For those of you who are interested – like Vasari – in lives of the artists you can do two things; the first is to come along to our open studio weekend 1-4th June 2012 here in Worcester (see www.worcsartstrail.org) and see what we are up to (I’ll give you a hint: there’ll be mind boggling new abstract work at venue 32) and secondly to come along to Worcester Arts Workshop on the evening of Friday June 22nd to hear me talk about alcohol and its affects on the life of an artist as part of the evening of humour as part of the Worcestershire Literary Festival (see www.worcslitfest.com). I dare you not to laugh!
I am finding inks a very fast and immediate way of working; handy if you’re short of time and need quick results. I like the combination of line and wash and in the drawing on the left I worked over an old drawing hence the added richness; a good way to recycle old works. If you double click on the drawing you can just about make out the scalloped edge of an Earl of Coventry Royal Worcester Porcelain piece. As always I started slightly out of control with my left hand then continue adding in finer detail with my right hand.
I have also started a new blog; weareworcester.wordpress.com about the people of Worcester. It involves an interview where the same set of questions are asked of people; eg what do you most like about Worcester, which living person do you most admire and why. The answers are really interesting and I hope the participants and online readers will find it revealing also. It helps us understand one another. The questions are inspired by a similar interview I read each week in Saturday’s Guardian magazine and are normally answered by celebrities; in the case of my blog the common denominator is that all the interviewees are from the Worcester area, and hopefully eventually from Worcesters further afield. Long term I’d like to open it up o the people of Worcester, Masachusetts, USA, and Worcester, South Africa (where incidentally the author J.M.Coetzee hailed from). I hope to interview people from all walks of life, young and old, male and female. If you’re interested in participating and are from Worcester(shire) please get in touch via the blog or email. I’d love to hear from you.
Today was a chance to step inside Worcester’s new Golden Hive for the very first time. It is a state of the art new library bang in the middle of the city where University students and the public will be welcomed equally and which will have an amazing new childrens’ library. Apparently. It opens in July and I can’t wait. It was a great opportunity to don my silly hat and read my childrens’ picture book, “My Magic Stick,” to a bijoux audience along with others from Worcester Writers’ Circle. My daughter was sitting in the audience on the front row and I truly appreciate the fact that she and her friend didn’t walk out. Thank you Sweetie, I’ll pay you later.
An hour later I was on level one preparing to run a picture book making workshop in an orange pod with a yellow pod full of children on one side and a terracotta pod full of children tunnelling through story cubes on the other. Wow! Stereophonic children I thought. Imagine the surprise of my life when the workshop participants turned up and weren’t the seriouslyinterestedinwritingmyownpicturebookthankyouverymuch adults I’d envisaged and planned for but……….. more little people! So now I had quadrophonic children. Delightful! Suffice to say their ideas were far better than mine, their drawings far fresher and better, their natural marriage of pictures and text so brilliant and effortlessly created that I could easily have packed up and left them to it asking Walker Books to come on in and publish the lot. They really were that good. Each wonderful child left with their very own unique and original zig zag picture book. Well done kids! You should be running the country with creative ideas like that! And as for me I left feeling well and truly knackered but well and truly inspired which has to be THE best feeling.
The recent life drawings I have been working on are all about speed of execution. I find that the quicker I work the better they are, capturing the immediacy of the pose and the energy of the moment. Perhaps it is because I draw regularly and frequently and am up and running that I can begin effortlessly. Anyway it works for me and keeps the studies fresh and full of vitality.
However, I recently produced an illustration of the Queen for the Worcestershire Arts Trail event which runs during the Diamond Jubilee weekend at the start of June. Inspired by a photograph by Gloucestershire photographer Dorothy Wilding it captured the Queen as a young woman. The illustration I produced was quickly executed and fresh but sadly inaccurate and had to be archived. Above is a second study where I deliberately slowed down and took greater care; it wasn’t easy for me to work in this way but it was more relaxing, and as I chilled out, listened to radio 4, drank more cups of tea, I found a new way of working. You can see where I let myself go in the pink wash background, pushing and pulling the wash hither and thither with free abandon. That was the part I enjoyed the most. This new approach was rather like the slow food movement but in this case the slow art movement. Of course I could have worked even more slowly, with even greater care, and will perhaps try that in the future. Let me know what you think!
Today I am putting the finishing touches to my children’s picture book, “Stick.” I’ve been working on it for the last six months and tomorrow a kind friend is going to help me overlay the text so that touchwood I can send out a mock up book to potential publishers next week.
It is a children’s picture book I have written and illustrated and was inspired by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake. I already have ideas for the next three picture books which are Shed, Sugar and Saved, so watch this space. It is very exciting. I feel as though I am about to send my baby out into the big wide world. So fingers crossed!
