Drawing

A tad more drawing going on, we have been up to eight pilers working away at a time in addition to the big tall one. And joy of joys over the next 3 -4 weeks we are going to have the happy concurrent activities of:

1. On site building construction
2. Sewer connection works ripping up the street and disrupting parking
3. Metro Tunnel rail closures mean that we will have additional disruption with buses looking to queue for passengers or stop for a lunch break in exactly the same place that sewer works are scheduled to happen.
4. I am not quite sure that anyone knows what anyone else is doing

Why oh why are my backgrounds still grey when I am drawing on white paper.

Its All About The Negative Space

So how do you make a boring bit of machinery more interesting – draw the negative spaces around it.  And when I darken the edges of the space it almost seems like the machine is vibrating in space.  Still loving my pilers so have thrown in a few more of them also. (Reminder I don’t give two hoots for proportion or realism 🙂

Sometimes my mind goes to a whimsical place which is completely at odds with the brutality of these machines.

I often look at the augers and think they would make an interesting pendant.

These are the views most likely to send the Bec into “protector of her domain” mode otherwise known as barking mad.

The spike is grossly exaggerated because the auditory disruption one spike creates vastly outweighs its actual size. This is the one that sends me barking mad.

In Search of Equipment Diversity

At some point I wanted different equipment to arrive on site, I craved variety.  So I was very excited when trucks laden with rebar arrived, swiftly followed by the cement mixers.  Sadly this excitement did not last long.  The trucks and the mixers have a shape – one shape.  Much as I tried to make them look interesting all my early efforts rated as AAARRRRGGGH.  I tried to capture the movement of the spinning cement mixers – didn’t work for me.  The titles might hint at a degree of dissatisfaction. Dump trucks are more interesting as they have all of two shapes – tray up and tray down, but they’ll come later.  I did eventually figure out how to make mixers and trucks more interesting, with some semblance of dynamism but that is for next week’s instalment.  For now you will have to make do with – OMG what was she thinking!!!

Construction Disruption Begins

In February, work began on the site next door.  It starts with 2 – 3 months of earthworks using about 5 very big “piling” tractors (pilers for short) – to drill, dig, scrape, lift, move – dirt, rock, cement, metal bars etc. etc.. 

When I first thought of capturing “construction disruption” in my art I imagined something brutal, dark and fractured, fault lines through homes and heads.  Could not have been more wrong. I sit on the couch looking out tall windows over the top of a paling fence, all I can see are the arms of these enormous pilers. Often they appear graceful as they glide past or swing in front of my windows. 

At other times they are menacing and quite brutal.  A piler with a bit of speed up charging your windows can be a tad disconcerting. To dislodge the drilled earth from the auger they ‘shake it all about’ – the clamour and clunk of heavy metal on heavy metal.  Then there is the occasional tremor through the floorboards as they bash the ground – I think this is when they change from say a drill bit to a scoop to whatever and are making sure the new bit is ‘locked in’.  The level of disruption depends on their distance from my side wall, so as they move further away the disruption lessens.

I planned my days so that I was out of the house for at least half of the drilling day. It was a good plan for the summer and daylight savings. Through those first six weeks, after the builders went home I could open the bifold doors to enjoy the silence, sunlight, garden and birds. In the quiet of those late afternoons and early evenings I gathered my coloured pencils to draw.

And as I created these drawings I wonder whether I have stopped the kicking or the screaming on the way to abstract art.  It is an interesting place to be. 

Summer Drawing

Every spring-summer I spend an inordinate amount of time watching the birds in my backyard. The sparrows, doves and occasional wattlebird are with me all year,  white plumed honey-eaters are staying longer each year; the starlings appear all of a sudden with young in tow and go through seasonal moults.   While they all love a big bird bath, it is the sparrows that revel in the cool water until they are completely saturated.

(All of these photos were taken by Wendy (almost no photographic skills) hence the grey tones in the background!)

These two are of a sparrow sat on a petal of the fountain – pre wallow.

I have tried many times to draw a sparrow, saturated and puffy after wallowing in the water.  They were all appalling but this one catches a sense of the size and heaviness of a saturated sparrow.  Why ‘wallow”? Because the petals on my fountain fill with water and these little birds sit in the curve of a petal, spread their wings, lower the heads and shake it all about, turn, repeat, turn, repeat until they are saturated.  It is a joy to watch them. And then a puffed up , saturated sparrow trying to dry off.  They actually look very dark when wet.

Here we have a White Plumed Honey Eater resting beside the pond. They took years to brave the water and now dive in at the shallow end immediately out onto a branch; still too wary to sit still upon a petal. Also watched a Dove walk along the pavement towards me, stop and puff up with a mighty sigh.  Love the doves but they are the only birds that poop in the pond!!