AdeleArtBlog

When I came to Guangzhou I thought that I had landed up on the outskirts of the city and that the hills covered with greenery in the distance were the border to the countryside. So in an effort to see far and be in nature I got on my bike and cycled and cycled only to discover that over the hills were only more 100's of kilometers of concrete jungle. It was scary and horrid and I never did it again, being quite happy to pretend that beautiful lush landscape exists on the other side. I guess if you live in a city of over 1 million people the outskirts are pretty far away. For this exercise I had to choose 2 different venues - due to the fact that I really do live in a concrete jungle! The 2 elevated points are completely covered in greenery on 2 sides, so I had to do 2 sketches from one vantage point and 2 from the other... it was hot, humid and muggy and I barely managed to get home before the deluge. I have never seen rain like this - not even in Africa. The sky goes dark and gr...

Study of Several Trees This is pretty easy to do year as trees are in abundance and are very varied. First did a rough charcoal sketch and then moved and did a colored pencil drawing which I started in situ and finished from a reference photo at home (due to the weather). On reflection I seem to have reverted to my previous careful drawing. Perhaps it had something to do with drawing from a photo reference . But critically I feel it is too polished, I do feel that the sense of light is strong and I achieved depth and distance. The strong blues and purple give a sense of cool and shadow and make a good contrast for the feeling of light. I worked over it with water: This, is better, mainly because some of the tightness is gone. I roughened up the texture of the thin tree in front with scratchy brushstrokes to distinguish it from the other smoother ones. Sketchbook work:

Due to the lousy weather I did 4 outside sketches of this tree experimenting with different mark making outdoors  And then did this larger study indoors in ink using a dipping pen with washes. I worked slower on this exercise as the windy, gnarled trunk lent itself to study. On reflection I feel that I could have perhaps continued the mark making up the trunk as it seems a bit flat to me now. I focused very much on the gnarled bits as I felt it expressed the character of the tree. And then I did this one: Looser, and I enjoyed playing with line and describing the textures. I hope I am not wrong in saying that this one is the more interesting work.

Moving outside excites me as I love nature and have always been passionate about painting outdoors. Trees are a favourite subject and I enjoyed this assignment. I found it difficult to achieve the lush dense feeling of the tree and reflecting on these sketches I had another go at in a larger format. With this sketch I felt that the hard scribbled lines of the charcoal, although rough and unfinished did more than the careful studies of the previous - but I guess its the process that leads to understanding and coming to grips with essence and not trying to just draw the thing. And then: I honestly felt a leap of joy. Its the tree. Its the tree - the feeling and essence of the tree, not just the lines on the paper of what maybe should be the tree, but the beautiful old thing growing on a rock in a park in China. I resisted the urge to finish it and the composition might be unbalanced but I felt it was enough. I grew an inch today.

After having reflected on the feedback of my second Assignment and of part 2 and having re-looked at all my work through this lens, I have become aware how important it is for me to draw and to do the thing right and good. My work shows little bravery or experimentation and seems now, for the most part, to be stiff, formal and safe. Clearly I need to try different techniques and I felt that working really big may be the answer to that, loosening me up and giving me less control.  For now I am excited to try and push my work to the "failing point" and see where it takes me while building on my core skills. The following are a few comments on the study of the excerpt from the book,  Vitamain D2,  as prepared by my tutor. Iris Van Dongen's Work: What strikes me mostly here is the visual tactile effect - a richness of the quality of the mark and a desire almost to touch the work.. as if the artist has somehow transferred the enjoyment of creating with the materials on...