Outside in the garden, beside the barbecue and next to the bench where we sit whilst making delicious food, this plank of wood rests on an old chair frame. The strange markings on it have been rousing my curiosity for a while. This morning the light was so even it was a good opportunity to photograph them I'm not sure how the markings got there; the first photo I know shows stains where small pots of vegetable seedlings had rested for a while. The circles I think I must have drawn absent-mindedly at some point. I don't remember doing it, but I always carry pencils in the pocket of my work trousers for marking up templates. I noticed the other day when we were out there that they are exactly the same dimensions as the foot of a wine glass. This tree must have appeared from my pencil without even thinking as I chatted to B as he barbecued away. This wonderful piece of calligraphy is cut into the plank, it must have been used as a rest for sawing at some point. It's actually a lovely piece of timber with some stories to tell, and actually relates in a strange way to the little paintings I wrote about a couple of weeks ago - probably the reason I suddenly started paying attention to it. It's strange how the mind often completely does its own thing in the background, then pops it all to the front and ideas begin to blossom.
An unexpected accidental coming together in the garden: a wind-damaged plant apparently emerging from a fossil. It looks like a weird bulb and gives me ideas for a drawing.
The fossil is a ceramic ammonite, I made loads of them years ago from a I made by pressing a real fossil into soft clay and biscuit-firing it. I used to make a lot of moulds for sprigs etc when I still had a pottery shed and kiln where I lived in Perthshire. I use these stoneware ammonites together with ceramic 'pebbles' filled with molten glass as decorations, but somehow a few of these ammonites have become scattered across the patio which I like because it looks so natural and random. I began making a 'Giant 9' for Instagram and realised the upper leaves and centre of the flower had yet to be filled with shading, so here it is now in its full finished glory (see the unfinished version here).
I enjoy my blog here, it's a record of my work I would be unlikely to keep so well. But I'm not very regular with my IG posts. Like many other artists I find social media disturbing and would rather not use it, but I have to ask myself, what is the point in making all this work if I don't show it anywhere? So, soldier on with Instagram I shall. Several weeks ago I was given some little blocks of wood left over from a project at work. I thought they would be perfect for a set of tiny paintings (105 x 125mm) to hang in a group. At the time I was working on ogee patterns so it was a natural progression to abstract the curves and make these colourful designs with little paintings in mind, although I feel these particular ones would look good on larger panels of perhaps 30cm to 40cm. However, I do have some other ideas for the small blocks. I made the gouache paintings shown above in 2015 on a set of wood veneers B had given me to work on. He had had all six for years in an envelope from his days as a carpenter, and the packet was an item of great nostalgic value for both of us. It took me a few years to pluck up the courage to paint on them, but when I finally did I made these for his birthday, and presented them to him in the original old envelope. He liked them so much that he bought me a package of wood veneers to make some more work. I have only used one piece, and that was for his birthday in 2020, but I'm thinking now of using some of them mounted on the small wooden blocks in a similar way. Here are the little blocks sitting on the shed bench waiting to be used.
I found this adorable thing in the garden today - a seedling growing naturally in a snail's shell. If I was still making ceramics I would make some pots like this for bonsai type plants.
I have a collection of such precious things found outside in various places, such as a tiny bird skull and weird shaped roots, but I guess this one isn't very durable so it's still in the garden sheltering beneath a rhubarb leaf. |
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. |