Roses at Wrest Park

Working on the iPad is so different to using my sketchbook. Although the lines are often not as accurate as if drawn with a pen on paper, the freedom to use varied line widths is a great advantage. Today I cycled to Wrest Park and enjoyed a god day sketching and writing there. 

Fire

The evening is warm, but the overcast sky and brisk breeze brings with it a hint of possible rain. The light is fading as I pull an old wheelbarrow to in front of the summerhouse whose doors are open to welcome the summer night. The barrow has a layer of bricks in the bottom and on these I have built a fire with logs from the woodpile. The fire is lit and it takes only a few minutes before the logs are well ablaze and flames are reaching up warms with wild energy. Sparks occasionally jump out and add to the spectacle. As the darkness draws in so the firelight warms the woodwork of the summerhouse with a deep orange glow and the fire settles to a gentle steady burn that takes all possibility of a slight chill away. 

The garden feels incredibly peaceful. The low roar of the gentle flames is reflected in the sound of the background town traffic. Not far way the peace is broken by the crackle of some fireworks - presumably a small celebratory display of some sorts. Apart from this my peace is undisturbed. 

With me I have my drum. I haven't played it for several years. I never played it in our old garden, it never seemed right and I always felt self-conscious as neighbours were often moving about their gardens at night. Here, in the new house, the end of the garden seems much more private and remote and so it was with a gentle hand that I felt comfortable in returning to an old friend. So, by the warm light of the glowing logs I played and just relaxed into a special time of peace and reflection. 

I thought about how our earthly existence most likely originally began with fire and to fire it will return. In the middle of this we have come to an existence where by fire has become to be something more of something managed by man though nature still has the ultimate power to use it as she will. We are drawn to fire, we are mesmerised by its beauty yet destructive power. It creates, yet it destroys. To me it is a symbol of pain and also creativity that brings healing.

The fire burned down to just a pile of deep red charcoal and I was half tempted to sleep out beside it, but I was rather in need of a good night's sleep as the next day I would be out on the bike all day and I didn't want to get too tired. The fire and the drum were my friends this evening and we shared a wonderful time together.

Blackfly

This is a close up of some blackfly on a thistle that I found by the side of the road when out for a bike ride a few days ago. I was just intrigued by the pattern the insects had made. The adult blackfly were all feeding from the upper part of the main stem and all facing downwards, as were the baby blackfly. Being quite fond of patterns, I liked the way that the insects were all spaced out as if following a set placement at a dining room table. Often when I see these on runner beans or other plants in the garden they are usually massed together in clumps. I just liked this spatial arrangement and it looked rather more interesting in real life as I only clearly photographed part of the thistle

Hedgerow

Cycled along one of my favourite local quiet country lane this morning and admired the profusion of what is probably hogweed. The verges haven't been cut yet and so the roadside was full of abundant growth. I love these umbellifer flowers and was struck by the different shades of colour from white to a murky pink.

Snails

Sunday 22 June, near Offley, Hertfordshire:

I am sitting in the earthen track of a local bridleway on a hot June day. This side of the hedgerow - a tall and unmanaged ancient double row of trees - is in the shade of the afternoon sun. I am looking at a patch of flowering nettles in front of me intertwined with goose grass, dock, hogweed, cow parsley, white dead nettle and a small bindweed. It is an area of about one square metre and my attention is caught by the sparkling silver trails left by snails all over the nettle leaves. With little effort I can easily count around 25 smalls, all about 5-15mm in diameter (probably white lipped snails and a few other species) and motionless in the summer heat. Once the night draws in they will probably start moving around to forage. I am amazed at how these small snails will happily move around the surrounding vegetation and will climb quite high over seemingly inhospitable surfaces to redt not just on broad leaves but to reach the ends of some distant stem too. It is interesting how 3-dimensional is the interaction between all elements of the ecosystem. Space is utilised in every direction and is quite different to how we humans interact with plants and animals around us. 

Whilst drawing the attached sketch I notice other things: a cranefly, tiny black leaf beetles on the cream umbellifer flowers, several scorpion flies, normal flies, a bumblebee, a tiny spider, a hover fly and the rustling of a mouse or other small mammal moving through the ground cover. It is amazing what you can find just by looking any patch of vegetation with a closer viewpoint and a few minutes to spare.

Stripes

This little sketch turned out ok on the iPad but in some ways I think it would have turned out better having been drawn by hand. The iPad is good in that there is always a constant flow of ink from the pen, but I do find the small screen size spatially limiting when working on detail like this. I am playing around with figure drawing and working on my personal style. I am fairly happy with this and I like the composition and line work with the absence of colour. 

Pages from my sketchbook

Although my blogsite postings have been few and far between recently I have been quite busy scribbling away in bits of paper and in my sketchbook when I have some spare moments. I've been trying to get back onto doing handdrawn work and, in particular, pen and ink illustrations. I love black and white line drawings and in many ways would rather work like this than in colour. I have always liked the fine art of detailed wood engravings and the cartoon/illustrative lines of people like Heath Robinson, Ronald Searle and Quentin Blake. There seems to be much more in the way of traditional line work around at the moment in much contemporary design rather than simple digital vector lines. Working on paper again is quite a liberating experience as there is no boundary of the screen edge or pages that have to be moved around and magnifications constantly being adjusted. I have been exploring quite a few ideas and trying to develop more of a personal brand and style that I can quickly and easily flow into with flexibility and creative freedom. This collection of scanned pages from my sketchbook is just my playing with ideas and seeing what will evolve and flow out of my trusty fountain pens. My aim is to translate these into proper pictures on white canvas or other media.