Happy Thursday! I’m hoping, at… 11am that wishing a happy Thursday will make it so. I just got to my desk, but I did finish at the pub at midnight last night, so it’s basically 9am, right? It snowed while I slept and although most of it has melted, the top of Buckholm hill is looking cool and bright and clear next to the blue grey cloudy sky. I need to get outside more.
This week I’ve been working on a new drawing of trees, but I’m not feeling sure about it at the moment, so you don’t get to see it yet. This one feels like it’s been a series of decisions to continue with it, despite knowing that it’s not very accurate… but what’s the point of drawing if it’s accurate?
I took delivery of some sexy new pencils from Derwent this week, which are still in their cellophane. I’ve been a devotee of Derwent’s pencils since I found out that Karismacolor pencils (The softest coloured pencils I’ve ever had the pleasure of using – when I was there, the art department at Hawick High School had a stash of them, only given to trusted pupils for making their exam pieces) were no longer in production, and that Coloursoft were the closest thing I could get without bankrupting myself on Ebay.
I ordered a selection of the colours that are getting short, plus a new dark green I’ve not used before (the green selection in the 24-tin just doesn’t hit the spot), and two Onyx graphite pencils, which sounded fun. I hadn’t realised that when ordering singles from them online, they’re packaged in a super fancy tin, so feel a bit silly that I ordered 13 pencils and now have a tin with a single pencil in it. I’m sure it’ll come in for something.
I treated myself to a tin of all the (24) colours of their Drawing pencils – I have a couple in my collection that I’ve used for life drawing over the last few years, but not the whole set. They’re smooth and soft and the colour just leaps onto the page really thickly and vibrantly. I’m looking forward to opening them up before I’m back in the pub (working!) this evening. I’ve got a feeling I’ll soon be writing begging letters to Keswick asking for a thousand more colours of them to add to the landscapey shades that make up the series (so far (I hope)).
I was mostly actually writing today to tell you about the launch event for the Moving Image Makers Collective’s first publication!
Conversations with a Forest (MIMC 001) is 84 pages of gorgeous images from our happening / exhibition / adventure in the woods back in September 2021, details on the ten artists involved and the works we exhibited there, and three essays, from Gareth Evans, Marcus Jack, and Amy Cutler. It’s printed on recycled paper, and designed and illustrated by me! (also worth mentioning here I’m open to enquiries for similar projects – press the contact button and we can email!).
We’ll be launching it at Unit Four, The Cornucopia Room in Hawick on the 25th of February (next Friday), at 7pm. Afterwards we’ll be having a regular work in progress meeting, which everyone’s welcome to stay for – it’s a great chance to see new work and engage in discussion on video, film and moving image. You might even get to see a very rough cut of something new from me!
It’s free to attend, and we’d love for you to come! The books will be available for £10 each. We’ve not worked out where yet, but they’ll be available online sometime after that, but do get in touch if you can’t make it next week and would like to purchase one.
If you’re on F******k and would like to RSVP, go here.
I wish Derwent had commissioned me to write nice things about them, but I’m just a fan of nice pencils 😉
If you’d like to support my blogging and art-making, please do consider buying me a coffee (small monetary donation) via the links at the top and the bottom of the page ❤
Liiiinks:
Buy nice pencils from Derwent here
See the Moving Image Makers Collective website here
Read my blog post about the weekend event, Conversations with a Forest here
See the trailer and read about my work for Conversations with a Forest, I am Tall Meepa here
RSVP for the launch event here
Read about Amy Cutler’s work on her website here
Read about Marcus Jack’s work on his website here
I can’t find a website for Gareth Evans, but he’s the Moving Image curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, so you can have a link there here
Jessie Growden 