Sapphic Visibility in art

 

On Sapphic Visibility Day today, I'm sharing my prep sketch for my latest Face2Face (Non-binary Genderfluid) Lesbians artwork. 

Face2Face Lesbians Art Project and Lesbian Visibility

Three years ago, on April 25th 2021, I began my Face2Face (Non-binary Genderfluid) Lesbians artwork project, when I decided to put together two cardboard street artworks I'd created for #sothebyssundaysketch to make a third, for Lesbian Visibility Week 2021. 

When I put the two muses together, I imagined the narrative that this was the day these two lesbians met, and their story has inspired me to create artworks about them ever since. It's still an on-going, lifelong, art project of mine. 

Years prior to this project, I was already looking to create an art series on one theme, after seeing some fantastic series in art history. So when I felt I could create an ongoing narrative with these artworks and combine it with highlighting the serious lack of lesbian representation in art, I chose these artworks as a basis for my series and project. We always say visibility is key yet I barely ever see myself, as a demicis, genderfluid lesbian. 

It started quite by accident, as I experimented with clipping the two together after completing my 2nd sketch, initially titled 'Picasso Meets Street Art 2', building on the previous week's 'Picasso Meets Street Art 1'. They were rather similar portraits because they were both drawn for the Sotheby's Sunday Sketch who requested Picasso inspired doodles and muses, two weeks on the trot. At the time, Sotheby's were doing a weekly call for art and I built on their collage suggestion while deciding to add in a colour scheme inspired by Picasso's blue and pink periods. 💙💗 The original title for this Art Series was simply: 'Face2Face Lesbians'. I later added 'Non-binary Genderfluid' in brackets in case the pink and blue colour scheme made viewers assume it symbolises the trans flag 🏳️‍⚧️ so meaning it only depicts lesbians who are trans, which I hadn't intended. My artistic intention is for all sapphics of all gender expressions and identities to feel they can relate to this art series and feel more included and visible in society and the art world.

My Artwork Celebrating the 50 Year Anniversary of Pride UK

 

Here in the UK we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of Pride UK today, which first took place on the 1st of July 1972. So I've created this artwork to mark this anniversary, titled 'Face2Face (Non-binary Genderfluid) Lesbians: Marching Together - Remembering and Celebrating Pride UK 50 Years'. I've depicted them participating in the anniversary Pride March taking place tomorrow, 2nd July 2022, walking amongst the pride placards in the parade. 

Their shirt collars are coloured in the lesbian and non-binary flags. They are sharing the flags between them, across their respective collars: the left collar of the lesbian on the left has the upper colours of the fully inclusive lesbian flag on it (3 oranges to white) which matches up with the left collar of her wife on the right, which has the rest of stripes in that flag on it (white through to 3 pinks, ending with a purple-looking darker shade of pink). The same is true of their right-hand side collars: the right-hand side one on the lesbian on the left has the yellow and white of the non-binary flag, which is completed with the purple and black stripes on the right-hand side collar on her wife on the right. 

They are wearing a progress rainbow flag tie, which incorporates the brown and black stripes representing BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnicities) / POC (people of colour) / indigenous people within the LGBTQIAPD+ community; the feathers are the Two-Spirit symbol (Native American) which explicitly represents LGBTQIAPD+ indigenous peoples; light blue, light pink and white representing the trans community and I've included the intersex flag by placing their purple circle on the rainbow flag's yellow background, which is a very similar shade of yellow as the background colour on the intersex flag. 

On their lavender shirts, they are wearing LGBTQIAPD+ pride badges and stickers: the Jewish LGBT+ rainbow flag; the demiwoman flag (pink and grey) with the demiwoman symbol on it (like the ♀️but with half a bar across) and the womanflux symbol on it (like the ♀️ but with two angled bars off the circle); the demifluidflux flag just above the genderfluid symbol 🌊; and the pangender flag (pale yellow, pinks and a white stripe) with the pangender symbol on it, to raise awareness of some lesser-known LGBTQIAPD+ identities that are relevant to my Face2Face art series and my own gender identities. 

Here's a close-up of the badges and stickers on their shirts:

I've designed all their attire, the placards and the typography fonts myself.

This artwork is the result of my research during Pride Month last month into LGBTQIAPD+ history and the history of Pride UK, which has informed my symbolism, design, colour schemes and composition. The placards are based on those actually carried during Pride UK marches. The ones in thick black ink on white cardboard have famous slogans from the 70's and the 80's. Their colour scheme is black and white to evoke the black and white photography of Pride UK marches in history and to generally give the earlier marches a more historical feel. The placards depicting the Pride marches/parades in the latter 20th century (eg the adoption, age of consent and army ban sign) and 21st century (eg L with the T sign, gay marriage, ban conversion therapy, say gay signs) are in colour, to reflect changes in photography, making the signs brighter and stronger coloured as photos became clearer and more vivid with the rising popularity of digital photography. 

Here's a close-up of the top section of the artwork, where you can see the placards from different decades in more detail:

I'll be back to discuss this in more detail later! 🙂🖼️ 

Drawing Day 2022

Drawing Day (May 16th every year) is a great time to celebrate and appreciate all artists, illustrators and designers. Although it's easy to take for granted, the work of drawing-based artists is all around you every time you buy a card, see a designed product, an illustrated book, fashion illustrations, advertising, and web design. It's about known, unknown, past, present and future artists in galleries, on social media, in the street e.g. murals and street art. 

Drawing is the basis of all art, rather like ballet is foundational to all other forms of dance. Both drawing and ballet provide techniques and approaches which underpin everything we do in art and dance. Nevertheless, there are of course some differences. For instance, I find that drawing is also a way of thinking and making artistic decisions. Drawing can form part of the final artwork even if it's in a different medium, either by combining it with other materials or by using it as a base sketch before overlaying it with another (e.g. by painting over it). Drawing is vital to keeping sketchbooks so it is an essential part of the daily artistic process. Sketching can also be done as an exercise to develop your visual and hand skills, such as completing one-minute sketches. 

Most artwork I undertake starts with an idea (especially if it's a conceptual artwork) followed by sketching where, on the sketchbook page, I'll roughly draw the composition, objects and what I'm trying to convey. Then I sketch it more fully in pencil. I may do several versions or simply develop the one main sketch. I'll assess from the fuller sketchbook drawing what materials (e.g. oil paints, acrylic paints, watercolours, pastels, street art pens, gel pens, coloured pencils etc) I want or will work best for my final piece. I decide on this together with selecting what I'm going to do the artwork on, e.g. canvas, sketching paper, cartridge paper, oil pastel paper, canvas paper, watercolour paper, and so on. If it is not a conceptual artwork, then I'll still think through the shapes, spaces, composition, angles, and so on through sketching it out with a soft pencil. This will either develop into a loose-style sketch, or a detailed drawing, or the basis for an artwork in a different medium e.g. pastels, paints. Sometimes I'll do various drawings on large, self-standing sheets of cartridge paper after my sketchbook work but before the final piece, as a way of developing my project and it's themes, as well as experimenting with different materials, formats and dimensions/sizes. 

