I saw the Flit!
We went to Bateman’s today, home of Rudyard Kipling and the setting for my favorite Kipling book, Puck of Pook’s Hill (a collection of short stories about Sussex, and I loved it long before I lived here).
We’ve been to Bateman’s many times, you may remember, but this time there promised to be an exhibition of Arthur Rackham‘s illustrations for Puck of Pook’s Hill. Rackham is one of my all time favorite illustrators, this one one of my all time favorite books — perfect, yes?
Meh. They only had three original paintings and a few framed prints. The room was small and dark and the pictures were framed under shiny glass. Hard to see and underwhelming. They didn’t even have any Rackham books or cards in the gift shop.
I did get to see the original of this picture, though. It’s called the Dymchurch Flit, Dymchurch being a coastal town and “the flit” was the fairies leaving England forever. Chapter 22 of the book.
The story goes that the fairies got sick of our shit in the 1530s, during the nastiness of the Reformation. They turned up on Romney Marsh with their bags packed — Romney Marsh being a stick-out bit of coastline that is the furthest southeast you can go on the island without getting your feet wet. There they begged the Widow Whitgift to let her sons sail them away in a boat, and she did.
They came back after three days, but one son was blind and the other mute, so they never told anyone what they saw. You can read the chapter here, with some footnotes and explanation here.
Not my favorite Rackham painting and not viewed under the best conditions, but it’s always a thrill to see the original of a work that you know well from reproduction.
September 26, 2017 — 7:36 pm
Comments: 13
He’s nekkid!
I told you guys I managed to sell both pieces I put in the art show, before the doors even opened. I underpriced them, I’ve been told. As a result of which, I am now a *full member* (and I was able to pay for that frightfully self-indulgent map case and paint box).
Even better, as a direct result, I’ve been asked to join an invitation-only life drawing class. I’m having a blast.
I need this kind of eye training. Because the drawings I did in my last gig were mostly very technical, nearly everything I did was traced in some way — either the old fashioned way, or Photoshopically. Tracing is bad for fine art. Not because it’s cheating — honestly, there is no such thing in art; it ain’t football or canasta — but because it results in boring pictures.
When you draw from life, you’re forced to process what you’re looking at. You have to figure out what’s happening and then you have to figure out how to explain it to someone else. This makes for a much more persuasive and interesting picture. It’s hard as hell, though.
It also, of course, makes for more errors. There’s a classic in this drawing – his hands are way too big, especially his right hand. The human brain exaggerates anything it finds interesting but it’s a rookie mistake not to catch it and fix it. In my defense, they were all thirty minute poses today; shorter than I’m comfy with.
At least they haven’t done any 5 and 15-minutes poses yet. Brrrrr…I hate those.
September 20, 2017 — 9:33 pm
Comments: 12
You’re welcome!
Do we use the word “japanning” in the States? See, I’ve always been a Winsor & Newton kind of gal, and they’re a British company that sells japanned watercolor boxes, so I’m unsure of the origins. Well, anyhoo, it’s a durable, waterproof, shiny black coating on (usually) metal. Early car parts were sometimes japanned, for example.
It’s called ‘japanning’, by the way, because it was in imitation of Japanese black lacquerware. Proper lacquer is done with sap from the lacquer tree, duh. Here’s how Wikipedia describes it: “The sap of the lacquer tree, today bearing the technical description of “urushiol-based lacquer,” has traditionally been used in Japan. As the substance is poisonous to the touch until it dries, the creation of lacquerware has long been practiced only by skilled dedicated artisans.”
My new watercolor box is japanned (Brit style), and before it came, I had no idea how damaged it might be, so I set out to see if I could learn the secrets of re-japanning.
Viola! I give you A Handbook On Japanning, 1913 edition. It turns out, it’s just shellac and pigment baked in a 300° oven. No, I haven’t tried it yet. My box doesn’t need it. But I’m itching to japan something.
