ARTFUL READING CLUB SEPTEMBER

A PLACE OF MEADOWS AND TALL TREES  by Clare Dudman

Bought on Kindle for 99p

SEPTEMBER REVIEW FOR THE ARTFUL READING CLUB

I bought this book when I first got my Kindle and downloaded several books that looked promising.  I'm interested in social history and the synopsis looked as if it would be worth reading.   It's a well-researched book about the problems faced by the first Welsh emigrés to Patagonia to set up a colony, a Utopian land where the Welsh language and way of life would be safeguarded, well away from the desperate conditions they lived in back in Wales.  I had heard of these Welsh colonists, so I added it to my list of 12 books for the Artful Reading Club.

The brave migrants were promised 'a place of meadows and tall trees' by their charismatic leader who claimed he had been to the area they were to settle in and seen the rich, fertile green fields and trees.  In fact they arrived, after a horrific journey by sea, at the cold Patagonian desert, which is the largest desert in all the Americas.

The fact that they were claiming land that belonged to the nomadic Tehuelche Indians and dispossessing them, just as they had been dispossessed, didn't seem to occur to them.  They had heard of the Indians and feared them and what they might do.

I found the book slow and monotonous, and was continually irritated by the way the settlers responded to their terrible hardships, and even after they realised time after time that they had been duped they still kept faith in their leader and struggled on.  Yes, it is historically accurate, but it made such miserable reading, I just felt as though a black mist descended on me every time I forced myself to go back to reading the book.  I would have given up except for it being one of my ARC choices.

The story alternates between the events as experienced by settler Silas and one of the Indians, a mystical Shaman who eventually helps them to survive just a little better, though the weather conditions they faced never changed.

All in all, I was glad I had only paid 99p for it, and would recommend you to avoid it unless you are Welsh and have Patagonian Welsh ancestors.

ARTWORK

When it came to being inspired to create my artwork I was stumped, and I mean completely stumped.    Looking at the book cover, I feel even the cover artist had problems in deciding how to visually sum up the story.  There wasn't a character who had seemed real enough to me to 'see' them in drawing or painting terms.  The only character who seemed to have anything at all I could interpret was the ancient Indian shaman, Yelue, so here he is:

Yelue, the ancient Indian Shaman
Mixed Media - Jez

I found a very tiny and very blurred black and white photograph of an old Patagonian Indian 'on tinternet' and took my inspiration from that.  In the end he doesn't look much like the photograph, though I tried to show how wrinkly he was.  I'm not happy with him, and he looks as miserable as I felt when I had finished the book.

Here's my original drawing, which I was much more pleased with:

For October I really must choose one of my 'list' books that will be a little more interesting.  I think it will be 'The Drawing Book' by Sarah Simblet.  If I can't get interested in that there's no hope for me!

29 FACES DAY 27

FACE 29

Yes I've managed to achieved the 29 faces within 28 days for the 29 FACES challenge, though there were several times this month that I doubted my ability to manage it.  Although I've done all 29, I shall post another one tomorrow on the last day to complete my efforts to do something different each day.

The chap above is my initial drawing, and it's doing double duty.  As well as showing it for my 29th face, it is an image I have been creating this week for The Artful Reading Club challenge, where we review a book each month and make a piece of artwork inspired by the book.  My September book was 'A Place of Meadows and Tall Trees' by Clare Dudman.  Although the subject of Welsh emigrés trying to set up a colony in Patagonia should have been interesting as social history, I got annoyed with the characters and the way they responded to the terrible situations they encountered.

Patagonian Indian
Unfinished mixed media painting - Jez

When I had finished the book I had absolutely no inspiration for an artwork, and the only character who had stayed in my memory was that of a very old Patagonian Indian who at first frightened them, but later helped them to exist at a rudimentary level.  I found a very small and very blurred image of a Patagonian Indian on the web to help me.

I have to say my old chappie looks very little like the photograph.  He looks as fed up as I did when I finished the book.  My apologies to the author, Clare Dudman, if she is by chance reading this.  I am not at all pleased with my painting, and even when it is finished I still won't be pleased with it.