Another way I sometimes work is to sketch my ideas, objects and composition straight onto the surface I'm using for the final piece. For instance, for my Silencing series, I do rough sketches straight onto the canvas, adjusting this until I settle on a final composition that expresses and symbolises my conceptual artwork before applying acrylic paint over my pencil drawing. 

As part of celebrating Drawing Day today, I've dropped another artwork in my Face2Face (non-binary genderfluid) Lesbians Series on Drawing Day (16th May). The subtitle for this one is: 'IDAHOBIT:  Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Rights':

Tomorrow (17th) is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia, Transphobia (and any other phobia against anyone in the LGBTQIAPD2S+ community) 🌈. So I've combined these two days in this drawing. Here they are talking to each other and comforting each other about their experience of lesbophobia and genderphobia. Their shawls are in grey for genderflux, the tassels of which are in the inclusive lesbian flag colours. This is reflected in the lesbian flag picture on their calendar, on which they have marked out IDAHOBIT on May 17th. On their shawls they also have the non-binary flag (higher up), and the genderfluid flag (lower down).

I've left it in my sketchbook to emphasise the role of drawing on Drawing Day. I've emphasised the drawing by keeping the shawl in pencil which draws the eye to the middle of the composition ie their bodies, which links with the IDAHOBIT theme for this year: 'Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Rights'.

My Face2Face Non-binary Genderfluid Lesbians Series One Year On

April 25th is the anniversary of when the two lesbians in my Face2Face Non-binary Genderfluid Lesbians Series met. I had drawn two doodle sketches on newspaper and wrapping paper, in the style of Picasso, when it occured to me that I could clip the two separate artworks together to make a third, in which the two lesbians meet each other. 

Now, a year on, I have shown them celebrating the anniversary of their first meeting and falling in love 'at first sight'. Although this art series is one year on, it depicts them celebrating their first meeting in a timeless way, without restricting it to a particular amount of years later after they met. The subtitle of this artwork is - 'Anniversary: Love at First Sight and Every Sight'. 

The single rose on the table 🌹symbolises love at first sight, while the flowers in the bouquet in the vase symbolise: soulmate and true love (red tulips) and there are 24 of them to say 'I'm Yours'; dahlias which symbolise lasting bond and commitment; red camellias for passion, true love and deep desire.

Above the fireplace is a golden framed mirror which, although it reflects them across the room, actually depicts their first meeting so is a miniature of the artwork I released a year ago. 

It is set in a room which has Georgian-inspired interior design. While planning out my drawing, I researched the Georgian period to deepen my knowledge of this era, especially LGBT+ history in and around this time, as well as what is distinctive about Georgian interior decor. I chose peach for the room colour because it is a colour favoured by Georgian design and is, I think, warmer than the other shades of that period, such as pea green. It's also a champagne-like shade which fits the celebratory mood. I added an orangy tone to it to allude to the lesbian flag and the gender expansiveness colour symbolism within it. The tea set is inspired by looking at various period Georgian tea sets. I noticed that their sets were less tall and upright than we use today, and did not yet include the typical tea stand. 

This week, starting today, is Lesbian Visibility Week (with Lesbian Visibility Day on Tuesday). So I included an original portrait of the Ladies of Llangollen (Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby) who wore a red gemstone around their necks. So I reflected this by adding a red garnet stone in the modern lesbian couple's heart-shaped silver necklaces. Garnet stones symbolise love, the heart, sustaining bond, life force and sexual attraction. The grey/silver colour of their necklaces and shawls, as in previous artworks in this series, symbolises genderfluidity.

Georgian design is very symmetrical which is why there are two lamps on either side of the fireplace. While above the fireplace is a mirror which is a drawing of the two meeting for the first time and falling in love. They are reflected on the left page twice: one, the two celebrating the anniversary of their first meeting, two, above the couple and parallel to the mirror image are the two famous Georgian era lesbians, Ponsonby and Butler, in their top hats. Both that picture and the mirror are gold framed. Ponsonby and Butler are included in this artwork because they fit the era and show that lesbians have been around a long time, going right back to Sappho, and have led lives they wanted to irrespective of society's norms, expectations, prejudices and family bigotry. Anne Lister, inspired by these two, is a wonderful example of a lesbian being true to herself leading the life she wants to, an authentic life.

I started thinking out my composition by sketching my ideas into my street art sketchbook and experimenting with how to capture the intricacy of the ornate plasterwork. I started sketching in pencil, then added coloured pencil and created a gold leaf effect with my Posca street art pen. Although I originally thought it would only be a planning sketch, I found myself filling in details (the panelling, fireplace, chairs and coffee table, curtains, ornate plasterwork, portraits, bookcase, table  tea set, flooring) and then it just took off! It ended up feeling very complete and I like the way the coloured pencils create soft hues and effects on the sketching paper. I think it gives it a romantic tonal quality which I don't think coloured pencil on cardboard would have captured as successfully for this artwork. I decided against marker pens for the modern lesbians because it would have been too strong a contrast with the rest of the sketch and thus might over-focus the eye on one part of the artwork rather than leading the viewer's eye all around the page. 

At first, the composition was only the page on the right but then I expanded it to the page on the left and found I liked the perspective of the room between the two pages. The page on the left feels as though it is slightly more forward than the one on the right. So I decided to keep it in the sketchbook to retain the same perspective and because I thought it was apt: this drawing just took shape spontaneously, just as falling in love at first sight simply happens spontaneously.  

Politics in Art during LGBT+ History Month

Happy LGBT+ History Month ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤💙💖🤍💜💛 to all members of the LGBTQIAPD2S+ community! To mark the 50th Anniversary of Pride March in the UK, this year's theme is Politics in Art: The Arc is Long.  

#biodiversityday : the Flower Mantis

 

This is an ink drawing I created last weekend, inspired by Biodiversity Day Saturday 22nd May. This insect is called a Flower Mantis because it has the appearance of a flower, making it extraordinarily beautiful. I chose it mainly because it is so colourful and has unusual wings. I drew it from life, as it were, because it is an insect specimen I have in my collection at home so I was able to observe it in front of me as I sketched it. It is labelled as a Flower Mantis, found in Vietnam, and looks somewhat stretched out because it is preserved in a cube which fits into an accompanying display box. Whereas in the wild, it would be seen standing on all fours or standing tall and upright, fanning its wings if it felt alarmed. In this drawing, you see the legs and arms fully, rather than just a hint of them underneath the insect. Here's the original specimen. 

