Thanks to my friends I have received a lovely pumpkin – which is grown for its seeds – and a jar of green tomato pickles.
Styrian pumpkin and green tomato pickles
Pumpkin and pickles
Author / Leonie Andrews
Put your feet up (2 May)
Here is a watercolour of the family poof (AKA footstool), as we used to know them in the pre-PC days of the 1960’s, when you could rest your feet on one of these vinyl treasures while watching the new TV, (and no TV wasn’t widely available in Australia until then). I was stunned to find that my sister had somehow inherited them via other relatives until she decided to pass them back to me.
Family treasure, our 1960’s vinyl footstool.
Watercolour 1 May 2013
I’ve been really encouraged reading other peoples blogs about drawing to keep up with my own work so thanks to DesignedbyDooge, CrenellatedArts and Kestrelart for the ‘virtual’ inspiration.
My latest effort is this tea cup and saucer which my partner bought for me at an op-shop a few weeks ago. The cup and saucer was made by the Westminster Fine China Australia ( see item 247) and is rather fetchingly described as a ‘tennis set’. I presume this is because ladies who were taking a break from playing tennis could easily fit their cake onto the saucer/plate (it’s rectangular in shape) while still balancing their cup. I think it is from the late 1950’s/early 1960’s.
Westminster Fine China Australia ‘tennis set’
I was aiming to paint this without resorting to outlining – which might have been more easily achieved if I hadn’t decided to use watercolour pencils. To add to the challenge the set is highlighted with a gold rim (which is “guaranteed 22 carat” by the manufacturers label). There are some passages, inside the cup which I think have worked well, but I’m most pleased with the result with the black and white gingham tablecloth.
Turner from the Tate
While in Adelaide I saw the Turner from the Tate exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia, closing 19 May. This exhibition will open in Canberra at the National Gallery of Australia on 1 June.
The visitors numbers were reasonable so we were able to have a really good look at the works. Much to my surprise you were allowed to take photos in the exhibition as long as you didn’t use a flash (don’t expect such liberties in Canberra). Here is Turner’s paint box.
Turner’s paintbox – pigs bladders for carrying mixed pigments at the top of the box and jars of ground pigment at the front
The rounded shapes at the top are the pigs bladders in which the mixed pigments were carried.
What I really enjoyed about this exhibition was the number of studies and sketches that were included. I am intrigued by the Turner’s process, particularly his watercolours. Some of were titlted “A Beginning” and were colour studies or pieces left almost as soon as they were started.
A close -up of one of One of Turner’s colour studies, Blue moonlight over yellow sands, c 1824
If you want to see more of this type of work the Tate Gallery (holders of the Turner Bequest) have digitised Turner’s sketchbooks. If you look at the Turner’s Finberg sketchbook you will see many colour studies which to our contemporary eyes look like abstract works. In these works there is only an occasional figure or recognisable shape emerging from the picture. No wonder Turner’s contemporaries had trouble understanding these works.
Whenever I go to an exhibition I like to play the game of “if I could take one piece from this exhibition …” . For this exhibition my number one pick would be this triple seascape study, Three Seascapes, c 1827. What is interesting is that the painting also works when it is turned upside down. The dark section at the top becomes the land and the centre section’s sea and sky for become reversed for the lower section of the work. I wonder did Mark Rothko ever see this work?
Turner’s Triple Seascape, c 1827
Turner’s Triple Seascape turned upside down
The works in the exhibition are drawn from the Turner Bequest to the Tate Gallery. If you want to see more the Tate has digitised the bequest so you can look at your leisure, that is as long as you have plenty of time to look (when I checked it showed over 2,000 pages of work)!
Re-vision
When I opened my drawing pad last week I found several watercolour sketches that I had done in February. At that time I was still in the early stages of recovery from knee surgery, so while my partner and friends were picking blackberries I got to sit and paint.
I was trying to put into effect some of the techniques David Hockney uses, particularly using pencil and other fine markers over watercolour and trying to use both pages of the book. (I’d been given a copy of David Hockney’s A Yorkshire Sketchbook, for Christmas).
My opening sketch was the road and bushes where we pick blackberries.
Blackberry picking spot, 3 February 2013
I then turned around and drew the road behind me. This sketch was unfinished.
Hillside and road, 3 February 2013
The next time we went picking (we go out frequently during blackberry season) our location looked up to a steep hillside where a rather vertiginous road could be seen.
Steep road on hillside with pine and native forest, 13 February 2013
leonieandrews 