I put my initial drawing up at the start of this post because I was much happier with the drawing than with the painting.  I hope that you will call back tomorrow to see my last face.  Thank you for checking in on Face 29.

Here are faces 21 to 28 from this week:

Also linking to Artful Reading Club, Paint Party Friday and Paper Saturdays tomorrow.

ARC REVIEW FOR JULY, SHORT AND SWEET

This month's review for Darcy's Artful Readers Club is short and sweet, rather like the book itself.  And by sweet I don't mean cloying but tender and loving.  It's MY LIFE by MARC CHAGALL.  For once it's not a Kindle book but a paperback from Amazon at £7.59. 

'My Life' covers the period of Chagall's life from childhood through to 1922.  He finished writing the book in 1922 but it was not available in English until 1965.  He was born in 1887 in Russia as Moyshe Segal, and lived until 1985.  Unlike many artists he died at 98, a respected artist and a millionaire.

I found the book on Amazon when I was about to go on a Summer Art School at the Tate Liverpool in connection with their marvellous Chagall exhibition, and reading it has been a joy.

It's a short book, only 171 pages which include 20 of his black and white sketches from that period of his life, many of them full-page pictures - so you can see why I say it is short and sweet.

The language is simple, the writing unusual like flashes or snapshots of memory, very reminiscent of some of his paintings. It's like poetry, painting pictures with words.  As well as having touches of humour it is tender, touching, sad, so many emotions in this little book.

One of the things I liked was how some of his comments helped me to understand elements of his paintings that are little miniature memories within the painting.  He says of his childhood thoughts:

"Sticks and roofs, beams, fences, and everything that lay behind, delighted me.  And you can see what was there in my picture 'Above the Town', or else, I can tell you ......'

Then there are paintings where a head is detached from its body, floating in the air and it helps to see the links with those paintings when he says:

"At those words, my head gently detaches itself from my body and weeps somewhere near the kitchens where the fish are being prepared."

I had already worked out long ago that when bodies are floating in the air in his paintings he is expressing deep emotions, but it seems he felt and imagined in this way even as a child, a strange and imaginative child who always had his own vision and was determined to paint in his own way.

One more detail that linked so strongly with some of his paintings.  Writing of his schooldays he says:

"What I liked best was geometry.  At that, I was unbeatable.  Lines, angles, triangles, squares, transported me into the realms of delight.  And during the drawing period, I had everything but a throne."

I've always been intrigued by this painting of Chagall's with its geometric circles, arcs, triangles, and though this painting is not in 'My Life' it resonates with his love of geometry.

There is so much more in this book about his life in Paris and the very difficult period he spent back in Russia when he found himself unable to return to Paris because the first World War had started in 1914 and he was only able to return to France in 1922.  If you are at all interested in Chagall and his paintings, I'm sure you would enjoy this strange little book as much as I did.

ARTWORK ..... well I apologise for offering a very unfinished piece of artwork.  Things have been a bit difficult this last month and very busy, and I also apologise for not visiting everybody's June review because of this.  I'm determined to visit everyone this month.

The A4 sketchbook page below is my response to not just the book but my immersion in Chagall recently.

This is NOT a copy of one of his paintings, it's me quickly putting down on paper rough drawings of some of his images starting with the main figure, The Juggler, whose strange position fascinates me.  If I tried that I'd definitely fall over.  Then I changed details, then turned the twisty lady into a mermaid, gave the fish seaweed instead of a bunch of flowers, added bits here and there, and Hey Presto there's something quite unlike my much slower way of working and unlike anything I would normally draw - my vision of a strange circus.  I hope Chagall will forgive me.

I want to colour this somehow - unfortunately the sketchbook paper is not strong enough for watercolour, so it needs some thought, and there's so much detail that it's going to take me ages.  But I'll do it bit by bit over time.

