Six Skies over The Water

Practice practice practice. It’s my constant advice (nag nag nag) to my workshop students. It can sound very repetitive but, really, it is the only way to improve. We need to practice all aspects of creativity, practise looking, practise thinking, and practise the skills that enable us to work in whatever branch of “art” we have chosen.

I probably do pick up a pencil most days to either write down ideas, sketch or draw and in between teaching courses I have been doing lots of experimental odds and ends which is why the blog has been a bit quiet.  What is so encouraging is when someone returns to a workshop having put in a bit of sketching time and can really see their own understanding and confidence grow as their skills improve.

After my last workshop I realised that I still have a problem persuading people to make tonal studies before starting their final work or just as an aid to “seeing.” They can be so helpful especially in watercolour where you strive to retain the lightness of the white paper. So, as some experiments for myself and to have a few samples, I sketched some basic skies to show how tiny monochrome thumbnails can be made into simple coloured images.

Reservoir Skies

The weather has been strange, cold, sunny, windy, cloudy, still, clear and breezy so there have been some good skies at different times of the day.

I have started walking by the Reservoir again and realised I how much I have been missing the sky vistas. In the house we are a little hemmed in by trees and houses but down by the Water you have an unrestricted view… just water, a strip of horizon and then glorious sky.

So these small watercolour sketches are based on pen and ink thumbnails  made in a tiny sketchbook from my walks. I am also trying some different papers. Not impressed at all with the Fabriano block which buckled badly. Some old Langton was better!

 

 Busy morning sky over Perry

 

 

Big clouds on a still morning lit from behind by sun.

 

Strip of pale yellow in cloudy midday sky

   

Smudges of brown rain in a grey sky… but hopes of brightening up.

Evening sky with cumulus. Dark greeny blue behind clouds.

Sunset over the Water, heavy night clouds hang over a bright strip.

Watercolour sketches approx 5 x 6”. pen sketches in 4 inch sketchbook.

I am much more interested in the marks, the colour and how the paint behaves on the surfaces and the happy accidents than whether they look like clouds or not.  And, if I took these colour pieces and used them as my source material for another set of paintings who knows what they might become? Chinese Whispers in paint is a nice concept.

What does “finished” mean

I sometimes hesitate to put things on the blog because it might infer that I am either pleased with them or that they are “finished” .. whatever that means. I am seldom pleased and “finished” can mean many things.  Sometimes I have just had enough, sometimes I have run out of time. Many times I don’t stop soon enough and sometimes things need more work. Often I have to leave things face to the wall for a week or so, then go back to them.

Sometimes a week of work results in a complete and utter mess. Sometimes a few lines are so beautiful I can’t believe I made them.. but then how do you define “beautiful”? 

How are your skies today?…Beautiful  I hope.

The White of Blackthorn

Things are beginning to blossom. White magnolia in the garden, white wild cherry blossom and in the hedges the white splashes of Blackthorn.

It has to be one of the most beautiful sights of English spring country lanes. Dark leafless hedges decorated with a froth of white blossom. The leaves will come later.

I walked by the reservoir today and along with pussy willows and first green shoots was a patch of blackthorn, one ball of white flowers against dark spiny branches.

Monday …White blackthorn flowers.. Watercolour 6” x 6”

Further along the track is a big oak tree.. leafless so far but lovely in its skeletal form. There is a large nest box. I have yet to find out what it is for!

And back in the Empty Garden good wildlife news, the hedgehog has reappeared, along with 4 different butterflies, yellow, white, a peacock and a comma, more  redtailed bees and the lovely black female hairyfooted flower bee.

About the Residency

Anglian Water: Artist In Residence at Grafham Water, April 2013-March 2014

What's it all about? 

The Residency post is a self funding role which I wanted to take partly as an opportunity to produce artwork but also to get people involved locally. I had long thought that there was so much scope here for much more in the way of creative activities and with the support of Anglian Water I really hope we can make them happen.
It is a wonderful opportunity to make a body of work about an area I already know quite well, as for the last two years I have been sketching, walking and cycling the paths around the reservoir and the nearby countryside. Through painting, drawing, printing and writing I will endeavour to reveal some of the fascinating and little known aspects of the reservoir and celebrate some of its activities.  What will I do? It is impossible to say at this stage what the final work will be. That is the intriguing part of a long term residency. Anything can happen in year.

I know the first few months will be spent walking, drawing and researching. From the writing and sketching I have already done, I can see certain ideas and motifs recurring and I am happy to let the work evolve. But I also know that the natural world, history, archaeology, geology and literature will all play a part. Water, earth, sky and their inhabitants will be represented. 
The area surrounding the reservoir is quintessentially English. The flora and fauna of middle England, historical remnants of ancient woodlands, Saxon settlements and Roman roads. It´s a quiet and bypassed place but lies only three miles from the ancient Great North Road. The nearby towns and villages of Huntingdon, Buckden, and Kimbolton have important historical pasts. 
There are old through ways and grassed over drove roads, there are footpaths and the old railway line there are remains of moats and fishponds, old and descriptive field names and of course, under the water, the ghosts of drowned fields and farms.

People come here to walk the dog, fish, cycle, picnic, sail and windsurf but underpinning everything is the working reservoir. A great body of water collected, filtered, pumped and distributed to give us one of the few real essentials of life, clean water. 

This all gives me so much material to work with. I can indulge some long held loves; of the English countryside and its inhabitants, of its narratives, its emblems, folklore, patterns and design; and of stories, books, paper, language, print and paint. I hope you will join me on the blog in this year long exploration. 

During the residency I will be offering workshops and tuition based at either Grafham or Perry. Please email me for details. val.littlewood@gmail.com

Getting Started

I am delighted to say that I am going to be Artist in Residence at Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire for 2013-14. The residency officially starts in April but since I knew it was happening I have been gathering thoughts and ideas. In the two years we have been here I have spent many happy hours  walking cycling and sketching around the area and I decided to collect all those sketches together and put them in a flickr set (see also the side bar).  It is interesting to look back at these, to see what preoccupations and themes recur.
I will be posting here as things develop as well as on my main Pencil and Leaf blog
I think it's going to be a busy year!