The postcard still life series 7

This is another failed painting that I will try painting again at some point, though possibly with some changes to the composition. The postcard from my friend Denise is an illustration by Enid Marx (1902 to 1998) for the cover of a recipe book. I decided to add a fennel bulb, garlic, and a piece of romanesco.

The postcard proved more difficult to try to depict so it was vaguely recognisable against the original. My respect for Enid Marx’s design skills increased as I wrestled with trying to paint something vaguely like her design.

There was a problem with the initial composition, and I don’t think the addition of the herb tea towel worked well. The main problem, however, was that the canvas was much rougher in texture than I’d thought when I started. I thought a few layers of paint would remedy it and kept trying for longer than I should have – but it remained too rough for the level of detail I wanted to add.

Initial pencil drawing on the canvas.

Recipe postcard 2nd stage – 1st layer of paint.

Recipe postcard 3rd stage with another layer of paint added.

Detail of the rough canvas.

Recipes postcard 4th stage with the mug removed and a tea towel starting to be added.

Recipes postcard still life stage 5.

Recipes postcard still life stage 6 – when I finally admitted defeat.

I will check the canvas surface more thoroughly next time and try not to waste so many hours on another painting that will never work due to the surface of the canvas being wrong.

Our first official Ouseburn Open Studios

Preparation for Ouseburn Open Studios

This was B.Box Studios’ first official Ouseburn Open Studios. It was great to see we were included on the official website and the map at last. We had a lot more artists and makers in the building willing to open their studios than when we’d had a quiet tryout of open studios earlier in the year.

Unfortunately, I was ill again during the week before open studios so preparation became a rather stressful and frantic affair (and I still wasn’t fully recovered). It was so frustrating because I’d been anticipating this event all year. I wasn’t even sure what work I had to hang because I’d been unable to finish work I’d planned to hang together on one wall.

JE Davis, woodland drawing, mixed media on paper.

At home, I am undertaking The Great Clear Out with a lot of help from a friend. We had been clearing out the room I used for work and the conservatory which I use as a studio when it’s not too hot so found a lot of drawings and paintings I hadn’t seen for ages (and some I’d forgotten).

We also found some empty picture frames so I did something I rarely do – I put a couple of the works on paper into frames to display at Ouseburn Open Studios on 23rd and 24th November 2019. As well as making the work ready to take away and hang on the wall at home, it protects the paper-based work much better than keeping it in a portfolio.

JE Davis, still life in oil pastels in wooden frame.

JE Davis, still life in coloured pencils on paper, framed.

While I struggled with putting work into frames and adding fixings to paintings I knew I wanted to hang, I worked out what to hang and what to prop up on the windowsill.

My table in the studio as I put work into frames and added fixings to paintings on canvas.

Claire (with whom I share the studio) helped me get the paintings hung, and then she decided my table should be against the wall and that a couple of paintings I had intended to put in the bargain box were worthy of being propped up on the table where they could be seen better. I can see now that the three do sit together nicely, with spring flowers either side of the summer flowers, and all with blue flowers and ochre or pale umber backgrounds.

The table area with paintings displayed, including 3 on the windowsill that Claire thought deserved to be seen.

Open for visitors for the weekend

My corner of Studio 48 for Ouseburn Open Studios on 23rd & 24th November 2019.

It poured with rain on the Saturday. It was gloomy outside with such heavy cloud all day. We thanked visitors for braving the rain. We had only a few before midday, presumably because people hoped the rain would ease off later so delayed going out. It was much busier in the afternoon and we had 116 visitors by 5pm when we closed.

On Sunday, the weather was a lot better and the visitors started arriving quite soon after opening. The studio artists put up bunting on the railing by the steps leading down to our building and also along the front of the building. At times, it was so crowded in the studio that people were hesitating to come in until encouraged. My favourite reaction of the weekend was from a man who, upon pausing with his wife at our doorway, muttered under his breath but quite audibly “Oh, wow!” I couldn’t help but laugh, and assured him that was the perfect reaction artists wanted to hear as visitors see their studio for the first time.

I sold two quite small prints of a dog running on the beach. One lady considered buying a landscape, and another considered buying a painting of tulips (being sold for very little in my bargain corner) but both decided not to buy. The sales were disappointing, but we are aware that people need to see work a number of times very often before deciding to buy. Most of our visitors are not aware of our work. We had 136 visitors on Sunday in our studio, and it was oddly quiet in the last hour (I’ve been used to being at Ouseburn Open Studios as a volunteer for about 7 years).

I did wonder if it would be a good idea to find space for brief bios but I try to engage people in conversation so would rather they found out more through talking to us. Might be worth finding space on our tables for brief information about our careers next time. It was great fun meeting and talking to the visitors. There was an interesting range of people visiting. Some conversations went in decidedly unpredictable directions.

I hope I can afford to stay in the studio till the next open studios event in spring, and see if we can get more visitors.

Panorama of the studio arranged for Ouseburn Open Studios, Claire’s work to the left, mine to the right.

Panorama of the studio arranged for Ouseburn Open Studios, my work to the left, Claire’s to the right.

The postcard still life series 5

I liked the vintage look of the stylish lady on this postcard celebrating the 10th anniversary of this perfume museum in France. It was one of two perfume-related postcards that my friend sent me from France and they smell of perfume.

I knew exactly what I wanted to put with this postcard: small or miniature bottles of perfume, of course. After a fast start, the issue with painting this still life was that the sun was only reaching the right spot for less than 2 hours in the height of summer on sunny days and I needed the light for casting light and shadows through and around the bottles. There weren’t enough sunny days when it wasn’t also too hot to work in the studio, and I shifted the composition to one side when I decided to work on a different picture.

Underdrawing of the perfume still life painting.

Perfume postcard still life painting stage 2.

I finally returned to it weeks later, and bought a lamp for my workspace so I could replicate the sun. I realised that some parts or proportions of the perfume bottles weren’t right so I adjusted those first.

Perfume postcard still life painting stage 3.

Perfume postcard still life painting stage 4.

I had to leave it for a while to dry after stage 5.

Perfume postcard still life painting stage 5.

It seemed to be coming together quite well although the dark area at the top was glossier and slower-drying than I expected. It wasn’t until I went to put fixings into the frame for hanging up for Ouseburn Open Studios that I realised the stretcher was badly split – and trying to get fixings in just made it worse. I have had to abandon this painting but since I still like the postcard and bottles, I think I’ll paint another version on a fresh canvas, with a different background.

Even when the painting goes quite well, sometimes other unexpected things happen. I didn’t notice the stretcher was cracked in all the handling at the initial stages of working on the painting so I think it may have dried and the crack showed up during the hot period in the summer when I wasn’t working on it. Sometimes one just had to be philosophical and abandon a canvas that can’t be saved easily. I hope I can make much faster progress when I try the composition on a different background in the next version of this.