Drawing etc

New post

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 14:55:00 +0000

Two new posts on
http://maryadam.com/an-occasional-blog/

Unblocked

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 02:26:00 +0000

My apologies that the new blog in the previous post was inadvertently blocked. It's now unblocked.

New blog

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 20:12:00 +0000

After a long time away from blogging I've started a new blog. It's called "An occasional blog" because I won't be posting often. The first post is called "Everything is different now". It's here.

Things for sale

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 14:36:00 +0000

If you are in Trinidad & Tobago check out this site for items for sale at giveaway prices -- furniture, appliances, and some small things including a child's car seat and a playpen not yet listed on the site.

Small office fridge

Artist's drawing table

30" gas stove

Rattan patio chairs (set)

Storage cupboard

See http://forsaletrinidad.weebly.com for more info, or email me at folio12@gmail.com.

The Barcarolle

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 20:43:00 +0000

90 Days

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 16:55:00 +0000

I've started another blog on my website at http://www.maryadam.com/90-days/. It's called "90 days" and it's a sort of countdown. The plan is to post something there every day or most days for the next ninety days as a record (actually, 90 days from October 17, 2015).

Open Studio

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 04:59:00 +0000

My studio is open to visitors for the whole of September, details here. Hope to see you there.

Dickens on solitary confinement

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 04:49:00 +0000

In American Notes, 1842, by Charles Dickens, full text available in Project Gutenberg,
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/675

"I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon the sufferers; and in guessing at it myself, and in reasoning from what I have seen written upon their faces, and what to my certain knowledge they feel within, I am only the more convinced that there is a depth of terrible endurance in which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a right to inflict upon his fellow creature. I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body; and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh; because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear; therefore the more I denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay."

From http://solitarywatch.com/2010/02/27/charles-dickens-on-solitary-confinement-immense-torture-and-agony/

One-minute gesture drawing

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 16:18:00 +0000

Back in 2011 I made a short video about gesture drawing and uploaded it to YouTube. I had done it on a Mac and soon afterwards my Mac was stolen. A little while after that I realized the video needed editing but was unable to make the edits in Windows XP, so I withdrew it from YouTube until I could fix it. Only now, four years later, have I finally been able to edit it with MovieMaker in Windows 7. The edits were mainly cuts, and I added a few bits of explanatory text. So here it is belatedly. Hope someone gets something useful from it!

Painting in the Savannah

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 19:01:00 +0000


A watercolour of the Savannah from the east side near the St Ann’s roundabout, dated 1977 © Mary Adam

I’ve painted in the Savannah since the 1970s. Some readers would be too young to remember how it was then, with two-way traffic which was a lot slower than it is now. There were frequent massive traffic jams in the afternoons when school was out. In those days it was easier to park near enough to pack up quickly and reach the car before the rain came down.

I always preferred working on the east side, something about the light, but that hasn’t been possible for many years now unless one walks a long distance loaded down with gear and is prepared for everything to be soaked in the event of a downpour.

It would be nice if the Ministry would allow artists to drive their cars onto the Savannah, perhaps with special passes and restricted to certain days and times. I often wanted to do that but never did.

There is so much to enjoy in the Savannah and so much to inspire the artist: the fresh air and the open space; the football, the cricket and the rugby that are played there regularly; the trees for their shade and their flowering in season – Poui, Immortelle, and Queen of Flowers among others. And then you have kite-flying, coconut vendors, the Pitch Walk and joggers.

Until recently I usually went on my own. Passers-by would sometimes pause to watch. They might ask a polite question, or say how much they themselves always wanted to draw and paint, and move on. Nobody ever bothered me. I haven’t been there for a long while though – in fact, come to think of it, since the parking area opposite Frederick Street was blocked off with a barrier. That’s where I used to park. I tend to avoid parking on the road with the high-speed traffic whooshing by. The barrier at the entrance to the Savannah is therefore a deterrent – to me, and to how many others like me? No doubt it was placed there for a reason and deterring artists is an unintended consequence. But it may be something that can be addressed and rectified. Perhaps the ASTT can petition the Ministry on behalf of artists?

(This was first published in the ASTT Newsletter, September 2014)

Video of show

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 03:29:00 +0000

Slide show of 2015 exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 05:04:00 +0000

There's a slide show of the work in the exhibition on the home page of my website, here.

Press for exhibition -- Trinidad Express

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:56:00 +0000

In today's Trinidad Express, page 36:

News

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:27:00 +0000

The news is that I'm having a solo show in early March, exact dates Monday 2nd to Saturday 7th, at the Art Society in Federation Park. The reception will be on Tuesday 3rd, 5 to 8 pm. Invitations will be posted out in about three weeks -- that is, snail mail invitations, as well as email invites. I'd love you to come! Stay tuned for further bulletins.

-- o --

For fellow artists who get supplies online -- this site looks good though I haven't tried it myself yet: http://www.artistsupplysource.com

Happy Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 16:17:00 +0000

Poinsettia drawing

Art Market this Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 00:21:00 +0000

Lots of quality artwork will be on offer from the membership. See you there!

Award

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:48:00 +0000

My "Sno-Cone Cart" in the recent ASTT Annual November Exhibition received the "Best in Show" award. It was totally unexpected and a great honour.

