Laura Knight Portraits at National Portrait Gallery

I went to the NPG on the spur of the moment, feeling a bit fed up and sluggish.  This was a good move.  She was born in the 1880s and died in 1970.  She did the most amazing portraits during a life time living in various artist communities.

Laura Knight had a fairly realistic style, and although she supported herself sometimes by commissioned society portraits of the great and the good, she did a lot of portraits of people I find more interesting - black people, gypsies, backstage theatre dancers, women involved in wartime engineering.  She was also a Government War Artist and her picture Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring (1943) became particularly famous.  Cutting the screw grooves was a highly skilled job normally achieved after a full apprenticeship and Ruby had acquired this skill particularly quickly.  Ruby could not be released from war work for the commission, so it was painted over 3 weeks while Ruby worked at the factory, which was in full time production.

Laura Knight was also a war artist at the Neurenberg War Trial, and her images are fixating.  She was in a cramped press box above the dock, which was packed with senior nazi officers.  She wrote to her husband during the trial, and these diary letters were in a display box.  To read her verbatim account of her thoughts of the trial was moving and disturbing.  I am not sure whether being there as a war artist would be a privilege or a penance.  However she made a very good account of her duty to record the events.  I don't think I could have done it.

While in the exhibition, I had a couple of interesting conversations.  One was with an art teacher from Liverpool who worked with ex-offenders.  I was saying that I thought a lot of exhibitions were driven by the equality policy - which I thought was a good thing.  I want to look at portraits that reflect a range of people in society.  He said he was always being asked to document how he had covered equality in his classes and he found it difficult, particularly as his class base covered people who had committed the most serious crimes.  I suggested that if they had a budget for models, could they draw portraits of models who had experienced depression or a learning difficulty.  One of the best portraits I had seen in the National Portrait Award a few years ago, was a small portrait of a young man with a learning disability.  I think the artist was from Belgium.  Another idea I have had is to ask the class to being in an object that reminds them of a positive memory of someone they respected.   I have been working with potato peelers recently, so this represents my Mum who was an older working class woman.  Laura Knight's portraits represent all sorts of people in the first half of the 20th century and I liked them.

Mixed Media Art Books with Maggie Tweed

I had the most wonderful two days at Missenden Abbey doing a 2 day art class.  We had been told to go along with a theme to which to work, so I had the Women's Work idea, along with a selection of the spoon and potato peeler monoprints I had made.  Maggie told me that I had booked the last place on the course, and I was very glad to have got the booking.

We started by making a selection of simple paper folds in squares of paper, using mountain and valley folds.  I chose to make a star book as this was the one that appealed to me.  I could see that this had the potential to have front and back surfaces, or to put it another way, an outer and a lining.    I chose to use sturdy papers in black, grey, blue, purple and pink, as I have recently made bramble jelly and jam making can be part of women's work.

In the afternoon, I started cutting up some of my monoprints to stick to the inside pages of the book. Each square was overlaid on part of the previous page and this created a pleasingly fractured look.  Then on the reverse of each page I wrote repeatedly  a positive word and a negative word about women's work: skilled - mundane; unseen - essential; never ending - comforting.

The following day, I made blackberry coloured cords and added the covers, which were a bit bigger than the book.  I had reduced some of the monoprints on the photocopier and used these for the cover as they were stronger paper.  At this point I realised that if this were made from fabric, it would make a well padded cushion (which is another symbol of women's work - our work often makes life more comfortable and cushions people from life's hard realities and knocks).  The bigger end pieces could be secured by a button on each corner, thereby securing the lining pages inside, to maintain the cushion form.

Then having started thinking about how I could create a layered cushion via folding, I had a look at some origami folds.  there was one, non-symmetrical one that I found very exciting.  A square piece of paper folded into a partial crescent shape.  Cushions do not have to be square!  Cushions can be folded from a sheet of quilted fabric, so that the lining is largely hidden or unseen.  Women's work involves quite a lot of folding!  Folding clothes, sheets, laundry etc.  Another element of symbolism!

We had a group review and I was very pleased that they instantly understood where I was coming from, with my concept how linings and cushions represented the way in which women's work supports, enhances and comforts all sorts of life experiences.  I like to get this understanding and recognition of what I am trying to do.  Although I was pleased with the way my star book had come out, I think the black printers ink of the monoprints is not to my taste.  I am now considering how to bring the concept of celebration into the work by the use of colour.  More thought required.

My best birthday present

It was my birthday a couple of days ago and I have been playing with my favourite present.  I received a book "Wreck This Journal" by Keri Smith.

This is a wonderful art project book that is very light hearted and fun, and very good at getting me not to get too precious about my work.  I am completing this book on the theme of jam making, and the instructions have tasks like "put something sticky on this page", "break the spine", "write your name in white", "poke holes in this page", put this journal in the shower with you".

