Nude a week 25: Jo highlighted with white pastel

This is a recent 30 minute ske3tch.  I like her sculptural shapes.  Jo was painted with soft black lines and brown pastel, highlighted in white pastel.

Nude a week 24: Guest artist - Georg Mayer-Marton

Two nude sketches by Grorg Mayer-Marton

I was studying at Liverpool art college in the mid 50's when Georg Mayer-Marton arrived as a lecturer, small, grey and Hungarian.

From him I learned mosaics. At first I was trying to make them all nice and flat. He taught us to angle the tessera so that the light catches them. After his death a mosaic font of his has been installed in the Catholic cathedral in Liverpool.

He was a great artist and his art was very inspiring to me. He also took me aside, after looking at my drawings and taught me how to make silver-point drawings. One evening he took about three of us students round the Wirral to see his church mosaics. We piled into his tiny car and went from church to church. A lovely trip.

I found his lectures very hard to follow with his soft voice, his Hungarian accent and his very long sentences. During one of his lectures I drew this sketch (a good likeness). I also have a photo of him with me and other students.. It was taken in the summer of 1958 outside the front of Liverpool Art College. Mayer-Marton died in 1960.

The pictures here are from Mayer-Marton's website http://www.mayer-marton.com/ It contains a lovely article about him by my fellow student Gordon Millar and is well worth looking at.

Above are two of Georg Mayer-Marton's nude drawings. I like the fluid lines.  Below is a photograph of him with his students two years before he died.  Lastly a drawing I did of him during one of his lectures

End of the pedagog course 1958, outside Liverpool Art College. Left to right,back row: Sandra Lord, Anne Mossop, 4 women I don't know, Joyce Park,another woman I don't know, Georg Mayer Marton, Myra Shillington, Alex Morrison. Front row left to right: Jeanette Huxtable (now Jeanie Mellersh), Edith Rubinstein, (now Mathur) Albert Robinson.

A sketch I drew of Mayer-Marton during one of his lectures

Nude a week 23: Which hat shall I wear?

 

Charcoal study of a model done in Grass Valley California

Nude a week 21: Woman adjusting her hair

Quick sketch Pastel on dull sand coloured paper

This was a quick pastel sketch using the paper showing through the flesh. Drawing in  sea green and dark brown pastel, highlights with very pale cadmium red and light red. I did this three months ago.  I like the strong highlight on the right thigh.  I like this drawing, it did not quite fit the scanner.  There is more of her left leg on the drawing which is on A3 paper.  The pose is comfortable and relaxed.

PS our daughter Lucy has started a blog about her sculptures.  Be sure to see it at
https://mellersh.wordpress.com/

PPS:  I recently completed a wedding picture for Claire and Robin Hardy.  It shows the lovely couple coming out of the church, just married.  To the left is the wedding poem written by my husband Nick.  The garland above their head is of hops and crab apples.  The picture was painted digitally using Corel Painter then printed on canvas.

Nude of the week 20:Start of digital season with an ipad "pen" sketch and e-book cover designs

A quick sketch done on my ipad

This was done on my ipad using the Brushes App.

 More digital work - book covers done with Corel Painter

These are covers for three interesting e-books which I have been working on for the past week or so. They are books written about the first world war by my father in law. He fought and was wounded in the trenches on the Western Front as did the poet Siegfried Sassoon.  You can learn more on the e-books page of our Njeanius blog.  Click here for the e-book page.

Nude of the week 19: Woman with a bowl of fruit

The nudes I have put up so far are all quick poses.  I began this one with very light pencil strokes and then watercolour.  I really like the way her hair emphasises the line from the nape of her neck over her shoulders and down her back.

The watercolour is painted with a big brush, freely, wet on wet, the slate colour shadow under her arms goes its own way.  The strong yellow wall picks out her lighter profile. First I painted her profile and when this was dry, I carefully painted the wall with clear water, then flooded the deep yellow paint on the wall area.  I squeezed the paint brush hairs together to drip the deep yellow onto the clear wet area.  I painted this area with the paper flat on the table.  I really like the effect of watercolour floating on clear water in this way.  The scene reminded me of the Gaugin paintings in Tahiti.  Click here to see them.

PS: There's a new thing up on the Njeanius blog run by my husband Nick and me.  It's Nigel Pascoe reading "This England" by Shakespeare with nice photos of the New Forest.  Click here to see it.

Nude a week 18: Man on stool, watercolour

Man, watercolour, sitting on a stool resting his elbow on his knee

I like the yellow light on the arms and chest and the head in shadow with the man looking down at the floor.  I like the loose painting which was done very quickly with a big brush.

My ebook cover work

This week I have been working on some ebook covers for books on the first world war by my father in law.  All artwork done digitally. Here is the first one: a biography of Sassoon, more about this next week.