The colours haven't quite come out true to life in this photo 📷 because I haven't used a conventional camera so it's harder to get the focal length for sharpness right and the lighting right for the shades of colours. For instance, the brown parts of the wings, underneath the pinkish bits are brown not pink tinted. So my drawing is more accurate than the photo above of the specimen.

I used very similar materials to the previous week's Japanese Hakata doll - green tinted calligraphy paper, liquid Indian ink, liquid coloured inks and bamboo pens. However, this subject matter is even more intricate so I also used some attachable ink pen nibs although I discovered that the bamboo pens were more user-friendly, especially for the black outlines.

I've scaled up the Flower Mantis while trying to keep to the same proportions because it is tiny in real life - I'd have to draw a miniature with a needle to make small enough marks! Mind you, I did paint a miniature Self-Portrait last year with a biro cap! Anyway, here I have sketched the mantis in the style of a zoological illustration/ink drawing, making it completely realistic to life, other than it being larger, so that the viewer feels as though they have met the insect and knows what it looks like. Part of the value of this style of drawing is that it documents and records animal species for future generations, which is especially important if they become endangered or extinct later on. 

This Flower Mantis wasn't easy to proportion in line with the original. I used a small ruler to give me a sense of scale and dimension, plotted out a rough guide in pencil before drawing it freehand in permanent ink. The medium of ink doesn't leave any room for error because you can't rub it out or adjust it then or later. So it's a medium which needs uninterrupted focus and concentration. And it's not just about the marks you do want to draw, it's also about the accidental smudges that you don't want - followed by an exclamation of "oh noooooo!" 😯 The thought of having to start again is enough to give me a meltdown! 😩 Luckily I managed to cut off one big finger ink smudge at the top with my scissors ✂, so the dimensions of the page for my final artwork are somewhat unconventional. 😏 Next time I go to my bug collection to draw an insect, I may go about it differently. 🤔🎨🖼 I think I'll go back to the same process and nibs I used the previous week for the Japanese Hakata doll, but remembering that the lines are proportionally thicker for the bugs because it's a smaller drawing. Hence on the doll, the lines look thinner than on the insect, even though both are identical lines. 😒 

The Mantis is an interesting order of insect, but that's a biological point which I will discuss on my environment blog: 

https://wildlifegardensandtheenvironment.blogspot.com

National Drawing Day

 

Today is National Drawing Day (16th May) and #SothebysSundaySketch's theme is Japanese art, with an example of a portrait of a Japanese woman. I combined the two and drew my Hakata doll ceramic ornament (made in Japan) with bamboo pens in inks on light green tinted calligraphy paper. 

I wanted to create a print effect because the Sotheby's picture was a woodblock print. So I began my ink drawing by using a thin bamboo pen dipped in Indian Ink, which is often used in printmaking. Once I'd finished the entire drawing, I added the red ink with a thicker nibbed bamboo pen, followed by the green, gold then finishing with the white ink to shine out against the light green paper. The gold ink glistens ❇ as the viewer looks at it from different angles because it is a metallic type of ink. It was very precise work which needed a lot of focus and concentration, especially since I wanted to create strong lines and blocks of colour to give it a print effect, rather than creating looser, freer marks. It is a representational drawing of the ornament, I haven't adapted her, her clothing or her hair in any way, in order to retain her strong cultural heritage. I chose an angle where she is glancing over her shoulder in a similar way to the Sotheby's picture. This angle also depicts the sense of movement and gesture she has in the ornament's pose. 

The Metaphysical Art Movement: #sothebyssundaysketch

De Chirico is an artist I had not come across, which is odd because I did study surrealism, especially Dali. So, before starting my #Sotheby sundaysketch I wanted to learn something about him. De Chirico was born in 1888 in Greece, died 1978 in Rome, and had both an Italian and Greek background. He studied fine art in Athens and Munich and was later influenced by the German philosophers, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer (Polish born German) both of whom informed his art. He started the Metaphysical Art Movemen (Pittura Metafisica) in 1910 on the strength of this. However, it was a short-lived movement, lasting only 9 years and ending only 2 years (1919) after it was officially established in 1917 with two other artists, his brother, Alberto Savinio, and Carra, who became a fascist in 1919. Carra became a supporter of art as state ideology which, post-1937, meant neo-classicism and anti-centralism. What I find interesting is that neo-classicism was the brain child of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), an openly gay man, who also co-founded scientific archaeology. Furthermore, Winckelmann is seen as the one who gave birth to art history!

What made Metaphysical Art distinctive was its use of light and dark, dream -like yet vaguely disturbing, empty quality. Nietzsche famous for his 'God is dead' declaration had a nostalgia for the ancient world which is seen as the Foundation of Western Civilisation (and often promoted as the ideal by Conservatives). Hence, de Chirico often included Roman architecture in his paintings such as columns and arches. One of the distinguishing features of his paintings was the inclusion of long shadows and, like all Surrealists, illogicality was a hallmark of his art. A disjointed perception of time and space was his aim. He disliked modern art or anything modern, especially after 1919 when he abandoned Metaphysical Art. 

In my artwork this week I have incorporated all these elements to create an original piece. Sotheby's example was that of a horse and zebra so I took the theme of animals and looked for an unusual animal that is very rarely talked about and is native to a particular continent. The jaguarundi fitted the bill. It lives only in South America and is like a wild cat except it has a very small head considering the size of its body. Hence, it already has a mysterious quality about it, almost sinister. I found a public domain image, free from copyright and under a Creative Commons license, on the internet. I started drawing it freehand on black cartridge paper with a 9B (black) graphic pencil to create the light/dark contrast de Chirico was keen on featuring in his art. The pencil would make black marks on white paper but on black paper, it gives a silvery, shiny, light effect which I used as a twist on the white de Chorico used. I drew it off-centre, so I would have space to show what the jaguarundi was looking at with horror. I used this space to incorporate the Roman architectural element. I chose an amphitheatre and, to show the disjointedness of time, I drew its ruins (Alberto was obsessed with Ancient ruins) being struck by a rocket falling to earth, which was something that was actually happening that very day 9th May 2021. The top right hand side of the painting shows the rocket falling while, at the same time, I've drawn the debris of the rocket in the bottom left hand corner in the foreground. The rocket is both falling and fallen at the same time which is illogical.

I've portrayed the dislocation of space by geographically clashing the South American jaguarundi with an Ancient ruin in Europe. The latter clashes with real time, ie the Roman era clashing with the 21st century. The other uses of space in my artwork include the notion that space enters planet earth by means of a rocket falling onto a Roman ruin. This plays with the word 'space' and space on the paper. An artist has to think where to place their ideas on a page/canvas. This placement can often carry meaning.

