Blog   Patsy blog 3rd May 2011 I am thrilled to hear that my application to join the Society of Women Artists has been successful and I have been elected as an Associate Member. Three drawings, "Junior Doctor" (shown below), "Night Portrait" and "Jo", will be hung in the 150th SWA Celebratory Exhibition at the Mall Galleries this summer. HRH Princess Michael of Kent will open the exhiition at the Private View on Wednesday 29 June. The exhibition then runs from 1 to 9 July 2011 (closing at 1pm on the final day). 3rd March 2011 Today fellow artist Susan West and I, took several works to Nottingham for the forthcoming Nottingham Society of Artists Associates exhibition. This opens on Saturday 5th March and runs until Thursday 10th March. I took "Girl with closed eyes", "Jo" and "Rose" but I'm still worrying that reflections from the glass make viewing of these sombre works difficult. Here's hoping they are hung in a favourable position. 2nd March 2011 As a small child I never got the joke "When is a door not a door? When it's ajar." because ajar was not in my vocabulary. I am suffering a similar hole in my understanding with the question of "When is a drawing not a drawing?" or in fact "What is a drawing?". I had thought Tania Kovats's "The Drawing Book" might provide some clues and it does, but these are outweighed by more questions. Does the medium or the manner of its application dictate whether a piece of art work falls into the painting, drawing or even the sculpture category? So can anyone advise me with regard to my own "drawings" made with very soft coloured crayon on paper. Are these paintings in the manner of pastel paintings? 28th February 2011 How hard is it to draw a wrinkled sheet? Easy you may say but I suppose it depends upon the level of symbolism used. It would be much less trouble to write "sheet" or draw a sort of formless shape, colour it and throw in a bit of shading. Today I battled with the lighting on complex intersecting planes in varying shades of grey and pale sepia on a sheet. Some convincingly sheet-like bits are emerging in my drawing. 27th February 2011 I broke away from my obsession with making a drawing this weekend to shop for a book on the subject. I found Tania Kovats's "The Drawing Book" which seems to fit the bill perfectly. Not only does it vigorously challenge many of my ideas, a healthy quality, but also confirmed one of them. Kovats quotes Alfred Hitchcock as stating that there is no such thing as a line, only light and shade. I am sure he is not the first to articulate this and will not be the last, but it is a notion fundamental to my current working practice. I start with a sheet of black paper and reveal the form of a figure by drawing fields of modulated colour. These patches of colour blend into or meet other patches but there are no lines along their boundaries creating artificial divisions between forms and backgrounds. I hear my thoughts buzzing, telling me that "drawing is not about mirroring reality", but still I strive to get closer to it by abandoning line, and concentrating on form. 20th February 2011 No work done today unless reflection counts. I noticed that a highlight no larger than a couple of full stops brought a surface to life. 16th February 2011 I have been drawing all day in perfect light conditions, bright enough to make everything pin sharp on my ageing retina. Several challenges are only partly conquered in this reclining figure, namely that delicate area of the inner wrist, knuckles on an outstretched hand and the tendons in her neck. I expect they'll succumb eventually. The main thing is to give a sense of the woman's warmth and life. 15th February 2011 I was delighted to watch Anthony Caro talking to Mark Lawson recently about his life and sculpture. He was a towering influence on me when I first arrived at art college in the 1960s and was relegated to the sculpture studios against my will (I desperately wanted to be in Painting.). Despite my reservations, I adapted quickly and soon couldn't get enough of it. The studios were ramshackle, full of light and probably quite dangerous. My dad who was a motor engineer and used to workshops was horrified when he saw how things were arranged. It was the bandsaw plonked in a thoroughfare that really had him going. I loved it all and couldn't tear myself away at the end of the day but it was hard, demanding and yes sometimes dangerous. I owe a debt to Tristram Forward, a fellow student, who saved me from a large hand-held grinder, which had got out of control and jumped off the steel I was shaping into my sweater. As it twisted up my back coiled in the wool of my top Tristram heard me scream and leapt to switch off the machine at the wall socket. I got away with a scratch or two as a result of his speedy reaction. In those early times Caro's work enabled me to realise a link between my ideas for painting and the making of sculpture. However in his interview last week he quoted something from Henry Moore which really struck a chord for me with regard to my current work. Moore had said that sculpture, presumably among other things, was all about the pressures inside the body. Caro made a fist as he said this and pointed to the taut skin over his knuckles. The evidence of bone structure under skin seems highly significant to me and I strive to make those pressures of bone under skin apparent in my studies of the nude figure. 