Feline adventures

Our big adventure and relocation to the highlands has also uprooted our two cats, both virgin travelers and very unworldly wise. Since we moved they have been confined to the safety of the croft, looking inquisitively through the window but not in the least bit interested in stepping foot outside. It’s been warm and sunny so we’ve had the windows open this week and the smell of the outside made the cats very vocal all of a sudden – so they were re-introduced to big wide world! Each day they make a wider circle around the house, but are desperate to get in when they’ve had enough. But by way of a thank you, we have been treated with a mouse, and to repay the gesture I’ve had to rescue Pumpkin from the paralysing gaze of two tough looking natives!  Here’s a few sketches of the terrorised twins in their comfort zone.

Bubbles and wobbly legs

What a week – very busy but zero painting, so what am I going to post today? I did manage to do lots of thinking about art during hours in the passenger seat of our heavily laden van. Earlier on in the week a civilised evening drink with some friends turned into a calving session outside on the Welsh hills. Warmed and energised by champagne (drunk to celebrate our friend’s milestone birthday) we watched as a dear little calf was born into a wet wintry world. The heifer had terrible trouble standing up, but she overcame this eventually - a perfectly healthy pedigree Hereford. I was flattered when the calf was named Angela (due to her pedigree credentials rather than her wobbly legs of course!). Once she had taken her colostrum from the bottle, she went straight to the “optics” to help herself – that’s my girl!

I always have my camera with me - except when I really need it! This we taken with my phone, a little out of focus, but you get the idea.....

A note on Notan

This week’s obsession has been notan. A word that I’ve come across only recently, but a style that is prominent in a lot of my work. My diary sketches are just one example. Notan is black & white, or a composition with a harmonious balance of dark and light values. Successful notan is more about design – designing the spaces on your canvas. As a landscape architect I'm trained to design space in the landscape, and subconsciously I probably transfer the same principles onto 2D compositions. In the days before CAD (computer aided design) the layout and drawing of plans using only a black Rotaring pen was good grounding for notan, especially if you only had a black and white printer and were hopeless at Pantone pens like me. I have realised that if I start and finish a painting in colour, I ignore “design” in terms of value, whereas perhaps my monotone work is more successful. I’ve collected a few notan images on a Pinterest board and have been looking through eyes with notan filters all week! I’m also been helping my parents have a declutter, and have unearthered more examples of my very early notan tendencies, including wine labels I made for my late grandfather’s homemade wine, and here are some more from this century...