Part Une
The intention was for us to sketch our asses off somewhere far away from our studios and ‘normal’ lives filled full of art-destroying distractions.
We stayed in a small, quaint, narrow three story *house. Quaint in this case meant no double glazing, an ill fitting front door, one tiny bathroom and shower directly adjoining the one living room, and a sub zero temperature draft coming up through the floorboards from the basement below - are we hardy or what!
So rather than write about the pretty countryside, the non-existant locals and the food, oh and I nearly forgot, the sketching, instead I’m going to write about:
Some of the things I learnt from my 10 days of Art Bootcamp.
Now I’ve done a lot of this ‘en plein air’ work before, all over the world in fact and perhaps you have as well, so to give us both an out, after all we’re not newbies at this stuff are we! I’m going to rename it.
Things I suddenly remembered induced by extreme emotional and physical discomfort, when trying to sketch.
When sketching en plein air - pretentious name at best but let’s not forget it was ‘invented’ in France - comfort rules. All throughout the trip a bitterly cold breeze blew, even inside the house where we stayed. Sketching, or anything else for that matter, doesn’t work well when you’re cold, (think about it). It requires concentration and dexterity, which is almost impossible when you’ve lost contact with parts of your body. So dress in layers. Hands, feet, ears and nose are the most affected by the chill. Solutions for this is gloves with the tips of the fingers cut off - the gloves silly, plus two or three layers of socks and a lightweight thermal hat, one you can pull over your ears. You can pull it down over your eyes as well when you’ve finally had enough and want the world to go away for a little while. (A trick I learned sometime around the age of three, but still useful). You may want to add a few other garments as well, like trousers, otherwise you tend to attract attention.
Nature and town planners don’t often provide seats at just the place you want to sketch. So unless you want to specialise in cafes, bars or churches take your own small, lightweight collapsible stool. After years of trial and error the one I recommend is Walkstool I’m not going to waffle on about the benefits of it, it’s light, strong, comfortable and really well made. Need you know more! The bottom line is (sorry couldn’t resist that), it allows you to sit comfortably anywhere for hours at a time if the Muse should happen along, and even when She doesn’t.
Democracy and other delusions
Impromptu group decisions can unexpectantly break out at any time. From what to buy for the evening meal to where to head too next to sketch, so be prepared for it and say your piece. Not that anyone will be paying much attention mind you. But it’s nice to feel you’ve stated your opinion despite it making no difference at all to anything. Kind of like democracy really. But there are times when it’s really important to be heard and to make sure it’s acted upon. Such as when the most vocal person in the group says ‘let’s go to the Kangaroo Zoo’ or whatever, just politely, but firmly mention you’re all sketched out on that one and quickly move on. Do not get caught up in discussing the colour of Kangaroos or anything like that or you’ll be there before you know it.
Hissy fits and stuff like that
Just remember habitual stunts you pull with your adoring partner back home cut no ice in a group of unrelated artists high on creativity. So your ‘I’m not speaking to you right now because I’m so upset’ trip can be read by the others as, ’she’s so chilled out and in a deeply contemplative mood right now.’ Or your relentless whinging about the correct way to cook porridge can leave you in the middle of a very large field, alone and surrounded by a herd of cows way past their milking time. Remember this is en plein air after all, so don’t go soft on me.
If things start to get to you and they will, unless you’re in complete state of denial, make sure you take some time out to be on your own. If there’s something you want to say or do it’s up to you. If it’s important enough to you, it’s your responsibility to speak up and/or make it happen with or without the group.
More on’The Field Trip’ next post, perhaps….
* Least there be any confusion, we all are most grateful for the use of the house - the natural ventilation would probably be just about perfect in the summer. To go there in March was our call.
Our Artist Group web site can be seen here Working Artist Studios West Cork, Ireland. Nothing up there about the trip yet - we’re still getting over the strangeness of it all as you may gather.
You can see a video snippet of