I have, in keeping with de Chirico, included long shadows within the work which, I think, gives an air of disquiet. Another clash is an ecological one: the jaguarundi lives in an area of the world which experiences a great deal of deforestation, destruction and loss of habitat, often driven by Western demand for products and a desire to expand so-called civilization. So the juguarundi's shock and emotional response to the dangerous destruction and loss exploding behind it tells the broader story of human destruction, and debris they leave behind, be it space junk or poor waste management, and how this impacts on the natural world. The jaguarundi is also expressing the human commentary, which was taking place that week/day, on the falling rocket and the concern that it could land in an urban area. It's depicting a nightmare situation which gives it a dream-like quality. A surrealist situation because a rocket has never landed in an urban area (although one has landed debris in an African village) but nevertheless, with a strange element of realism. It could have hit a densely populated area with potential for loss of buildings and lives. This suits the Metaphysical Art Movement because this movement brings out its greater emphasis on reason (and highlighting illogicality) than Surrealism which priorities the subconscious (and the irrational). 

Lesbian Visibility Week and Art

 

These artworks were done on three separate occasions, all inspired by #sothebyssundaysketch but turned into original pieces. 

The Street Art works (blue and pink) were done on 2 separate occasions then clipped together for #lesbianvisibilityweek (LVW) depicting 2 non-binary lesbians in a loving relationship about to kiss. The shade of pink I used is a vibrant pink, meant to evoke the gay/lesbian colour of pink, as opposed to a feminine, pastel pink. I wish to symbolise how both are non-binary by depicting both women in blue and pink, to deconstruct the gender stereotype of pink is for girls and blue is for boys. People seem to forget that, not that long ago, it was the other way round and blue was stereotypically for girls and pink was a boys' colour! When you look at them above, you see that one is mostly blue and one is mostly pink but you are meant to envisage that either lesbian could be expressing either colour - neither is more butch or femme than the other. Their colours and gender expressions are fluid not static. In future artworks, the viewer shouldn't assume that they are not the same lesbians just because I use different colours to depict them. 🎨🌈

As you look at them, they are physically still yet in motion - I was trying to capture a sense of movement as they move towards each other to kiss. 💋

This artwork is a combination of my Picasso meets street art 1 & 2, facing each other and pinned together at the back. They are both standalone pieces (following on from Picasso's female muses) as well as half of a combined artwork to create this piece, titled: 'Face2Face: Lesbian Kiss'. I used street art pens (Winsor and Newton ProMarker pens: Pink; Yellow; Cyan  Blue) on newspaper (on the left) and (on the right) the back of a sheet of wrapping paper and the front of coloured wrapping paper (eye; lips) and the front of shiny wallpaper (clothing), both mounted on cardboard boxes. They are 3D pieces which together are 24cm × 56cm in size (12cm × 28cm each). 

The sculpture above, titled: 'The Ancient Greek Vase: Lesbians Kissing' takes this further and sees the same two women kissing. This time, drawn on a clay modelling vase, in an Ancient Greek style, using a pottery tool. Ancient Greece was perfectly comfortable with gay/lesbian relationships and non-binary genders. (It was only when Christianity took hold that being LGBT+ became an issue, in a negative way!) So the Ancient Greek theme was particularly relevant for LVW (26th April -2nd May).

It's my first attempt at using this clay modelling material (DAS Pronto clay modelling) but using my old pottery/clay modelling tools. It didn't go smoothly at first because it took me a while to get used to how this material shapes and its level of consistency. The pottery clay I used on the City and Guilds course was stronger and easier to mold so I could do more complicated objects, such as a bird. However, that pottery clay was a specialist type which needs to be fired in a dedicated kiln oven, which the pottery studio had on-site. It's a very different experience when you don't have specialist equipment, or even a regular oven in the kitchen to use for setting the clay! So I chose an air-drying type of clay and was pleased by its rate of drying - not too fast so I had time to experiment and reshape it until I was happy but fast enough that it is solid by the next day. I took this photo 📷 while it was setting (air drying) so this is prior to glazing it. 

This vase also relates back to Picasso because he also did ceramics. I saw some of them in an exhibition at a London Art Gallery a few years back. It was when I saw his ceramics that it struck me that pottery/3D sculptures and art are not two separate disciplines - they are all artworks and artists engage in both! 

I have cross-applied this street art theme into street dance for International Dance Day because they are parallel genres and Dance Day took place in the middle of Lesbian Visibility Week. Therefore I choreographed it with the overlapping purpose of both a dance video as well as a performance art video installation (showing art in performance). The 'street' element in both is: it's away from a studio, an institution, be it an art or dance studio. 

See my dance blog for the video of my street dance mentioned in this post:

https://danceaesthetic.blogspot.com/2021/04/international-dance-day-2021-street.html 

#lesbianvisibilityweek #lesbianvisibilityday 

#lesbianlove #lesbiankisses 

#lesbianart #non-binary  

World Art Day

 I uploaded this artwork of mine for world art day because it was part of my GCSE art and design classes. I am in my early teens when I draw/paint this. It still relaxes me when I look at it. And it shows, I think, the enormous value of art education. It's something you can go on appreciating and being energised from even though it's many years back when it was created. Like a song links memories in your mind so artworks can take you back to feelings and thoughts you had when you sat down and produced them. When I drew this I was feeling very relaxed and just experimenting with line, shape, colour and design. Rather than just painting every individual  petal, I wanted the background to be part of the foreground and subject matter, namely the flowers. I liked the effect and the way each flower is a slightly different shade despite the one stroke wash. I also wanted a reduced palette to evoke unity of colour and emotion. I used charcoal as a drawing medium because it produces a strong, distinct line which, here, draws attention to the flowers giving them a strong, bold presence. Flowers are seen as delicate, I wanted to turn that notion on its head.

World Art Day, to me, means celebrating art in all its various forms ranging from drawing, painting, and textiles to collage, crafts, design, sculpture and photography. The purpose of art itself is manifold from enjoyment, inspiring and bringing people together to healing benefits both mentally and emotionally. Indeed, this past year art on the internet has brought people together to create artworks for everyone to enjoy. Art bonds. That's the power of art. It provokes thought, emotion and appreciation of creative expression. It creates resilience. It can excite. It can relax you. It causes controversy. It can shock you. But it's never boring!

🎨

Art is undervalued in society and in education. It's considered less important than STEM subjects, Classics, Humanities, and Languages. Yet art collecting is an expensive business. Price tags can go into millions of pounds for an artwork. Writing a History paper will never be valued as highly even though both activities took the same amount of time and effort. There are art galleries to visit that inspire artists to create their own artworks. There's a wealth of history behind the practice of art. And, it's something everyone can do at some level. It's within everyone's reach in a way that music isn't. Everyone can pick up a pencil or paintbrush and apply them to paper to create something unique. Not everyone can just pick up a violin or flute and play a piece of music.