14th February 2011 Mm I seem to have a blank mind when comes to talking about the business of making images. The more I draw the less I have to say about it. Perhaps this is how it should be since I cultivate working with a narrow focus and no distractions such as listening to the radio. 8th February 2011 Last week I spent a bit of time on the National Open Art stand at the Watercolours and Works on Paper Art Fair at the Science Museum. This was a busy, glamorous event, with champagne bar and all manner of art works for sale including Damien Hurst, Tracey Emin and Anthony Gormley. I could easily have spent thousands, well much more actually. The feedback on "Ophelia" was positive too and I met some brilliant people. One lady, dressed rather eccentrically, considered the works on our stand then glanced down at me and said how much she liked my grey pearls. I told her that my daughter, Bella, had given them to me. "That is the sort of behaviour that should be encouraged" she said before drifting off to the next stand. I am sure she must once have played Lady Bracknell. Later on I swapped ideas with a couple of kindred spirits from Lancaster. As they knew someone whose work was rejected in the National Open Art Competition they were intrigued to see some works which had been accepted. They felt that most of them had a clever "angle" that somehow made them unique and interesting to the selectors. I challenged them to pick out my "much more straightforward" work. They were right first time. 27th January 2011 Having spent a long time preparing materials and photographic reference over the last week or two, today I finally dived into a new drawing. No prizes for guessing the subject of my study, a reclining woman, but it will no doubt present new challenges as the lighting is subtle rather than dramatic. The real work will be in conveying a sense of this woman's warmth, life and quiet breathing. I often find it difficult to start work, not the planning but the proper interface with your stuff and your thoughts. I need to feel there is an infinite amount of time stretching ahead without interruption, even if this is illusory, then I can be lost. Over the last few months I have been participating in the Saatchi Showdown, a competition for artists in which votes are cast on line. At the moment "Girl with closed eyes" is competing and can be seen here if anyone wishes to vote http://www.saatchionline.com/showdown/match/showdown/3/artist/87936/art/1173997. There are 5120 other entries to the competition so any support is very welcome. Speaking of support, I received three encouraging emails today via the Saatchi site. Two were from Jo King who commented on "Girl with closed eyes" saying "Breathtaking. You certainly have my vote" and regarding "Model under a skylight" "This is gorgeous. The texture, the light, the model and the subdued colours". The third message from Melinda Matyas about my portrait of a Student Doctor read "Beautiful details". They certainly boosted my mood. Next Wednesday 2 February 3-9pm I am attending the opening preview of the Watercolours and Works on Paper Art Fair at the Science Museum in London SW7 2DD."Ophelia" has been included in this exhibition as I mentioned previously, back in November. This may be a good opportunity as 11,000 visitors are expected to attend. 22nd January 2011 Well it is long time no blog and I offer no excuse. Suffice it to say that things happen affecting our ability to carry on as normal. This week I visited the London Art Fair with two artist friends.The range of work was vast and kept us engaged for hours. Perhaps rather naively we had planned to try and show some of our work to any galleries that appeared to be in sympathy with our particular interests. This proved difficult as the staff on duty were emitting very strong selling signals. We realised the climate was wrong for our venture after a couple of attempts to introduce ourselves so instead we concentrated on viewing the displays and trying to figure out which galleries might be interested in our work. I don't think we drew any firm conclusions but we are working on it. 19th December 2010 I finally completed "Girl with closed eyes" last Friday and was blessed with a sunny day to photograph it. I had difficulty finding a title so I decided to name the work after a painting by Lucien Freud as the composition is quite similar. 26th November 2010 A piece of work has me in its clutches again. When not officially drawing I find any number of excuses to visit, stare and inwardly remodel this and that. It is much safer to resist making adjustments on the way to bed, or in fact on the way anywhere as it always ends in disaster. Peter Howson's painting, shown in a television documentary last night entitled "The Madness of Peter Howson" left me speechless, in the best possible sense, apart from one comment. His portraits of Christ resemble Peter himself. I mention this as there are a number of theories regarding the cause. As a student I was led to believe that there was a certain inevitability about this tendency of portraits to resemble the artist. In fact if we make up a face without reference to a model this tendency is exaggerated. Does this have something to do with basic brain programming? 