I have had a good fun day with it.  I have written forwards and backwards, painted in ink, drawn with water soluble pencils and crayons, scribbled with brio and smeared it with jam.  Then I had a shower and put it in the shower cubicle with me.  The water has made the Quink ink break down and has given some very interesting effects that I could not have achieved any other way.  It has really freed my drawing style and made art fun again.

Thank you Shirley for choosing a great present!

Sunday Monoprint Class

I had a lovely time at the City Lit class.  Last week I was working with a spoon shape while I became familiar with how the materials worked.

This week I had decided to work with a potato peeler shape.  I decided to avoid working with A4 and A3 paper sizes, so worked with long narrow rectangles, approximately the size of a double length piece of A4.  I had torn paper shapes of both a potato peeler and Mum's old jam spoon.  The torn edges of the stencils were very clearly defined in print.  I stencilled, wiped, painted, scratched and scraped into the print plate and achieved some very interesting effects.  Some are better than others, so I need to identify pay which ones are good enough to stand as they are, and which ones can be worked into again.  I have looked at Degas and if he could keep one copy as an unadulterated print, and work into the ghost print (second copy, either from the plate or taken from the first print), then so can I.

I am pleased with the 40+ prints I have made, and feel I am making good progress towards the 150 required for the summer project.

I have also thought some more about the Caulfield exhibition at the Tate at the weekend.  One of the style changes that was in his work, was where he varied the style of painting in different areas of an image.  Thick line drawings, with flat pattern, with photorealistic areas.  He was combining and layering styles.  One of my ideas is to vary the drawing style and layer imagery, which I think will work very well in digital print.  But I am also trying to simplify my work, and one reason why I don't like his work is because it is just too busy and confusing.  Too many styles, patterns and colour together.  Maybe this is why I am working a lot in black and white, while I work out what my message/concept is, before going into pattern and colour as well as line and texture.

I have not finished thinking yet!

A busy Friday

I went to Uni on Friday to drop off some spare materials into the communal recycling box.  While there I spent time talking to a couple of the Masters students, with whom I started my degree.  They studied full time and have now started their Masters, whereas I am part time.  I found their views very thought provoking.  We discussed some student results from this year and I was saying that while I had no sympathy for the lazy, idle people who had failed, I had a lot of sympathy for one student who had tried very hard and failed.  They said it was the right result and had no sympathy, because this person had no talent for art and just did not make the grade.  I thought the result harsh because I differentiate between someone who has constantly sought feedback and not been given the truth (and not been deservedly failed at an earlier stage) and people who don't listen, don't care and completely lack self awareness.  In truth though, I think it was the right result, though the treatment of the individual saddens me.  This is what happens when the recruitment policy of the course is " gets bums on seats".

However the important part of the conversation was  when they said "yes, the course is tough.  But you have to get on with it, do the research, go to exhibitions, go to talks (even when you think it is over your head and you don 't understand), do all the contextual investigation, and compile a comprehensive file of your findings". This was like a lightbulb moment.  I have felt a bit of a plodder recently.  I have been to talks and found them a disappointment, am working solo and generally find myself alone in my specific interests.  But I do find the research interesting.  So galvanised into action, I booked a ticket for the following day to go to the Tate and look at Patrick Caulfield and Gary Hume.

I found both a bit of a disappointment.  I liked Patrick Caulfield's early work where it was flat planes of colour of buildings and portraiture but as he developed into depicting 1970s interiors of busy pattern and flat colour, I found it quite oppressive.  It represented its time very well but I suspect I have personal associations with the time that I dislike.  Gary Hume's work about beauty was a very interesting concept, but the work itself left me cold.  He works in gloss paint on aluminium panels.  I think he has a team of studio assistants who do the work for him, which also does not sit right with me.  There was one circular panel, painted peach.  When you looked closely, you could see an undercoat layer of a line drawing of Kate Moss's face, with a brown nose shape painted on top.  This was to represent Michael Jackson's nose.  The artwork challenged notions of beauty- so which person is deemed beautiful, and which is more obvious?  For all that I found the works of both artists uninspiring, they were thought provoking and helped me identify that I like a concept behind the work, and that I have strong personal associations with design styles of certain eras.

Having spent less time than expected at the Tate, on impulse I found a matinee theatre performance to watch.  I went to see The Ladykillers at the Vaudeville Theatre.  It is an adaptation of an Ealing comedy- very light, humorous, and just what I needed to make me laugh and feel light hearted.  A good end to the day.

Drawing and mono prints at City Lit

On Sunday I had a very productive class at the City Lit.  This is a two day class on two consecutive Sundays.