🖼

World Art Day also expresses our common humanity and creates space for diversity. This is why I also included this artwork of mine for world art day. Artistic freedom means one should not have to restrict ones subject matter according to the dominant culture that one lives in, ones race, gender, sexuality, social status, class, age, education, physical appearance stereotypes and so on. 

This portrait was inspired by African women walking around London in traditional dress. Therefore, it's not of any one particular woman. Here I've refused to impose western notions onto her keeping her true to her ethnicity. I've tried to show that portraiture doesn't have to be of white people by white people only. Although it's never taught, at least I've never been taught it or found art books on it, here I've shown African women's naturally beautiful looks without westernizing them through traditional portraiture approaches in art. Like the artwork above, I again reduced my palette to give emotional content and vividness to my subject. The viewer is drawn to look at her, see her and connect with her, to have a dialogue with her.

The arts, such as, art and music, are the only subjects that enable pupils in schools to express themselves emotionally. It enables emotional intelligence to develop which is a vital life skill.  It encourages empathy. The viewer has to try to understand and appreciate the thoughts and expressions of someone they don't know and have never met and even if they have, they might still be surprised by seeing another side to the person. Art allows pupils in schools to relax and have a less formal lesson which gives them a mental break from left brain activity and helps them develop the creative side which feeds back into their more formal, so-called academic studies.

Picasso meets Street Art

 

Today's #sothebyssundaysketch subject matter was Picasso's doodle drawings of his female muses. I studied Picasso in my art GCSE classes, alongside Braque, with a particular emphasis on Cubism. In my large sketchbook, I experimented with drawing a Cubist apple in pencil in the style of one of Picasso's still life works I'd glued in for reference. I also glued on a picture of Braque Cubist collage and extended it imaginatively, painting his plank of wood even longer and adding a guitar collage at the bottom of the page. Previously, I had done something similar with a Bonnard painting by extending it but this time, I stayed with the same style, colours and objects as him. I found these exercises very useful for developing my art technique which in turn improved my own original works. I also filled a ringbinder file on art history, with notes on artists, art critique and theory about artworks, including full colour print outs of examples of artists' works. Delving into art history and theory as well as researching artists and art movements started then and has continued ever since. This was furthered when I then studied art at a higher level with another art teacher who developed my art process and practice by encouraging me to put even more creative, conceptual thought into it. She showed me how to think up my own topic and go wherever the art and my imagination take me, while putting the ideas together as a project in stages.  

As part of my art practice, I use art history as a reference point and love to pour over images of artworks, thinking about the art movements they reflect. So I took a look at various pictures of Picasso's doodling portraits and decided to combine a few frequent features in them: 

• Picasso's use of thick, bold lines for drawing facial outlines / features
• His muses are often looking to the right, as you look at the picture
• Using newspapers as a background to draw on, giving his doodles more meaning and visual interest
• Red doodle lines on the face
• Although many were monochrome drawings, some were layered with a few colours, either as thinner, coloured lines or as blocks of colour, reminiscent of Frida Kahlo's sketchbook with bold, colourful drawings.

Blue was Picasso's favourite colour so although it's not a predominant colour in his doodles, I chose it as my main marker pen colour. A black pen would have disappeared against the dark, black crossword boxes, making whole sections of my doodle too difficult to see. So I thought about which colours would stand out against the black areas of the puzzle and decided to use more than one colour to build up the doodling marks and expressiveness, rather than end up with a monocolour (blue) line drawing. I chose a yellow marker to complement the blue lines and red to boldly stand out and highlight sections of the doodle. 

I rummaged through several newspapers before selecting this crossword puzzle page. Cubist art uses written articles in their collages so I initially searched for which topic and article I wanted to doodle on. However, when I saw the puzzle page, I thought this would make for an excellent background to this portrait for several reasons: 

• One, I can work with the lines the puzzles create on the page to create an interesting composition by working around how the puzzles provide pre-existing words and dark shading to her face. For instance, I have placed her mouth next to "crosswords", So that 'words' are near her heart-shaped lips, to give the impression she is not silent. So the print on the page dictated how I drew my muse's face. 
• Two, the puzzles provide Cubist-like box shapes, referring back to Picasso's art movement, alongside his other approach, Surrealism. 
• Three, the puzzle boxes on the page mirror the angular cardboard box. 

I collected a few of these 3-sided boxes last year because they are similar to the structure of a canvas. I wrapped the newspaper around the cardboard box to get a sense of the dimensions of it before beginning to doodle in order to plan my composition. Recently, I have been reading about how the Impressionists and Cassatt mounted their pastel works onto canvas, So I cross-applied this idea to mounting my newspaper on a canvas-shaped cardboard box. The newspaper is wrapped around all the edges of the box. If you look at the artwork from different angles, you can see how the doodle carries on off-the-page and around the corner.  

My cardboard box reminded me of Adam Neate, a well-known street artist who had the fabulous idea of doing art on cardboard which he left as donations and later left around the streets for anybody and everybody to pick up and take home with them. Just as Neate's cardboard boxes were found objects (recycling waste), so were mine - they were sold as trays in a packet of biscuits I was eating! Neate's subject matter of figurative drawing and portraits coheres with Picasso's doodles, and both are ground-breaking styles in the history of art so I thought they would match up well when I combine them in this artwork. Indeed, Neate cites Picasso as one of his major artistic influences so the two styles are quite  compatible with each other, despite belonging to different art movements.

In this work, I wanted to join the artistic conversation in art history between Neate and Picasso and explore how to further the ideas in their works. Street Art is inherently public art and accessible to all, so posting it on the internet is a way of achieving this open accessibility of art, outside the world of galleries, especially now when art galleries are closed. Although I am not about to leave my cardboard artworks around the streets, I love Neate's idea of doing that! I wish I had found one - I certainly would have taken it home to enjoy 🙂 🖼😍 👍 not have thrown it in the bin! 🗑😱😭 I think it was a creative, fun, engaging way for him to spread his passion for art and involve everyone in the aesthetic experience of looking at art, no matter who they are or whether they can afford to buy art or not. There needs to be a certain amount of Free Art (ie. free to view or even sometimes own) around in the world, otherwise art and the aesthetic experience of looking at art cannot become part of everyone's life.

 Art is, and always has been, a natural part of everyday life, as can be seen by elaborate cave paintings! And if people feel alienated from having easy access to artworks, then the commercial and gallery sides of the art world will suffer anyway in the long run, through disinterest in art at a societal level. So I think creative approaches to curating artworks in public, such as Neate's Open Gallery exhibition in the street and local Art Festival events which can include permanent outdoor artworks, are a fun and vital aspect of the art world and generate a love of art 💖🖼.

 In keeping with this accessible approach to art, I curate my artworks in my online gallery on Pinterest, where every Pinterest board functions as though it were a virtual room in a gallery, exhibiting a particular collection of works: 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/libakauckyArtPhotoGallery/ 

It's a continuous work in progress as I add to my gallery and/or move art works around from one virtual room to another. 

