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 The other day I stumbled across some notes I made about a million years ago on Polynesian stick charts and didn't want to forget them again. I was busy designing patterns so I just grabbed what I was using at the time (hence the linen texture) and made a few hasty sketches - here they all on top of each other and full of digital wobble. Distracted? Me? Noooo.
 The bitterly cold weather continued all week, but our hardy neighbours got out into the communal grove and built this wonderful igloo!
 Winter descended in a glittering display of Christmas card sparkle and magical icicles. This is the bungalow across the road seen through our scullery window, which became enchantingly fringed with icicles one night and grew longer and longer each day. The road between us became impassable, resulting in an assortment of cars and vans abandoned at the bottom the hill, deserted in the middle of the road at rakish angles in deep snow.
 A collage of elements is always somewhere to start blue-sky thinking. Things somehow insinuate themselves next to something else in a way I would never have consciously imagined, and a bit of serendipity never goes amiss in artworking. I spend hours in this happy playground, and the exercise steers me away from preconceived notions and drawing by rote. The image above is composed from some of the bits and pieces which I showed jumbled together in last week’s entry. I inverted the image to get some reversed colours to use, the image below displays it’s pastelly glory. (It’s all getting rather painterly, I may even have to get back to using oils again at some point). I call this collage, but is it really? From French coller to stick, in its turn from colle glue. It was composed in Procreate (the drawing app with so much more!) after ‘cutting up’ scans of previous drawings and inventing blooms, so the only sticky stuff involved is digital glue. Pasty pixels rock.   Here were two old wood trellises hung against the walls shut away quietly from the streets outside. He kept putting all manner of plants safely in both beds, from the prettily scented to whatever had crept into the earth and stayed there until spring, upon which time pod receptacles filled with flourishes were in great contrast to the structured walls. Sketchy beginnings from the story I imagined, a little chaotic now but they will become something. From the initial vision I quickly gathered together thoughts, motifs and ideas before I lost the thread, combining templates from my Dad’s old architectural business, events in the natural world, plants and brickwork. A couple of very quick sketches above and a jumble of elements below.   The bathroom window is old, old as the house. Its pattern is ubiquitous, common to many buildings in the land, but presents something new every day. Gaze at the puffly cushions in each pane, find ice cream cones, fists, flowers, constantly changing as light passes through them. Today cartoon raindrops cascade from glass clouds.
 Probably on the phone, sometimes watching TV, your mind isn’t on the biro you use to write a date or a number on a scrap of paper or the kitchen notepad. On hold with that music in a loop, after many minutes you look at what you have done. It wasn’t boredom so much as a vacancy in time when your hand embellished those dates, numbers, and meter readings with springing arabesques, whorls, arrows and roses while you weren’t looking. Or hands. Once, I drew a hand making a rude gesture while speaking with exquisite politeness to some poor guy in a BT call centre. Some interesting things come out when you’re looking the other way. Keep them - they may get into your work or lead to totally new things. I cut out my favourite doodles and paste them into a notebook. It moves you out of being stuck because what you’re really thinking comes out when you’re looking the other way.   <<<<<<<< Twixmas in a pandemic >>>>>>>> 6 things to do on the twixy days
Finally, compose a 6 to view collage of your achievements. It should be tremendous. Post it on social media. May you find things to make you happy and rejoice, even if your plans are not as they ought to be.
<<<<<<<< Wishing all a happy and healthy 2021 >>>>>>>>  One of my favourite Christmas decorations, a phone box, seems appropriate this year because most of us are going to stay in touch with each other remotely over the festive season. FaceTime and Zoom shall abound, and Santa will be kept busy at Amazon instead of popping down the chimney for a dram and mince pies. May you have a fun-filled holiday, even if it isn't what you hoped Santa would bring, and enjoy.
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As well as the work you see here, I illustrate under the name of Binky McKee (my mother's maiden name was McKee, Binky was every single one of my great grandmother's many cats!)
If you would like to visit my Binky website, please click the picture above. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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Overnight snow
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January 2021
(Sorry the archives don't nest!)
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A 2013 work book, still very much in use 
Please note all images on this website are ©Heather Eliza Walker 2013 - 2020, and may not be used or reproduced without prior consent. |
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