Research & Reflection1 Comment

Art, meaning, and communication

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Last night I finished watching a documentary on Sean Scully, a large, somewhat opinionated man whose abstracts attract big money. He has a troubled past but nevertheless, he annoyed me with is arrogance and so I was taking his story in bite-sized doses. Then in the last twenty minutes, asked why he goes to his galleries and explains his paintings, he said this: You can’t make something as arrogant as an abstract painting and then just say get on with it or you’re stupid. Suddenly, whether it’s because he has a personal need to be understood – and that’s certainly … Continue reading Art, meaning, and communication

Steyning Arts, Where to find work for sale

Steyning Arts trail – where to find trail guides

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

These are the fab folk in Beeding and Bramber who are hosting our trail guide this year: Beeding Beeding News, High Street (river end) Upper Beeding – leaflet, natter, papers, eggs, bread, magazines, and a cross-dressing gorilla. The Beauty Box, opposite Beeding News – leaflet, nails, and new eyebrows depending on if you fall asleep in the chair or not. Jayze Barbers, next door to the Beauty Box – leaflet, bloke talk, and exactly what you came in for on your head. The Pharmacy and Store, just down from the newsagent – leaflet, hair colour, an ointment of some sort, and … Continue reading Steyning Arts trail – where to find trail guides

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Steyning Arts trail

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

It’s that time of year when artists of all varieties pack the products of their febrile imaginations into a vehicle and head off to sit hopefully in a tent or, if they’re lucky, someone’s front room with a disenfranchised cat. This year that’s going to be me but I’m not going far and while there will be a tent of sorts, there’s also a very amenable host, a couple of all-over-you cats, a dog, and a bunch of fluffy-trousered chickens. Last year I was a visitor and I spent much of my time there so, barring seriously adverse weather conditions, … Continue reading Steyning Arts trail

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Part 3 project 3 exercise 2 fore/middle/background

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Instinctively this feels ok but as soon as I saw instructions that included rulers and viewers I was thrown because that just isn’t me. I’m realising that I’m more intuitive even though that often leads to wobbles and inaccuracies. I think though that I have a few techniques up my sleeve now to help compensate, one of them developed during an earlier exercise and that led to an interior drawing that I rather liked (I may re-purpose it for one of the perspective tasks). It involves using one of my own photos, reducing it to monochrome, increasing the contrast, and … Continue reading Part 3 project 3 exercise 2 fore/middle/background

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Project 3, exercise 1 sketch 1 tonal study on white ground

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’ve had several goes on the Drawing course at this watering can and I’m having several more shots at it here. These constitute work towards Project 3, working on different coloured grounds. This is the first: charcoal on A3 white cartridge. Major success is getting all of it in the frame for the first time! I’ve latched onto his work because of its tonal qualities which might apply to this exercise. No harsh lines, completely blended and calm. It reminds me of ice cream. Also, it’s realism without being photographic and his compositions are almost linear, there’s no fancy footwork … Continue reading Project 3, exercise 1 sketch 1 tonal study on white ground

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Part 1, project 2 monochrome studies

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Are these instructions particularly obtuse or do I have the wrong language chip installed? Anyway, the task was to take two A3 sized sheets (conveniently side by side in my sketchbook); apply a dark wash to one and a light grey wash to the other. As I didn’t have any of the suggested colours to make the first (and also may not have twigged that ‘wash’ meant ‘transparent’) the dark side is a mix of Royal & Langnickel student grade cyan blue and lamp black, and the grey is this mixed with Liquitex heavy body titanium white. Next, came the … Continue reading Part 1, project 2 monochrome studies

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Part 1, project 2 overlaying washes

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

For some reason, the instructions for this task became more impenetrable the more I read them. I’ve done something but whether it meets the brief or not, I can’t be sure. I also used the products of this exercise as the base for the next one – opaque colour mixing – so I had direct comparisons. The second part involved mixing the main colours with white to increase opacity. I used the right hand side of the original washes for this to enable direct comparison. I’m biased here; I like heft and texture rather than watery applications although I can … Continue reading Part 1, project 2 overlaying washes

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Part 1, exercise 3 – painting with pastels

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I think this task is about using pastels much as I might use paint but I’m really not sure what’s expected. I have both oil and regular pastel crayons so I started with the oils. Thinking of ‘painting’ I wondered if the idea was to use a solvent to facilitate blending so I added Liquin either to the support prior to adding colour, or after the colour to influence blending, but I’m not sure it made much difference. It’s also maybe problematic that the quality of the cartridge isn’t great, being a bit smooth. I’ve blended with both stumps and … Continue reading Part 1, exercise 3 – painting with pastels

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Part 1 – applying paint without brushes

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This appeals to me, I like wielding a palette knife and a pebble and carving acrylics into shapes. I started with a landscape from memory but found my memory had stored all the wrong shapes. I’ve been doing sketches of this scene recently for the Drawing module and although that’s moved on a bit from pencils and charcoal, it felt very nice to be let loose with something solid and malleable. I worked originally from photos I’d taken there then reduced to monochrome and heightened the contrast in PaintShop Pro. I go through this underpass almost every day and, a … Continue reading Part 1 – applying paint without brushes