I’m a huge fan of shellac. Big, big fan. Shellac is not as common here, go figure, but I do have sources. It has a bad reputation among artists because it’s yellow, but I have samples that are upwards of 35 years old and, yes, they’re yellow…but no yellower than the day I first applied it. Same is certainly not true of linseed oil or damar varnish.
Anybody want to japan a thing and get back to me?
September 6, 2017 — 9:52 pm
Comments: 18
The grind…
My paintbox came with some old watercolor pans. I hadn’t intended to rehabilitate them — they were dusty, crusty old bricks — but I started totting up how much it would cost to replace them and I relented.
Some of the pans were nearly used up. There were paints from several different manufacturers spanning many years. In other words, whoever owned this box before me painted a lot. Like, a real lot. That makes me feel a bit funny. I wonder if this box will land back on eBay some day, anonymous again.
Watercolor, in theory, is infinitely re-wettable. Some people even believe the old materials are preferable. Not me; we’ve gotten better at manufacturing all sorts of things in our day, and I believe artificial pigments are among ’em. Particularly during and just after the War, there were some pretty shitty art materials on the market. But, hey, a half pan of cadmium red alone was going to cost £7, so let’s grind.
I sperged at length about making paint earlier this year. To rehabilitate watercolor, you really only need to smash it up with water but, since I decided for some reason not to bring my muller across the pond, that was easier said than done. All’s I had was a palette knife. I managed it in the end but it took some elbow grease and bent my favorite knife.
The recipe above is from L. Cornelissen and Son, a good old fashioned mid-Nineteenth C. London colorman. That’s what art shops were called back in the day, when you bought pigments and made your own. The paint tube (and therefore pre-manufactured paint) was invented about the time Cornelissen opened his shop and it took a while to catch on. (Incidentally, no paint tube, no Impressionism. Probably).
Well worth looking around their site. They still sell all the stuff! More paint recipes at the link, too.
Notice honey is one of the ingredients. It adds wettability and a certain slight gooiness. I had to add a bit to my grind, as these sad old paints were…whatever the total opposite of gooey is. Desiccated, I guess.
I suspect that Winsor and Newton, at least, still uses honey (or sugar syrup) in some of their colors, because I once had cockroaches attack a painting of mine back in my student apartment days. They neatly ate off the burnt sienna parts and left the rest. Weird.
p.s. That spooky bastard Carl has won another dick. That means a new Deadpool this Friday.
September 5, 2017 — 5:43 pm
Comments: 8
Supplies!
My new paint box. Why, sure you can see it in color. Hey, I had to have one to fit into my nice new leather map case, nay?
Yeah, given the choice between making art and fooling around with art supplies GIVE ME ART SUPPLIES! GIVE ME! NOW!
It’s not new, of course. I had to have something appropriately old and funky. Somehow, this was my first foray into the sinkhole of “vintage” art supplies on eBay.
I mean, there’s some awfully cool stuff in there, and some awfully old stuff, and some terrifyingly expensive stuff, sometimes all three at once. And then there was the pockmarked old Winsor and Newton field painting box that some dang fool was trying to get hundreds for. Because vintage.
As if. It looked exactly like one I bought in the Seventies, but more banged up. (Hm. I wonder where my one got to?)
Anyway. This one wasn’t too expensive and — YES! — it fits perfectly, with room for a watercolor block.
Pff! I guess I have to paint stuff now.
September 4, 2017 — 9:33 pm
Comments: 6
Guess what?
Deborah HH asked in the thread below whether I used my own chickens in the paintings I recently showed in town. I did indeed and, I must say, I was surprised and pleased at how well received they were.
I am become S. Weasel, Famous Painter of Chickens.
So it shames me to admit I cannot unravel the terrible central mystery of the chicken physique: how the HELL do all those poofy tailfeathers come out of that little dealie on the ass end of a chook?
I leave you to ponder. Have a good weekend!
September 1, 2017 — 10:14 pm
Comments: 21
Your Nazis, I have found them!
