These are some of the pitcures showing in the Jerwood Room, Lady Margaret Hall, 1b Fyfield Rd. Oxford OX2 6QA, June 21-22 & 26-29.
Opening hours: 11-5 each day
If you would like to attend the Private View, please let me know at helenwheatley721@gmail.com
Sundial, Corpus Christi
The Oriel Window
Wadham Chapel
Gateway, St John’s
After a long silence I am going to try more regular blogs. It is hard to stop being afraid of computers, especially when one has to do something new or unfamiliar, and I use all kinds of displacement activities to avoid working on my website. However I have recently discovered several younger colleagues who feel the same way, and this is very encouraging. When one is old, every fear, error, mishap or episode of forgetfulness is easy to put down to increasing age instead of saying ‘I need to do this’. So let’s see if I can. I have some new pictures on the website which show what I have been doing in the past months, and pretty soon will send out a new newsletter. Of course we all want just to paint but in order to have credibility it is necessary to engage in all this stuff – I would like to be taken seriously and this is the price.
Lively Day, Bryher
Hangman’s Rock, Bryher
The family summer holiday was spent on Bryher in the Scillies. In between playing with buckets and spades these pictures were made from where we stayed in a cottage right on the beach overlooking the Tresco Channel to Cromwell’s Castle.
Cannon, HMS Victory
Capstan, HMS Victory
The recent lovely weather prompted me to say, like the Mole ‘Hang spring cleaning!’ (or, as it might be, the tax return) and take off for the coast, castles and Northumberland. Dunstanbugh sits alone on a headland, windy and silent except for the birds. The first afternoon was spent drawing – it takes several hours to establish a drawing – and the second produced this result.
A while ago, the life drawing group I work with were offered an exhibition venue. As this was an old red telephone box we all had to draw small. My life drawings are usually very big so a new learning process began – working at postcard size means learning what Ronald Searle talked about, what to leave out. After a lot of trying, I found this meant using a very big point, a pen cut from a reed. So small work needs cruder tools. A vey fine point and a hard pencil can be used to draw the same pose for a whole day. Fine line allows lots of detail, but only a large drawing can take lots of detail and not look fussy. Similarly, painting needs the biggest brush you dare, and more paint than you think you can possibly use, so as to keep its intensity uniform.
