Au fil de l'eau: July 2010

'Aller au fil de l'eau' means to go with the flow. It is also, appropriately, the name of the café in the small French village where I live. On the terrace, the atmosphere is relaxed, life seems to mosey along no faster than the river that slips lazily by. In spring and early summer, conversations are often accompanied by a chorus of croaking frogs. Creating this blog is some kind of commitment to take brush or pen or pencil in hand every day and make art. As Julia Cameron says: "...creativity is not a marathon event that we must gird ourselves for, whacking off great swaths of life as we know it to make room for it. Creativity is not aberrant, not dramatic, not dangerous. If anything, it is the pent-up energy of not using our creativity that feels that way". Not making art is like trying to stop the flow of the river. I surrender to the flow and watch where it takes me.

Friday, 30 July 2010

Garlic Bulb

Coloured-pencil sketch on Ingres paper.

Monday, 26 July 2010

Orange Chillies

A parcel arrived in the post the other day, packed with dried chillies of all shapes and sizes, colours ranging from palest yellow through burnt orange and garnet red to dark brown. All the way from Devon. Now shipping chillies from England to the south of France sounds a bit like carrying coals to Newcastle... but here in the foothills of the Pyrenees they are a rarity. And apart from liking spicy food, I've found that they are a perfect still life subject.

Here are my first two line and wash drawings of one of the varieties.