HCB
Tuesday 10 February
My lovely husband organised a surprise weekend away staying in a beautifully converted cowshed at Hawthbush Farm, Sussex. It was a welcome retreat from the concrete jungle that is London.
Usually I would go away with sketchbook and mechanical pencils in tow. But this time I packed an array of implements that I never use. Conte Charcoal sticks, red chalk pastels, indian inks, sponges & large paintbrushes… not a 0.3mm pencil lead in sight. After a long walk on saturday morning, collecting long sticks, feathers and clay. I rolled out my cheap 1400 wall lining paper, bound my sponges, brushes & charcoal to the ends of the long sticks with tape and filled an array of glasses with varied strengths of diluted black, red sienna & green apple ink.
Onions, Apples, Pears, Garlic and Avocado from our Veg box made for the perfect subject.
I set myself some rules, as an illustrator I confess I am addicted to detail and precision, so the challenge for me was to not care about accuracy.
RULE 1 – No looking at the paper whilst painting
RULE 2 – Each painting could take no longer than 5 minutes.
RULE 3 – I couldn’t hold/use any instrument that wasn’t attached to a long stick, thus preventing overly considered lines
RULE 4 – Not to care about the outcome, the luxury of a £3.99 roll of paper meant I didn’t have the burden of worry that I was wasting valuable paper and therefore being too precious.
It was a GREAT exercise and I surprised myself at how much I loved the freedom and speed of the technique.
The Onions stole the lime light with the crackled skin and wispy tails. I am already looking forward to doing more painting and it has ignited a flame in me to paint more using foreign materials and working out of the comforts of my illustration style. OCD Illustrator or not, I couldn’t recommend more giving this a whirl, it was total liberation from detail and perfectionism.
An inspiring exercise all round.
Below are the results of my FIVE MINUTE PAINTING weekend……