Study and final design for full length statue of Lady Mary Shepherd

 

I discovered in previous drawings that using my watercolour pencils (dry) in my black cartridge paper sketchbook gives a statue-like visual look to a drawing, so I used this combination again, to bring a bronze statue quality to my drawing. My aim was to invite the viewer to vividly imagine what Shepherd would look like as this particular design of a (life-sized) bronze statue standing on a plinth (which is why I placed my drawing on an easel to give the idea of height).

Before beginning the drawing above, I did this sketch below in my A3 size sketchbook with a 7B pencil:

The aim of this pencil drawing was twofold: one, to think out how to transform the painting of Shepherd as a 10 year old girl into a full length statue of her as an adult; two, to create a full length pencil portrait of Shepherd. I based her adult face on my previous sketch of her (2018). Here, I stayed with the same clothes she was wearing in Nasmyth's 1788 painting. I considered adding the jacket and bonnet her mother is wearing in Nasmyth's painting to adapt her look to a more adult style. However, that painting is an outdoor one and, in that era, women changed their clothing style depending on whether they were indoors or outdoors, what they were doing and even the time of day. 

I wanted to depict her as she may look when writing at her desk so decided on a dress-style to suit. Nevertheless, this dress is not as casual as it looks - I found paintings of women in this era wearing this style of dress in various different social settings. So portraying her in this style somewhat straddles informal and formal settings because it is a dress that could be worn to a ball or salon but could equally be worn at home when sitting at her desk writing. I also remained with this dress design because it was a style which remained in fashion when Shepherd was an adult, for instance, Regency era dresses. As I was drawing it, I thought about how to clearly symbolise her as a philosopher and author of treatises in a way which would be immediately obvious to the viewer, from a distance, without needing to read the inscription first. So, while drawing her arms, I incorporated one of her published books in her left hand. To emphasise her philosophy, I inscribed the title of her last treatise on the book cover. 

I want Shepherd to have the equivalent statue to the male philosophers, and generally, look the way numerous public, historical, respectful, representative statues of men are designed to honour them. Not some abstract statue because that would objectify Shepherd, erase her from history, in a way, by not depicting her as a human being, so preventing the viewer from connecting with Shepherd herself and her philosophical writings. When I created the hashtag #StatueForMaryShepherd (registered 2018) I did not mean for in the way the Wollstonecraft statue is designed ie. for her not representational one of her. I simply meant for in the sense of posthumously giving Shepherd a statue that honours her as a philosopher, celebrates her treatises and renders her visible and known to the general public by depicting her as realistically as possible. 

I am aware that there is a copy-cat petition for a statue for Mary Shepherd created a year after mine in 2019 (after a conference [25th-26th January 2019] was changed to one bearing her name despite none of the talks being on Shepherd). Their petition uses very similar wording to mine and is with the same petition organization (change.org). They even have an identical hashtag to mine for their campaign other than leaving out Mary Shepherd's surname (ie. #statueformary) which doesn't even make sense, especially given that Mary is a very common name. The person who put forward this petition was an UG student at the time. Somebody within the philosophy faculty should have stopped her and pointed out that you do not create a petition for something that is already out there as one. The government made this plain quite recently that this is the case. Indeed, I quote from their website giving guidelines and standards that must be adhered to when submitting a petition: 

'We'll have to reject your petition if:

It calls for the same action as a petition that's already open."

https://petition.parliament.uk/help

Therefore, the petition that was created after mine should be taken down. It's not possible to be unaware of my petition, it was and still is easy to find through a quick Google search and is on the same petition site as theirs. I am an active feminist/researcher in Philosophy and had already presented two academic papers on Shepherd at well-known academic events, submitted an abstract on Shepherd to a Scottish Philosophy conference, written an ebook on Shepherd and had attended philosophy conferences for many years, including the week-long Hume Society 2011 conference at Edinburgh University, Scotland. So I'm struggling to see how their remarkably similar Shepherd Statue petition could be created in error.

So it's inappropriate that the University of Edinburgh Philosophy Department, Diversity Reading List and Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) are supporting this conference committee's copycat petition while completely ignoring mine. Yet, at the same time, claiming they acknowledge and support under-represented people in Philosophy e.g. women, BME and LGBT+. Clearly not, when I am a young, lesbian, gender-fluid woman who is ethnically half Slav, yet they do nothing but distract off and drown out my petition. Just because some (mainly students) philosophers wish, as a group, to pull rank on me thinking they have more power than I do as a single individual, doesn't mean they should be allowed to do so. And, furthermore, they employ a technological expert to run their campaign for them. 

These philosophers could have simply signed my petition if they felt so strongly about Mary Shepherd the philosopher that hardly anyone researches! I did a headcount and believe there are no more than 10 others who have written on Shepherd, worldwide. Indeed, it appears that I am the only philosopher in the UK to research and write papers and a book on Mary Shepherd. I'm also a British philosopher so you can't feign ignorance. I also shared it with my then Facebook friends on Facebook (friends and visible to the public) who, all but one, are philosophers. I would have welcomed support from the philosophy community, students and lecturers! I still do! My petition is on-going so I'll be delighted if you sign it. 👍🙂 

https://www.change.org/p/nicola-sturgeon-first-time-for-a-statue-of-lady-mary-shepherd-first-scottish-female-philosopher 

Portraits and depictions of famous women in the past

One of the main themes of yesterday's #sotherbyssundaysketch was portraits of famous people in the past so I shared two posts on my Instagram showing my portrait of the philosopher I research, Lady Mary Shepherd which I drew in 2018. 

First post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMsIULOAs2b/?igshid=jkyilp7u9ngn 

Second post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMsIo6BAgra/?igshid=itsh5z9y27kd

The first post I shared shows the entire page in my 3D art sketchbook e.g. sketches, prep work, research and ideas for pottery, clay modelling, statues etc. Seeing the whole page gives the context around this first sketch and reveals some of my preparation process, especially how I tested different materials and colours before selecting a few that suit the look of a bronze coloured statue. Hence I chose a metallic pencil rather than a flesh coloured one. Out of those experimental marks I ticked, I started with the metallic bronze-like coloured pencil because this was only a first sketch, drawn in one go as an initial study for the statue for Shepherd. 

Nevertheless, my sketch also doubles up as an historical-style portrait sketch of Shepherd. For this, I was inspired by Cassandra Austen's 1810 drawing of her sister, Jane, which you can see below:

https://museumcrush.org/the-rarely-displayed-portrait-of-jane-austen-joining-five-others-for-austen-200/#gallery-2

The hue of the metallic pencil I used has a similar look to the brownish, 18th/19th century sketches so I thought it was in keeping with Shepherd's era (1777-1847). By basing my sketching style somewhat on Cassandra Austen's depiction of her sister, I attempted to create an intimate, sisterly portrait of Shepherd, rather than a formal, distant depiction of her. 

