Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

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Book review: What are you looking at? Will Gompertz

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

For someone like me, doing a degree in art but having neither background nor interest in art history (actually, history of any sort if I’m being honest), this book is perfect. I have it on Audible and within a very short time, also bought it in paperback (to flick through) and for Kindle (for the links and notes facility). Gompertz, who I knew only as a film and theatre critic (who was not inclined to be pompous or obfuscating about it), writes with a refreshing lack of reverence for the art history schtick that so turns me off; and while … Continue reading Book review: What are you looking at? Will Gompertz

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The Story of Painting – Sister Wendy Beckett

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This is not a book for reading, it’s a reference book to keep to hand. Years ago, I saw Sister Wendy’s documentary series on TV and this book is an elaborated version of that. At the time I saw her as unexpectedly (for a nun, and that’s a judgment I probably wouldn’t make now) robust in her approach to the subject matter of many paintings and also the lifestyles of some of the artists. But watching them again as a refresher and I can see that she wasn’t entirely innocent of passing judgement herself. Some women in the pictures have … Continue reading The Story of Painting – Sister Wendy Beckett

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Brighton galleries

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Where can you see Banksy, Damien Hurst, Grayson Perry, Sir Peter Blake, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Wood, and Billy Connolly originals within a few yards of each other in right-on-the-street galleries? Yesterday*, a friend and I went to Brighton. *Yesterday is now several weeks ago, life having got between me and this write-up. Castle Fine Art Gallery Castle Fine Art is right slap bang in the middle of Brighton near The Lanes, and my goodness I had not expected to see so many originals by ‘names’ from both art and show business. First though were these metal sculptures, each of them … Continue reading Brighton galleries

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Steyning Arts summer exhibition

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Held in St Nicholas Church, Bramber. All the work shown is for sale (with one exception) and wherever possible I will include links to the artist’s website or, if they don’t have one, to their page on the Steyning Arts site. Where possible I spoke to the artist about their work but many had taken a well-earned break on what was an extremely hot day. These photographs are by Wendy Ball who says she take them for her own pleasure and, although she has won a number of prizes, appears not to have a website. Some of them are printed … Continue reading Steyning Arts summer exhibition

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Atelier drawings – portrait 3, da Vinci

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Before: ending on a high here! The portrait to copy is Leonardo da Vinci’s Study of a Young Woman (1490) and appropriately but probably coincidentally, it is positioned on the right of the book so that the page where the copy is to be made is on the left. This means I can actually see the image I am working with instead of obscuring it with my drawing arm. The arrangement would not have been lost on da Vinci, a reputed left hander. After: so, that went well! There’s a reason da Vinci is a Master; he makes the complicated … Continue reading Atelier drawings – portrait 3, da Vinci

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Atelier drawings, portrait 2 -Los Infantes II

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The original by Irvin Rodriguez (2016) is in ink on Hahnemuhle Copperplate paper, mine is in pencil and conte on the page in the book and I really struggled with this. The angle of the head, the ‘baby’ features (mine looks a little older, less chubby) and the expression. Every correction brought another problem and eventually I came close to running out of road trying to erase where there was little leeway to do so. What I’ve learned though is that despite all these difficulties and a few oddities of proportion, if the original were not to hand – and … Continue reading Atelier drawings, portrait 2 -Los Infantes II

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Atelier drawings – portrait 1, ‘Jamaal’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This felt very much like jumping in at the deep end despite completing the run-up exercises. I find blocking-in quite tricky with the examples hard to transfer to new material; too many lines seem to scramble my brain and I lose the ends of them and their position in space. Maybe practice will improve that but for now I have used some of the guiding instructions alongside my own more intuitive grasp of shape and position. The result is a portrait of a passable woman who should actually be a young man. In my defence, the small drawing above mine, … Continue reading Atelier drawings – portrait 1, ‘Jamaal’