If you are near enough to visit the Tate Liverpool's exhibition of about 60 of Chagall's works, then I recommend it.  Check on the dates (on until October I think) and entry cost first.  Thanks for bearing with me.  Jez

Also linking with Jenn's challenge of producing a black and white line drawing for Artists Play Room - sheer serendipity that this theme appeared just after I had posted my July review!

ARC ARTWORK AND BOOK REVIEW - JUNE

It makes me happy when I am reading my chosen 'book of the month' to realise very quickly that it's a book I really WANT to recommend.  That is what happened with my June choice for the Artful Readers Club - "The Cleaner of Chartres".  I'll say at the start that this is an unusual book.

After last month's review of "The Italian Chapel", it seems strange that this is another one related to a religious building.  Many years ago I visited Chartres Cathedral and was overwhelmed by the wonderful colours shining through the huge rose window onto the flagstones below.  "The Cleaner of Chartres" made me wish I could go there again.

The story is not actually about the cathedral, it is the setting for the characters and events, which are centred around Agnes and her life past and present.  There seem to be so many books at the moment with this past/present scenario, but with this book it works well.  It was a little slow at the beginning but very quickly the story clicks in and my interest was engaged for every page that followed.  For the first 3 or 4 chapters I had to sort out whether I was in the past or present, but then I had the sense to realise that each time the chapter heading said 'Chartres' the story was back to the present.

The writing was very readable with a beautiful use of language, and sly subtle humour.  There was not a superfluous, wasted word in the whole book.  The balance of this quiet humour with sadness, true-to-life characters, history, and a gentle romance element was perfect.

A recurring element in the story is the labyrinth that is set into the floor of the cathedral.  The concept of the labyrinth and the need to safely find a way in and out of the maze echoed the idea of finding one's way through Agnes's present and past to discover what lay at the heart of her problems.

One of the main characters tells Agnes the ancient Greek story of the Cretan labyrinth with a monster at the centre, a creature that feasts on a tribute of young boys and girls. Theseus determines to kill the beast, and is given a thread by the king's daughter so that he can find his way out.  

Agnes is told that a tablet was once inlaid in the cathedral floor at the centre of the labyrinth which held an image of the Minotaur, and no-one knows why a pagan image should have been included in the fabric of the building. 

  

This small section of an image of Theseus and the Minotaur - a creature with a bull's head and tail and a man's body - is from a wine jar made and decorated 5 centuries BC.  I cropped the picture carefully with an oval shape.  This is, after all, a family blog.

Away from this strand of the story the book explores human personality and relationships, good and bad people.  I liked the characters I was meant to like, despised the baddies, and got very annoyed with the people who just did not think of the consequences of what they were doing or saying.

I read it quickly and was sorry when I reached the end.  I felt as though I had lost 'friends'.

ARTWORK

When it comes to deciding on artwork inspired by my personal book of the month, I find myself choosing to do just that, follow my inspiration.  If one subject that jumps into my mind and stays there even though I try to find another theme, then I go with the one that really is the 'inspiration'.

Since childhood I have read and loved the ancient Greek stories and myths, and treasured my books of legends, so the subject of the Minotaur captured my imagination.  Here is my version of the bull's head, and I leave you to imagine the rest of his body.

The background was a failed print from some work I was doing a couple of months ago.  It came to mind because I remembered the imprint of the coils of narrow ribbon I had used to make a design, and felt these represented Ariadne's gift of the thread.  That left a corner for the bull, just enough room for his head.

Every time I drew him, he looked like a friendly cow, and I had to make several attempts before I could make him even vaguely frightening.  I think he's evil enough now to make me frightened of meeting him in the dark.  Now you may say that a bull is not red, and is a grass eater with no fangs or sharp teeth.  That's because you've seen a bull from time to time, but I know you haven't seen a Minotaur, and my Minotaur is definitely red, with scary yellow eyes.  And how could he eat the youths and maidens if he had bovine teeth - would he suck them to death?

The bull was coloured with Inktense pencils, trying to get a rough textured appearance.  The sharp edges around the image were added with a filter in Photoshop to give a rather uncomfortable feel.  I'm quite pleased with it, and it helps to remind me of "The Cleaner of Chartres" which I know I shall read again.

