Jane Noakes's Blog (60)

Some of the pieces from the series "Bookmark This" are now showing as part of the UWE Bookmarks Project alongside the Transfer Exhibition, Oughterard, Co Galway; September 12th-20th 2015.

The full work is shown below…

An image of the painting, “Desolation” has been added to the online gallery, #Wherewillovefindyou,  as part of the publicity for the film “Meet Me in Montenegro”.  The film, co-directed, co-written, and co-starring Alex Holdridge and Linnea Saasen, takes as it’s theme lost love. I changed the title of my painting to “Say Goodbye” to make it more relevant.

Take a…

Time for some colour after all these months of monochrome palette. Using a source photograph, I  applied planes of acrylic paint to white paper.  The colours used are not a true reflection of the natural scene, but do allow the luminoisty of the white paper to show through and act as a highlight. The effect is impressionistic, which helps convey the atmosphere of that…

The final version of “The Fisherman’s hut” was drawn as a night scene.  Using charcoal to explore a range of dark tones, the atmosphere of a still, moonlit night was created.  The composition…

“The Fisherman’s Hut” in sketch form ready to be worked up into a charcoal drawing.

Third in the series of charcoal drawings of the river Kennet. I used the bridge as a bold horizontal line and vertical lines to express the rain. By using these lines, I have tried to add a feeling of stability and permanence to the structure of the composition. In contrast, the turbulent movement of the river creates activity within the painting. This tension between…

The second in a series of charcoal drawings of the River Kennet has now been completed. I have included the shape of a fisherman in the foreground to develop the narrative element of the composition; it’s dark mass contrasting with the lighter areas of the canvas, representing the reflections in the  surface of the water. To add weight to the subject, I drew the effect…

2 Phoenix (ii) is a series of abstract paintings that explore how curves create shape, space and movement. The subject matter is birds in flight, and the themes intimacy, compassion, love and acceptance are developed through the relationship between the tonal contrasts. The minimalist…

The final version of The River.

There were a number of challenges with this piece including dilemmas surrounding negative space, compositional strength and decisive shapes. However, these were offset by the use atmosphere and narrative.

The Album,…

Investigative drawing has begun for a new composition, based on The River. It will be a charcoal drawing of a fisherman on the banks of the River Kennet. I will create the atmosphere of a cathedral from the overhanging greenery of the trees on the banks, which will be reflected in the water of the river. The figure of a fisherman will be back lit so that a halo of…

This drawing took three two hour sessions to complete, three times longer than my usual projects. The results are stunning. I have finally achieved a drawing that works like a painting. I used tone to express the relationships between shapes. Darker tones draw the viewer into the painting and utilise the rules of perspective. Mid-tones were used to create atmosphere…

The website for “Infiltrating the Library System - Bookmarks XII” went live this month to accompany the touring exhibition. The images work particularly well on a mobile. The exhibition kicks-off in Bergen, Norway and goes on to visit Scotland, Canada, the US and Australia. There is a write up of the exhibition in the September and October editions of The Book Arts Newsletter

In “Supplication III” I used a pigment mixed from the ashes of my broken dreams with olive oil. As a mark maker I used a dead flower head. The quality of the line was good, although there was some hesitation in the placing of marks, which may come across in the final work.

Although I have spent the time since mid-May working on larger paintings, an unexpected consequence of this activity is that my drawing skills have deteriorated due to the lack of regular practice. In some respects it feels like I am almost back at the beginning and, like physical exercise, I need to work hard just to get back to where I was at previously. There is a lesson to be learned here and that is to continue drawing on a regular basis whatever happens. Do not take a break to focus on…

Drawing practice through June and…

View the Album From Out of Somewhere

Using stencilling and printing techniques I created three pieces of mail art inspired by the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur. These will be mailed out to fellow mail artists from the International Union of Mail Artists (IOUMA). I explored cut-outs and negative space to create strong images from the myth and used them as stencils. The stencilling…

This month was spent on creating a print edition of 100 bookmarks for “Infiltrating the Library System - Bookmarks X11 2014-2015” project, curated by the Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE. Influences on my work for this project were buddhist sutras and taoist texts. I used the block printing technique and confined the colour range to black and red. The piece…

I took some time away from drawing this month to work on “The Butterfly Collector” for the Penny Dreadful project. I used the concept of negative space and structured the composition around silhouettes and shadows. The aim was to create an eerie atmosphere and…

The challenge this month was to further develop my tonal modelling through a number of representional still life compositions. I needed to overcome the tyranny of line by avoiding line drawing altogether. Through this process, I discovered that the lost and found lines in a drawing become immediately more apparent, enabling me to create line through the use of tone alone. To achieve lost lines I am using an eraser and leaving the canvas white or lightly shaded. I am also beginning to assess…

Looking back at the first month of regular drawing practice, I can see where my use of  tonal variation has improved. The perspective in ‘Swains Lane, Boxing Day’ is good, but although I have included tonal variations, they are not very subtle and I have struggled with them, due to an unresponsive pencil. I have been using a 2B pencil, which does not have sufficient…