Watercolours in Miniature

Argentina in Colour X, 6cm x 8cm, watercolour on Khadi paper

Some time ago I’d began to realise just how stuck I felt. I’d been making detailed drawings in pen alongside small sketches of birds and botanicals for some years and was starting to find myself feeling like I was going through the motions. My woodland studies project where I drew in fineliner pen a series of British woodland landscapes had been my primary focus for a long time. It’s a project that I enjoyed doing very much and am very proud of too. There are 19 drawings in the collection and as I’m a lover of round numbers I will likely do one more to make a series of 20 but for the time being I wanted to challenge myself by doing something different, so that when I draw in fineliner pen again it doesn’t feel like a chore. I longed for a new project to get my teeth in to. It had been many years since I’d worked with paint and with colour and so I decided that I’d like to go in a new direction, putting colour at the centre of my work for a while.

I ordered a stack of tiny handmade papers by Khadi papers in order to be able to experiment with watercolour paint. Working on a very small scale comes more naturally to me and is less daunting when working with a new and unfamiliar medium. I found a photograph from my travels around Argentina to work from, a beautifully atmospheric landscape of forest in the Nahuel Huapi National Park, Patagonia. I started by putting a wash of colour over the paper, allowing it to dry and then putting down another wash, layering up the paint and also using water and kitchen towel to dab away at the colour too. I used the finest brush I had to paint some tree trunks and branches but found it frustrating how I couldn’t get the tiny details that I’m used to putting in my work. I enjoyed the finished paintings which I stuck in my sketchbook alongside a pencil sketch of the composition. I started another four paintings, working on them simultaneously. The paintings came out quite saturated in colour, I enjoyed aspects of the vibrancy but wanted to try and mute the colours a little to echo colours that are found in impressionist paintings. I borrowed a very fine brush from my partner, one intended to use for painting miniature figurines. The brush felt revolutionary, I was able to create very tiny details on the paper.

Rather than spend a lot of time looking through all my photographs for references I decided to make ten paintings from one photograph focusing on different elements like composition and colour and trying different techniques like layering up wet paint and using more of a dry brush technique. By working in this way I found that I could work faster and experiment more freely, allowing a very different outcome each time despite the exact same photograph being used for reference. I shared the paintings on social media and put them up for sale as part of the Artist Support Pledge. Artist Support Pledge is an initiative conceived by Matthew Burrows where artists put their work for sale for no more than £200 each, when the artist makes £1000 they pledge to but the work of another artist taking part, spending £200 on their work. I was overwhelmed by the positive response and the sales of the miniature paintings and could see how much my work had improved in a short time.

I finished the first series of ten and turned my attention to another composition, one of a landscape in Tosh, India. Again I worked on several paintings at once, capturing different aspects and trying out different techniques. The more ‘open’ landscape was more challenging, it made me realise why I’m so drawn to forests and enclosed woodland spaces, they feel more magical and demand more detail. I’m now working on the third series of paintings which are inspired by a landscape at Iguazu Falls in Argentina. The paintings have taught me so much and feel like a relief as they are so different to my usual work. Hopefully they still capture what it is that I’m hoping all of my work does, an impression of a place with emphasis on light and the magical qualities of the natural world.

Have you changed direction drastically within your work? If you have how do you feel about it? Has it taught you anything?

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Bye Bye Blackbird

Bye Bye Blackbird, 21cm x 29.5cm, pencil on paper by Claire Leach

Out of five little sketches of birds that I made in my sketchbook, I found myself being drawn to the last one on the page, the blackbird. The quick 20 minute drawing seemed to capture the shimmer of the feathers, how the little bird seemed to stand proudly. I decided to make a drawing with three blackbirds on to capture a few different views of the bird. I like the idea of making slightly larger drawings with several birds on rather than the small singular portraits of birds that I have been doing for years. I am also intrigued by the idea of landscapes with birds in them, perhaps a little abstract. Since working in my sketchbook I have all these ideas that I want to pursue which was exactly my hope when I started it, now I just need to find a little more time.

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The Beginning Of A Sketchbook

Whilst perusing Instagram I saw that Shilpa Agashe, somebody who I have been following for quite some time was using a sketchbook, the way she was working in it really attracted my attention. There were painterly elements, text and collage. I really liked the aesthetics of it and it inspired me to have a go at using a sketchbook myself. I’ve never been much of a sketchbook user, I start them with good intentions but never seem to make it past the first few pages. I feel a bit like a bad artist for not using one, surely all good artists keep sketchbooks that could be works of art in themselves?! I only really kept them at university because they were a required element. I love seeing other peoples sketchbooks and find them to be a great insight into how an artist works. I tend to just draw on separate bits of paper, but I end up being very precious with it, hoping that whatever I make will be good enough to put in my shop and sell. There isn’t much room for experimentation with that kind of thinking.

So, with the U.K. in the middle of lockdown due to coronavirus I decided to start a sketchbook. I dug out an old book which I bought from L. Cornelissen & Son in London many years ago, I’d already ripped several of the first pages out so it was practically new. A fresh start. The only rule with my sketchbook was that there are no rules whatsoever. If I want to draw little landscapes, birds and flowers in my usual mediums then that’s fine, if I want to dip the whole thing in paint then that’s fine too. The point is to create, to gather ideas, to record what’s going on in my head and the outside world. To help inspire new work, to perfect techniques, to try something new, to work with colour and to continue with black and white. It’s all valid.

I’ve began making drawings in my sketchbook. A little pencil sketch from one of my last walks before lockdown, a sweet drawing of blossom made in fountain pen. A bright green tree with flecks of blue which I’m desperate to paste over with something else. Some birds chosen at random from my RSPB pocket guide, a detailed landscape of silhouetted trees in fine liner pen and a blousy daffodil with handmade paper collaged over the top. The sketchbook has already inspired ideas for future work, I’m excited to get stuck in to it when my son goes to sleep, it has ignited a need to draw again which I had been missing for a while.

Do you keep a sketchbook? If so then does it help you with your work?

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