Why you decide to be an artist?

'Why you decided to become an artist'.  Yesterday this was posed as a topic on which to comment by Baz Whitehouse, an artist friend. I hadn't previously given it much thought, but at first tongue in cheek, I thought it deserved its own blog post.  So here we go...  

In the olden days when there were 8 half a crowns in a GB£, and I was around 7 years old, every week I would enter and, more often than not win half a crown in the painting competition promoted in our local newspaper.  'There's money in this art malarkey' I thought. Half a crown is about 12.5 pence in new money.  I've always been an optimist.

But seriously, I think 'being an artist' was who I was always meant to be.  At school I was pretty average at most things, apart from art.  I hung out with the arty crowd and it was always assumed I would go to art school.  That all came a bit un-stuck when the art master put me forward, and I was accepted, as a textile design student at our local art school.  But because I aspired to study at the Regional College of Art in Manchester and then go on to the Slade to study fine art .....(always did have illusions/fantasies that needed to be tugged down to earth at times )  I decided that didn't suit me at all, and in a fit of pique did something else entirely.

But, it seems my old art master wasn't altogether mistaken, and probably at that time knew me better than I knew myself, because decades later I worked freelance for needlecraft magazine publishers creating designs for readers to follow.  Some of my designs continue to be marketed as kits and needlecrarft projects commercially.

Around 2003 when living in Cyprus I began to believe that I could properly begin to express the artist in me.  I shall always be grateful to Stass Paraskkos, who founded the Cyprus College of Art, and my tutors there Andreas Efstathiou, Grahame Parry and visiting tutor, abstract artist Patrick Jones for giving me that freedom.

When I look at their work now, I can see how these mentors each influenced me in different ways.  They would probably be disappointed I didn't push myself more.  But as I see myself as a perpetual student .... there's still time.

A dog really is for life

My sweet Sally

I just want to tell you about Sally, the sweetest, most loyal, lovable little dog, who we had to say a final good-bye to this month.

We first saw her 13 years ago as a tiny, skinny, dirty-grey scrap of a creature on the motorway just outside Limassol, Cyprus.  She was hit by a car just ahead of us, who failed to stop.  My husband and I ran waving our arms and managed to slow down the traffic enough to pick her up before she was hit again.  She appeared to be dead, but I just couldn't believe that life could be there one second and so completely gone the next.  I hadn't a clue what I was doing really, but tried to do what I thought was correct resuscitation procedure and H drove us to the nearest vet. On the way I saw her eyelids flicker and felt her sigh. But even so the vet said she was dead and it took some persuasion for him to check properly.  And then he sensed a very tiny heartbeat.

From that moment her recovery and wonderful new life began. Miraculously the only injury she had was a hole through her skull above her eyes.  She was mostly unconscious for around 3 days and then Choo Choo one of our other rescued Cyprus poodles dropped a ball in her bed inviting her to join the pack and play.  We think her head injury caused some kind of short-term memory loss and she never did learn to play.  Rather like a baby duckling with mother-duck because I was the first living creature she saw after her near death, I became her mother and centre of her universe;  even when asleep she would continually check to see where I was and would search me out if I'd left the room.  We had a special bond that I can't really put into words; the love we felt for each other was unique.  I love all my dogs, but there will never be another Sally.  RIP baby.

Abstract sketch crawl

Strolling around Old Limassol town with a good friend, choosing where to park ourselves for an outdoor art session, is currently my favourite way to fill a sketchbook.

Recently sight of flaking Mediterranean-blue painted doorways, worn stonework and rusting ornamental metal-work, opposite comfy sun-shaded pavement cafe tables, made the choice easy.  Naturally purchase of a glass of white wine or two had to be made to secure tenure of our spot for as long as we wanted.

Water Baby

I've just finished several months of portrait commissions and feel the urge to let go of figurative work for a while to get some abstract art bugs out of my system. So realism is out, and colour and self expression, is definitely in.

