#OneWeek100People – Day 1

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Rather rashly, I decided to try out the #OneWeek100People challenge created by Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel. I believe this is year 5 and I have not tried it before.

The idea, for those who have not come across it before, is to spend a little time each day for a week, sketching people wherever you find them (while also being socially responsible this year). You can share your work on the facebook group page or any social media using the hashtag #OneWeek100People.

Normally I would have been quite happy to settle down somewhere with a cup of tea or coffee and and sketch other people, which would have been the better option as at least my ‘models’ would have been relatively anchored for a while.

However, life being what it is, sitting in a cafe is not yet an option this year, so where could I find people and observe them safely?

How about from the car park outside a supermarket? It sounded a good idea. Normally there are any number of people standing around chatting. Not today! Today, people Bustled. Not surprising really as it was distinctly chilly. Too chilly to stand around outside. Probably not the best day to try out this project for the first time.

I soon realised I was not going to achieve many full figures, so I began with a few heads, which was about all I had time for before they disappeared inside the store. I managed a bit more when a couple of people stopped to use the cash machine. Then there was a while where nothing much happened at all, which is why I included a trolley. I don’t know if that counts as one of my people, but I’m counting it any way for the moment. Then suddenly, there were people everywhere and I only had time to put in a few lines while I could and then go back and join some of them up later. Only two of these people were actually together. The others were, as far as I’m aware, unknown to each other and in reality were more socially distant than appears on the page (in case you were worried).

All of them were sketched from life and the bits of colour were added at the end of my session while still in situ, but from memory. I don’t know how the rest of the week will go. I think I will have less time towards the end, but at least I have made a start.

A splash of red

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Gradually, life is stirring in the garden. The beautiful warm, sunny weekend saw many of us out there engaged in a general tidy-up in preparation of great things to come. Among the shoots pushing their way through the soil, the more advanced leaves becoming sturdier by the day, and the amount of buds appearing everywhere, unexpected splashes of colour reveal themselves among the winter debris of fallen twigs and branches. The snowdrops and hellebores will soon be joined by daffodils, tulips and primroses among other welcome visitors, and the range of things to sketch will continue to grow,

Early in the year though it is, and despite the global problems of recent months, Nature is not giving up on us yet, and in it’s own time will restore our well-being in the months ahead.

Winter field

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Painting the landscape during the present lockdown restrictions reminds me of the accounts of artists working at the time of the first world war just over one hundred years ago, when anyone who was seen wandering in the landscape taking notes, was regarded with deep suspicion and immediately identified as an enemy agent gathering information to help an imminent invasion.

Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) was in Cornwall at the time and later recalled painting ‘Spring’ when she had to “lie on my stomach under a gorse-bush or other convenient bush in dread of being taken off to prison, to make a line or two in a sketchbook, memorise – rush back to my studio and paint.”

There is a similar feeling that wandering through the landscape during one’s daily exercise, making a line or two in a sketchbook, is still regarded as suspicious behaviour and must certainly mean one is up to no good and must be given a wide berth at all costs.

Luckily, given the weather conditions, I did not have to find a gorse-bush to lurk under in order to draw some lines for ‘Winter field’ (below), but stopped the car in an unusually convenient field gateway on my way home from a legitimate local journey – and the only person I met was a young lady upon a fine horse who gave me a wide smile and seemed not to have any concerns about my being an enemy agent.

Tulips after five days

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Possibly the last of the tulips, we’ll see what happens. Some of the flowers have opened a bit more, as much as shop-bought ones ever do, and the leaves are beginning to lose some of their strength, which is a shame but actually makes the shapes more interesting. Also, being the third of three paintings in fairly quick succession I noticed I was being a little more adventurous with the colour here and there, bringing in some quinacridone magenta in the flowers and adding some prussian blue in the leaves. I’ve just noticed I seem to have lost a stem somewhere, but never mind!

Bird bath

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They have been warning more snow was on the way for ages, and yesterday it came true. The bird bath was covered and once the snow was scraped off the top the water beneath was solid. The bare stems of the fig tree behind are usually hidden by it’s summer foliage when I paint this corner of the garden.

Winter tree

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I have painted this tree before but never at this time of year. Usually it’s Spring and Summer foliage hide much of the cottage behind it. The notice pinned on the left hand side of the trunk is a long list of things you are not allowed to do on the grass beneath. At one time, a simple ‘Keep off the grass’ would have been enough, but these days it seems everything has to be spelt out and itemized.

Kitchen fruit

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Drawing some fruit in the kitchen today, the banana reminded me of the cucumbers we grew in the garden last summer. How it passed whatever quality control bananas have to go through before sitting on the supermarket shelf, I don’t know!

I drew this in a Red Grey ink and used mostly a palette of Lemon Yellow, New Gamboge, Cadmium Scarlet, Permanent Rose, Cobalt Blue and Winsor Violet on some Bockingford paper.