Sketching and etching
Here’s a quick sketch from last week – it’s a loose interpretation of a painting by Edward Vuillard (see below). Probably no coincidence that the seamstress is working at her desk with the windows flung open, while I huddle over the radiator in my studio painting her.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working my way back into a daily painting practice, keeping the sessions short and spontaneous with only one rule: to start with a fresh blank canvas each day. I’ve made 15 little paintings so far – they’re all numbered and currently turned towards the wall so I can’t see them. My aim for next week is to keep making new works but also to pick out three of these latest works at random and revisit them briefly, see if there’s anything worth salvaging in them. It’s an exciting part of the process – a sort of dialogue with the painting opens up and it genuinely amazes me how much I’m in the dark about what the painting is about, how it tilts from one idea into something different.
A new inkling arrived in the post this week.
Inkling 1.12
Jeni Nuttall is one of the printmaking tutors at Hotbed Press. This is an aquatint etching with a roll-over. Etching is a highly variable process and I take my hat off to anyone who has the patience for it! Thank you Jeni – it makes me think of murky aquariums and all the weird fish lurking within. I love it. x
It’s been cold so I made some wrist-warmers, wore them once, then lost them, then made some more.
One hundred and sixty
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I found this short film very moving and it’s sensitively done – worth a watch if you have a spare 10 mins.