Travels with a sketchpad

Posted on 20 July 2011 by sgolding

When I travel I carry sketch pad and drawing materials.  This can be uncomfortable, as in Venice perched on a wharf on the grand canal in mid winter with Elizabeth cursing me for drawing the most detailed building in Venice in the icy weather (ca d’oro from the wharf opposite in front of the fish markets). All of these are at a size of an A4 page or a little larger…for ease of carrying.

Ca d'Oro

Other scenes invite drawing, less because of discomfort and more because of merit.

View from Torcello Tower, Venice 2002

and some just make you hapy to draw

Villa, d'Este, Como 2002

others allow you to rework space neatly in ink and wash

Roman theatre, Orange

most of which present a classical problem of a depiction of space on a page.
Posted in drawing, Landscape | Tagged , , |

A flight of ducks

Posted on 18 July 2011 by sgolding

 

Ink and wash drawing of swimming duck 2009

I did a small ink and wash drawing in sepia of a swimming duck in a muddy river. From that I developed a small series of three paintings, the veritable 1950’s icon of a flight of three plaster ducks on a wall. The last of these is most developed in terms of shape colour and form, with the duck pressing into a formed space, into a textured eau de nile toned surface. The shaped canvas used is based on an arch form and is lifted at each edge by ply forms to set a form into which the image surges.  This is a highly textured oil on linen, on a shaped canvas form 89 cm high by 96 wide, but offset top to bottom edge, riding an arc down.

The image is head on so you dont get all this at once and the picture changes as you move around it due to paralax error.

Posted in art, art process, drawing, oil painting, shaped canvas | Tagged , , , , , , |