Bricks in pastel

A few minutes to spare and needing to draw something..anything. As we were tidying up we found some bricks, which found their way onto my table, so they were it. I thought I'd play with my oil pastels and this is the result:

I'm pleased with how it's gone, although the top brick looks a little like it's got a long red nose!
I was trying to follow the suggestions of Susan Sarback in 'Capturing Radiant Colour in Oils' - blocking in planes of colour, then modifying them to relate to each other, varying them across the surface. I think the lucky coincidence of the turquoise table being complementary to the yellow ochre bricks has something to do with the whole thing too....must work more on colour theory......

Went to see the Watteau drawings at the Royal Academy this afternoon.

Such economy of line to evoke posture and clothing. They're quite small too, so how did he make such fine work with chalk? Interesting to read how he used firstly red chalk, then later added black and white chalk.The results seem to produce blues and greens as well...not sure how.

Also at the RA was a small room of  Frank Bowling works on paper.

How colourful is that? And he works in acrylics. Interesting textures from gel combed out from the centre line. Indeed all these works had a strong central line.

Art in Islington

As I'll miss Ray Atkins' show at ArtSpace Gallery in Islington next month, I wanted to go to the current exhibition to see what was there. And this is what I found (below). As usual, it is huge, and animated by such lively strokes of colour. I never cease to be enthralled and inspired by Ray's work.

The show of his work opens on 24 June. For a taster, the catalogue is reproduced online here, but his work really needs to be seen in the flesh. Photos just cannot do it justice.

In the same gallery there was also a painting by George Rowlett - paint so thick it looked like icecream, and I wanted to lick the colours.  This is titled Poppy Fields in Wind and Rain 2007

Then down the road at the Parasol Unit was Yinka Shonibare's  installation Jardin d’amour, originally shown in Paris. We walked through maze-like passages created by high, ivy covered trellis panels to find clearings with headless figures in scenes straight out of Fragonard or Watteau, dressed in elaborate costumes unsing Shonibare's trademark textiles, right down to ribbons on their shoes. It was beautiful, thought-provoking, exquisitely crafted work.

And somehow the fact that they didn't have heads only made you appreciate how much the gestures of the bodies made the story. Heads, and therefore facial features,would have been a distraction.