light set the scene.

I love the feel and smell of oil paints and how they flow from the brush onto the canvas. I need more practice to get back to speed again I know, but am moving in the right direction.

I was researching the great surge of painting a day artists that have evolved since 2004 and wondering just how many of them succeed in their goal and how many actually sell their little paintings. From what I have seen, there is about a fairly low success rate in actually producing paintings on a regular basis and in having them actually sell. I think that can be comparable to most activities, including blogs. For blogs statistics show that many do not make it past the three month mark. The same seems true for daily painting production too.

The need and want factors are what push people to succeed.

The proper way to eat a fig, in society,
Is to split it in four, holding it by the stump,
And open it, so that it is a glittering, rosy, moist, honied, heavy-petalled four-petalled flower.
Then you throw away the skin
Which is just like a four-sepalled calyx,
After you have taken off the blossom with your lips.

But the vulgar way
Is just to put your mouth to the crack, and take out the flesh in one bite.

Every fruit has its secret.

The fig is a very secretive fruit.
As you see it standing growing, you feel at once it is symbolic:
And it seems male.
But when you come to know it better, you agree with the Romans, it is female.

Figs
By D.H. Lawrence

Juggling

Juggler - Granville Island
Graphite 8 x 11
Copyright Jeanette Jobson

I feel a bit like I am juggling lately. There is so much going on in my life that its hard to keep up sometimes. Work, home, the farm, art, classes to prepare, prints, cards, etc etc. And now my mother.

I spent yesterday cleaning and clearing out her house. Well clearing out what she would let me. She clings, like many older people, to possessions even if they no longer have any value. Its so difficult to clean in her house as there is so much junk there. That, compounded by the fact that two large, very furry cats live there too, doesn't help.

Crisis management is the order of the day with my mother. There is no reliable forward thinking, as she wants intervention on her terms, which are difficult, and by the time intervention is required it is a crisis.

I will go to her house again today and finish what I started, then try to persuade her to have a cleaner come in a couple of times a week to keep on top of it. That I fear will be short lived.

Ruby

I've made a start on Ruby, the boxer in coloured pencil. I can't say that boxers are my favourite dog, but there is a certain interest in drawing such an unusual face.

If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then giving Fido only two of them. ~Phil Pastoret

Medicinal herbs

I have been neglectful of my medicinal herbs since re-immersing myself in art. What was a glorious expanse of orderly patches and rows of plants has become somewhat tangled and overgrown with unwelcome volunteers springing up between the original plants.

I am a trained herbalist and had over 50 varieties of medicinal herbs which has now dwindled to about 25 with the pencil being more active than the garden fork these days. Of course that isn't counting the wild herbs that grow here such as dandelion, clover, yarrow, etc. The comfrey has exploded and I think I have enough to supply most of North America right now. Comfrey has deep roots that tend to be invasive. You can dig it out, but if you leave a small piece of root in the ground, a new plant will sprout from it.

Someone had run the tractor plow over the comfrey patch one autumn day to cut it back and chopped up and spread the roots....now there is a forest.

There is a giant group of elecampane plants sitting on the edge of the manure pile and loving it, if the size of the leaves and height of the plants are anything to go by. Its flowering now and is one of my favourite herbs. Its a wonderful plant for stubborn coughs and respiratory problems as well as aiding digestion and having antibacterial properties for topical use.

I think that during September I will try to incorporate my art and my herbs and try my hand at some botanical drawings of them. A herb a day for September? It may be ambitious but you never know til I try.

Stripes

Black and white or white and black? Its the age old question about zebras' colouring.

My thinking was, do I draw the stripes first and then start modeling the structure or create the form then add the stripes? As you can see I started with the stripes and am now adding some form to the body.

I've never drawn a zebra before. Its another of those perceived difficulties, like glass or water - or flowers in my case. All those stripes! Its methodical and very graphic but an interesting exercise.

"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. but all I have done before the the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.' " ~ Hokusai, The Drawings of Hokosai.

Watercolour

Mother Duck
11 x 14 watercolour
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I played with watercolour for the sketch done a few days ago. I still need more layers and of course the scan doesn't look anything like the original.

Watercolour works so beautifully sometimes and other times can turn into a muddy mess. Overworking is a big challenge and keep the colours pure and fresh. I'm using a 24 set of Winsor & Newton half pans that I bought too many years ago to remember, which shows just how frequently that I use watercolours.

Each time I use them I say that I need more practice and love the process even if I am a little impatient in the drying times. What I would like to do is take a watercolour class with a good teacher that would push me in the right direction and undo some of my bad habits in the medium.

