sitting comfortably …

Posted on 14/06/2013 by Mari French RI

Just a few sketches from this week’s visit to my favourite stomping ground … Thornham salt marsh on the Norfolk coast. In celebration of the Queen’s jubilee a new bench has been conveniently sited facing out to sea along the creek. HM had her photo taken on her new bench recently with some of the villagers (Sandringham is nearby).

Thornham salt marsh

It’s a popular spot for locals to rest, but despite the bright sunlight there was a cold northeasterly (there has been most of the year so far), and I had the bench to myself for an hour and could spread out. What a luxury not to be perched on a cold rock or on my waterproof mat on a tussock of grass trying not to lose my brushes or pencils in the grass. I’ll be getting soft 🙂

Emerging sun, Thornham Creek.

There was a very low tide… I’ve never seen the mud in the creeks so dry and pale. The blonde smudge of sand reflecting the sun across the near horizon seemed larger and closer than I’ve seen it before, with the channel marker posts standing out clearly.

Changing light, Thornham.

Venice sketchbook …

Posted on 23/05/2013 by Mari French RI

funny how a rough sketch or study can send you hurtling back to the precise moment of creation …

… sitting in the hot Venice sunshine on marble steps by a bridge, or a church, usually in the quieter, humbler ‘sestieres’ of Cannaregio or Castello.

I remember this while sketching … an old woman shaking a rug out of her window on the third floor stopped to smile and wave to me. In a city inundated with tourists (267 to every Venetian), I appreciated that friendly gesture.

I took ink-stained tissue paper and pva glue with me this time as part of my sketching kit. It seems to capture the intense colour and light of the city … a bit fiddly but lovely to sketch over, and in the heat it dried quickly.

The long narrow sketch pad you can see in some of the photos is the ‘Extreme’ watercolour pad produced by RE+new Gallery in Woodbridge, Suffolk. It’s very useful for panoramas (or tall buildings) and great for pen or pencil and wash; but I tend to work in a fairly wet style and I find the paper a bit thin for that, unfortunately. The other sketchbook is a good old small, square Seawhite sketchbook, which seems to take well to wet-in-wet, collating etc.

Okay, end of technical details …

Venice… finding the female

Posted on 18/05/2013 by Mari French RI

Venetian mask ( photo copyright Paul Campbell)

My photos, and artworks, are more often than not of places, buildings, sometimes nature…

But on going through photos from our recent second trip to Venice I became aware of different representations of the female form among them.

Inevitably, given that this is Italy, several religious images feature amongst them.

Unfortunately some photos are blurred as they were taken inside churches/in low light without flash. But I wanted to put them into this post anyway… here they are…

Further information on the wonderful collection at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice, can be found here.