17th November 2010 I have been away and lost the connection with my current piece of work. No doubt it will be re-established tomorrow in the bright light of day. 7th November 2010 Neil Lawson Baker, Chairman of the National Open Art Exhibition, telephoned to say that "Ophelia" (my drawing currently on show in the NOA at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester) had been selected to go forward to another exhibition in February in the Science Museum, London. The show, Watercolours and Works on Paper is only on for three days, 3-6 February 2011, but Neil is confident that there will be a large number of visitors. When I started my artist's journey in 2008 I had only the vaguest idea about exhibiting and certainly no understanding of the impact it would have on me. Guidebooks on managing an art career urge a clear headed approach to getting your show on the road. They give down to earth analyses of reasons that work may be rejected, suggest how to deal with dealers and point out landmarks for navigating the gallery world. I have paid attention but must confess that I cannot manage a calm response to the ups and downs of showing work to the public. In short, I am elated when work is selected for exhibition, awarded a prize or sold but utterly despondent when it is rejected. Today is a good day. 6th November 2010 To draw honestly formulas must be left behind. They cloud perception and push the drug of easy security. I am in the grip of a piece of work which demands that I check on it constantly, whether it is under construction or leaning against the wall. It amounts to an obsession but obsession seems to be quite an efficient mechanism for getting things done. The mind remains focussed on the task and can make steady progress, instead of stopping and starting and having to repeat processes which have been temporarily forgotten. So this apparent insanity has a useful function and I shall be better acquainted with my subject as a consequence. 5th November 2010 The preview of the Catmose Gallery Open 8 exhibition proved very exciting yesterday evening as I was awarded the "Swans Fine Art" prize for one of my three entries, "Student Doctor". This prize is generously given by Councillor Peter Jones who runs an antique shop and gallery in Oakham. The exhibition was beautifully hung, a credit to the Catmose gallery curator Abigail Bishop. 3rd November 2010 Television must constantly be shaping our vision but our preoccupations inevitably filter what gets through. I found myself yesterday, supposedly watching the news. An elderly woman appeared on camera, making a point about something or other, but her message was lost to me. All I saw were the contours of her face and where the sunlight caught the high points. Only recently have I begun to realise the significance of highlights in depicting the nature of form. The shape and intensity of a point of light reflected back from the surface of a wet eyeball is so different from the light caught on the taut skin of a forehead. 1st November 2010 I have been reflecting on the entanglement of technique and picture content and whether there is any point in separating the two. My Dad would use an artificial separation to spare my feelings, a lifetime ago in the 1970s, by saying that he did not like my subject matter but felt my technique was OK. Good old Dad.Mum was wiser and said less. I have heard people say that a work of art is empty, just technique and no substance, but where is the boundary between these elements? How can they be divided? Are they zipped and linked like posh hotel beds or held together by electrical charge like protons and neutrons? We are used to hearing judges marking the performance of ice skaters and dancers in terms of technical merit and artistic expression. Can this be applied readily to a painting, a drawing or a sculpture? I think not but I'm not sure why. 31st October 2010 The Autumn landscape round here begs for attention with its rusty, rustling leaves, ripe berries and spikey Hawthorn but I am not drawn. My focus is the human body and its power to express emotion. Someone else will have to do the landscapes. 27th October 2010 Bright light from my workroom skylight has helped me all day getting to grips with the minute detail of a model's face. There are many tricky shadows and shapes all interlocking. A change at any point affects all the adjacent forms. I am working from a reference photo as usual. It was taken in a little room flooded with morning sunlight which made gorgeous patterns on the model's body. Her eyelids are a study in translucent raw umber, crimson aubergine and burnt sienna. She is emerging slowly but will not look back at me as her eyes are closed. 26th October 2010 Today I received some encouraging feedback on my work from visitors to the Nottingham Society of Artists Autumn Exhibition.This was directed at "Reclining model in sunlight" that had been on show in the NSA Trust gallery on Friar Lane for the past week. Several people were curious about my technique and surprised that the medium is crayon. One lady asked me how to draw noses, something, that had obviously challenged her and still challenges me! I'm afraid the only advice I could offer was to try to switch off all your innate and learned ideas about noses and observe very carefully the play of light on your subject. 