Time to Play

A very quick post of a couple of sketches that I made yesterday. Due to various work commitments I have a couple of hours to kill at a time when traffic makes it unfeasible to go home and come back out again. This means I have to find a good way to use this time. I've been making the most of the good weather to get outside to do more sketching. I've been playing with media I don't use very often (or is completely new to me), and subject matter that I'm not usually drawn to. Yesterday the subject was landscape, and I was using oil pastels (which I am enjoying playing with) and my fountain pen with Noodler's Bulletproof ink.

Here are the sketches...

A View From Cottingley

In Ink

Now I'm going to rush off to HIVE to work on some ceramics.

Recharging The Batteries

Just got back from a weekend away in Cumbria visiting friends. We stayed with friends who own a smallholding in Little Clifton, near the coast. The weather wasn't great, but we still got out and about.

On Saturday, we went into Whitehaven partly for the festival, but mainly to visit another friend who has just taken over management of a pub in the centre of town. It was the first time I'd been to Whitehaven. The town is a little shabby in places, but you can see how it must have been in its glory days during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It's full of lovely Georgian townhouses.

I managed to get a little sketching done in between all the socialising...

At The Snecklifter

Sitting in the pub, I started drawing this trio of lads opposite. Unfortunately, they left before I drew them all.

Whitehaven Skyline

(with added seagull!)

And finally, here is a small preview of my photos from Iceland...

Black Sands, South East Coast

Iceberg, Jokulsarlon

Geothermal Bubbling Mud, Lake Myvatn Area

The Solstice Draws Closer

Recently I've been trying out media that have never been on my radar before. A packet of twelve oil pastels that were a gift have been kicking around my box of art materials for years. Last week I decided to get them out and give them a go. The results are interesting, although I find the twelve colours a bit restrictive. The two test sketches that I've done were straight on to white paper. This created a couple of problems. Firstly, I found it difficult to cover the white. On top of this, the white of the page gave the colours a very bright, luminous appearance. This may be desirable in some circumstances, but not all.

Having done a little research, I decided to try coloured paper. So I've been preparing a number of different supports to see what works. I've put acrylic gesso on a couple of pieces of cartridge paper and then stained them with thinned oils. I've also put washes of watercolour on some watercolour paper.

Here are my test sketches...

Anne Street in Oil Pastels

Lake at Nuffield Health, Cottingley

I haven't stopped my usual sketching habits. Killing time in Shipley before work provides interesting sketching opportunity.

Conversation Time

Shipley Townhouse

My last sketch for today is of the National Media Museum in Bradford. The museum is part of the Science Museum, one of three in the north of England. It is facing an uncertain future because of government cuts to the grant the Science Museum relies on. The Science Museum has announced that one of the three will have to close if the grant for this year is cut. The odds are that it will have to be the National Media Museum as it had the lowest footfall of the three. However, the other two museums are in Manchester and York, both more desirable tourist destinations for various reasons. This probably explains the difference in the footfall. The fact that the National Media Museum draws in more than 500, 000 visitors a year, when it's based in a recession hit, post industrial city like Bradford is far more impressive than the Science Museum bosses are acknowledging.

The Pictureville Cinema and Cubby Broccoli screen based at the museum provide arthouse cinema mixed with popular new releases all year, and run three art cinema festivals a year. Bradford will suffer both culturally and economically if the museum closes. But it won't simply be Bradford that loses out if it closes, the whole country will.

Please give your support to the campaign against the cuts.

The National Media Museum

And The Living is Easy...

Been making the most of the glorious weather we've been having. We've been getting out and about into the countryside. One great thing about Bradford is that you can go from city streets to countryside in less than half an hour. It's only on hour to some of the most wonderful parts of the Dales.

It was the volunteer's barbecue at HIVE on Friday afternoon, so we did another raku session. It was mainly for the volunteers, but we slipped in some of the pieces that we hadn't managed to fire last week. Since most of the volunteers are not potters, they glazed some pre-made pots (thrown by my friend Gill Smith of Ceramicals blog) and we put them through the raku process. It was a great afternoon. I haven't photographed my final piece yet, but I'll post one when I get around to it.

For the moment, here are some better photos of the pieces I fired last week...

My First Test Piece

Test Piece Two

Seated Figure

Here are some sketches I've done over the last week or so. I've been having fun playing with some media I've not used much, like gouache...

Temple Newsam With Added Colour

The French "Tractor"

A Late Night Self Portrait

St Ives Estate

A Quick Sketch From My Attic

My Back Yard

People At Costa Coffee

At Malham Cove

Ogden Water