The Bell Girl ll

 

The next day, when he went in to his workshop, the old man found a china bell on his bench which had been fashioned into the shape of a beautiful sleeping child. He called to his wife. Just as they were wondering who had made it, they were astonished to see the child open her eyes. As she cooed and chuckled, the little bell under her skirt tinkled delightfully. And her skin was indeed as smooth and delicate as porcelain.

The Bell Girl l

So much for blogging twice a week!
To make up for it a little I am going to post something every day for the next 10 days!

I started back at university this week and the first thing I'm working on is a little tale which I am going to illustrate with etchings. I hope to make it in to an Artists Book of some sort eventually, with text on one page and the etching opposite. I've started drawing out the images and refining my story and will speak to the print technicians next week to see if my ideas are do-able (so everything may change!)
Here is page ONE of

THE BELL GIRL

 

 

 

Once there was an elderly potter and his wife who had always hoped for children but had not been so blessed. One day the old woman picked up one of the little bells that her husband used to make and her eyes misted over. "How I wish we had a little girl whose skin was as smooth and translucent as this porcelain and whose laughter was as gay as the tinkling of this little bell."

Fleeting Visit

Well - I'm back at last but not for long - off down to the New Forest tomorrow evening after work. Just time to show you this little acrylic painting I did today.

See you soon....

Red Riding Hood Pieta

Just got time to show you one last drawing before I'm away for a two or three weeks - first to London then to beautiful North Devon. I'm hoping to go to lots of exhibitions and to take lots of photos and return with lots of ideas ready to start back at university in September.

Charcoal and chalk on card (30 x25 inches)

This recent drawing is fairly large, but it is of a quite small sculpture of Red Riding Hood which I made last semester. As you can see, the composition was based on the huge statue of the Pieta by Michaelangelo which is the most well known depiction of mourning I could think of.

Below are a few photos of my little 3D piece itself.
The wolf, the doll and the tree stump are made of porcelain and the clothing is cotton stiffened with PVA. It's about 7 inches tall.

More Charcoal Drawings

A pair of Hansel and Gretel dolls (who rather look like they've eaten all the decoration off the gingerbread house) and Albert, a well loved and quite battered 1960s push along dog.

Just a quick one....


...to show you a recent drawing of Cawdelia and Ronnie.

Charcoal and chalk on card (36 x 24 ins approx)

Currently, Cawdelia is sharing Ronnie with some recent visitors to our house. She is a bit perplexed by 'the girls', as I like to call them, but she is being very gracious (so far).



Sophie Ryder - More Rabbit People

At the weekend I went to see the Sophie Ryder exhibition Monumental at the RWA in Bristol. Particularly interesting for me as, for many years she has done a lot of work around animal/human hybids. There is one hare/woman she has obsessively cast and carved in various materials and drawn and painted in works on paper.

Also in the show are some wire drawings which are huge and quite amazing. As the title of the show suggests, many of the works are very large, but up till recently the only piece of hers that I was really familiar with was The Minotaur and the Hare situated on The Promenade in Cheltenham.

Closer to home, The Wet Paint Gallery in Cirencester has an exhibition of some of Sophie Ryder's smaller sculptures and prints. Seems we can't escape from rabbit people.