photo: recent sketchbook pages - this will be a postcard soon - (as will the one from last week).
Hello again, I hope you are well. We have seen a little more sunshine this week. It has been so welcome. However, this does make the weeds so very thick and tall, and I have not had the time or energy to do much gardening. What I have decided to try is just ten minutes a day of getting outside and doing some tidying up. Ten minutes spent next to the earth rather than scrolling on my phone, doesn’t sound so difficult.
I had planned to spend the past few days stitching, working on my sewing machine, but energy levels and life happening prevented this. To work so intensely on my machine requires, yes energy and focus, but also the right mindset. I am so close to finishing two pieces and want them to be as they should be! So, they are waiting for completion and I will spent the next few days, hopefully, focused on them. This means my shop update this coming Wednesday will be a special stitch update - with a further selection of tiny pencil drawings. I’m so pleased people are enjoying the tiny pencil drawings and yes, thank you always.
So, instead of stitching yesterday I spent time spring cleaning, (forever spring cleaning - not that it is that noticeable) and did a little house painting.
photo: a newly painted house - the basic structure was made last year
This is one of an ongoing series of houses I have made over several years. They have been dotted about my home for a while now, but recently I decided to create a wall of houses - possibly a village - and this is in my bedroom, so that when I sit in bed yes I have a street view…. of sorts…. I have moved houses from different rooms to be together. Houses I have made over years, with different styles but all made from card and old books…. This kind of project can take years and will take more time….. There are lights in the houses that can be turned on at night. When the wall is ‘complete’ (I expect it will be in permanent flux, like any village) I plan to make a video.
photo: the newly painted house on the wall, with another made many years ago (you may see a tiny frozen Charlotte who moves about from house to house) - this is just one part of the wall.
And yes, other houses are still being built, so I will have more to share with you soon.
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Thank you to everyone who has shown an interest in the sketchbook weekend - fill a sketchbook in a weekend June 3/4. You should have received an email to confirm you are signed up to the new ‘sketchbook weekend’ substack newsletter. This is a private group so that we can discuss ideas and how things are going in a quiet space. I have enabled comments to include photos, so that you will be able to share photos of your sketchbooks with other participants, if you so wish. I will be sending out a new email to everyone next week. If you would like to sign up please email me: ccullis at gmail dot com
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photo: a piece of stitch drawing/embroidery that I hope to have completed soon - an example of intuitive drawing.
Intuitive drawing. As I mentioned last week, I wanted to write a few more notes on this. A question one may ask is: what is the difference between doodling and intuitive drawing?
Intentions may give clarity. Doodling tends to be more open-ended, with no purpose other than to fill a space. I am thinking of the old days of telephone pads, doodling as you talked on the telephone, your mind perhaps more focused on conversation than image making.
Intuitive drawing has, for me, a more purposeful intent. A space is given but the intention is not to simply fill that space. The artist may need deep focus to work intuitively, with no distraction. The drawing is enabled by something that comes from deep within/without. Some artists may experience a trance-like state - one artist may feel it is a spiritual journey, another a way into deep purpose. There are thin walls to these places/spaces.
Sometimes an artist may listen to a piece of music to guide them into a world/moment/feeling/intention that enables the drawing to take place. Or an artist might sing themselves. The rhythm and timing of music gives an artist a way into their drawing.
Personally, I do not feel my intuitive drawing is created through trance, or chance, but comes from a place deep within. I believe we all carry within our artistic DNA archetypal images, memories and responses. We have inherited and learned images, deep within our unconscious.
Responses are the ways in which we interpret as we draw. For example, over time, through a great deal of repetition, I may find myself drawing a face in a way that feels not just familiar to me but innately just-so. This sense of the deeply familiar may guide my drawing further on, enabling me to further see into how it can develop.
So yes, I do believe intuitive drawing requires a skill set. Unlike doodling, which any creature that can hold a drawing tool can attempt. Intuitive drawing requires perhaps an obsessive history of drawing. If you look at many examples of so-called ‘outside art’ ( I wrote my undergrad dissertation on this subject) you will see many practitioners have a tool kit of style and dexterity, developed through constant making.
There is a lot to ponder on this.
But I will leave it here for now. ( Yes, I could write a book on it) I hope this helps you understand a little more of how I see it…
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A few small stories
Walking into the woods, sun high in the leafy trees. The path is black, churned mud. We must somehow find a way of walking safely; I cannot simply hop or jump (foot still too fragile). I want to see how the woods again and especially how the ‘new’ clearing has developed. Last year trees were felled to create a vista from the woods into meadow, with plans for a planting of many new species to encourage diversity. It is important to have a truly thriving mix of plants and trees, or else a few come to dominate…. Alas, my heat sinks a little when we come to the spot. Yes, the view has been enhanced but all sign of any new planting - indeed the sign to say that this is an exciting new space - none of it is here. Instead, the same rampant species that dominate elsewhere have taken over the land and I am left wondering if the resources for the new vista have been ‘relocated’… My daughter and I sit on the bench and admire the view. This sunny day is to be cherished, these trees, this bracken, the bright bluebells, the stinging nettles, chickweed, brambles - oh all can be cherished for now.
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Waiting for the bus home, my son and I having just missed one. A fellow waiting passenger, a woman with ‘trust no one’ tattooed on her upper chest, tells us we should get ourselves a free coffee. Yes, but no thanks. The bus company have set up a stand and are giving out free drinks but I don’t trust their timings…. A dog, a white bull dog has suddenly appeared by my side and has its nose buried in my shopping bag. Don’t worry, she’s a harmless old thing, a man says and I turn to see her owner, a man I saw earlier in the street. He has a curious appearance with a large, framed painting of the crucifixion hanging around his neck. I can’t help feeling I am in a painting - a painting by Bruegel or Bosch, but a twenty-first century version… It’s with some trepidation that we get on the bus, my son wincing at the ear-piercing cries of a girl who does not enjoy her mother singing nursery rhymes.
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I look down from my bedroom window. The large deep green weed has grown taller. The green man face has grown a bushier beard. If I leave it to grow, I am only imagine how limbs might appear….
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Thanks always for reading here, for your kind comments and likes. I am pleased to stay in touch with you and grateful to you for subscribing. If you would like to buy me a coffee this will be much appreciated.
Thank you for describing some of your intuitive drawing process. Memories, dreams, and ghosts have been much in my thoughts recently, and this helps to think about how the sketchbook weekend might be approached. Especially enjoyed the bus stop stories. Riding the city bus here in Seattle is always an interesting adventure!
I love your bedroom street view idea Cathy!