26 Jan 2025

Sketchbook imaginings.

 



More sketches to keep my Twitter / X active. It's too cold to be outside looking for resources and ideas. So let the imagination run free. The sketch of an oak tree in a clearing, is from a theme I worked on several years ago.

 All artwork & text copyright ian gordon craig

 

She's back (Rusty Pearl).

 

I’ve posted about this in the past, but as she’s back I’ll mention it again.

When I was 10, walking along a country path on my way to school, I had an encounter with a fox. At first, because she didn’t run away, I assumed it was a dog and started chatting to her. It was when she slowly turned and walked away that I saw it was a fox, and also apparently pregnant.

During my final year as a teacher I started seeing foxes again. These were the months I was starting to think about leaving work, making that big change. I remember on two occasions a fox crossing the road in front of my car as I was heading for home. I remember one evening seeing one sat outside the chip shop I was visiting. And there were many visits to my garden during those years from 2006 to 2010 when I was in a relationship and concentrating on my art. That’s when my story about having a “spirit animal guide” started, and I named her Rusty Pearl. She seemed to turn up when big changes were on the way, and my mind was pre-occupied with them.

Last night she turned up again, for the first time in years. Lately my mind has been troubled about the state England has sunk to, the changes in my city and neighbourhood, and my serious intention to move house. I think Rusty is saying “Go on, do it, make the move”.


All text copyright ian gordon craig.

9 Jan 2025

What's the pupose?

 



 

I keep my Twitter / X page going, mostly by posting sketches. Maybe it will attract potential customers for my book(s)? The above invoked a question on my Painters On-line page:

“What is the purpose of the white oblongs?”

What indeed?

 all text and artwork copyright ian gordon craig

 

3 Jan 2025

Activity Wall.

 

 

My "activity wall". Last October I returned to my intended novel with a little more organisation in mind. I have six chapters almost finished. That would represent the first and second sections of the book. (The 1940s & 1950s). As each chapter is presented as a series of events, rather than a simple story line with start and end points, it has been a little tricky including all the parts I want included, in the correct order. I keep getting stuck on chapters 5 and 6. Or perhaps it’s the space between them that’s in need of more content.

It would be fair to say I have been going ’round in circles over this, to the extent that my "activity wall" would best be named "inactivity".

 All text and photographs copyright ian gordon craig.