Introducing A Somerset Sketchbook

A Somerset Sketchbook has been added to my website.

This new sketchbook features drawings created between May 2013 to the present, at locations around North Somerset. Many of the drawings have since been worked on and developed further, some of which are due to appear on the walls of the Centrespace Gallery in December, as part of my charcoal drawing exhibition LandEscapes - New Charcoal Drawings.

Featured in this post are three of the new drawings now uploaded to my website.

'Tree Roots, Colliter's Brook'   Hanging Hill Wood, Somerset   21-5-13   42cm x 59cm   From A Somerset Sketchbook

'Tree Roots, Colliter's Brook' was drawn using both standard willow charcoal as well as Nitram charcoal. Depending on the paper used - in this case the sketchbook is a Seawhite Of Brighton - Nitram charcoal can appear to have some warmer, brownish hues compared to willow Charcoal. Whilst on one of my many explorations in and around Hanging Hill Wood I was immediately drawn to this old tree trunk and its roots, clinging on to the side of the bank. The wild garlic was out in full force, and I couldn't help noticing the difference in fortunes of the two plants. The trunk, all but dead, appeared to be being pushed to its inevitable end. And yet, returning just one month later there is barely a trace of the wild garlic and the trunk is still clinging resolutely to the bank. 

                                                             

'Reflections'  is a more recent drawing:

'Reflections' Chew Magna, Somerset   4-10-13   42cm x 59cm    From A Somerset Sketchbook

The stream that runs through Chew Magna contains a tree-lined stretch of slow moving water. A path winds along beside it, a high stone wall on one side and the water below on the other. I enjoy this stretch of river for its quiet, calm atmosphere, the path also being at the perfect elevation to admire reflections on the waters surface. I intend to do a series of drawings from this stretch. 'Reflections' may signal a slight departure to a more abstract way of recording shape and form.

Below, from earlier this month 'Gated Track, Northwick':

'Gated Track, Northwick' Somerset   2-10-13   From A Somerset Sketchbook

Northwick sits snugly in the valley on the south side of Dundry Hill. This is very much a 'working' landscape. At this time of the year there is rarely the same view from one day to the next.


Click on the link to see all of the drawings currently on show from A Somerset Sketchbook or go to www.mossiequille.co.uk

In my next post there will be more new drawings...stay tuned!