This week I kept my sketch crawl kit to a minimum;  Rotring art pen with black ink, watercolour pencils, Inktense blocks, a refillable water-pen, large soft brush, plastic water bottle and an 8 x 11 in water-colour sketchpad.

Though it might not appear obvious, the inspiration for the sketch here was the roofless interior of a derelict house.  I love making studies of the remains of old buildings;  it's refreshing to abstract shapes and simply make marks to express feelings of the moment.

Email me for more information about any of my work.

After the wine

Abstract expressionist acrylic painting, white yellow red

Abstract painting 12 x 9 in by Bee Skelton

A white, yellow and red abstract painting. Acrylics with inks on canvas paper.  Size 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
 Email me for more information about any of my work.

The island is quiet, wounded, holding it's breath before the mass of tourists begin to arrive over the next few weeks.  At least I hope they arrive.  Cyprus needs people to come to enjoy our beautiful island, now more than ever.

DIY bamboo drawing pen

I'm awaiting arrival of the next set of course notes for my fine art degree with huge anticipation.  In the meantime I've been ordering all kinds of interesting drawing materials in preparation, including pens.

It so happens my home is surrounded by clumps of bamboo and as I need bamboo drawing pens, it seemed a pity not to have a go at making my own.

This 'how to' video has a commentary in french, but even if you don't understand the words, the pictures show the technique very clearly http://youtu.be/1KWhQBaktzs 

I stripped the outer layers from the thin end of a cane, which was alive and green underneath.  I shall dry some before making more pens and use sharper, thinner knives next time.  The craftsman in the video makes it look so easy and his pen is beautiful.  My first attempt lacks any finesse and is not a pretty sight.  But I shall persevere.

Another drawing of derelict building.

Pen & watercolour wash

Cold symptoms almost gone, Christmas decorations packed way. So lovely today to head back to the old house with my sketchbook to make another drawing. I like the composition of this one; the deep tones of the derelict building in the foreground contrasting with the lighter, newer building beyond. Think I'll take it a stage further next time, and make a colour study.... weather permitting.

Sketch book drawing of an old friend.

I must have passed this abandoned building hundreds, if not thousands of times.  For 10 years, that I know of, it's stood derelict, defiantly daubed with a For Sale sign, isolated on a considerable parcel of prime land at odds with it's newer neighbours.  While other old property and land in the area has been bought up and developed for Euro-millions, for some reason, probably complicated land title/legal issues, this alone remains neglected and ignored..... that is until I came along and fell in-love.  

Don't go getting excited, I haven't come into a fortune, and won't be putting in a bid.  But just in case someone does, I intend capturing this brave little outpost of old Cyprus for posterity, in all it's decaying gorgeousness, before  developers or weather finish it off.  I'd really like to make a series of studies.  With any luck it'll lead to a painting worthy of it.

Landscape painting work in progress

Work in progress 1

  Working outdoors near where I made recent drawings.

I'm looking down from near the top of a mountain onto tomato fields and then across and upwards as the hills recede to the mountain opposite.

I began with under-painting in thin paint to set the harmony and mood;  mix of ochre/violet/white and loosely placed the main features with thin raw umber.  I've shown more work in progress images below.  The completed painting is at the top of the post.

 Work in progress 2 

In this session, I managed half an hour before it began to rain and had to run for cover.

Work in progress 3

Perfect weather conditions today.  Still a long way to go with this painting, but more progress.

Work in progress 4.

Landscape drawings in my sketchbook

I've been working outdoors drawing the Cyprus landscape http://indigoblah.blogspot.com

Painting outdoors in the garden

Fruit Trees

Oil on canvas

I've been dodging rain for a few days and finally completed this painting outdoors in the bottom garden.  It features citrus trees, grapevine and bougainvillea, which have interesting contrasts of foliage.

By the way, I've recently started posting work-in-progress images on Twitter.  If you're interested to see go to http://twitter.com/bsart .... or look at my Tweets list in the right-hand margin.

I've been trying out my new light-weight plein air easel set-up.  So far so good.  Off to the mountains for my next project.