You will find images of the Chartres Cathedral labyrinth on Google.  And if you don't know the ancient story of Theseus and the Minotaur, check that out on Google too.  Theseus doesn't come out of the story as a very reliable lover, and all does not end happily. Should make a good television play.  

'Theseus killing the Minotaur' is a section of an illustration of a Greek Vase in "Myths and Legends", New Burlington Books, 1992

ARC BOOK REVIEW & ART FOR MAY

THE ITALIAN CHAPEL by Philip Paris (Kindle Edition)

A novelised version of the true story of how Italian POWs built a concrete chapel on the Island of Lamb Holm in the Orkneys - islands off the north-eastern tip of Scotland.

It takes place during WW2, but it's not the usual kind of prisoner of war story.

Google 'The Italian Chapel' to find many images and
be quite astonished by what they achieved under great difficulties
and the beautiful art they created.

............

WW2 was an important part of my childhood, and this accounts for my interest in books like this, but I think perhaps you might enjoy it.  Real events were  interspersed with the inclusion of semi-fictionalised 'human interest' elements to keep the reader's interest.  A story of two halves, married together for dramatic effect.

The documentary details were the most interesting for me, and the imagined conversations and events did move the story along and include some humour, but two or three of the fictional events seemed to have  been created just for the story and didn't feel 'right'. When I read the author's notes at the end of the book it turned out these were in fact the sections that had been invented or altered.

The story is told through a few main characters and their experiences, and describe how all the wonderful artwork was created.  The writing is fairly 'ordinary', but very easy reading.

Strangely there was a link to my father's WW2 experiences, as happened in my February review for The Last Telegram.  When my father was in the Royal Navy on the new HMS Prince of Wales at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, a German submarine sank the HMS Royal Oak at anchor.  833 of the crew died, and survivors were rescued by other RN ships.  My mother told me that many of Dad's friends were on the Royal Oak and he was absolutely broken-hearted for the rest of his life.  This part of the story was told very touchingly through the experiences of the Orkney people.

I'm glad I read it, and pleased that I know about the Italian Chapel both from the book and from being prompted to check out the images and story on the internet.

For readers in the USA it turns out there is an Italian Chapel in Letterkenny, USA.  There is also one in Henllan in North Wales - a little nearer to visit than the Orkneys.   I couldn't find out what these are like, but I doubt if they are as famous and as much visited as the Italian Chapel.

ARTWORK INSPIRED BY THE BOOK

My artwork is far from anything I've done before, and a complete surprise to me because it's definitely not something I would normally even think of painting.  The inspiration that kept coming to mind was that I should make a small painting of St Francis who is mentioned at the beginning and the end of the book.

I forgot to take a photo of the original drawing, and even a quick glance at this half-way stage will show you that I forgot something else as well.

Acrylic on watercolour paper - Jez

I imagine that St Frances at this stage of his life was not in any way vain about his appearance or his shabby robe.  His halo has not photographed on this completed piece as brightly as on the underpainting - no sun that day.  

And the senior moment that led to my great mistake?  In my eagerness to give him untidy curly hair I completely painted over the shaven part of his tonsure.  Lack of time and fear of ruining what I had done made me decide to leave it in the hope that he and you will understand.  I shall definitely put this right when I have more time.

St Frances looks rather pensive in my painting.  Perhaps he's thinking of all the problems being created for wild creatures by man's effect on the environment.

I tried to imagine how the painting would look after centuries of hanging in a secluded corner of a church, with all the effects of smoke from candles and ageing of the paint.  For this digital alteration I added a special effect that gave me just the feeling I wanted, and I think I like this version best.

COLOUR, COLOUR, COLOUR - LOVE IT ..... ARTFUL READER'S CLUB

          

I'd like to tell you about "COLOUR" by Victoria Finlay in pictures as far as possible.  I'll scatter little digital grafitti sketches on the way through, with my artwork inspired by the book at the end.  The graffiti sketches illustrate the colours that Finlay investigates as she travels all around the world to find their origins and history. 

