Angie Rogers Artist

GET INSPIRED

Connecting you to Landscape, Nature and The Wild.

Glimmering light in a misty valley
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Hello there, writing this for you and not wanting to precipitate feelings of gloom, has made me focus on what’s been beautiful this wet February, like these Ivy berries with raindrop jewels, so thanks for that.

I think of February here as being the graphite month. Can you see why? So often the days are grey, light is dim and soft mist hangs over the woodland.

I don’t often work in graphite for my finished drawings, generally preferring the stronger impact of charcoal black. Yet sometimes the lustrous sheen of graphite has the perfect character for expressing those silvery grey and pewterish tones suggestive of our landscape at this time of year.

As you probably know graphite is a form of carbon, like coal and diamond. In graphite though, the atoms have bonded into easily-sliding sheets, making graphite soft, and thus an ideal drawing material on paper.

Graphite for artists comes in the usual wide range of hard and soft pencils, as powder in jars, as giant chunky sticks and as a liquid too.

Pencil ‘leads’ were never made from lead, but mis-identified pure, solid graphite originally from Borrowdale in Cumbria. Hence the first pencil factory in Keswick.

I’ve used mostly graphite in this study of skeleton hedgerow plants and seed heads in winter. They have a quiet beauty and are a reminder of the luxuriance of summer growth.

And this sketch of a home-made shed on a nearby allotment is all graphite drawing, done with pencils and a big graphite stick.

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Bringing The Outside In - Birch Bark
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This large piece of bark caught my eye as I passed through our local woodland. It was just lying on the bank, from a recently fallen Silver Birch, overcome by gravity and too much rain. To carry it home I placed the pale bark around my forearm like an ornate Jacobean cuff. Since then the curl has tightened as it dries out.

I don’t think I’ll do anything with it, just admire its beautiful texture and colours for a while then take it back.

Japanese Falcon

In January’s Get Inspired I showed you a selection of marvellous ancient Egyptian statuettes of birds of prey. By coincidence, a recent visit to Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley to view a small exhibition of Japanese ‘Floating World’ woodcuts and Samurai armour, also revealed this wonderful bronze falcon.

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The intricate detail is amazing, especially the feathers but actually I realise I prefer the simplicity of the ancient Egyptian ones. They seem more powerful. What do you think?

And because this post could do with a bit more colour I can’t resist showing you this Edo period armour made in 1722, alongside these tranquil Japanese woodcuts by Hiroshige (1797 - 1858). War and Peace.

Ripples

Thanks for the great response to Bob Pegg’s guest post on my website Journal. I’m so pleased this poignant memoir has already been read by hundreds. In case you missed it here is the link:

Read Bob Pegg’s article about photographer Martin Parr

Do you think you could enjoy writing a guest article for Get Inspired? If you’d like to contribute a piece on a suitable subject you have knowledge of I’d be delighted to consider your proposal.

In the meantime, here’s hoping that the next few weeks bring us some kinder, drier weather. This is supposed to be the year I do more drawing and painting outside and so far it’s been a wash out!
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All the best
Angie

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