Adieu Tushy, RIP

Tushy and Poss, litter siblings, died within less than three months of each other in their seventeenth year. The drawing is from an earlier post, after Poss went. Adieu Tushy.

Double Act

Brush marker and watercolour in big sketchbook.

Remembering

Some days, there is no time for anything but the quickest sketch from one of the many photographs I've taken. There are so, so many of Possum and her litter brother Tushy, taken over the years. They lived sometimes together, sometimes apart, and where the funniest, most quirky little double act. Tushy is still soldiering on, despite his kidney trouble, living happily and carrot obsessed in Sintra with Monica and João.

Brush marker and watercolour in big sketchbook.

Hole

Brush marker in big sketchbook.

Loss

Lost for words too.... Possum has finally gone. Her great little spirit-of-dog remains. 

Brush marker, watercolour and collage in Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook.

Versions of the same

My life has been so housebound lately that I think I could rename this blog "Versions of the same" or "Things I see around the house" or, why not, "Everyday life at home"!  Possum kept re-adjusting her position just a tiny little bit, but enough to make her pose never quite the same every time I looked up - and meant her body is a particularly silly long furry sausage here.

Brush markers in small Moleskine sketchbook. 

Another one

This one done today.

Marker pen in small Moleskine sketchbook.

Digger looks sad but he isn't. Possum looks happy and she is. 

Cuddle (take 2)

Brush markers in Moleskine sketchbook, and pencil on the last page.


I was inspired by the mutual embrace the other day. Fátima scoops Possum up, and Possum just stays put, like a fur doll, very funny. Drew these from photos I took - you can see that, especially in the first spread. There's a quality of abstraction you get when drawing from photos that is usually absent (at least for me) when drawing from direct observation. 

Cuddle

Brush markers and watercolour in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.


Possum adores my friend Fátima (also a doggy person), who came to visit from Lisbon. It was dog on lap and ton sur ton of sunkissed hair on sunkissed fur. I messed up the scrawly sketch of Fátima's face, so got a bit of help from the camera!

Bloomsday

Brush markers and a touch of red pencil crayon in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.


16 June is Bloom's Day, if anyone's forgotten. Celebrating Leopold Bloom in Ulysses. If I'd have remembered on time, I'd have made a Dubliny, Joyce-y drawing today. Mind you, it's also the anniversary of the Soweto riots, which I remember well because I was still living in Johannesburg in 1976. But no... I choose to draw Possum resting on a huge bean bag. And other dogs and people seen in town while out shopping this morning. 

Still here

Pencil and pencil crayon in Moleskine sketchbook

Frail, geriatric, sweetest hound

In the garden

I never imagined I'd get so enamoured of the garden, fascinated by the daily changes, the way one lot of blooms dies off to give rise to another – all of it unplanned of course – so that the palette is constantly in flux. I'm drawn daily, so to speak, to sitting on the ground (sometimes on a towel if the grass is wet) with a sketchbook. Dog likes to keep me company and sometimes help.

Ink pen and brush markers in small Moleskine sketchbook.

One thing after another

Brush markers and gouache in Windsor and Newton sketchbook.

I spilt some gouache on the page in my studio and tried to turn it to my advantage by roughly colouring the whole page and then drawing on top of this ground. There is always something disinhibiting about a ground that is already messy, where the pristine page can sometimes be daunting.

I am always intrigued, in looking at other people's sketchbooks, at signs of continuity or discontinuity, how one page follows another. Often, there will be something akin to an evolution, where a certain approach or material is used for a stretch of time and produces certain stylistic and technical results, then giving way to another. My sketchbooks never seem to record a continuous line of progress. I find myself chopping and changing a lot. If I've been working with brush markers for a few days, I want to go back to ink pen or to pencil crayon, or pencil and watercolour; more careful, delicate drawings follow rougher, more expressionistic or scribbly ones. For me, the sketchbook is as much about material experimentation as it is about observational drawing. 

Quick morning cuddle

Pencil in big sketchbook.

I think there won't be any more time to be at the computer today, we've got some friends coming from London for the rest of the bank holiday weekend. So a real quickie today.

Today it's just a doodle

Ink pen, pencil, watercolour and brush markers in Windsor and Newton sketchbook

Not in the mood for much more than some desultory scribbles through the day. 

Various Possums in the garden and a pair of shoes

I thought yesterday might be Dog's last day on earth. We sat for a long time quietly in the garden, she in variations of a single position, me with my new small Moleskine sketchbook. Drawing this way, from observation – from life – is a very grounding thing. The concentration on something outside of oneself – focussed, but at the same time suspended, not straining – is a kind of existential yoga, and a darn sight less tiring than Ashtanga and Bikram yoga. Today, for the first time, Possum has really perked up and shown a little interest in food and in doing a bit more than just lying down, so fingers crossed.

Brush markers in small Moleskine sketchbook.

Blossoms and Possum

I've spent the last three mornings, early and before it gets too hot, sitting out in the garden with my ailing geriatric hound, drawing the plants I've nurtured: this is the first garden in which I've ever been an active participant of planting and tending. We inherited some mature fruit trees: two apples and a plum. Most of the blossoms are turning now and dropping, though the plum tree still puts on a rich show of blowsy blooms: I had a real sense of carpe diem all round.

Both drawings ink pen, brush markers and watercolours in Windsor and Newton sketchbook

Variations on the same theme

Pencil and watercolour in big sketchbook.

Poss's stuff in the dining room.

Ink pen, watercolour and a touch of pencil in big sketchbook.

More quickies in a book

Brush markers and pencil crayon in old book (L'Anglais Simplifié)

There is nothing in my sketchbooks so far that shows any awareness of the outside world: my drawings are distinctly and purposefully non political. More about that another time perhaps! But it's been a weird old campaign, and we'll be watching all the interesting computer graphics on TV tonight as they start counting the votes. But don't watch this space for commentary!

There's a pile of old books in my studio that I've always known I'd use to scribble on, and yesterday I grabbed one before going into the garden.

Can't resist adding this photo I took today of the same bumble bee: