I decided to draw on top of a shot of the apples fallen on the ground at dad’s using my intuos tablet as a further development of this series. I may do more marks so watch this space. I have taken the large drawing in oil bar and pencil on Arches paper previously shared on this blog to be framed as a submission at Neoartist’s open show at Bolton. Fingers crossed it will be chosen! I wasn’t going to show work this year as I didn’t feel I was in the right headspace, but decided to go with the one piece afterall.

I decided to take the plunge and use my new intuous tablet to develop my last drawing shared on this blog. I was going to add marks and colour to the original, but decided to leave it in the state it is as I didn’t want to overdo things and liked some of the marks that are on their own in the white space of the paper. I realised I would be able to use the shot I took of the drawing to work on top of to develop my ideas further. This also lends itself really easily to creating a series of images which was something I wanted to do even using traditional drawing media. It’s just another tool and I decided not to be overfaced by it. So here are the results. I chose a section of the original drawing to use and made my marks initially in black, then for the subsequent image, a grey and red as well as a filter. I’m just letting all this sit with me before I do more, or not, let’s see! Click images to enlarge as usual.

I made this drawing today using oilbars and pencil and is another response to dad’s garden. I shared the photos of the fallen apples in my previous post. This is a gestural drawing that I enjoyed getting involved with and feel it is not yet complete. It could go through yet more stages. I relished pressing hard with the pencil through the layers of oilbar marks which feel so lush when you lay them down. The heavy arches paper can take any amount of pressure that’s why I love it so much. Click to enlarge and see marks more clearly as usual.

I went up to Burtrees to clear more of my dad’s stuff and take some gifts to family on the Friday after Christmas. I was clearing apples from the drive so that cars can get up without skidding on them. There were so many I couldn’t clear those from the garden as well but took these shots of them before I left. I’ve a feeling they could become a large painting, we’ll see. I also have plans afoot at home to change my studio space at home so I can do larger work, will keep you posted. It’s all process and part of the coming to terms with dad not being here. But it will all happen as it’s own good time and when it’s meant to I am finding.