I decided to begin new explorations into the finned and fluted by recreating the original tiny sketch in one of my 2014 notebooks. It only measures 9cm wide and I want to make it twice that size now, so I took a close-up photo with my phone and transported it into Procreate on my iPad (which, incidentally, is as old as this drawing) and made a basic outline tracing. I will print this digital tracing at the size I want to draw it, so I can retrace it in pen on semi-transparent tissue and make it into a new drawing. It won't be hard to get back into the way I was thinking at the time of doodling the first one, but decisions have to be made - which marks will best suit today's work, where flutes begin and end, what the forms are doing, etc. Giorgio Morandi has been a giant inspiration for me since I discovered his work while attending Edinburgh College of Art in the late 1970s. This is one of my favourites. It is held in the Estorick Collection (lots of info and some phenomenal Morandi works to view here). I love how bizarrely free and joyous the drawing is in spite of the taughtly etched mark-making. Interestingly, he made the etching some 10 years (maybe 12) after the original work - so I don't feel so weird about picking up on something again 10 years after the first version on a 10-year-old iPad. I'm in good company! - and oh boy, I would love to own one of these.
As is often the way, I was looking for something else when I came across this tiny drawing. It got me thinking again about this branch of work which got superseded at the time (probably because it was followed closely by a holiday in Berlin where the art in the streets and galleries opened my eyes to new possibilities of what art could be).
I searched out the notebook to revisit and was surprised it was from nearly 10 years ago, which seems strange; the thought of it in my mind still feels so fresh. Maybe it is fresh because I'm thinking about it in a different way now. At the time it was almost a throwaway remark in the notebook, but now it's beginning to mean something else. Anyway, I am excited about it so it's up for a revisit now, and drawings will begin in my 'portable studio' (last week's post) soon. It actually goes right back to the very beginning of this blog: June and July 2014 when my drawings were taking on the linear motifs which have since filled them. Well, not really an entire studio but this little set-up is ideal for small drawings. A nice sturdy zip-up folder with places for pens, rulers, protractors, curves templates or whatever I want to use. It even has a built-in calculator which I probably won't use for drawings, but you never know when it may come in handy. It has a good capacity for a number of different papers cut to a size slightly larger than 15 x 21cm, Open Eye Gallery's On a Small Scale dimensions.
This is how I worked on the drawings for the 2023 Christmas exhibition; I started them in my studio space, put them in this folder and took them to day-job in the car, where I was able to put in a few minutes here and there during breaks. So, this is good - I have begun the new year by setting up a way to work on the move. I know I do this every year, but - ice patterns! They are stunning. These ones formed on the same glass tabletop in the garden as those of December 2021 - but this time, on the underside of the glass, the top only having a mist of frost. The top photo was taken through that mist and is lovely in its own right - the photo below was after I poured a jug of cold water over the tabletop to dissolve it, and the patterns can be seen clearly. Incidentally, I discovered while writing this entry that older links on some posts aren't working. I guess it is related to when I switched from using the dot-co-dot-uk address to the Weebly one, due to high hosting costs. I'm not sure if I can fix the links, so apologies for that. Nonetheless, I am so grateful to Weebly and Square for providing this space for free.
The January chill set in right on time this week, bringing beautiful displays of ice patterns - this one was on my car window. This was thankfully on the outside, but there was also a bit of frosting inside, too - the car has been letting in water which is pooling in the rear passenger footwell (we think it may be something to do with the sun roof drain hoses).
I wish everybody a wonderful 2024, and hope 2023's problems reach a peaceful conclusion. It's been a rocky ride since 2019 when Covid first struck, and the whole world can also definitely do without the blatant acts of terrorism, greed and war which have ensued. |
Welcome to my work journal - a weekly update on drawings, work in progress, doodles and day-dreaming.
I changed the website address a few months ago, so some older links on previous posts are broken. If you click one of those and it takes you to a strange page, simply replace the .co.uk after the heatherelizawalker. with weebly.com and it will work again. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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As well as the work you see here, I illustrate under the name of Binky McKee (my mother's maiden name was McKee, Binky was every single one of my great grandmother's many cats!)
If you would like to visit my Binky website, please click the picture above. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Dissolving PeopleA symbol on the footpath outside a local primary school gradually disappearing as the image breaks up and wears away until eventually it is obliterated by leaves and barely discernible. Photographed at intervals of several months between February 2021 and November 2022, oldest at the top.
(My shoes look so new in the first pic, and note the transition to new phone in the last photo). <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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April 2024
(Sorry the archives don't nest!)
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A 2013 work book, still very much in use Please note all images on this website are ©Heather Eliza Walker 2013 - 2020, and may not be used or reproduced without prior consent. |