Category: From Life

8 August: No.3 is scaring me

8/8/2021

Just two weeks on and my avocado stone sprout is going crazy. The first one to sprout is pictured below, but the latest, No.3, is really scaring me - its root is all twisty, and when I move the jar it lashes around like a worm, and it has produced something snaky and hairy in its water. Nature is terrifying, I'm the rabbit caught in the headlights - I don't want to look, but I can't stop looking.

These are my very first successes after many years of trying to get an avocado stone to sprout! (Apologies for hairy finger, looks like everything is sprouting right now)

I just can't believe how this detail from Before There Were Saturdays relates to the current avocado stones sprouts, given I have never had any success with growing them before.
By the way, I am thinking about doing something different with new work moving forward. I still haven't found what it is, but it will happen.

13 June: Shrivelling peppers

13/6/2021

Shortly after drawing last week's sprouting carrot tops, I drew a the core of a bell pepper. Its flesh had been cut away for a salad leaving the arched pyramid form with its bustle of seeds inside, rather like a deconstructed buttressed church sheltering a congregation. Or a big ghastly alien throat, if you prefer. It hung around in my work room and began involving itself in a most interesting process - I wouldn't say it was decomposing, because nothing went mouldy (wrong PH for mould, perhaps, a bit like sourdough culture?) - the fleshy parts just began to disappear leaving the seedball intact, I suppose by dehydration. I drew it again collapsing upon itself, pictured below.

I didn't throw it away after drawing it, I seldom do throw away these things, hence my collection of gross objects which will freak anybody out when I die and they come to empty my room. But look what it has become now. The photos below show what's left; it's the size of a conker now, and the small remaining part of the base of the pepper (right pic) has become a pretty flower. From a big, proud, glossy green fruit my bell pepper has gone to this - fascinating, as Spock would say. It actually feels nice to handle.
Oh well, I suppose it happens to us all in time! I will get around to drawing its remains soon which will clarify what I see, something photos cannot do. And I may even experiment with growing the seeds.

16 JUNE

16/6/2019

Mixing it up, adding non-observational elements to drawings.
If you would like to read about how I both flooded my kitchen and had a fire in it, visit The Weekly on my illustration site Binky McKee.

9 JUNE

8/6/2019

Three drawings this week: a Peruvian gourd which rattles when shaken, an enamel doggy box which is partner to the one I drew last week, and a depiction of the inside of a favourite bowl, but flattened out. I worked by turning the bowl in my hand and allowing the pattern to run straight in my drawing.

3 JUNE

2/6/2019

A week of rather dismal weather kept me indoors most days, so I decided to draw some of my favourite objects around the house. I discovered it is really hard to draw toys! Here are two Peruvian dolls my friend brought back for me from a stay in Peru, a little enamel box painted with a charming Spaniel, the most adorable little loved-up 1950s Merrythought bear (with bells in his ears!), and carved and painted wooden cats and a dog which sit on a shelf with their legs hanging over the edge. I hope you enjoy my shared treasures!

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

26 MAY

26/5/2019

This week has been no less disruptive than last week. A further string of unpredictable and unusual events of "what are the chances" nature cropped up.
These drawings were what came out of it, though.
4 great things this week:

- 6 views of a dried up chestnut, trying to work out how the first root and sprout come out of the kernel
- a peony tree fruit exposed after its petals fell
- what was inside the dried up chestnut when I picked off the shell
- a small, gnarly apple tree in the garden.

12 MAY

12/5/2019

I am obsessed with irises in the garden at the moment: buds transforming into baroque beauty, and the weirdness of the tubers which tirelessly sprout these miracles at the end of each winter. When I draw I like to try and understand how it all works. Similarly, I enjoyed drawing a bunch of rusty old keys I found, exploring how the keys were made and imagining their action.

The sun is shining, so I am going into the garden again!

Thanks for visiting, see you next week!

5 MAY

5/5/2019

It has been a very long time since I last made observational work.