For this first sketch, I looked at a painting of Mary Shepherd (then Primrose, her family name) as a 10 year old child with her family. It's a small depiction of her in a pastoral setting, in which we only see her profile. See below for that painting by Alexander Nasmyth (1788), Mary is standing second from the right.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_3rd_Earl_of_Rosebery_with_his_family_outside_of_Barnbougle_Castle.png#mw-jump-to-license

We don't have one of her as an adult, so I've taken this child portrait and projected her into young adulthood when she writes her treatises, which she later publishes. I tried to imagine how she might appear if her child portrait were put through some computer software which would adapt her face into adulthood and drew what I pictured in my head. I wanted to be as realistic as possible because it is a pencil study for my proposed representational, life-like bronze statue of her. So my artistic process reflects that my design proposal is not imposing some abstract, non-representational, symbolic, going off on my own artistic tangent type of design. Instead, I am creating an historically accurate design as far as possible ie I keep her within her era, and further sketches for the design proposal will develop this, down to the fashion style of her clothes. 

Why was I drawing a statue design proposal sketch of Shepherd? Because I had started a petition calling for a statue of Shepherd after having been inspired by attending the unveiling of the Fawcett statue in London. Once I'd created the petition, I realised it would be helpful to include a photo on my petition site to make her more real to people who had never heard of her. I also wanted to concretely show what I have in mind and that it would be a representational-style statue, especially since there are no paintings or drawings available of her as an adult. I decided I needed to do further historical research into the fashion of her era, especially during her earlier adulthood. So I began with a simple portrait focusing on her face, rather than depicting the full length of the statue from head to toe. This also gave me time to experiment with various gestures, expressions, poses and whether she would be sitting or standing. 

I was going to go on to do other sketches the same day but my mother loved this one because she felt it had character and expressed her personality as she comes through in her writings. So I uploaded it to my petition site. This is the one and only sketch of Shepherd I have done to date. I tried to portray her facial expression as I see her sitting at her desk, thinking critically/philosophizing while disagreeing with most philosophers of her era and more, with a - no Hume, you are totally wrong about that! - look on her face! 😏 

See the link below for the on-going petition I started in 2018. My petition here is the first petition created to call for a statue of Mary Shepherd, to be put alongside the existing statues of other Scottish philosophers in Scotland (all men) e.g. Hume, Adam Smith: 

https://www.change.org/p/nicola-sturgeon-first-time-for-a-statue-of-lady-mary-shepherd-first-scottish-female-philosopher

I also created and registered the hashtag below for my campaign for a statue of Shepherd:

#StatueForMaryShepherd 

Here's a link to my post on my statue proposal:

https://theladymaryshepherdphilosophysalon.blogspot.com/2018/04/a-statue-commemorating-lady-mary.html

Mother's Day inspiration: Cassatt's Mother and Child pastel works of art (updated)

 

Mary Cassatt has been one of my favourite artists for a long time. I love using pastels and she used the medium to great effect. Her mother and child artworks have a warmth to them that draws one in. Several years ago, I went to a Cassatt exhibition in London. I came away even more obsessed with her work. So, it was a no-brainer that, given it's mother's day today, I'd want to do a pastel work on the theme of mother and child. I chose to personalise it by drawing a scene from my childhood with me in a hug with my mother. A snapshot of my daily life - I had a hug every day with my mother. Daily life was also the main feature of Impressionism not religion or mythology. I'm sitting on her knee, my legs wound round her left leg, my arms around her waist as she holds me in an embrace. 

Gesture and gaze were two important themes in Cassatt's works, so I've chosen an interlocking position between myself and my mother. If you were to draw the shape of our arms/hands, it would create a tilted oval shape. Use of space on the page and hand gestures are central for Cassatt and in this artwork of mine above, I have depicted our close, encircling arms and hands to resemble /symbolise our close bond. Cassatt wanted to illustrate, through her works, that closeness between mother and child is not something which happens automatically, thus she didn't create a sentimental mood. This can be seen in her works where the gazes are not direct eye-to-eye contact. Her mother and child artworks are possibly based on psychological theories (e.g. Freud) I haven't drawn upon for my artworks, here or elsewhere. There were other artists she knew well that also painted mother and child works e.g. Renoir. Unlike Cassatt, I've depicted a direct gaze, as a way of showing an emotional bond between us in addition to the physical closeness of hugging in an outdoor space rather than in a confined indoor space, such as the home. My figure drawing is three times the size of our dimensions in the original photograph. I have panned out to a full length viewpoint and shown some expanse of space around the figures. I was keen to make the composition vertical rather than keep to Cassatt's horizontal line between mother and child in close-up.

Clothes played an important part in Cassatt's art. So, in my work here, I've used modern clothes to show my mother's active, sporty personality. Although Cassatt depicts the women and girls in a passive way, I chose to show us as both active, in motion and sporty - we had played tennis together in the same clothes as depicted here just prior to this photo. My mother's relaxed body pose sums up her laid-back personality. My legs wrapped around her left leg and my arms round her back illustrate my physical strength (as I support my own body weight) and my athleticism. Cassatt's focus was on the child whereas I've used the gesture of the embrace and the eye-to-eye contact between us to enable the viewer to see both me and my mother as the focal point. We are interacting and communicating with each other in a meaningful, non-sentimental way.

I love this photo and I thought it would make an unusual composition. Pastel was popular at the end of the nineteenth century, the pre-Impressionist era. Pastel has an immediacy about it and, because it's matte, has an honesty within it. A naturalness, which I think Cassatt's artworks have in abundance. This matte quality was considered, back then, to be radical and breaking academic rules about art. Now we think it's classical and traditional. Luckily for us, she did experiment by breaking the rules because, otherwise, we wouldn't have her amazing artworks to enjoy. Like Hunter, she was a colourist but within Impressionism. So, I'm following on from Sothebys Sunday Sketch, a fortnight ago, which featured the Scottish colourist, George Leslie Hunter. 

Like the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, I juxtaposed colours opposite each other in the colour wheel I used. This makes the subject matter more vibrant and intense. I chose vibrant green for the background because this is a colour Cassatt used for her background 'Mother and Child' (in pastel, 1914). Under her pastel works she used charcoal which remained visible. I used pencil which hasn't remained visible. I deliberately drew over it.  Cassatt liked to leave areas of her work unfinished where you can see the colour of the paper. Although, much as I love the unfinished look and do it myself sometimes, I haven't done so in this one. Nevertheless, I've gone for the mild version of Cassatt's technique (unlike traditional pastel technique which I've used on my mother's jumper) by leaving gaps between the pastel marks. This is particularly clear on my blue dress in the pastel work. No colour symbolism is intended in the work.