This is a paperback, not a Kindle book, and fortunately the print was of a size I could read.  I bought it for Dev at Christmas, but I had sneaky plans to read it myself as soon as possible.  And what a joy it has been, especially after my problems with my March book.  Finlay is a journalist, and she really knows how to write a readable book on an unusual topic.  

If, as an artist you are interested in colour - and how can you not be - then you will love this book.  It's even better than I expected, and how often can you say that of a book?

The first decision I made was that I was allowed to write in it.  I know I'm a big girl now, but the rules of childhood start to echo in the brain as soon as a pen gets anywhere near a book, but I was strong and scribbled as much as I liked.

From this photo of the contents page you can see the structure of the book.  I realised that each chapter stood alone, and that I didn't need to take them in order, and I numbered the order of the colours as I read about them.

I planned to read about one colour at a time and alternate the book with a novel, but I became so involved that I couldn't stop and read the whole book before moving on to my May novel.  But it is the type of book you can pick up now and then to read about one of the colours.

The preface is fairly technical and a little hard going, but very worth the effort of reading it to set the scene for the book itself.  This is such good writing and easy reading - Victoria Finlay is a reporter and knows how to interest the reader.

I also decided to mark any sections that I would want to refer to again, and you can see from this double page spread what happened nearly all the way through!  You can also see the wonderful bookmarks I seem to use - torn pieces of post-it notes and a paper serviette - no matter how many I have painted or been given.

        

     

Black and Brown are dealt with together in the same chapter, and these were my fifth choice of colour because I thought, quite wrongly, that there wouldn't be too much of interest in reading about these colours.   What do I know!   I would never have expected to be reading about Egyptian mummys in the section about Brown.  

Obviously the subject of charcoal came up in the Black chapter, and I didn't know that the ancient charcoal willow is quite a different tree from our popular weeping willow which was only imported into the country in the eighteenth century. 

                        

There is a surprise in every chapter.  I've been reminded of things I knew -  I did know that the cochineal I used to use for making pink cake mix was from an insect, but I was surprised that it was so interesting to read about the cochineal bug.  I also learnt things I didn't know, enjoyed the stories she told and was surprised that a writer could make me chuckle so much just talking about colour.

    

                            

The section on Yellow, entranced me, with its stories about saffron.  I knew saffron was yellow and often wondered how Saffron Walden in Essex got its name - sadly there are no Essex saffron fields now.  The images Finlay brought into my mind of saffron fields in other parts of the world are still a pleasure in my mind.

The saffron fields of purple flowers open for one day only and must be picked in the morning, the yellow pistils most carefully removed and the purple flowers thrown away.  Even the heaps of discarded flowers must be beautiful.

                                                   

I think perhaps you've got the message that I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It is the best non-fiction book I have read for many, many years.  I do recommend it to anyone who enjoys non-fiction and who may have wondered about the history of colour.

Now for my artwork inspired by the book.  When I thought about representing the book in a single painting, I realised that although I enjoyed all of it, the chapter that had left a lasting impression on me was the first one I read - Ochre, in all its different shades of colour, and particularly the cave paintings of Australia.

I have a number of books about folk art and the art of ancient civilisations.  In one called simply Folk Art I found a picture of a cave painting about 3,000 years old at a site near Darwin, Australia.  What surprised me most was the use of blue paint which contrasted so well with the ochre of the rocks.

This is not a copy of the cave painting, it is inspired  by it, and is a combination of digital background with the collaged fish drawn with brown Pitt Artist's pen and coloured with Inktense pencils.  I wanted to use the blue and ochre together for the contrast. I have used the general idea of the fish, but adapted their shapes to make the picture my own.  I'm quite pleased with it, and it will be a happy memory of the book.

IT'S ALL MY OWN FAULT - MARCH BOOK REVIEW AND ARTWORK FOR A.P.R.