ATC

I am doing an ATC swap with another artist, Jeanne Grant, even though I'm in the midst of a trade online right now. Jeanne mentioned that she'd like to to have something of mine, especially my cat Tripod, so I agreed and did this little card yesterday. It's watercolour and a touch of colour pencil. The blue ear? Well, let's call it artistic license and the unpredictability of watercolours.

Tripod likes to get involved when I draw, making it near impossible to do much when he is around, so I retreat to my studio upstairs and he gives me a little space then - well sometimes.

Jeanne has done a beautiful card for me in return of one of her dogs, Friday, as a puppy. It will be wonderful to receive this ATC and see it in real life.

I'm still practicing with working in such small sizes and do find it difficult to be accurate and realistic. I think the more practice the better for these, but I don't think I could constantly do them, the tiny size would become too frustrating and my need for space would overcome. However, it is an interesting challenge to see what I can fit into the 2.5 x 3.5 space.

Birds

I came across a photo while searching through my archives today and decided to draw it as another self portrait. I always seem to have some animal attached to me it seems and this is no different. A day old Pekin duckling that I couldn't resist picking up. They of course climb instinctively to the highest point and I hwas trying to keep hold of him to prevent him taking off over my shoulder.

I'll transfer the drawing and see what I can do with it in watercolour I think.

Birds seem to be everywhere lately and a hawk has been around for a few days trying its luck at having duck dinner. The hawk has taken a duck already this year but I was hoping he'd go away. Yesterday he was manoevering and obviously got confused by the living room window and crashed into it.

From the livingroom window you can see through to the dining room window and it sometimes confuses birds who think they can fly right on through. A small bird makes a very loud noise when it hits the window but a hawk hitting it really does get your attention. He hit it so hard that he left scratch marks on the window with his talons or beak. He flew off again zigzagging and likely has a headache today. Perhaps he won't come back for awhile.

The scratches on the window are pretty obvious, I just hope it hasn't broken the seal on the window. Does insurance cover damage by hawks? Ahhhh, country living....

Viewpoint

Four Artist Trading Cards - Summer
2.5 x 3.5, coloured pencil on Stonehenge
copyright Jeanette Jobson 2007

How an image appears to the viewer is all in the distance at which you view it.

In close range, especially in tiny images like these ATCs, colours and shapes are distinct strokes or values and the object somehow indistinct. But step back a few feet and everything pops into focus beautifully. This of course works with every drawing or painting. But some people have rituals about how they view a painting and I was trying to assess mine. I think I usually view from a distance, then try to get as close as possible, perhaps to absorb just how the artist as created the image. I want his or her technical secrets!

"What do you do when you look at a painting? I admit, I'd not consciously thought about it until I read Jonathan Jones' latest article The Guardian on a Rembrandt exhibit.

The first thing anyone has to do when looking at a painting is decide where to stand. Personally, I will circle, go away, come back; stand as close as allowed, then far away, then leave the room and return. It's something we never talk about, as if it were an embarrassing or boring distraction from the serious matters of form and content, but it's an important decision."

Artistic license

Each of us is an artist, capable of conceiving and creating a vision from the depths of our being.
(Dorothy Fadiman)

I came across a sketch that I did of my sister a couple of years ago that I later turned into a drawing. The back of the head is rather flat in this drawing, one of the reasons it never made it past the drawing table.

I try to be realistic in my portraits and also flatter the individual as much as possible but I don't know if I always succeed. Then again, the perception we have of ourselves is always different than how others see us.

A friend of mine years ago was a wonderful portrait painter and he loathed two types: middle aged women who still thought mentally that they were 20 and young girls who weren't attractive, but who were so in the eyes of their mothers. Roger was a realistic painter and a good one and he hated to compromise just to soothe someone's ego or flatter unrealistically.

It is difficult to find that easy balance of flattery and realism. There will always be tweaks and adjustments either requested by the sitter or seen through the eyes of the artist. Its a lifelong journey of discovery.

Killer

Lillian Jackson Braun:

Cats never strike a pose that isn't photogenic.

This is the face of a killer.

I left the house the other morning and Tripod wasn't in his usual spot waiting to come in, but over by a tree. He acknowledged me with a few meows but still wouldn't come over so I went over to see what he was up to. He had at what at first I thought was the biggest mouse that I'd ever seen.