We spent the day learning how to draw mono prints.  Although I have done mono printing on fabric, I had never learned how to do it properly.  So I now know how to ink up properly by spreading the ink properly with a roller, before inking the drawing plate.  We created artwork by drawing on the plate before applying the paper, applying paper then drawing on top, applied pressure manually using a burrin (round bamboo leaf covered pressure pad) and printing press.  We used solvent to move the ink on the printing plate and take different effects from the plate.  The tutor, Sharon, commented that I produced a lot of work, but I was just working at my usual pace.  I wanted to produce a lot of prints in order to have a range of raw material to work into further.  I created a lot of variations on a heme, drawing spoons and potato peelers.  I left my artwork at class, to dry out, sufficient to being home next week.  My work was all one colour, black, but some other students used some red ink too.  I was more successful using the burrin than using the printing press.  I tried soaking a sheet of cartridge paper, squeegeeing it dry, then pressing in blotting paper.  However I was too hasty and put the paper and design through the press too soon, leading to some of the cartridge paper sticking to the plate.  Having wrecked it, I felt completely free to use it further and took a successful ghost print from it by repressing it with another sheet of paper.

For next week, I think I should prepare some prepared cut and torn shapes, and maybe some traced images so I can draw accurately (hands are too difficult to draw completely freehand).  Also I need to use some other drawing implement (not the stick end of a paintbrush) to get a different mark.  like what?  Broken twig?  eraser?  Italic nib?

Festival of Quilts

I went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham, on Thursday with my friend Esther.  It was a wonderful day out.

The Festival of Quilts is the biggest and best quilt show in the UK.  It has exhibitions by professional quilters, and invited displays from graduates who displayed at New Designers.  It has extensive, specialist shopping opportunities for quilters, which suited Esther as she was able to buy several dress lengths of vegetable prints (sweet corn, peppers, apples etc)  to complement the carrot dress she was wearing.  Esther dances salsa and wanted some dresses made from vegetables that can be made into the food "salsa".

I had my money's worth from looking at the Through My Hands exhibition.  Laura Kemshall had done 2 new quilts which clearly demonstrated excellent use of digital print.  She is a brilliant artist and had a colour painting of a dead swallow in her hands, printed in colour then enhanced with foiling into which she had quilted "don't go".  The colour reproduction of digital print was worked to best effect, then hand finished with textile techniques, so that it is the skill of the artist that creates the effect, supported by digital technology - rather than digital technology leading the effect.  Her other quilt was a self portrait of her holding the dead swallow, drawn in monochrome (charcoal I think) with lots of tonal variation, which once again is well defined with digital print.  Laura Kemshall is a master of combining hand skills with appropriate use of technology.

Finally I went to see the new graduates display.  About 8 new graduates from New Designers are invited to display their work at FOQ.  Katie Valentine from University of Herts was selected, displaying her digital print vintage quilt.  It was very pleasing to see her there, although I was the first person from UH to pop in to say hello to her.

Reflecting on Life Class Summer School

On Friday, the last day of summer school, we were working in colour.  We had an excellent model, Rachel, who was holding long poses.  She was from Alaska, usual job was an actress, and we can look out for her in Call the Midwife this autumn, where she is playing a pregnant woman at one of the clinics.

In the morning we had one long pose, where I was positioned behind her, so drew her arms linked behind her head.  I tried out my new Art Bars - water soluble crayons.  Very vibrant colour.  I was trying to draw with expressive colour.  I had never tried this before, so it needs some refinement but is worth more practice.  I limited myself to 3 colours, red, blue and yellow. It ended up very bold!  Then I tried a sideways view of the model, outlining in 3 colours and washing in with water.  More subtle.

Reflecting on Life Class, I think it was a week very well spent.  I found Vavara Neiman to be an excellent tutor, able to adjust her style to varying levels of experience.  Shirley, who has only had one weekend class in the last 30 years, got as much out of the summer school as I did, so I was very pleased.  I completed 32 drawings (20% of what I need to do for my summer project) and it gave me time to reflect on some ideas about women's work.  I need to spend more time drawing hands.  Specifically women's hands occupied in women's work.  It reinforced that my drawing style is better when I use textured tonal value and work fairly quickly and confidently.  On the one hand, I need to draw actual hands, but on the other, maybe I could start by photographing hands doing women's work and spend some time looking at them thoroughly.  I am seeing my friend Pat today, so maybe she will let me photograph her hands.

I have been looking at Laura Kemshall's blog, and found her account of her latest workshop very interesting.  she ran a mixed media workshop, making papers, printing and collaging, finishing by photographing selected artworks for printing on fabric via digital printer.  I would have very much liked to attend this workshop, but I was already booked to do Missenden summer school.  But I am booked to do Maggie Tweed's mixed media concertina book workshop at Missenden later this month, and a linocut workshop at V&A early September.  Now I have an embryo of an idea about women's work and hands, maybe I can work up some interesting artwork.  No idea yet of how or what to apply it to, but that, fortunately, is of absolutely no concern.  Getting the idea is good enough at this stage!

I am still fuelling the thought processes at present.  I am off to hear Pennina Barnett speak tonight about Cloth and Memory, then Festival of Quilts with Esther on Thursday, and Drawing and Monoprints at City Lit on Sunday.  In between times I am reading Elizabeth Wayland Barber's history of women and textiles "Women's Work".  I am on a roll again.  Life is good.