Sculptural Drawings, Chapter 1

This is part one of a series of drawings of sculptures yet to be made…

All sculptors have different ways of working, I tend to do lots of drawing. The process of drawing inspire me and eventually lead onto the final design for my sculptures.

Other drawings like the sketches here just go into a pile, the ones below is the ‘like’ pile.

These drawings of mine were sketched between 1997-2004, here is a set of 10 that seems to work well together.

Look out for the next set of sculptural drawings in a few weeks time.

Feb 1997

Feb 1997

Feb 1997

Feb 1997

Feb 1997

Feb 1997

Jan 2002

Oct 2002

Feb 1997

Apr 2004

For more of my work, go to www.wmhudson.com or to see my community work, got to my artist’s corner on Art in the Park.

Jill’s Cold-Buster Recipe

Here at Art in the Park we regularly have lunch thrown together from what is brought in on the day as well as whatever’s growing in our garden. You may have seen this from our previous posts such as ‘Ready, Steady, Cook!‘, ‘Winter Planting‘ and ‘Happy Harvesting.’

One of our most regularly (and the easiest) recipes we put together are soups. Today we had AitP artist Jill Newman‘s Cold-buster soup. It’s great for those days when you want to fight off colds or just want to strengthen your body’s natural defenses. Since we loved it so much, here is the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs red onions or shallots
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger, grated or dried ginger
• 1 teaspoon of sherry or wine
• juice of 1/2 lemon or whole lemon (if you want that extra sourness and kick)
• 1 bay leaf (fresh if possible) and (optional) borage leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds and cumin seeds mixed and crushed
• 1 star aniseed
• teaspoon of butter or olive oil
• stock/ bouillon
• 1 tbsp of freshly chopped parsley and mint

Method:

1. Chop onions and garlic finely and “sweat” in a saucepan over a very low heat in the butter/ oil (this must be minimum heat for maximum time (30 minutes) in order to extract a sweet, caramelized flavour).
2. Add the crushed spices for the last 5 minutes and the star aniseed.
3. After 30 minutes, turn up the heat to medium and add the sherry/ wine. Allow the alcohol to evaporate then add  pints of water.
4. Add vegetarian stock/ bouillon and bay leaf then simmer on a low heat with lid on for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and hob and add in the lemon juice and finely chopped parsley.
6. Serve into bowls with pinch of black pepper and mint.

Serving suggestions: Great with croutons thrown in and alongside cheese on toast.

(Note: For those who haven’t got much time, a lighter and quicker version of this recipe involves only the essential ingredients which are lemon, ginger, black pepper, mint/ parsley, onion or garlic or both and stock/ bouillon.)

Heart Garden: The Importance of Pruning

Some pruning tools that can be used to maintain a garden

Friday 21st January

It was a sunny day so we spent the day in the allotment and put the art project  to one side (see previous post). We concentrated on pruning the grapevine, rose and apple tree to promote flowers and fruits. It’s causable to do this when dormant, before the buds begin to break as the grapevine will weep if pruned after mid February.

We also cut back the honeysuckle which shoes this bed along the north face wall – all pruning should be handled before nesting time so as not to disturb the birds.

Heart Garden: Rebecca Scott Profile

We are now into our 9th post (including this one) of our series on the Heart Garden. Rebecca Scott our resident gardener and guest blogger provides us with very helpful and insightful gardening tidbits after each session.

About Rebecca

Rebecca Scott and Art in the Park artists Andrea Sinclair and Jill Newman run the Lottery funded scheme ‘Heart Garden.’ Together they plan and organise a variety of activities to help improve the health of those referred to the scheme. These sessions run every Friday.

Gardening is both a hobby and part of work for her as she not only provides much needed expertise in the field of horticulture for the Heart Garden but also works as an environmental educator at the Walworth Garden Farm, helping to train people in horticulture so that they can find employment.

Heart Garden: Terracotta Bells

Friday 14th January

Another rainy day, we worked with clay making terracotta bells for the garden.

Pruned the fig tree in the rear yard as now is the time to do it whilst it is dormant –  otherwise it can bleed and diseases will enter the wound.

We also chopped down the leaders and laterals to a bud in a fan shape – this will make it easier to reach the ripe fruit in the future.

