Wool Gathering

Another New Studio

Studio 05/08/2024

After disassembling the sculptures and creating an empty studio I embarked upon a period of rumination. Is the next step to develop a better VR for the ‘Red Gardens’  or to stop for the moment and find a new direction? I spent a week or so working on the bigger ‘Gardens Project’  adapting it for a later version of Unity and working out how to direct the audience through it. The problem remains that people are not used to any agency in works of this nature and would, it seems, rather be led. My study of this is with a very small sampling of visitors to the studio but giving a user anything other than the ability to move, stop and start again, introduces far too much of a learning curve for the controls.

Flower Bed Cards 12/08/2024

Flower Bed Cards 14/08/2024

As a side note this blog’s illustrations are presented in chronological order through August and are discussed later on.

The many things I need to resolve are both frustrating and make me feel guilty because I’m sitting in a big empty space and working at a computer and as result of this I am engaged in ‘Wool Gathering’  I link to the OUP blog rather than the dictionary because of the discussion. Wool Gathering is generally regarded to be a fruitless pursuit but after examining the etymology of the idiom Liberman suggests that this must not have originally been the case as the activity is goal oriented and required concentration. That’s why I think it fits with the things I’ve been doing this month.

I have an absolute love for and a profound difficulty with flowers. I love to see them grow, to watch them in the garden year to year, to see which return and which retreat, contemplating their intricacies. Every so often I draw them and fail miserably in making that record. The drawings I’ve done this month reflect this difficulty varying between the abstraction that records the garden most accurately and the representation that becomes miserably like a flowery thing. The more like flowers they look the less like flowers they are.

I made the twenty small images above as a set to arrive at a card to send to a friend. They are derived from photographs of the flower bed from above. The bed has perennials planted amongst pelargoniums and various self seeded flowers like Nigella and Red Shank.

Flowers (1) 16/08/2024

After I’d finished the cards I spent some time making some larger drawings over the sheets I’d used to protect the floor when I was painted the red sculptures. I’m just concerned to pick elements that give the impression of the flower bed.

Flowers (2) 16/08/2024

The first two worked quite well I think because the flower forms are not obvious.

Flowers (3) 19/08/2024

The next two are less successful because the big flowers are too flowery.

Flowers (4) 19/06/2024

I struggled particularly with this one because of the Gazania that dominates. I got frustrated enough to build myself a table.

Studio 23/08/2024

Alongside these there are three paintings made in my attic at home, this one oil on board, the others on paper.

Flowers (5) 26/08/2024

Flowers (6) 26/08/2024

Flowers (7) 26/08/2024

I’m still in two minds about these.

Studio 28/08/2024

Exploring the method further I’ve stretched paper for more drawing and I’d begun a larger drawing before realising that the lack of variation on the surface before starting was limiting the possibilities for the drawing.

Flower (8) 28/08/2024

This is the drawing after I applied loose red and white emulsion over the drawing I’d already started that was failing.

Flowers (8) 29/08/2024

This is the drawing the next day after I’d started to bring it back towards a finish.

Flowers (2) Maquette 29/08/2024

Flowers (2) Maquette 29/08/2024

The real purpose of the drawings is to work towards sculpture and then take this into the virtual space. After some works in the sketchbook I built this maquette form the second flower drawing. This is where wool gathering gets you, towards something even if I’m not quite sure what it is yet.

Drawing

I’ve continued to draw every day;

The August drawings can be seen here

…and the July images here

There is a link to the previous month’s Gallery on each page.

The drawings are posted to Threads and Instagram each day.