Workshop dates 2016-2017

Here are my new workshop dates of the coming academic year. You can find all details on my website at www.helenhallows.com or click here.

Beauty-full

It has been a beautiful summer's day here. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to slip off my shoes and sit on the grass and draw the trees. They each have their essence those trees. Some have leaves that are ordered. Some are cluttered. Others have their branches open wide, or dipping rhythmically to the floor. I looked for shape and pattern. I looked. I listened. I drew.

Pilchards!

Just a quickie!

I also came across this which reminded me of the idea of museum collections discussed below.

Oh, and I love this!

Drawing

When I was looking for my drawings from St.Ives, I found this.  I'd forgotten about this sketchbook.  I remember being inspired by Elizabeth Blackadder and a series of work where she painted her still life arrangements looking down on them.  It gave the objects a reverence, as if they were catalogued in a museum drawer.  I've been collecting objects for a series of still lifes and I think I'll revisit this style, drawing in ink, perhaps with paper collage.

Elizabeth Blackadder, Still life with Pagoda, Screenprint 1998

Craigie Aitchison, Still life vase and flowers, 2009

Elizabeth Blackadder is a Scottish artist and I've realised I have a real affinity with twentieth century Scottish art and Scottish contemporary textile artists.  I'm not sure I can link their work, except that there is a strong sense of colour (Blackadder, Craigie Aitchison, Jo Barker) and  narrative (Lynne Curran) which appeal.  I think overriding those is the sense of design.  My work is abstracted from reality, it is designed from a collection of elements that appeal for their shape, colour, or pattern.  These elements are simplified or heightened and I envisage the overall look and colouring of the piece before I start it.

Ooh, all that introspection.....I feel quite inspired to go and draw!