16th October 2010 I returned home from Frieze Art Fair in London yesterday to find a message saying that my drawing, Ophelia, had been accepted for exhibition in the National Open Art Competition in Chichester. The private view is 29th October 6-9pm and the exhibition runs from 30th October to 13th November at the Minerva Theatre Chichester. There are 118 finalists in the exhibition selected from an initial entry of over 1600 submissions. Needless to say I am elated! I had been hopeful as I showed the work to my local artist group ArtSpace recently and they did not say much but looked for a good while, probably quite a positive sign in artists. Erica Middleton, one of the group who teaches art classes in Loughborough, said in an email later "I loved your latest drawing by the way, thought it the most beautiful to date - and did you notice how everyone was reduced to silence?" Showing work makes me nervous and I had not noticed so thanks Erica for letting me know. Frieze was a very interesting experience not least for having lunch with friends from South London Women Artists. I had thought that I might pluck up the courage to talk to some of the gallery people with a view to asking them to consider taking some of my work. However, I realised pretty soon that I was talking a different language and that there was no one there that would represent me, judging from what I could see. I gave a flyer about my drawings to a lady that I overheard had bought some figurative work from an "Unknown". I thought, "Oh that could be me", so I hung around until I could approach her and rather apologetically gave her the flyer. She said she'd look me up but I wonder.........? Later on I met a young woman feeding her baby his lunch in the caf?? and offered her a flyer when we had exchanged a few comments about the show. I left a few more flyers amongst the books on sale. As I walked away I glanced back and was rewarded by seeing a girl had picked one up. What it is to be an "Unknown"! 14th October 2010 Drawing this little portrait continues to tease perception and stretch technique. I have struggled to capture light reflected by a bony part of the wrist, a nail on the model's little finger and the ridges of puckered skin on a finger joint. Highlights have to be exactly placed to convince the eye and are rarely ever white when you really look. The pale tracery of veins in the wrist will no doubt occupy me for days. How will I convey the translucence of skin at that confluence of veins under the joint wrinkles? I started taking notice of veins when I drew Student Doctor last summer.The prominence of the veins in her hand seemed incongruous with the model's youth but was important visual evidence of her warm blood and life. 12th October 2010 Catmose Gallery have accepted all three pieces of work submitted for the Open 8 exhibition, Rose, Student Doctor and Sunlit Face.The exhibition takes place between 4 November - 15 December 2010 at Catmose Gallery, Catmose College, Cold Overton Road, Oakham, Rutland LE15 6NU. The private view is on Thursday 4 November from 6-9pm. Meanwhile I continue to scrutinise a reference photograph in order to draw a portrait of Jo. Today's challenge has been to capture the subtleties of lighting on the neck and in particular the transition from neck to chin. How much easier it is to create a stylised human head and use lines to symbolise a change in form. In life lines do not exist so why do we persist in using them to depict form? It must be dictated by economy. 8th October 2010 I am consumed by the drawing of a little portrait. Between every other daily activity I have to get back face to face with it checking proportion, colour, light and shade and so on. This will probably continue until I either finish it or decide I have to start again which is quite likely given past performance. Working on such a small scale less than A4 for the head means that accuracy is crucial, 1mm out on an upper lip for example results in distortion so it is easy to go wrong. Finding colours for the whites of the eyes today has included warm grey 70%, French grey 50% and sepia 10% but no white at all. I find it utterly extraordinary when the eyes return my gaze. No other feature provides such significant feedback. Now she feels warm and real but tomorrow, no doubt, I shall feel more critical. 6th October 2010 Yesterday Jo Sheppard and I bundled some of our work into my car and drove off to the Catmose gallery at Catmose college in Oakham where they are selecting art for the Open 8 2010 exhibition. In 2008 my drawing, Nude by the power station, was accepted so I am hopeful that something may be selected but we should know next week. Tomorrow our local contemporary art group, ArtSpace, is hanging an exhibition entitled, On the Edge, at Hind Leys College in Shepshed. I am assisting with the hang but not exhibiting. There seems to be an issue regarding the acceptability of nude images in some establishments. This surprises me as I am working within one of the great traditions of European art i.e. the nude in the landscape. I decided not to show rather than be censored. I felt a lot of sympathy for John Vesty who was baffled recently when his nude paintings were taken down from North Norfolk District Council offices in Cromer as they were deemed to be offensive. This afternoon I spent several hours drawing the upper lip in a portrait of Jo. This area of less than a centimetre square presents so many subtle challenges to perception. How do you make forms press up close to the picture plane or curve inwards without using tricks or stylisation? It seems to be a question of look look and look again. 