Sno-Cone Cart, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 14". © Mary Adam

The painting is from a photograph I took back in 2005. It's the first time I've painted a car for public viewing, something I wouldn't attempt without a photo reference because I'm clueless about cars. I've painted a couple more since then because they are everywhere in our lives. I'm actually getting to like painting them but doubt I'll ever be able to identify makes and models by sight. I'd quicker identify a bird or a flower, cars are a step too far!

November exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 14:14:00 +0000

These two are on show in the ASTT annual November exhibition until November 22nd. There's an online catalogue for the exhibition here.

Untitled, 2014, oil on canvas 12 x 12 ins.

Sno-Cone Cart, 2014, acrylic on canvas 18 x 14 ins.

Newsletter due soon

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 21:57:00 +0000

Newsletter #6 is underway and should be emailed out in the next few weeks. If you are not already a subscriber, click here to subscribe (it's free). Sample issues are available here.

The Drawing etc blog has taken a bit of a back seat lately, partly because of the newsletter, and also because of the ASTT quarterly newsletter for which I'm writing a short piece. Somehow there's just less time available for everything. The online courses I've been doing are taking time as well, more about that in the newsletter.

Who shall say ...

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:59:00 +0000

Walden Pond, image from Wikipedia

"Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?"

-- Henry David Thoreau

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205 for the whole book. The quote is from the first chapter, "Economy".

Next newsletter soon

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Thu, 15 May 2014 15:26:00 +0000

Newsletter No. 5 will be going out early next week. If you would like to receive it and are not already subscribed, you can sign up here.

An impromptu mini artist's talk

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Mon, 05 May 2014 15:41:00 +0000

http://youtu.be/z-Cj-ukC5vw

Art Market this Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:57:00 +0000

I will have a table at this Saturday's Easter Art Market with selected work including some new work. Why not come on down, it should be an enjoyable event.

When: Saturday April 26, 2014, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: The Trinidad and Tobago Art Society's headquarters, Jamaica Boulevard, Federation Park

Mystery tree

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 16:48:00 +0000

Mystery seed pod

In the grounds of the ASTT building in Federation Park, there's a tree with an unusual woody seed pod or capsule. I picked one up from the ground under the tree some time last year and asked around but nobody knew what it was. This is the seed pod:

I was there again a couple of weeks ago and tried to reach a sprig of leaves to help with identifying the tree. The branches were just beyond my reach but fortunately there was a man nearby and I asked him if he could break off a piece for me, which he kindly did. Not only that, when I asked him if he knew what the tree was, he absolutely did ... he said it's a Mahogany tree! This was a great surprise and unexpected, like meeting a famous person. I looked it up later on the internet and scanned the leaves as a record.

http://theplumtree2.blogspot.com/2012/04/mahogany.html

http://www.arkive.org/big-leaf-mahogany/swietenia-macrophylla/image-G15435.html

Evidently mahogany in general has been overlogged and is on the verge of extinction in many areas.

(P.S. If the blog seems to be more about botany than about art lately, this is temporary, just a few observations which I wanted to share).

Reflecting on the time-based Plumbago

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Adam) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 06:00:00 +0000

This mini-project consisted of taking a photograph of one flower-head every afternoon from about the same place until it finished flowering. Flowering lasted for twelve days and I photographed it every day except Day 11. If the light wasn’t good from one angle I would move slightly to get a better view. The branch moved around a bit too. On one occasion a gust of wind blew it up against another branch where it stuck because of the stickiness of the sepals. Later it freed itself. Also it grew longer and sank down nearer to the ground over the twelve days of observation.

Time-based Plumbago Days 1-12, click to enlarge

I was curious what the daily photograph would elicit, if anything. One obvious conclusion is that it’s a form of observation with the main value being that the photographs form a record. Just the existence of a record has value because usually there is no record.

I observed something I had not noticed before, which is that the flowers come out in tiers starting at the base, approximately one tier (or turn of the spiral) per day. On this flower-head some of the earlier flowers died off before those at the tip came out. Some of them were knocked off by rain. On sunny days the small butterflies noted a few months ago were out in force.

I thought about how plants operate on a different time-scale to us, how they work over an extended time period of days, months and years, which makes some changes almost imperceptible without a written or visual record. I thought of Stone Age people in Ireland five thousand years ago who worked out the movements of the sun throughout the year and recorded their observations and predictions in various structures and rock drawings, an incredible feat considering they had no sophisticated instruments. To a Stone Age astronomer, the fact that certain flowers come out at the rate of one tier a day could be crucial information. All sorts of seemingly minor changes in the environment could contribute to the ability to arrive at correct conclusions which would then enable them to predict seasons and prepare for them. To observe the changes in the angle of the rising sun over the course of many years, to draw the correct inferences – it’s nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Back to the Plumbago … the buds opened, the flowers came out and lasted for a few days before withering. That brings to mind the cycle of life and the flow of life. Life flows … as long as there’s flow, there’s life. When the flow stops the organism dies. Everything must keep moving. Can one say that life equals flow?

Geranium opening by Andrew Dunn, from Wikipedia

Finally, time lapse photography is a wonderful tool for observing plants. As the Wikipedia article says, “The effect of photographing a subject that changes imperceptibly slowly, creates a smooth impression of motion.” Above, a time-lapse photograph of a geranium courtesy Andrew Dunn. It shows the flower opening over two hours compressed into a few seconds.