Endorsement (from a scientist friend)

 "Brilliant you're back up and running! Complete with energy to draw wierdly(!) and deposit very nuanced narrative on your state of mind, body and a whole lot more.
For me the fact you do all of this drawing stuff simultaneously with both hands is the most amazing. I like the intro of colour and for sure you can't beat a good arse!"    Professor Evan Parker

From head to feet.....

............ and not a deconstruction in sight (well, maybe one or two).

A brief history of one of the more challenging poses (foreshortening, perspective), starting with the earlier days. I've brought these together as an exercise in reminding myself of a contrasting, but in many ways a complementary way of responding to a model in comparison with my current programme of returning to my fine-liner pen drawings with colour.

Next morning......

 .................and I feel my new programme is evolving in some unexpected ways. Well, perhaps not entirely unexpected. As I have been working on my earlier drawings I have began to have ideas about what might happen with future engagements, e.g. placing a geometrical shape within the drawing to help increase the spatial complexity. I was feeling a bit low after I had my breakfast and not wishing to engage with one of the numerous manual tasks awaiting me outside, I elected to go through some drawings and select some for further work. It was amazing.....the transformation.......no sense of depression......I was immediately uplifted.........and this is what happened:

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In the heat of the day........

 It has been extremely hot today here in the hills of South Wales. Not possible to work outside on the land so I retreated into the depths of my house and was kept cool by the environment created by the early 17thC thick stone walls. I continued with my programme of returning to earlier line drawings and then responding to them by adding colour.  Whereas most of this work has previously tended to focus on drawings from Niel Bally's workshops over in Talgarth, today I engaged with some from Paul Fowler's 'Extreme Poses' over in Stroud in England. So we see evidence of the straps which suspend from the ceiling and which the model utilises to create interesting and challenging poses.

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Which artists am I relating to in my programme of returning to earlier drawings?
Perhaps the following can be considered a bold but justifiable claim.

In the initial stages of the basic drawings there is:

the line-drawing of Hans Bellmer and 

the exaggerated figurative expressionism of Egon Schiele.

Now, and given greater emphasis is: 

the transparency of Francis Picabia, 

the illusion and perceptual gymnastics of Henri Magritte and 

the cubism of Pablo Picasso.

I may add two underlying philosophies which always have and continue to underpin my approach to my art (and most of my life and my work in general).

These are from: 

Antonio Machado: "Paths are made by walking" and

 Helen Frankenthaler: "The only rule is that there are no rules, Anything is possible. It's all about risks, deliberate risks"

Still no life drawing!

 I'm still avoiding close proximity gatherings to avoid any chance of picking up an infection. However my chemo seems to be working and I hope to be back doing more perhaps later this year. I am booked in to Niel's 3 days over in Talgarth in November. In the meantime I am continuing to return to some of my previous drawings and responding to them. Here are two of my latest both of which I have simply added blocks of colour to the surfaces which Annie is sitting on; Nos 37 and 38 in the sequence of revisited drawings. My reaction is that a significant transformation has taken place with this simple addition.

[the originals may be viewed, together with what I regard as a pleasing and fulfilling output form the three day workshop in February last year, see posting 'Annie at Talgarth' of February 9th 2023]

What I find particularly fascinating with these two drawing is that they are a record of how my perceptions, my analysis of what I am looking at, my ways of seeing and ways of mentally processing a pose can change within a very short time. I am sitting at my easel in the same location and Annie is holding the same pose. Each original drawing occupied me for about 30 minutes, and I am frequently surprised by what can appear on my paper in such a time. These are A1, on 220gsm cartridge paper. I have a fine-liner pen in each hand and then have added Derwent tinted charcoal. The additional colour work uses pastel which after gently applying to the surface I caress across the paper with a finger.

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