Light Bite: Get Involved! Light Bite 2011

Light Bite: Get Involved! Light Bite 2011: "Get involved with Nottingham's Light Night Festival by submitting an artwork to our exhibition on the City Centre's Lamp posts. Details on..."

Every year I produce a Christmas card this is one for 2010

Christmas Mantelpiece 2010, Greeting Card by Jane Denman
Long Greeting card, cellophaned with envelope, 6 for £10

'Jack in the Box', Le Train Bleu Series, Square greeting card

Greeting Cards by Jane Denman pack of 6 £10

Drawings waiting in the wings

I have now moved from my studio into the relative, albeit unheated, comfort of the conservatory. This happens every year and armed with a large variety of clothing I prepare for short daylight hours and a longing for new fingerless gloves (preferably thermal)..... I am excited about the next painting which Roy kindly photographed me drawing up (title image for the blog now) and there seems to be a small backlog waiting in the wings ready to be painted. Over the years I have found that Christmas can be a very productive time so I am looking forward to that.

I am also looking forward to my treat life drawing workshop up at the Royal Academy at the end of November. In conjunction with the Treasures from Budapest exhibition I will be taking part in the pen and ink Life Drawing workshop. This is one of my all time favourite drawing trips and I just love going to the life room where all the great artists drew in the past.

Taking part in the Big Draw

I think it is great to be able to submit work online, for me it is a great way to get my work seen by others without having to physically go anywhere!

The Big Draw is an annual national event and there are lots of activities and exhibitions going on in October. This year I submitted 2 drawings as part of the ASSIGN art group in October and their open online gallery event. Take a look at Assign Gallery and scroll down to find my name and drawings.

How the weeks fly by

Finishing one painting, which I initially fell in love with and now seem to have fallen slightly out of love with can be an annoying factor of creating work. The enthusiasm and energy at the initial stages of creating the work was flowing, days went by where I whistled and happily applied mixed blues and greys, interspersed by muted pink giant lines, then I brought the painting into the house and sat with it for a week. It peered at me on the mantel piece waiting. Every now and then I would sneak a look at it and then resume watching tv. Now I am not so sure.... However, it could do with something else, the line yes but then it really needs to be different.

I now have my headspace in another painting, which is a shame for the one waiting.

Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes

I love autumn for going to see exhibitions, yesterday it was the super Diaghilev exhibition at the V&A and the very first Palace Art Fair in south London.

I wasnt sure what to expect at the V&A but having done numerous drawings from Le Train Bleu and the Firebird (two of Diaghilevs famous productions) it was a real treat.

Fantastic Gauguin exhibition

I have to say that I was bowled over the by the new Gauguin Exhibition on at the moment at Tate Modern. I cant actually say that I have seen more than one Gauguin painting, in the flesh, as it were but this show demonstrates how prolific he was. With at least 4 or 5 rooms dedicated to his whole lifes work as a painter it is hard not to be impressed.

Kate and Johns painting - finished

I was delighted to receive such an interesting commission back in the spring. I was given the challenge of interpreting a very special black and white photograph of Kate and John taken in the 1980s. What was interesting about the image, taken by John using a shutter release cable, was the relaxed breakfast/lunch scene between the two of them, with a cluttered tablecloth and napkin on the lap it was a snapshot of a lovely moment. What I liked about it was that there was a mass of objects on the table, including a radio at the back and it seemed to have such a relaxed atmosphere (although Kate was objecting to having her photo taken!). Anyway, thanks again Kate!

Out and about

I enjoyed visiting Brighton Art Fair on the weekend. I love the atmosphere there, easy going, busy (a bit hot) but a great one to see and a great place to see whats being created and catch up with friends exhibiting and visiting. My dear friend Frances Doherty with her super ceramics really catch everyones eye, she had a good weekend. I always feel quite fired up when I see exhibitions, my next one is the blockbuster Gauguin. I am hoping to get a lot of 'compositional' advice from him! I always take my sketchbook and do drawings whilst I am standing in front (hope there will be room). Off to paint, really enjoying the new dancers....