“SketchBook” show: Finished at the end of January but received a very positive (and emotional) response from the cafe clientele.

In November, I released some portrait sketches of local SE17 characters (particular to the Pullens Estate) from their hiding places within my sketch books. They are presented as prints at the Electric Elephant Cafe, Crampton St. SE17 until the 28th January 2011. Below are some examples to peak your interest if it isn’t already peaked! (click thumbmail for larger image and brief character bio)

“SketchBook” Exhibition by Jill Newman

Self-portrait of artist as a young (and blonde) woman

Punky Neil by Jill Newman

Tony by Jill Newman

Lesley by Jill Newman

Jane by Jill Newman

Dave (affectionately known as “Crazy Dave”) by Jill Newman

Martin by Jill Newman

Tim “Trim” by Jill Newman

Some things about me and the Pullens Estate

I lived on The Pullens for about 15 years.

I had my two babies here and it’s the back-drop to their childhood. There were a lot of like-minded mums so bringing up our kids mostly  was fun and sociable and inter-actively creative.

The estate had a high number of squats. Tenants and squatters united to fight and win a massive, televised eviction in the 1980’s. Battles were fought between putting on Pantomimes, Opera’s, festivals, Busking and numerous gigs.

Art and music really helped bring everyone together and raise morale.

Squatters went on to be given tenancies on their flats!

I used to work in Fair Shares food co-op and am delighted that it is still going strong.

There has been a more than generous proliferation of vivid characters living here – some who have ended up in my sketch books.

I now wish I had documented more people than did….. It was just something I did when a visitor called – in  between cups of tea and cigarettes!

My collaborations with Art in the Park

Drawing on the kitchen table…

Over the holiday period, my partner and I went to visit her parents at their home in Galicia near La Coruńa in Spain. When it was New year’s eve, we followed a very old Spanish tradition by eating twelve grapes, one for each of the last twelve chimes of 2010 to bring you luck in 2011.

There was the procession of the three Kings in town on the 5th January (or here we know them as the three wise men), from their floats the three Kings threw sweets at the gathered crowd.

On the 6^th January with it being King’s Day, we bought and ate some Roscón, which is a sweet, ring-shaped bread/ pastry covered in glacier cherries and sugar. A plastic toy is hidden inside once it’s made, whoever finds the toy gets good luck for the next year or you may find a bean and have to pay for the meal (not so lucky).

Some towns have major competitions involving Roscón to see who can make the largest ones.

In between all of these festivities, I had some time to do some drawing on the kitchen table.

More of my work on www.wmhudson.com

Heart Garden: Plant Impressions

There was heavy rain today, evident by the pounding on our corrugated ‘skylight’ so we did not do as much gardening as we had hoped. We instead surveyed the beds to see what damage the recent snow and cold weather had caused. Everything seemed fine, the brassicas were ok.

Some jobs for us to do next week include pruning the dormant fruit trees and bushes.

In the studio, we took down the handmade Christmas decorations and made wall plaques from clay. The Heart Gardeners collected interesting plants and pressed them into clay  – we will fire them in the kiln after leaving them to dry out slowly. Similar to the sample ceramics we made previously.

Willow House Sculpture, Exmoor National Park, Somerset

These photos were taken on my recent visit to check progress and tie in new growth.

Since I planted the willow, approx 2003/4  this work has been vandalised and eaten by a variety of animals, mostly wild deer,  stray cows and sheep, they seem to love the fresh shoots.  Finally, due to the temporary ramshackle fence now around the structure, the work is starting to take shape.  It’s now strong enough in places to take my weight!

Heart Garden: Ease back to work with memories, Xmas Lunch

I had initial thoughts of just scrapping this post entirely because it felt late since Christmas has already passed. However, quoting James Richardson in his article about easing back to reality (or work) after vacation, sharing your holiday memories with others actually helps  ‘ease the emotional letdown that coming home (or work) often fosters.’ Who knew it could be so therapeutic?

Friday 17th Dec

There was a very festive atmosphere at Art in the Park, with the Heart Gardeners putting up more Christmas decorations, lots of food being prepared, tables set and a mix of melodic music in the air and snow coming down in Burgess Park!