Light features strongly for both Impressionists and Colourists and Cassatt was in line with this. I've stayed with this importance of light, similar to Cassatt, by varying the amount of pastel powder I applied to the textured paper. To make the background flatter and recede I applied pastel powder by doing broad strokes with the flat side of the pastel stick and smudging it in with my finger. In order for the subject matter to stand out, I used the top of the pastel stick to draw bold marks that give a thickness to the lines. It also gives off thick pastel powder which I blew on to disperse the excess powder but which, nevertheless, still left the thickness of the mark. Unlike Cassatt who used steam to create various pastel textures, such as clumping, I used dry pastels only. Playing with the pastel powder helps create light.

In my previous painting, 'Self-portrait with Flowers and Hat in Oil' (previous post), I similarly wanted a flat, receding background so that the subject matter felt closer. I achieved this flat background by smudging the green oil paint thinly and evenly with a kitchen towel. The green complements the deep reds but doesn't overpower them due to its flat, softer texture.

Just because Cassatt drew mother and child pastel works doesn't mean she was shy and retiring or that she restricted herself to this subject matter. Despite her father's disapproval, she studied art, even though, like now, the learning experience and content was not the same as for men. She spent most of her years in France, being already fluent in French and German, even though she was American. There was more freedom of movement back then, than even now! The Scottish Colourists equally just went off to France on a whim. Cassatt was close friends with Degas (even though they didn't always agree with each other) having a studio very close to his. Yet, she remained an active feminist throughout her life campaigning for women's right to vote, as well as, equal educational and career opportunities. This led certain critics to label her as a masculine woman who does masculine artworks.  Which goes to show that a masculine woman is simply one that doesn't just passively sit in a corner twiddling her fingers. We're still fighting for the same rights in the 21st century as she was in the 19th and early 20th, and we are still seen in much the same way! Time to finally bring about long awaited change!

Thus, Cassatt is an artist we should celebrate at any time but especially so on Mother's Day because she's a feminist and portrays the mother/child relationship in a non-ideological (political, religious, gender stereotypical) way. She depicts them as having a close bond but which, at the same time, allows them both to have their own individuality! I have done the same in my pastel artwork but changed certain aspects e.g. direction of gaze to show that emotional bonding doesn't mean a loss of separate identity!

Self-Portrait with Flowers: Oil Painting

#sothebyssundaysketch is always a race against time. Will I finish before the light fades and I end up taking a yellowy photo of my artistic attempt taken in artificial light? 🤔 This is really tight when it's winter but now the days are longer, it's a little better. I have until 5pm until the sunlight weakens. Then I panic. I feel like I'm on The Great British Bake-Off, except it's the Great Sotheby's Sunday Sketch-Off!

Yesterday, it was an art history lesson again. I love those. I'd never heard of the famous French artist, Jean-Pierre Cassigneul (1935-). He's known for his stylish women usually wearing a hat with interest. For instance, a hat with flowers, often in a modern 'take' on Post-Impressionism e.g. Le 21 Juin (Willow Gallery) woman seated at table in black dress, white pearls and wide-rimmed hat with flowers. Like Bonnard, he uses blocks of bright colours. (Sotheby's example was an oil painting of a woman seated at a table wearing a large hat with flowers resting her head in her right hand with a fruit bowl and a plate with a knife in front of her on the table.) I didn't have time to look through Cassigneul's paintings and learn much about him before thinking up my own composition and painting it. Only once I'd finished my painting, taken a photo 📷 of it in natural light and uploaded it, did I have more time to read about Cassigneul and look through further images of his work yesterday evening and today while writing this post. 

Before beginning to sketch it out, I sat in front of my blank oil painting paper and went through many different permutations and ideas. Eventually, I settled on one composition and even then it took on a life of its own. I never quite know where a drawing or painting is going to take me until it is completed. The same is true of my academic books and research - I write a book plan, down to chapter titles and topic outlines, only to find that the book has a life of its own and goes in its own direction, takes shape without me, and I merely follow. 

I turned this painting into an autobiographical one with me as the woman wearing my own hat 👒with flower. I do actually possess this hat and I have worn it but I have changed it considerably for this painting for colour unity. I placed it on the table but it didn't speak to me so I put it on and took some bad selfies 📱 (one of which I lost, I don't know where it went, I think it accidentally deleted itself) to help me envisage the perspective of the angles I need to draw to depict the hat sitting on my head. I then drew the selfie in pencil and this became the portrait and composition. The bouquet came from my imagination. Unlike last week's #sothebyssundaysketch still life oil painting, I didn't use a 9B pencil, leave the dark pencil marks on the paper and paint the oil over the under-drawing. This time I used a lighter 3B pencil, drew my self-portrait, then rubbed it out, only leaving faint markings as my guidelines to paint over. As with the previous oil painting, I drew in pencil over the oil paint during the painting process to give definition of line, but to a lesser extent than in the prior one. It's similar to sgraffito but it creates dark pencil lines rather than showing the paper or oil colours beneath. In this painting, you mostly see this effect in the bouquet and my smiling lips and the line to depict the crease in the cheek when one smiles. 

Unlike Cassigneul, I'm going for a natural look not a fashionable one, hence I've left out any depiction of the clothes so there's no visual distraction from the symbolism in the flowers and the portrait - it's the soulmate idea of it's the person that matters, not the trappings. If anything, I'm recreating a 60's look as seen by the flowing hair and style of hat. Except I changed the colour of my hat from cream to red and dark peach and changed the white flower on my hat to a dahlia 🏵 reflecting the colour of my hair to symbolise long-term bond, commitment and marriage 👰. The bouquet I'm holding is reflecting the symbolism of the dahlia by foreshadowing a bridal bouquet. I used the end of my paintbrush to draw the petals of the dahlia in a passionate, swirling motion (sgraffito technique). My hair, hat and flower are more in the post-impressionist style as is the block of deep red in the 💐. The red in the hat is then reflected in the red of my lips and the bouquet of tulips to represent soulmates and true love with one red rose 🌹 in the centre of the bouquet to stand for love at first sight. The red rose also symbolises passionate, endless love. I am holding the 24 deep red tulips 🌷 bouquet which signifies a mutual 'I'm Yours Forever' and is gift wrapped.🎁 I am looking out from the painting and the one I love receives the meaningful bouquet from me. There's a mutual exchange. I smile warmly, lovingly at The One. My intention is to create intimacy and draw the viewer into the painting. 

In the image on Instagram I've taken a close-up of my oil painting so the full bouquet 💐cannot be seen. For that image, see my PinInterest gallery:

https://pin.it/2EIxgVC

In the latter image, you can see the full bouquet with a bit of the gift wrapping around it but not that I am holding it. I've omitted that part in my painting, it's something I've left to the imagination of the viewer to contemplate the gestures and story taking place in the painting.