We had a flower festival, a military air show and a Tractorfest this weekend. This is from the flower festival.
HA! KIDDING! I suppose it’s more of a military/airshow than a military air show; there’s always plenty of Nazis and even a few Japs. And planes! And guns! And big bangs!
There’s a German (or possibly Polish) guy there who sells genu-ine Nazi memorabilia. Coffee cups and place settings from the officers’ mess. That kind of thing.
I’m afraid I paid a stupid lot of money for a WWII German leather mapcase. It’s perfect for my sketching stuff — it has little pockets for pencils and a ruler and an eraser. Also, it has the original owner’s name and addressed inked into the cover flap – I’ll have to get onto ancestry.co.uk about that. Unless anyone has other suggestions for tracking down German soldiers.
I did very well at the art show. I meant to mention that. I put in two little paintings of chickens and they were (so I’m told) the first paintings to sell.
Uncle B is threatening to tell everyone I spent my art show earnings on Nazi memorabilia.
Oh, I meant to ask – did you see the eclipse?
August 21, 2017 — 9:07 pm
Comments: 31
Huh. Must be egg bound.
This came across my Twitter feed today. Most useful thing I’ve gotten out of Twatter in a long time. Yes, there’s color. I must have this thing.
Still dealing with home-broughten work at the moment.
RIP Glen Campbell. Poor bastard had been dealing with Alzheimer’s for a thousand years. And Uncle Al had ‘im in the Dead Pool. That means you-know-what, here, Friday, 6WBT.
August 8, 2017 — 10:03 pm
Comments: 21
Holy shit, I forgot to post…!
I didn’t post yesterday. I clean forgot. First time in the ten years of sweasel.com. What’s more, I didn’t even realize it until I couldn’t sleep and decided to check my own blog on my tablet (note timestamp: 1:24 am. Wait, do you see post times in my time zone or yours?).
Sorry. I’ve been bringing home work. I didn’t think I’d have to do that. Ever again for as long as I lived. But the old dude who used to lay out our annual magazine decided he’s too old, and my boss was all, like, “say, you used to do publication design, didn’t you?”
Yes, yes…that only came up in the context of how much I flipping hated it.
Plus, I’ve got an art show coming up. I stay an associate member of the art club until I show two pieces in an annual show. I decided I hated everything I’ve done and I’ve thrown it all away and started from scratch. I have about a week.
So. Anyway. Excuses are boring. Those are mine. It’s gratifying that you noticed my absence (truly, it is). I don’t suppose it would do me much good if I fell down the stairs, as the emergency personnel would need more than “don’t know her name but she lives somewhere on the South coast of England.” But it’s still good to know if I fell off the earth, it would make a little ripple on the other side of the world.
I should get it all straightened out…in a couple of weeks (sigh).
p.s. Oh, for the record — yes, I have three tablets. Two Kindles, three tablets and an Android phone — and I use them all. HAHAHA! Well, except the first Kindle — the screen broke.
They’ve all been presents from Uncle B over time, but each one has a specific role and a specific place in the house. As you know, the batteries in these devices hate being run all the way down and there’s a constant drain while they search for wifi signal, so I expend a certain amount of daily effort rounding them all up and feeding them. They’re like livestock, really.
August 3, 2017 — 7:27 pm
Comments: 23
Him again
Remember that Stewart Semple guy? The one with the blackest black paint and sparkliest glitter? Well, he’s back with rainbow color-changing paint. I guess you put the color-change stuff on top of a base layer and it alters the base by temperature.
It looks pretty cool. Here’s video of him painting a rainbow unicorn (because I guess it was super hard to get a drag queen to stay still).
And, yes, I did buy a bottle of Black 2.0 and a jar of Sparkliest Glitter. The black was very black and the glitter was very sparkly. What can I say? I couldn’t think of anything fun to do with it.
June 27, 2017 — 7:52 pm
Comments: 8