The 'frieze' above is a Photoshop montage/colour-change of one of the artwork images for my March book for the Artful Reading Club.  For some obscure reason I had downloaded to my Kindle "The Secret History of the Pink Carnation" by Lauren Willig.

WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO ME!  Was I so entranced by the title and price of 99p that I didn't read the reviews and 'look inside the book' facility on the Kindle Daily Deal?  I think so, fool that I am.  It's exactly the sort of book I take care to steer well clear of. 

To help you (and me) through this review I'll scatter the sketches I painted for the artwork - and they are relevant ... (ish) ....  

So the choice of book was all my own fault.  I respect the fact that many people enjoy this type of book, but it's just not for me.

But as a true blue member of the ARC I gritted my teeth and read every page when I would otherwise have ditched it on page 10. 

It's a historical romance, linked with a modern-day equivalent romance, and with the emphasis on ROMANCE.  

GOOD POINTS:

I'm a very fast reader and, to face the challenge of getting through it, I put my skates on.  Because of the 'quality' of the writing I was able to whizz through the pages so quickly the page-turn button got hot.  

In fact I was able to start my April book halfway through February, so that must be a good point.

Another good point - you DON'T have to add this to your own ever-growing list of books to read.

BAD POINTS

Researching and writing a book is not easy, and I don't like to be too dismissive of what is clearly a very popular book.  It's simply that I was the wrong audience.  

The author had done her research, but it was the way she used it that grated on me - the flippant tone and constant anachronisms,  silly unreal situations, and her writing style.

When I was a very young teenager I read everything I could find of Georgette Heyer and loved it, but that was a long, long time ago.

This was Georgette Heyer meets Barbara Cartland (not read any of hers) on a really, REALLY bad day.  

Here are a couple of samples, describing the heroine:  "With a toss of her mahogany curls '' and "her face was a talented engraver's etching, small and decisive, her cupid's bow of a mouth in constant movement, exclaiming, talking, laughing".  

I really haven't the patience to describe the horribility of my experience with this book.  Suffice it to say the real finishers for me were the ridiculous passionate sex scenes (what my Eng Lit teacher used to call 'purple painted patches'). 

The only way I got through it all was to read it as though it were a farce/comedy.  I deserve an A.R.C. medal at the least.

The link of my artwork  to the story is that Napoleon's collection of Egyptian Antiquities is constantly referred to.

I'm bonkers about ancient Egyptian history and artwork, and Napoleon's collection gave me an excuse to refer to my ancient Egypt books and do a bit of Egyptian doodling as well.

So, here's the actual artwork - just a page of sketches in a large sketchbook, but I enjoyed myself greatly with these.  Hope you like them.   

ARTWORK AND REVIEW FOR JANUARY 'ARTFUL READERS'

                  MY FIRST 'ARTFUL' BOOK OF THE YEAR

Positives 

• This was a successful 'in-betweener', easy reading and light-hearted,  the kind I like to read between more serious books.
• I read it in just a few hours in my coffee breaks - it's one of those books I keep meaning to put down and then find myself well into the next chapter and into the next coffee break.
• It's unlike anything I've read before, beautifully daft, tongue-in-cheek, great fun, with a bit of black humour.
• Cleverly alternates between the present and past, with the great idea of the hundred-year-old-man acting as an unlikely catalyst in events of world importance.

Slightly less positive aspects - but not really negative ones

• As with most books, there are a few slow, patchy or repetitious pages, but it's well worth getting through those for the entertainment of the rest of the book.
• Perhaps readers much younger than me may not know of all the historical people and events, and may not enjoy those sections as much as I did.  Yes, there is a flavour of 'Forrest Gump' in there.
• Disappointed that I finished it so quickly - I'll read it again!

ARTWORK INSPIRED BY THYOMWCOOTWAD

     

As children my sister and I drew simple comic strips, and later I drew them for my young kids.  This story was so visual that I kept seeing it as a comic cartoon.  OK, elephants aren't pink, but grey elephants would have looked very dull, and given the quantities of alcohol imbibed in the story pink ones seem appropriate. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed doing it.