4th October 2010 I am still preoccupied with the issue of my work being rather dark and difficult to see when glazed . Rupert, one of the framers at Goldmark suggested some time ago that I should try some non-reflective glass. He tried it on a small piece "Sunlit Face" and it worked like magic.The image was immediately visible without any distraction from reflections, but in practice, I cannot use it, as my work would be refused by some of the galleries, who are prejudiced against it. I think this must be due to earlier forms of non-reflective glass which distorted the picture. As mentioned on 1st October one of the causes for the darkness of my drawings is changing to a harder crayon so I have dug out some of my remaining precious Karisma stock.This might just do the trick in the short term. 1st October 2010 I carried on working from photographs including increasing amounts of detail. At the time I was using very soft Karisma pencil crayons on paper painted with black Colourfix pastel ground.This provided a huge tonal range from the deep velvety black through subtle pinks and browns to a crisp white in the highlights. Unfortunately Karisma crayons have disappeared from the market and though I have tried various others such as Derwent Artists and Sanford Prismacolour there does not seem to be an identical successor, despite claims to the contrary. My current choice,Caran D'Ache Luminance crayons are tested for light fastness and have a wide range of subtle colours. However they seem harder than Karisma making blending less easy. The common sense solution, to apply more pressure, tends to clog the paper or make rather obvious hatch marks, interfering with the smooth modulation of tone.In consequence my drawings have become rather dark and are difficult to see behind ordinary picture glass.Non-reflective glass is still frowned upon by galleries such as the Mall.The darkness of the latest drawing concerns me.So this is one fault identified. An artist friend, Jo Sheppard, suggested that the pose in my recent drawing was more straightforward than usual and the lighting much less dramatic. It is true that I have been taking photos in good light to gain a sharply focused image but seemingly at the expense of mood and atmosphere. I had not seen that chasing the detail would have this effect so I must pay more attention to composition and shadows when taking reference photos. 30th September 2010 The realisation that I needed to study human anatomy came later and I enrolled in a life class taught by a friend. Apart from the benefit of some expert teaching, this put me back in touch with real drawing and all my early training came flooding back.I stopped thinking about the narrative of the model and the objects before me and began to concentrate on spatial relationships, tonal values and proportion. Even more importantly the model posing for the class agreed to a photo session with me. This led to a drawing based on a real figure with her natural environment slightly modified to include a rose covered wallpaper. I could not quite leave behind the made up interiors but this was a turning point and I started to pursue the realism in earnest. 29th September 2010 I needed some new source material to create more authentic figures. A torn photograph of one of Francis Bacon's models turned up in a magazine I was reading, so I enlarged it, to act as my new model. Parts of the photograph were difficult to see and I felt that I had to change the head to harmonise with the style of the setting. The work see-sawed between stylisation and realism without success. My next drawing was firmly back in paper doll land with lovingly drawn lily wallpaper. I took it to be framed at Goldmark gallery in Uppingham and on the spur of the moment, not always a wise move, I persuaded the gallery owner to look at it. His initial comment was complimentary, but he went on to give me a lecture on the importance of anatomy, which I endured with a fixed smile, not really understanding at the time that he was right. Mike Goldmark was not convinced by the drawing and had put his finger on the cause without a moment's hesitation. 28th September 2010 I decided over the weekend that my latest drawing did not really "work". It is a portrait of a nude woman in my usual medium, crayon on a rough black pastel paper. I thought a blog might help me work it out. Some of the issues are caused by the constraints of the medium, others are to do with the ideas pursued and some are just about seeing. It will probably clarify matters if I explain a little about how my current drawing style came about. I began this particular journey a little over two years ago, still very much influenced by the great masters of the early twentieth century, but becoming increasingly interested in Tamara de Lempicka, Balthus and Lucien Freud. Initially I pursued a traditional theme, the nude in the landscape, but anchored it in modern times by including references to power stations, ducting and pipes as indicators of recent technology. This developed so that the nude figure was no longer outside but seated or reclining in a decorated interior with a window overlooking, for example, some cooling towers. These depictions of women in rooms were artificial constructs drawn in a highly stylised manner. It seemed as if they were just paper dolls but I wanted them to be authentic,warm and solid.   New Work Portfolio 1 Portfolio 2 Portfolio 3 Portfolio 4 Price List About Contact > Blog