Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Research & ReflectionLeave a comment

More local galleries

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I began this search because, for a number of reasons, travel to the major galleries is not an easy option. My semi-rural location, the state of public transport, a few physical inconveniences that don’t bother me at all unless they collide, and choosing not to drive in reduced visibility (dusk to dawn, or lousy weather conditions). Luckily, I live in an area that has art at its core. One look at that Pavilion on Grand Parade and you realise you’re in a town that really doesn’t know how to sit down and shut up. Built by the maverick Prince Regent … Continue reading More local galleries

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Sketch-fest

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Continued from yesterday and with another bird. This time a cockerel watering can made of welded metal with a bronzed finish. It’s in the front room which was in shade when I started and then the sun came out and revealed more shape and shadows. I began ambitiously (after yesterday’s birds) with a brown pencil but found it difficult to ‘feel’ the shapes. Conte crayon helped but I need to persevere with sketching to get a good sense of this thing.   Second attempt, still too little tail and no handle but the rhythm of the drawing felt a bit … Continue reading Sketch-fest

Art from wordsLeave a comment

Cow

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This large lady with the world-weary expression is an enhanced version of the one in Not Being First Fish where she illustrates a story about townies not shutting gates because why should they, huh? She may be appearing in a shop near you*, well near me anyway, in the new year. There’ll be a copy of the book too, for perusal, and copies for sale over the road in Steyning Book Shop, bless ’em. *The Basement93, Steyning High street. You’ll find them on Facebook, and also Instagram where the whole shop-full of loveliness is presented in pictures. Continue reading Cow

exercisesLeave a comment

Christmas presents

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

My sister and I bought each other the same present – little metal birds* – and my niece bought me a set of Faber-Castell coloured pencils, so today I put them to use. Or at least I put the black pencil to use. These are lovely little sculptures/models and, as I have bird feeders outside the window and a web cam on one of them, I can honestly say they feel authentically ‘bird’. As drawing models, they’re wonderfully still and these are in three different poses so I reckon I can get some valuable shape and form practice out of … Continue reading Christmas presents

Art from wordsLeave a comment

The Wild Rose and the China Doll

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I was messing around with charcoal yesterday and made some sweeps across an A2 sheet of cartridge. Another couple of sweeps and I saw what it was – a scene from a story I wrote some while ago which had been triggered by that extraordinary track by Nick Cage and Kylie Minogue – Where the Wild Roses Grow. I’d heard that track just a day or so ago. The story is called The Wild Rose and the China Doll and you can find it here on Full of Crow.     Continue reading The Wild Rose and the China Doll

Art from wordsLeave a comment

Dancing Her Black Bones Home

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This is from one of my own, as yet unpublished, stories (it nearly made it, nearly earned its keep, but the journal folded before publication so Rats!). It’s called Black Bones after the story’s title, Dancing her Black Bones Home, which is about a young deaf woman who is treated as stupid by her small community and eventually finds herself on a pebbly beach trying to work out her place in the world and her relationship with the religion she’s grown up with.   Acrylics on 8×10 canvas board with a cut out figure in silhouette at the bottom. That … Continue reading Dancing Her Black Bones Home

Art from wordsLeave a comment

Eight Stranded Whales

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Not long after surprising myself with the painting drawn from Oonah Joslin’s poem, I was struck by a whole bunch of images coming from a poem by Marianne Moore that I heard on Radio Four’s Poetry Please (I’m laughing at myself here because goodness knows how I stumbled over that – I’m a proper BBC6Music kinda girl! It is Roger McGough though). It’s called The Steeple-Jack and I was reeled in and landed by the first verse: Dürer would have seen a reason for living in a town like this, with eight stranded whales to look at; with the sweet … Continue reading Eight Stranded Whales

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Crazy Diamond

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

 Crazy Diamond. I’m not a good reader of poetry, I do far better if I hear it read, but this one – From Crazy Diamond to Borrowed Light by Oonah Joslin – made me think because of her comment about how it came about. She tells me it was something her mentor said when she was struggling to believe in herself as a poet; he told her that diamonds don’t shine on their own, they borrow light from those who do. Turning the Pink Floyd reference on its head, the imagery that came from this, finding your own light instead of reflecting that … Continue reading Crazy Diamond

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Still wrestling with Part 2

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

It’s not immediately obvious but these are shells! One would make a passable hedgehog. Trying for clean lines with fineliner but somehow losing perspective along the way. This is dated 14th December, the next two are dated the 22nd, the intervening time being occupied by other activities, it being the season it is, and some rather poorly directed searches for still life images that might help. I’ll come to these later. Not exactly a bird’s nest but close. I filled a small wicker basket with pebbles, a plant pot, and watercress in a glass then, as a reaction to the … Continue reading Still wrestling with Part 2