Month / October 2019

by Leonie Andrews

Back to the cafe

Back sketching at our favourite coffee shop this morning.

So good to get back to our favourite cafe.

I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to sketch, which was one of the key points in the workshop I did with Richard Briggs last week.

Trying to leave out unnecessary details.

I was interested in the relationship between the hedge across the road and the small hedge close to me. But then I realised that I really wanted the focus to be on the cluster of small stools in front of the hedge.

A small table and stools.

While completing this sketch it dawned on me that the shadows of the stools were also fascinating. One set was being cast by the sun and the ones you see in the painting were cast from the light reflected from the plate glass windows of the cafe. Sadly time and a lack of paper meant that I didn’t make a third sketch, but perhaps I can work on that next time.

by Leonie Andrews

Moving along

Today I have finally taken up my needle again and have had the pleasure of stitching these beautiful eucalyptus dyed silk squares sent to me by @bluedorritt as part of the Opening Stitches project.

Stitching on silk squares dyed with eucalyptus, original stitches by Sue Butler

It has been quite a frustrating being unable to stitch, and this project started to drift away from me.

A second silk square.

Now I am better I have had to reacquaint myself with the project.

A close up of the stitched square.

Somewhere along the line l had missed stitching these two squares that were sent to me some months ago. Fingers crossed that the paperwork tracking all the contributions has now been sorted out and I can get back to the making.

by Leonie Andrews

Bound shadows

My collection of Loungeroom Residency photos is now flatter and comes with it’s own shadows!

Shadows from shadows, my newly bound photos

My inner ‘neat person’ (who knew I had such a thing) tried to tell me to cut off those wavy edges of paper. I told her to b*gger off.

It has also found a safe home in a box I recently received, which will now be re-purposed into a book case. Peeking through in this photo is a word from my very basic book ends – a recycled postcard glued on either end.

by Leonie Andrews

Residency following on

The first outcome of my loungeroom residency is this concertina book. As you can see it’s a work in progress.

A work in progress. All my shadow photos for the past 11 days.

I am assembling all the shadow photos l took over the past 11 days. There are quite a few which didn’t make it to Instagram. I have now wrestled this unwieldy dragon under several dictionaries. I’m not quite sure how long it will take to flatten properly.

by Leonie Andrews

Catalogue Collages

Sometimes we are so confused and sad that all we can do is glue one thing to another. – Lynda Barry

Those words from Linda Barry struck a chord this week, so the other day I made some collages.

I seem to have a thing about using clothing catalogues. This catalogue I particularly liked because of the bright colours and the patterns used in the clothing.

Photo inspiration for first collage.

I always aim to make more than one collage at a time. My inspiration started with a photo taken earlier in the day, but after the first collage the work started taking on a life of its own. That is one of the best things about making collages.

In the end I made 5 works. One of them in particular is already leading me into a new piece of work.

The first collage.

The second collage I loved all the stripes.

Collage number 3.

20190929_092539850455268.jpg

Collage number 4.

The final collage.

The other unexpected result of this work was, by including words in the collage I accidentally made a spam poem.

Spam poem #6

Spam Poem #6

P.S. During my residency in Japan in 2016, I also made collages from beauty catalogues. If you want to have a look here is the link you will need to scroll to the bottom of the post.

PPS Lynda Barry can be followed on Twitter or Instagram @thenearsightedmonkey.