Artists Archive - Peterborough Artists Open Studios

Drawing inspiration in the countryside around me I paint in a loose, impressionistic style.

Art Stars Children’s Art School

A selection of my favourite pictures drawn over the last year.

Follow me in Twitter @_annieb

$I have been learning to draw again using my right hand after I suffered a severe comminuted fracture to the left distal radius that has left my left hand unusable. At first it was in plaster then, after it had been plated back together, till now, it remains uncontrollable for drawing. I started the process of learning to write and draw right handed in my sketchbook with felt tips not long after the accident, and then moved onto ink drawings after I saw Prin Marshall posting on the first day of Inktober2017. The ink drawings have mainly been made on watercolour paper and have enabled me to revisit illustration techniques I had employed in the late 1990s. I could have launched back into digital imaging using illustrator and photoshop but the initial idea for this has been to get the actual skills up as well, including trying to get the left hand working. I have been valuing the unrepeatable energy an ink line can contain and the technical challenge and effects of using ink in washes and tones and mixtures with whiteout (in this case acrylic primer). How far will I take it? I can't say yet. Not having settled on a subject or been completely taken by street stencil art or the 'superflat' I need to keep wandering and thinking until something is found. For the time being I have lost the ability to knock out a drawing off the top of my head, but that may be no bad thing as each line requires consideration and thought in the attempt to get it on its intended vector with the facilities I now have to work with. These inks are not technical drawings per se, but my learning curve on a new adventure. Starshine on the Humber [caption id="attachment_3615" align="alignnone" width="800"] inktober2017 James Tovey artist Day 25 Starshine on the Humber[/caption] A classic days sailing on the east coast. Quentin, Martin, Ian and myself had had a great night in the White Horse in Brancaster and set out early the next morning for a sail on Q's ketch Starshine up to Grimsby. A beautiful sunny morning as we set off around 5 am soon turned to a grey, slewing run up the coast in a force 5-ish. With the sea lumping up round the center cockpit boat, all of us were feeling seasick to varying degrees - it wasn't the beer or the pork pies !. With some relief we got into the Humber where the sun was revealed from behind the clouds and the waters of the tidal estuary were calm. All crew were feeling better and up and about as we passed commercial shipping on their way out to sea. Here Q shakes the reef out of the mainsail. The mystery of the trip was the abandoned lorry of dead rotting fish; half its contents unpacked, in Grimsby docks that we came across. The trip home the next day was an easy calm motorsail. Bez and the horses [caption id="attachment_3616" align="alignnone" width="800"] Bez and the horses James Tovey indian ink on watercolour paper 2017[/caption] #Inktober Day 12: Shattered. Friday was spent talking to those who kindly have helped me in sorting out some of the work left outstanding, after which was a family meal and I then went to bed asap, so I'm two days behind now... Bez, our 11 year old Labrador, and I did get our daily hobble round the lanes and fields, he with his arthritis and me with my (pre and post op) injuries. Both of us usually like to rest when we get to the stile into the horse field and that gave me the spark for today's drawing #inktober2017 Polystyrene Skull - How Long? [caption id="attachment_3617" align="alignnone" width="800"] Polystyrene skull ink drawing James Tovey Artist 2017[/caption] #Inktober Day 5 = Long. An expanded polystyrene skull sold during the lead up to halloween last year. A perfect sinister symbol of our trivial consumerism made for seasonal amusement and discard, its electrical LED lighting system broke on the first try after leaving the store. Mass produced... how long will these last if they are thrown away? Each knock chips a bit more off the fragile surface, shedding plastic granules as it travels across the planet for its intended purpose or otherwise. Happy Halloween. #inktober2017$