Objects of transition

Wherever I go around my house I find juxtapositions of things that reflect my gypsy life.. These two sketches (A3, pencil and coloured pencil on paper, 2007) show a bunch of ficus pods, picked up under a tree near the Ledra Crossing Point in Nicosia, casually sitting on an antique Delft tile. Delft, the pictureque town of Vermeer, is at the end of a tram line that passes by my house. Two small objects from two small countries.. there the similarity ends!

a bientot

Jane

Amy Winehouse stole my beehive

Henriette is always discernable by her black beehive hairstyle which pre-dates Amy "Wijnhuis", by quite some time. This little scribble from last year (oil on paper 30 x 40) looks like an excercise in using up whatever was left on my palette and I think it had better be the last yellow nude I ever make as I can't think what possessed me to make her such a billious colour. All the same I thought to post it because, simplistic as it is, it's an affectionate and enthusiastic little piece. Tomorrow its the print studio and the call of the acid bath again...
a bientot
Jane

On acid

I've been on acid.. I have lost my acquatint virginity.. I'm a rebel with a cause: a process full of lovely rules all made to be broken. This, (Cypriot Ficus Pods, approx 20 x 30 cms: acquatint) is my first attempt at printmaking in a real chemical hazard zone, or should I say graphics studio. (Apart from a few lino prints made at home, that is.) There are some wonderfully engineered machines, some of them quite mediaeval in character, and lots of dangerous looking bottles and bins and tubs and acid baths. I cannot think why they let me loose in there but Henk is keeping an eye on me. Next project? The etching needle meets the male nude... could be painful for someone. Watch this space.

a bientot

Jane

Ebrace

Um.... a page from my sketchbook about 2005 I think.. an ink dream of an embrace with a little goblin on the left hand side to prick the consciences of the couple..

Tomorrow another look (3rd) at the wonderful Dutch Portraits Exhibition at the Mauritzhaus..

a bientot

Jane

A model model..

A model model. There is so much I would like to do with this pose if I was not constrained by the limitations of time and knowing there is only so long a guy can stare into a mirror at his beard going grey without getting cold, stiff and grumpy. (30 minute pose, approx A2, chalk on grey paper, made this morning) Model sympathy? I am working on it. For example, I tried posing myself. A one-hour pose. It is not an easy job.
a bientot
Jane

Sympathy for the model?

I have been told by one of my criticallest critics that my work suggests I have issues about model sympathy. "You need to suffer as a model yourself", says he, "to understand how to empathise with the model working for you". Well here is a strange picture - very very quickly made. I can be detected in the background right, looking pretty menacing I would say, and not too sympathetic at all. I admit I was probably thinking less about the model's discomfort than how I was going to get all that down in such a short time. But the pose was her own choice. I have since tried modelling for a colleague and found it an interesting experience having the boot on the other foot.. I am not sure how I would rate my colleague's model sympathy but gratifyingly the result was sold almost immediately ....
a bientot
Jane

Petra

Petra looks as though she has escaped from a production of Wagner's Ring of the Nieberlungen: fortunately she laughed when I told her that. Definitely a Rhine Maiden - long chestnut hair in bunches, round face and wide apart blue eyes with the most curvacious body that makes you think of drawing a fluffy white cloud. This is just a ten minute pose with some of the lines a bit overdrawn I am afraid.. and then the long pose didn't work out because I should have stopped at a certain point but carried on and killed it... it happens. Can't wait to get her back for another session.

a bientot

Jane

Sharon's painting

I am just back from Cyprus catching up with my friends' work and enjoying temperatures touching 30 degrees and a warm sea. I made some sketches of Agnieszhka and her dog and cat who posed more co-operatively than some models i can think of. Never work with children and animals? Not this time. I will begin those paintings this week. In the meantime the very last of the chalk nudes on torn painting series which Sharon bought from my last exhibition. She kindly made me this photograph...
a bientot
Jane