pencil – Page 2 – The Consulting Artist

Morning Coffee

The past week has been really tiring. Preparing for, and delivering the Art of Resilience took quite a bit out of me, and in addition, work’s been tough this week. We’ve been analysing the fallout of an unexpected, and pretty toxic resignation from a partnership I work with. More of that another time on my other blog.

I arrived at the end of the week feeling drained, yet needing to make art for the free art drop. Inspiration had I none. In conversation with one of my colleagues, I said I needed more coffee, and Jenny suggested that maybe, the coffee pot should be my subject this week.

I took a few minutes to look at the pot in situ, before bringing it to my desk, and drawing it.

I was concentrating on my observation skills – I took my time over the drawing. On reflection – it’s a bit tight. I was trying too hard to capture the detail of the pot, and you can see this in some of the lines – they lack confidence and directness in places. I’ve also drawn the pot taller and narrower than it is. This observation stuff is hard work!

I added some silver leaf to give the effect of age, and added in some fineliner to make one or two elements stand out a little more (this photo was taken before the fineliner was applied. This art has since been hidden and found as part of the We Are All Artists free art project.

It’s not my usual style of work – but I like it, I might make another to hang in our kitchen!

Passing Strangers : Revisited

A few months ago I painted a small sketch titled Passing Strangers. The picture was intended to represent the fleeting, impermanent nature of the many relationships we experience as we pass by each other. Maybe there is eye contact, maybe a smile and a greeting, maybe just the tiny, shared disturbance of atmosphere.

Since first painting Passing Strangers, I’ve thought more and more about transition and impermanence and as I’ve continued to think, I have made more versions of this work.

Passing Strangers II : I made this and left it in my local town. It has since disappeared. Maybe it has a new home, maybe it ended up in the bin? I don’t know, and it has transitioned.

Passing Strangers III, IV, V, and VI : I made these using pages from an old book, a marker pen and some chalk paints. The book pages have some fragility about them and the chalk paints are easily smudged. There is impermanence in these works. Number 3 is sold and now resides somewhere in the UK, numbers 4, 5, and 6 have also been sold and are together in the USA.

Passing Strangers VII, VIII, IX, and X : These four pieces are made using acrylic paint, pencil, ink, and gold leaf. Numbers 7 and 8 were left in my local town, numbers 9 and 10 are currently available to buy in my Etsy shop.

More to follow?

Passing Strangers

I recently ran a creative workshop titled ‘The Art of Wellbeing’ at the Wellcome Collection in London. It was an interesting experiment, made even more so by the fact that the event is promoted only on the day, and whoever turns up, turns up. So there we were, around 20 strangers, gathered together for a creative inquiry. I’ve made some notes and taken some pictures of our work which you can find by clicking on this lovely sketch of the workshop, made by a participant.

After the session – I kept thinking about the idea of passing strangers, and how we had come together, talked and shared openly. I made a few sketches before settling on this one. To me, the image represents an exchange between persons unknown, to us, and to each other.

This piece of art is sold.