This week I was fortunate enough to spend a number of hours visiting two major art collections: first the Barber Institute of Fine Art in Birmingham, the second the National Museum in Cardiff. It is always fascinating to see artists represented in different collections; paintings produced perhaps a few years apart: different but complimentary. I saw two examples of Richard Wilson for example, two of Corot, two of Whistler, many by Gwen John, two by Howard Hodgkin. The first viewed in England’s second city, the second in Wales’ first city.
In Cardiff the visit was followed by a well spent half hour in the Martin Tinney Gallery in St Andrew’ s Crescent. This was followed by a boat trip on the aquabus down the Taff to Cardiff Bay via Penarth, followed by a quick dash into John Lewis where we watched a programme about my favourite US artist Frank Stella, then finished with an evening in St David’s Hall listening to the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales (with choristers from Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester Cathedrals).
The rendition of John Adams’ deeply felt tribute to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy was as expected very moving and there followed an interval. It was just coming to a close with requests for us to return to our seats when the announcements were swiftly replaced by orders for us to evacuate the auditorium immediately. Traipsing at a snail’s pace down the stairs from level 3 behind the elderly and infirm we naturally thought of those caught up in the twin towers a decade ago. Fortunately for us the firemen soon declared our emergency all clear and we were allowed back in to the auditorium to hear Thierry Fischer conduct Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 with Rebecca Evans, Hanne Fischer, Andrew Kennedy and Matthew Rose. It had been a false alarm.
Our literary portrait exhibition opens on Monday for one week as part of the Worcestershire Literary Festival and there are twenty four portraits of key authors on show. Paul is showing watercolours of Salman Rushdie, Seamus Heaney, Martin Amis, Colm Toibin and Will Self , and I am showing portraits in oil or acrylic of Virginia Woolf, Carol Ann Duffy, Germaine Greer, Enid Blyton, Anita Brookner, Agatha Christie, Simone de Beauvoir, Laurie Anderson, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Dylan Thomas, Sir John Betjeman, Ezra Pound, Louis MacNeice, Laurie Lee, Ted Hughes, Edith Sitwell, V.S Pritchett, and Alan Bennett. Each portrait is accompanied by a quote either from the writer themself or from one of their works. I am delighted with the exhibition and would dearly love to show it at other literary festival in this country or abroad.
We were delighted at the opening of the exhibition to welcome from the Williamstown Literary Festival, Australia, Councillor Angela Altair who happened to be over in the UK for a visit.She was incredibly enthusiastic and complimentary about the exhibition depite being fresh off the plane.
The following evening she attended the official opening of the Literary Festival in front of the Mayor of Worcester and the Dean of Worcester Cathedral in the search for Worcestershire’s first Poet Laureate. All the contestants were great but the award finally went to Theo Theobald who I thought was brilliant, very funny and incredibly engaging. He reminded me of Harry Worth in both looks and delivery which just shows my age. One poem was inspired by a bottle of Worcestershire Sauce, and covered everything from culinary expertise to marital relationships; another was called, “I’ve fallen in love with the girl from H & M,” which had a hilarious punchline and had the Cathedral filled with laughter and applause, a rare feat. We were enthralled, he was a great choice, and the judges came up trumps. With real presence on stage he showed great originality in both poems and I for one will definitely go and hear him again as a newy converted fan. Well done, Theo!
Last week was Ladies Day at Royal Ascot when all manner of hats and outfits are brushed down and given an airing. This fascinator was difficult to attach to the model’s short hair as it kept slipping which was comical. Like a fan it had been made with pleat folded stiffened fabric. Not very practical but architectural and interesting if you want to make a design statement. This is a brush and ink study which is crude but captures the back view of the seated model in her costume outfit. I like the way you catch sight of her profile and can just see her nose especially if you double click on the image to enlarge it. Notice too there is a wide range of mark making from fine trace lines to much broader brush strokes.
sketch book study in medical dictionary: Comrie, J.D 1931 News Chronicle Home Doctor Morrison and Gibb Ltd., London
Worcester based artists celebrate the completion of their new architect designed studio gallery adjacent to their home in Battenhall Avenue this weekend: Saturday 10-5pm, Sunday 10-4pm.
Sara Hayward and Paul Powis work for galleries and publishing companies worldwide. Sara, who is a graduate of Oxford University and has a Masters degree from the Royal College of Art, is a painter, printmaker and illustrator. Paul who was a senior lecturer at BIAD has an international reputation for vibrant and colourful landscapes.
“It is inspiring to have a contemporary space with white walls and good lighting to show case our contemporary images,” says Sara.
Their work can be seen at their open studio this weekend; full details can be found on their website: www.powishayward.co.uk