A start has been made on the colour!

Its not that easy writing when I am trying to keep my brain in visual mode! Nevertheless painting has begun, albeit just putting in block colour to start with. The colours at the moment are purple greys with a splash of permanent rose in quite darkish tones. Although I work on a variety of sketches in various mediums it is inevitable that the paintings look slightly different when they are finished. I do want to get back to colour, full intensity and it is exciting to be on this thread. Waiting for oil to dry, however, is another things as I am quite impatient. Still this weekend will see the drawing go onto the colour and then everything changes all over again.

Working on composition ideas

After having a short break and working rather erratically on new sketches I will now endeavour to work on composition. When I started drawing and painting seriously I used to do several mock up sketches from other artists focusing solely on composition. I find this helps enormously as there is so much to discover from other artists. One of my all time favourites has to be Egon Schiele. The master of contour drawing (he was left handed) and of composition. They are very confronting and I wonder how my drawings could follow some of his useful compositional tools. It strikes me that the compositions focus on strong triangular areas in a lot of his work such as Schiele's, Reclining Boy (Erich Lederer), 1913 which you can see at the Leopold Museum here http://www.leopoldmuseum.org/print_exhibitions_en.php?nav=2&id=3&sub=49

First Draft for the next painting - Bella Figura II

I had an extremely interesting weekend visiting my lovely friends in France and also meeting up with other artists and some super people. One artist/dancer had even seen my favourite dancers Cloudgate in Tokyo and we had a great conversation about their performance.

So now I am all fired up and here is one of the draft sketches from Bella Figura, choreographed by Jiri Kylian, for the next series of dance paintings and prints.

Pleased with my new drawings

I worked solidly on a new set of dance drawings yesterday. I find I am continually inspired by the choreographer Jiri Kylian and the Nederlands dans Theater dance troup. Inevitably when I start to draw there is a high fall out rate or non starter drawings, I liken this to a warm up before a sprint. Sometimes that is all there is but yesterday it was very different, 2 drawings and then I was right in the zone! Once I am on a roll drawing is all that seems to matter in the world, a truly great feeling (another rather strange analogy that comes to mind is when you start winning at a game of pool and just keep on potting one after another). 

Today I scanned the drawings in ready for the next stage, colour! This is a tricky area for me at the moment. I was inspired by the Bella Figura red dresses in Jiri Kylians production and did a quick watercolour sketch of that, see above. It is a little too atmospheric for my liking but could be a starting point. What I am trying to get away from is a type of cliche dance image, soft focus and all of that which seems to be lurking at the back of my mind. I want the paintings to be large - very large in fact but sadly not sure how realistic this will be.

Being inspired to get the hang of the blog

Well the blog has looked pretty empty and forlorn and so needs rescuing badly. After being inspired by Colin Ruffell, artist and great at marketing, I decided that this has to be done. When I can work out how to become a follower of Colin I will!

So todays blog:
Yesterday was spent getting demonstrations ready for the Art Weekend which I am taking this weekend near Arundel. This is the second art weekend, the first was in July and it was a great success, a super setting and lovely lunches. You can see some of the photos of the weekend under the gallery page on the Skyblue Art Class website www.skyblueartclasses.co.uk

The coming weekend is all about Colour and it has really got me fired up! Investigating colour mixes, other artists colour palettes and most of all thinking about how I first got into colour has been great fun. Explaining colour is a tricky one though! My forte I suppose though is mixing colour. From the very first time I tried oils, 15 years ago, I loved mixing. It is not for everyone and a lot of people like to reach for the nearest tube of colour but I love the way that hundreds of colours can be mixed using a 2 or 3 colours.

The preparations for this weekend has certainly inspired me to get to the canvas and work purely with colour so it is my students I have to thank!