Plein air drawing ~185

This is the first of a series of garden drawings that I'll make in my sketchbook in preparation for a painting.  I have no idea of the view I'll ultimately choose.  It's such a pleasure to just draw and see what happens.  It's still quite hot here;  38C degrees today.  So I waited until around 4.30pm by which time the sun had moved and there was some welcome shade under the big pine tree.

Plein air drawing #184

Down the Valley to the Sea

Fortunately the temperature here in Cyprus has come down a little this week, so that I can work more easily outdoors (en plein air).  This view, looking down the valley onto the sea, was made in my A4 sketchbook.  I first tinted the paper with a wash of black acrylic paint to provide a nice mid-tone, on which to work charcoal and white conte crayon.

Sketch book Expressions 3

Before 11^th July 2011, the economy of Cyprus was being allowed to slide metaphorically into the sea by our ideologically paralysed President. At 6am on that day the process was tragically accelerated; a time bomb he'd allowed to be stored right next to the island's main power station, exploded, killing 13 people and ruining the lives of many others. http://www2.onthisisland.com/cyprus-power-outage/2011/07/11/ 

Garden painting

This is a painting of the view from one of my kitchen windows.  It's the result of a series of studies I made;  sketch, line drawing, tonal study, colour study and finally the painting, which I made by referring to the studies and written notes.  Helpful practice, as it's not always possible to paint while observing the actual subject.

 

Cyprus landscape painting

I decided to make a painting based on this sketch, which is part of the view I see each morning from the bedroom window.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun kept diving behind cloud, casting fleeting shadows on the hills, whilst the grasses and track were still in full sun.  There's just a glimpse of Limassol and the sea between the hills.

OLIVE TREE painting

 SOLD

We had a beautiful spring day here yesterday; the grasses and wild plants on the mountain are still lush from the winter rains, and the sun isn't hot enough to have frazzled them yet.

The breeze was too strong for a full scale outdoor painting session, but I managed to capture this little impression of an old olive tree.  It's oil on canvas, ACEO size 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

Found art

A friend and I recently took a stroll around Limassol with our cameras. Hey ok, we also lunched on kalamari and drank white wine.

It set me thinking about folk art at street level and found art in general. Whether it's flashy wet pebbles on a beach to collect and turn into something else, Tracy Emin's 'Unmade Bed' or these prancing figures, I've decided I'm all for it. Not everyone will be with me on this ... so shoot me ;)

Graffiti at it's basic level was featured on an Artfire forum recently. Among those who accept graffiti as an artform and actively create it, there does seem a trend towards quality development. But along with all other art, it's always going to be subjective. One man's vandalism is another man's Banksy.

I've always loved the idea of 'finding' art that some mysterious creator has left for my delight, in a cafe, or between the pages of a library book for example. But perhaps my favourite street art of all time is that practiced by Jafabrit who is a genius IMO. Wish I'd thought of clothing trees in wooly sweaters.

Walking & wall art

It was Sally's turn to accompany me to the beach this morning. As we headed west the sun was feebly doing it's best to polish the sea. The coastal path looked messy and forlorn. Sally sniffed the winter storm debris suspiciously.

We passed by Ancient Amathus; the main archaeological site is across the coast road, but I snapped a pic of this small excavation right next to the sea.

It was fairly quiet with just the odd jogger passing now and then. I saw a couple of swimmers making mad dashes for the waves and decided they must be tourists as every self-respecting expat or local is still sewn into winter woolies.

As we reached the Old Amathounda Harbour Wall, a bare-chested adonis was doing vigorous press-ups on the pebbles. He stopped when he saw us and decided to to take a leisurely stroll instead. eyeing my scarf and sweater as he passed. Did I imagine that slight smirk on his face. Sally chose that moment to decide she too had had enough physical exercise for one morning and turned for home.

I'm not working in the studio today, but below are 4 collages I finished yesterday; SUNSHINE, WONDERLAND, MUSIC, RHAPSODY.