Blind Contours

Had a great intro back to art today with Sarah. She got us to do portraits of each other but doing it all in blind contour (not looking at the page just following the lines on the face without lifting your drawing implement off the paper). The drawing implement in this case was white wax so you couldn't see what you had drawn anyway. There were moments of panic when people went completely off the page or forgot where they were. I actually accidentally did three eyes on my drawing. We then did a wash of black ink over the wax for resist. Sarah showed us a book of work by Marlene Dumas from South Africa. I found some of her portraits a little disturbing, truth be told but I guess they were arresting. Apparently some of her portraits were from the morgue and otherwise of criminals. Was hard to tell which some of these were. We then were to use her technique of applying colour, to work into our portraits - I think I went a bit more abstract but I had fun. As one person at art said, art and playing marimbas are two of the most cathartic things you can do.

Marlene Dumas

Before art I went to the garden nursery in Arundel Village and I happened to see the lady in the shop was reading The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking. I commented on this and she said she had decided to read it again as Stephen Hawking died yesterday. I haven't looked at the news so this was the first I heard of it. We had quite a long conversation about it. I will miss not only being able to go to art next term but also having time to chat and wander about at leisure, but a full time job will be good in other ways. I will just need to build up my stamina to have energy for an entire week of back to back teaching. Something stronger that coffee might be needed, perhaps espressos :P

I am back house sitting now. The person I am doing it for left me a surprise present from her last trip to Bahrain. Wasn't sure what it was initially but on tasting it, it reminded me of halva from Israel. It's called rahash cutting in Bahrain and is made from the same stuff as halva - sesame flour and possibly this has some pistachio in it. Have been snacking on it as I prepare lessons for tomorrow. OK I must get to bed as need to be up at 5.

SaveSave