Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

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Follow that painting: Day One

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I don’t do portraits and I’ve only ever done one self portrait, handily fudged by the size of the phone in front of my face. But the OCA course is about to demand I take another crack at it so I thought I’d get a head (ha!) start. I mean, all that learning-by-osmosis from Sky’s Portrait Artist of the Year has to have had some effect, right? Here we go then: Step one – pick a suitable selfie. Ok, that’s Step two; step one is getting something decent in the first place. Then, to get a feel for the larger … Continue reading Follow that painting: Day One

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Sketch book – sheep

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The more I draw these animals, the easier the stroke and gesture become. There’s a simplification to the process, as if the necessary motor function has moved (is moving) from a conscious to an unconscious process. It’s moved away a little from the Henry Moore biro/wire frame technique so it’s a bit more mine. They all have muddy bottoms at the moment and what I thought were ewes with udders turn out to be anything but! The one bottom right still looks more bovine than ovine. Conte on gesso prepped support. Nice tooth to it. Continue reading Sketch book – sheep

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Sketch book: Schiele, Degas, and Celmins

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

After watching Bryan Eccleston’s description of his (not a)sketch book, I felt freed up to start adding a few more cut-and-paste pieces in mine. These are photos from a couple of my books and some screen clips from a Research Point recommendation, Vija Celmins: Degas because of the contrast with Paula Rego (whose work I prefer, at least in terms of her style if not always the content); Schiele because of his lines which are so spare and still so descriptive (again, style but not content), and Celmins because of her obsessive approach to detailing in these photorealistic pieces. It’s … Continue reading Sketch book: Schiele, Degas, and Celmins

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Bryan Eccleshall

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Interesting ideas about art v work, what ‘finished’ means, and ‘audience’,  and the predominance of process over outcome. I like the idea that work is generative – each iteration building on the last, and reflecting juxtapositions of past and present concerns. Also Bryan’s sketch books are marvellous and I’m going to shamelessly pinch some ideas – especially the one about being less precious. I’ve already started down that road but I hadn’t quite got onto the notion of including things cut out of other things because they’re interesting and might trigger something later or on just by sitting there. And … Continue reading Bryan Eccleshall

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Part 3 Project 2, landscape

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

  Breugel‘s Winter landscape with skaters and bird trap 1505; Monet‘s Grand Canal, Venice 1908; and Stuppin‘s Catskill Moon 2013. Three landscape artists whose images caught my eye when I was trawling for examples of the genre. I already knew of Breugel and Monet but hadn’t come across Stuppin before and actually thought it was one of our local artists, Sarah Duffield who uses very bright and largely unrealistic colours for her work.  I was driven to have a go myself on the black sugar paper I’d pasted into my sketchbook, just to see what would happen.   These are Faber-Castell pencils and … Continue reading Part 3 Project 2, landscape

Research & Reflection1 Comment

Paula Rego

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’ve been looking at different ways of drawing and trying to get a feel for the intended audience and Rego certainly has something to say about dancers. Maybe her audience is the people who idealise the delicate images made by Degas; a reaction to that sense of prettiness. Her Dancing Ostriches are robust women with muscles, which maybe makes a statement about the image of dance being unrecognised for its athleticism and here she’s maybe over-emphasising the musculature of her dancers to make the point. Ballet is not an Olympic event but ice dance is, and the floor work of … Continue reading Paula Rego

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From fire screen to fantasy citadel with a massive guard frog

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Journey of a still life assignment. I never made sketches prior to painting, and every drawing had to be perfect. Come the OCA course and it’s all change. The video above shows some of the stages in the making of the final piece that will go for assessment next week. There could be more; like writing (and why did I not make this connection?), every version is a draft, nothing is ever finished, but at some point you have to let it go. I’ve enjoyed doing this; drifting and shaping gesso on black cartridge, inking and scraping, scratching with oil … Continue reading From fire screen to fantasy citadel with a massive guard frog

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Assignment 2 self evaluation

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Demonstration of technical and visual skills – materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills. This is hard to judge in terms of skills. I’ve had conversations about realism versus expression and the vague feeling that preferring the latter is some sort of cop out. At one level I know this is not true – I believe I can draw and I have pre-OCA drawings I return to occasionally to remind myself – but I felt the need to do a couple more just for the record. Not photo-realistic, still more interpretive, but definitely of something recognisable.   … Continue reading Assignment 2 self evaluation

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Augmented reality and art

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Several years ago there was an app called Blippr which let you both make and read AR images embedded by tagged code into a flat surface. Before it went under (or was bought and drowned maybe by a competitor), I made a couple for work, and also scanned the front of a display box of flea treatment at the vet’s to reveal a website (imaginative!), to the amazement of the receptionist. Layar was another and both have gone silent. Now there are some new ones on the scene and I’ve been trying them out. This is Thyng which shows promise but … Continue reading Augmented reality and art

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Part 3, project 2, exercise 2

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Sketchbook walks. It’s still a bit nippy hereabouts, also damp so this was quite a sprint. And my biro gave out so luckily I had a piece of conte about my person, as you do.   This is a quick gallop round the village at around sunset so when the sun appears there are long, deep, shadows. Otherwise it’s a grey, dismal, flat light. I can’t say this is easy, compared with sheep which are a doddle because of where they are, for quick sketches, I find streets over-stimulating – too many lines, too much material, and too unaccommodating in … Continue reading Part 3, project 2, exercise 2