Three more new templates works in landscape format. I made quills from birds' feathers to draw some of the shapes, mixing the uneven, splashy ink lines with the precision of technical and mapping pens used on others, collage, and areas of tone created with repeating lines. They are probably the lightest, most free work I have made for a few years and I was pleased that they seem to connect to my younger self at art school. One day when I was studying painting at Gray's School of Art I had exclusive use of a printing press, and I made about 20 monotypes based on landscape drawings I had made out in the Deeside country near Aberdeen. I worked them with loose paint after printing, and it was a simply wonderful day, a big favourite in all my years at art school. Today I am delighted that my new works are reminiscent of those.
The first two artworks made as a result of the templates diary. They are on ruled sheets of paper taken from a vintage Cameron's Register of Class Marks, R.H. The book had never been used; it belonged to my mother, who was assistant head teacher at a primary school in Rosyth for 40 years. The sheets measure 21x34cm, or 8-1/4 x 13-1/2 inches as it was back then, and are ruled in charming light blue, dark blue and pink.
Nos. 99 and 100 - it feels great to have got this far with the templates diary. This, however, is where it stops. I have removed unused pages from the book to allow it to close with enough pages remaining to use for experiments and notes, for I am now moving on to make artworks in their own right which can be exhibited and sold.
Watch this space for new work in the next few days ... Up to no.98 now, I have definitely decided to stop the templates diary in favour of making artworks in their own right once I have reached 100. I'll continue with the book itself as a sketchbook for experiments, rather than a diary, as I have several ideas lined up to try - at least, for as long as the book can be closed, it's already bulky with so much thick paint and collage.
If you visited this page earlier and saw an image of a cushion here instead of these drawings, it was because of a weird bug which confuses images from this blog with ones from my illustration and design blog at Binky McKee if they have the same title (i.e. the date posted). I must get more inventive with my titling! It's comforting to see there are other kinds of bugs than coronavirus around at the moment.
I couldn't believe it when I noticed I have been doing these for 15 weeks now ... This week's six, and I am up to no.86 now. I wasn't intending this diary to be a 100 days project, rather I saw it as a whole year's worth of drawings. In just over two weeks I will have reached no. 100 and I'm undecided about whether to continue working in the diary. The book itself is beginning to bulk up with pieces of collage, paint, and wrinkly paper on the pages. If I fill up the whole book it will be impossible to close it! Fat books aside, I am very happy with the progress of the work, and I do wonder if my time would be better spent making actual art works which I can sell.
It’s a strange old world out there right now, and at times focus has been difficult. Even things like the lockdown quiet outside enabling bird-song to be heard uninterrupted, the total absence of cars from a normally busy street and lack of aircraft sound are fascinating. I find myself standing at the window far more often these days, taking it all in.
I began introducing and mixing up some of my usual mark-making techniques in the diary of templates. I do six a week (Saturday and Sunday are both on one page in this diary) and have made 74 drawing's with my Dad's old templates now; by the time I get to 100 I hope to see something distinctive and new emerging.
I am really into yellow and black at the moment, and layering semi-opaque papers over the drawings. I had a lovely busy weekend, my godson Theo (B's son) and his friend Dan drove up from MK in their drift cars. On Saturday B and the boys went out west to the mountains and made a very impressive convoy, B in the Lotus and the boys in their crazy cars - lots of colour, stickers, low-down chassis and throaty growly engines. They turned a few heads as they pulled away. I stayed at home with the dog, did some drawing and housework, watched Gavin and Stacey on iPlayer, and cleaned the windows - glamour and grit indeed. It was so nice to have the distraction from the world news for a couple of days.
Diary of templates work from last week, bearing in mind translation onto wood veneers. Centre top is interesting, I found the funny in the shapes. I got into trouble with the bottom left and ended up with a lot of grey, but it worked out fine.
This is the first template work on wood veneer, which I made for B's birthday card. It sports the letter B, and paired images to reflect the Pisces star sign as planned in the diary of templates work last week. It was more difficult to make than I imagined, although I made it in exactly the same manner as the ones in the diary of templates. I wanted to work with the wood to strike a balance between the collaged and painted shapes, and to allow the wood the illusion of coming forward in some areas.
Six template drawings: I waited until today to post this because it's B's 60th birthday. These 6 are all based on the letter B, and use two main elements to reflect the Pisces star sign. They are development work for his pressie and were made in top secret, although I am so transparent I bet he guessed what I was up to.
Happy Birthday, B! XXXX Leap Day's entry in my diary of templates.
If we didn't add a leap day on February 29 almost every four years, each calendar year would begin about 6 hours before the Earth completes its revolution around the Sun. Introduced by Julius Caesar, an extra day every four years keeps our calendar in tune with the seasons, and it must be right because today is March 1 and it is truly coming in like a lion! After another week of howling storms, sleet, hailstones, thunder I am actually sitting here today posting this is dazzling bright sunshine.
I don't title all of these templates works, but as on the week ending 2 February this week was another when titles suggested themselves. Reading left to right: 1. Planetary Model 1 2. Pisces (B's star sign) 3. Lute 4. Clockwork 5. Planetary Model 2 6. Taurus (my star sign) Here is an amusing thing about titles in the diary: the working titles going around in my head often sound like pub names when you read the facing pages together, e.g. the Lute and Swan, or on other pages the Pot and Puzzle and the Harp and Arrow. I don't know what that says about me ... Thanks for visiting, see you next week! I cut out templates from paper this week and pasted them into the diary. Looking at them now, I think they look like tumbling clouds; which is no surprise considering Storm Dennis has taken over from storm Ciara this week. I have three old wood sash windows in my work room, which face north west, also a chimney which was sealed off in my room but is still functional in the lounge below. There is no escaping the wind rattling the glass panes and booming in the chimney, nor trees revelling outside - and I love it. The weather always seems to sneak into my work, no matter what the work is.
Thanks for visiting, see you next week! |
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. |