I have created an album for my Moleskine drawings. They are quite diverse in their styles I think. Some of them I like; others need more work. I put a detail of one of my favourites first, because that's for show, but then they appear in the order in which they were created, which is not always the order of the pages...

If you click on any of the thumbnails, a lightbox will appear, with all the images in a row on the bottom -click on the next one to make it large, and then you don't have to move your mouse from that position, just keep clicking and you'll go through all the images at screen size. I like the lightbox because the background is black. Embedded below the table I created for the thumbnails is a slideshow, with the captions (the little captions icon in the bottom left of the slideshow window is a toggle switch, click on the playbar and then on it to make them disappear).

I'm not very far into the Mole, and it is my project for the year. Expect a video when the sketchbook is finished!

A poetry of what we do in our ordinary hours. I find the process of film interesting, especially relationships between characters-those interconnections, in their imagined and real manifestations. Sometimes (when I make myself get out pen and paper) I pause a film and quickly sketch the characters. These sketches are not meant to depict the actual film or actors in any kind of realistic way, or even be recognizable. They are dramas, really, to which I add my own words. You can imagine what is happening. If anything, these simple pieces are meant to be evocative: springboards, synchedoches, inductive rather than deductive, they need you to finish their stories.

Poem Paintings

(I had thought to collect my artpieces with poems, words, where the visual and verbal combine, that I've uploaded to Picasa, but, ahh. So it's growing of its own accord. :-)

Tea Ceremony, 2010, 9"x9.5", 23cm x 24cm, india ink, pencils, oils, beeswax.

I came back to this little drawing -a year later turning it into a little painting. Rubbed out some of the green pencil, brushed melted beeswax over it, a little sepia oil colour, wrote into it. I should have left it at this point.

Tea Ceremony

The grace in living,
teapot, tea leaves, steeping.
She bends to pour.

When the waters
washed away the homes.
Clotted blood
of his wounds.
Petals floating on dirges.

Yet laughter of lovers,
her heart of memory.
Landscapes of green
move through us.

Comfort of the gentle
and exact tea ceremony.
Love is everything
the great artist sings.

(c)Brenda Clews, 2009.



Tea Ceremony, 2010, 9"x9.5", 23cm x 24cm, india ink, pencils, oils, beeswax.

This is where I left it after many hours of working. It's glued (with a natural, non-toxic glue) onto another sheet and the writing is scratched through. It spent the night being flattened under many books before this scan.

(Click on images for larger size.)



Slideshow of process from sketch to finished.


                                          

From The Lady and the Chimera

The Lady and the Chimera, 12" x 9", 30.5x23cm, oil on canvas, 2010.


fish live in a ribbon of river in the sky

nor do I sprinkle specks of strands of saffron stars

bouquets of red poppies bloom in paper ice

the soul, a chimera, who gave moments
never to erase
lived words, acts

seeing flying angels makes me laugh...
or you can delete what's in your heart

we are gifts waiting
to give
___

I am really wanting to move onto something else, so am going to consider this little painting done. I have painted it with a very small palette knife, really a dental instrument, and a sable brush with about 5 hairs. The paint is very thick. It has taken far longer than I could have imagined.

The chimera is half human and half lion, yes, but originally meant to be a cuddly stuffed animal chimera. His expression is a little more lusty though, isn't it. And that hat!

I think of this as a jazz composition, a riff in paint.

I don't know why I didn't colour in her hair, probably because I liked the contrast. But her skin - rich honied earthtones, golden and chocolate - yes.

My intention was to write of the new direction my artwork is taking and to add a little sketch for interest. But the sketch became a poem painting and with the colours of the letters festive (there were letters like coloured lights strung along the bottom which I had uploaded but changed my mind on seeing in the post). Perhaps the energy of poem painting is upon me, but if you'd like the mantle for a bit, I'd be honoured to pass it on.

As I release myself from having always to draw from life, I find I am able to compose drawings and paintings from my imagination.

This makes working in visual media easier. As a homebody, nay 'recluse,' enrolling in art classes is difficult (especially since unemployed at the moment, and even when employed the salary is small). I reuse my old drawings from lifedrawing sessions over and over. I think about what I would like to do but cannot afford models or to arrange scenes as I would like them.

I think my artwork has not progressed as it might if I hadn't had this problem.

Now the possibilities open.