Sicily

Shards. Reds blacks and whites. Carefully collected, catalogued and arranged. The Archaeological Museum at Syracuse one of the best I have ever been to.

Sicily

A stone picked up in the Greek Theatre, Taormina.

Sicily

Ten days in Sicily in October. Not so much an island, more one big archaeological dig. Sites abound, as do museums displaying the finds. Here one small pouring jar.

From water

A walk alongside the Test river on Sunday influenced these three small drawings, also a need to explore marks and tone as themselves, unlinked to a place or a building. Playing with layers, floating, depth, lights and darks.

St Petersburgh

Two sketchbook pages showing on the spot studies of some of the facades.

St Petersburg

Two more, again, from a small sketchbook, on the spot. Shapes. Functional, industrial, fit for purpose but very mysterious.

St Petersburg

The Kazzam Cathedral. Wonderful inside and out. Modelled on the Vatican. A forest of stone columns.

St Petersburg

A building that intrigued me increasingly, just beside the Church Over the Spilled Blood. Not sure what its function was, market place, stables? I walked around it and drew it from all angles. A bigger, more considered drawing may emerge.

St Petersburg

Two drawings done early in the morning, people were rushing past me on their way to work. The Church Over the Spilled Blood.

Drawings from St Petersburg

All these drawings were done on the spot and are in a small red sketchbook. This was drawn when I was waiting for a boat ride to begin. Looking up into some trees, the light shining behind them.

The British Museum

A selection of small (A5) sketchbook drawings done in the British Museum, in pencil. The British Museum is a treasure trove. A cultural storehouse. I value the material, handled quality of the objects. An interconnectivity between culture and practice. Material is experience, it is a medium by which we can remember. Objects can be marked by what they witness. Objects are signposts, can objects can change their meaning as history changes around them?

I Pizzini

Each pizzini has a tiny piece of adhesive on the back. I can take the drawings out of the packet and arrange and rearrange then how I like....meanings and connections can be made, or it can be a random collection of images.

I Pizzini

I Pizzini is Italian for Post it Notes. I bought a packet of post it notes in Venice last year, and I resolved to use the packet as a sketch book to record images of Venice, with a strong predilection for building and pattern. Today I finished them, and I regard this as both a completed piece of work, and as a signpost for some larger drawings, again, recording and synthesizing my response to Venice.

More pizinni

These are a series of tiny memories from Venice, they are, in fact, post it notes, or pizinni in Italian. Once finished they will provide the impetus for a larger work.

Italian Renaissance Drawing Techniques

I ran a drawing day for teachers at the British Museum alongside the Italian Renaissance Drawing exhibition. An artist called Phillipa Abrahams ran a workshop on Renaissance drawing techniques to include templates, making inks and supports and quills and silverpoint. Fascinating.

A hazelnut orchard, Lot en Garonne

I have a friend called Mary who used to live in France, surrounded by orchards. Three quick A5 drawings of hazelnut orchards.

Fountains in Bristol

Sitting on the floating harbour, Bristol, waiting for a meeting at the Arnolfini. Sunshine. Water is well featured in Bristol, fountains, spouts, spilling down steps.....

Again, back in my little sketchbook, working with a biro, two five minute drawings of the water features.

A pattern from Venice

One more pizzini, and I did achieve this today. A tiny post it note bearing a pattern based on a grid, and a piercing that permeates throughout Venice. Or at least, the Venice I observe. 7H pencil.

Glasgow School of Art

For several years I have run a drawing weekend at Glasgow School of Art for teachers. We use the amazing studios in the 'Mac' building. Its an extraordinary building to work in, the big studios, the dark stair wells and library, the plaster casts covered with gaffer tape, tiny squares of colour on the wall, the lovely hen run.
I found time to study and draw the stair wells. Again, in my small sketchbook.

The Pizzini

Here today are some tiny drawings on post it notes that I have as a work in progress. Little time to draw today, but at least time to reflect. The tiny drawings are like a mobile sketch book of images, corners, patterns and shapes that caught my attention in Venice. Once they are finished I will use them to compose a series of bigger drawings.