Angie Rogers Artist

GET INSPIRED

Connecting you to Landscape, Nature and The Wild.

Not Time To Hunker Down Just Yet.

Hello there friends,

I hope September has been a pleasant month for everyone.

I've not been able to fully experience the outdoors these past 4 weeks as most of my time has been spent looking after a loved one following surgery. That will make it all the more sweet when I can start going on longer walks again.

The Calder Valley and surrounding moors are especially beautiful in Autumn. Being a watery kind of place we get a lot of mist drifting through the goldening foliage which is very inspiring for an artist.

Bringing The Outside In - Colour Swatch

Those banks of super bright green and purple Rosebay Willow Herb highlighted in my last email are now all transformed to an equally lovely range of warm colours.

You are more creative than you may think. You can understand and appreciate colour without being an accurate drawer. You can respond creatively to landscape in ways that rely on looking closely and taking notice rather than having traditional art skills.

And these ways will help you enjoy a stronger connection with nature. So I like to show you satisfying creative activities that don't require you to be 'talented at art' etc. Here’s an easy one to try:

Go outside and choose something natural to bring home that has a variety of colours . Or do the same as me and pick a willow herb stem.

Get a piece of decent quality cartridge or watercolour paper (thrifty photocopy paper will never give you nice results and just wastes your effort) and some watercolour paints.*

Look closely at your natural object and try mixing the same colour in paint for each hue you can see, then paint a patch of that colour on the paper. Experiment, no one else is looking or judging.

I drew round a 30cm ruler with a pencil to make the colour strip outline and then just guessed the divisions but you could measure them. Or you could make circles. Or you could just paint blobs which is what I would normally do if not trying to look proper for this email!. (Though I do rather like the colourful strip)

The above example was done really quickly, in about 15 minutes I think. Comparable to doing a quick puzzle or crossword and equally good for your brain. Plus you will never look at that object in the same way once you have scrutinised it so intensely.

*If you don't mind using Amazon, you can get a mini travel set of 10 watercolours for less than £10. Daler Rowney Aquafine Watercolour 10 half pans set + 1 watercolour brush currently £8, about the same as a currant bun and a coffee in Hebden Bridge nowadays!

For around the same money or less you can get a 15 to 20 sheet pad of A6 postcard size watercolour paper. Ideal for avoiding the overwhelm of large expanses of blank paper.

You could paint one of these swatches every few weeks and have a seasonal colour chart of your local area.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to get involved with paint, you could write a descriptive list of all the colours you can see in the object.

A Book Recommendation

I've just read this and am struck by how many of the ideas expressed within it chime with my own ideas about noticing and quietly paying attention.

The book is non-fiction and is a biographical memoir of a period of months the author (a Cumbrian farmer and writer) spent on a remote island off the west coast of Norway, living and working with an older woman tending wild eider ducks during their breeding season, and maintaining an ancient tradition of gathering eiderdown after the birds have departed back to sea.

There are no great dramatic events, just the unfolding of an unusual way of life, purposeful work, friendship, psychological shifts and contemplation of the natural world without sentimentality or illusion.

I enjoyed being taken to a different world and afterwards felt as though I had been for a swim in a deep pool of pure water.

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Into The Black

For those who enjoy practical creativity themselves, with children or grandchildren, there's a new post on my website journal, all about the simple pleasures of making paint of from powdered charcoal

Applied to paper it creates wonderful effects and has to be tried to discover the full potential. Possibly not ideal if you have white carpets at home but there’s always outdoors.

View journal post 'Into The Black - Easy Charcoal Paint'

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Ripples

Thank you to Alice, Claire, Janet, Mell and John for your responses to my last email. It is always lovely to read your comments and descriptions and although I have replied to you all in person it's nice to reiterate my appreciation.

Until next time, as we slip deeper into Autumn it seems far too soon to hunker down into the shelter of home, drawn curtains and the indoor life of the cold months. And so I'm wishing you exhilarating days of russet and gold, misty mornings and contented times outside in the world of nature and wild things.
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All the best
Angie

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