It wasn't a mouse. It was a rabbit. Or the back half of a rabbit which was turning into breakfast. (it seems the front half was under my car) It was a young rabbit that was perhaps a quarter the size of the cat. I've seen him stalking things in the meadow but didn't actually think he'd be successful, even though he does catch mice in the barn from time to time.

Tripod's hunting instinct are obviously in good form even with his disability of 1.5 front legs.
Living in the wild for a couple of years must have honed his skills.

I'm waiting to see him dragging a moose up the driveway next.

Little things

Red & Purple Plums
Coloured pencil 2.5 x 3.5
copyright Jeanette Jobson 2007

I'm a moderator at Drawspace and try to spend some time there helping others learn and give back a bit to another online community when I can. Part of my role there is to provide projects to get people drawing and I thought an Artist Trading Card swap might fit the bill. It's well received so far and I've been roped into drawing as well - 10 cards in the next 30 days.

I haven't done much in the line of miniature drawings, but I have noticed the upsurge in their popularity, especially the ACEOs which are the same 2.5 x 3.5 cards but up for sale instead of trade. You can go to Ebay and see them by the hundreds in a variety of talents from very good to very bad and everywhere in between.

But these cards aren't for sale, just for trade to get people into the spirit of it. So tonight I've played with plums in coloured pencil in teeny tiny form and it feels strange to concentrate hard to fit an image into such a confined space. Its a start. Now nine more to go....

Memories

Junior
9 x 12 graphite
copyright Jeanette Jobson 2007

My mother phoned me tonight in a tizzy. She'd found an old diary from 1946 and sat up til 2am last night reading it and recalling the past, which for whatever reason, upset her.

So now she wants me to locate people who she knew in 1946 during the second World War. These were British and Canadian soldiers at the time who spent Christmas with her relatives and she was sent to amuse them or at least give them someone more their age to talk with. The fact that they were in uniform and probably way more interesting than the locals likely never entered into it....

Now thinking of someone you knew 61 years ago and actually FINDING someone you knew 61 years ago, let alone finding someone in a different country is pretty slim. An address in 1946 may now be the car park for a supermarket or hotel or the person may be dead as they would now be older than my mother and she is 83.

But she's not considering these options. Jeanette, Wonder Woman, will stop her life and find these people, as I really have nothing else to do, do I?

So if anyone knows of a David Sidney Gipson, last known address Rosemount, Tenterdon, Kent or a Richard A Bryant, Knowlton, Quebec, let me know. These gentlemen would be in their mid to late 80's if they are still alive.

Make an old woman happy and give me less stress.

Oils

Little Harbour East
Oils 5 x 7
copyright Jeanette Jobson

As I promised myself yesterday, I dug out my oil paints and tackled a fairly simple composition. I haven't used oils in nearly 20 years, but like riding a bike, I'm hoping it will come back to me.

I used to use oils extensively in animal and human portraiture but children and animals and lack of space got in the way so they were put in a storage box and didn't see the light of day too often as I used more dry mediums such as graphite or coloured pencil.

I still have some catching up to do with my oils, but loved the buttery texture and smell of them again. I realized too that I also need some new brushes! I managed with the ones I had, but some of those are equally old and a little stiff from lack of use to say the least.

The photo of the painting isn't great. It doesn't show the true colours and values as it looks completely different in real life. I am very frustrated with my camera lately. I think it may be time to invest in a new one. It can't all be my incompetence. Or can it? I hate tweaking images with graphic editors once I have them on the computer. I always think it detracts somewhat from the original.

Monochrome

I played with monochrome in this sketch. It was a Prismacolor green ochre pencil and I like the effect,even if the greenish tint doesn't show well in the scan, its more like sepia. I haven't worked much in underpaintings or grisaille, but this monochrome sketch had me thinking about the process and its advantages.

Of course all graphite pencil, which I mostly use, is monochrome, yet I find it a little odd to use the same process but in a different colour, even if the end result is the same. I guess its like knowing your mashed potatoes are white, not purple. I'm a creature of habit in many ways. I am pushing myself to explore new mediums and look at the world from a different perspective, but I do come back to what is familiar and comfortable to me in art - dry mediums mostly.

I do use watercolours and am will finding time to push out into oils - tomorrow, tomorrow! A pencil however feels most comfortable to me. I like the detail that I can achieve with it and I know inside out how it behaves, what pressure I need to apply for different values and how lead softness affects my image.

Tomorrow it will be oils. I have a lovely little photo taken in Little Harbour East by a friend of mine. This image is calling me and I think it will be my test piece for oils. I haven't used oils seriously for many years but have a pile of old and new tubes of paints waiting my attention in my studio.