Garden Drawings

I have been exploring drawing in the garden (well the shared space of crazy paving we call a garden) and live-streaming the results on my Twitch, Facebook and YouTube channels. I was particularly inspired by videos from Isolation Art School on Instagram – particularly the videos by @artpedagogy and Andee Collard around mark-marking, experiment and exercise. Isolation Art School is a great way of connecting artists, kids and adults with social media to teach techniques and open up ways of thinking and processes. And being not around other artists, it is also great to see fellow artists working!

I had always wanted to draw with a marker on a stick like Matisse, draw with my non-dominant hand, stick and ink. I also hadn’t created any abstract or experimental drawings for a long time.

Drawing Experiments (Isolation School 1), Posca, Molotow & Faber Castell markers, a stick, sash brushes, a telescopic handle and Daler FW and Jackson's ink, A1. — Drawing Experiments (Isolation School 1), Posca, Molotow & Faber Castell markers, a stick, sash brushes, a telescopic handle and Daler FW and Jackson’s ink, A1.

Drawing Experiments (Isolation School 2), Posca, Molotow & Faber Castell markers, a stick, sash brushes, a telescopic handle and Daler FW and Jackson's ink, A1. — Drawing Experiments (Isolation School 1), Posca, Molotow & Faber Castell markers, a stick, sash brushes, a telescopic handle and Daler FW and Jackson’s ink, A1.

The first session went well, a few drop outs on the live feed – the most complete being the YouTube embedded below – and it got featured on the IsolationArtSchool as part of their ‘Sunday Best’! A few problems though – camera mic is too quiet, don’t like the vertical video but that fits the format, and lots of dead air. People seemed to like it though, seeing me at work! I loved drawing with my non-dominant hand and a marker on a stick, wanted to do that again. Less sure about doing both and drawing with the stick got rather messy.

Feedback was people want to see me draw one of my landscapes, problem with that is having a highly nick-able phone on a tripod with me distracted in a public space…needs to be somewhere away from people and with good 4G connection – here I was using our wifi.

Drawing Experiments (Isolation School 3 - Dark Mode) - Night Work, Posca & Molotow markers, a stick, sash brushes, a telescopic handle and Daler FW and Dr PH Martin's Bombay Ink, Black Gesso on wallpaper liner, A1ish. — Drawing Experiments (Isolation School 3 – Dark Mode) – Night Work, Posca & Molotow markers, a stick, sash brushes, a telescopic handle and Daler FW and Dr PH Martin’s Bombay Ink, Black Gesso on wallpaper liner, A1ish.

Drawing Experiments (Isolation School 3 - Dark Mode - detail) - Night Work, Posca & Molotow markers, a stick, sash brushes, a telescopic handle and Daler FW and Dr PH Martin's Bombay Ink, Black Gesso on wallpaper liner, A1ish. — Drawing Experiments (Isolation School 3 – Dark Mode) – Night Work, Posca & Molotow markers, a stick, sash brushes, a telescopic handle and Daler FW and Dr PH Martin’s Bombay Ink, Black Gesso on wallpaper liner, A1ish.

The final piece using black gesso wallpaper, part of the Dark Mode Series, and the Dr PH Martin inks and Posca was very redolent of my other abstract pieces.

Chair and Green Man and Butt, Garden Drawing #2, Stick with Faber Castell Marker, A1.

Next week was another attempt but this time at something more representational, using the ‘Hockney’ style ‘true perspective’ again inspired by a Isolation Art School video by Alex Perry-Adlam. If you want to know what true perspective is, watch the video, but basically it’s the idea of not copying photographic perspective and reflecting something more of how we see the world. It’s not ‘correct’ but it seems more ‘right’ if that makes sense? Quite a few artists warp or radically alter perspective to make something closer to what they are actually seeing or feeling.

This stream/session didn’t go so well – not only did technical problems keep me from starting really late, I also got the video the wrong way round, and it kept cutting out on various platforms. Also although I have warmed to them, I don’t feel the drawings are as successful, I struggled with these. The video shows a few false starts, the drawing above, then the drawing below which I continued after I turned the camera in disgust. I continued until it was pitch black!

It is better than it was, but this is the problem of live streaming or camerawork, sometimes the magic does not happen. I like the bird feeder part…and the perspectives are all over the place, but as a hybrid of my abstract and landscape approaches it’s lacking. Maybe something less grand with more time next time.