DEFINITION: A critical friend can be defined as a trusted person who asks provocative questions, provides data to be examined through another lens, and offers critiques of a person’s work as a friend. A critical friend takes the time to fully understand the context of the work presented and the outcomes that the person or group is working toward (source)

Its been a busy year and having completed my MA I felt adrift. I need a focus or things slide, a line of enquiry to follow. My artist friend Camilla and I had agreed some time ago that we would work on a project together. She lives in the South of France, I am in the UK but working together via ZOOM is possible so as soon as my head lifted above the water of moving studios I got in touch and we both out aside four days to be each others ‘critical friend’.

We had both watched the film of Anita Reynolds working on two Cornish locations.* Reynolds and Mankin are always artists that my students mention as being ones they admire. Both artists respond to their environment, both gather on location and then take what they have ‘collected’ back to the studio to inform their work. This COLLECT, CONSIDER & CREATE approach is the basis of my Approaches to Abstraction course but it was interesting to see how Reynolds developed her own work from a direct response to the environment.

I live in a city so I decided to rekindle my love of urban sketching and work with this particular ‘landscape’. Camilla chose an area near her which was more rural. So after our first zoom meeting both myself and Camilla ventured out into our respective ‘landscapes’.

But this was surprisingly difficult! Why? I had done this in so many cities over so many years…why was I finding it so hard? Its been a while since I had done any urban sketching. My usual practice of finding a cafe to sit in and draw was not possible during the pandemic. With lockdown easing and the school holidays in full swing the city was heaving. I had mistakenly took large sheets of paper which drew attention from passers by…..and it was raining. Although I wasn’t happy with my sketching I did take a few photographs. But I didn’t feel I had ‘connected’… I was going through the motions.

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None of these are excuses, but it led to my reflecting at length with Camilla later in the day on the barriers we face, how our confidence can be thrown by otherwise simple things, how even those of us with years of experience can feel as if we are back to square one. Being able to talk this through with Camilla was really helpful. It helped me consider what I should do the next day; a less busy location, smaller paper….. We also discussed a need to connect in some way with a subject, to find a path, or an aspect of the subject that we want to take forwards.

The next day Camilla and I met up again and discussed many things about the creative process. I spent some time thinking more about my materials, I made myself a small concertina sketchbook to take with me, and smaller paper.

I headed off to a quieter part of the city an underpass that I walk through regularly. Its a liminal space, a threshold between two parts of the city. Concepts that had been a large part of my recent MA thesis.

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I spent some time there sketching on paper and on pages in my sketchbook. Whilst a year ago the graffiti would have been my focus this time it was about the space, the structure, the ideas surrounding viewing it as a threshold. I could come back later and collect images of the graffiti. My MA was paying off… I was thinking deeper than the obvious. I was considering concepts over and above the visual.

I have always admired the drawings of London by Frank Auerbach, the gesture, the immediacy, the sense of place, the urban environment…. he is still alive and working daily at 90 years of age.

Camilla was also finding day 2 more productive. We discussed how the lines of our work were important, we discussed the writing of Tim Ingold, an author we both find interesting. Lines, he argues, are apparent in all aspects of human activity, be this walking, weaving, observing, singing, storytelling, drawing or writing. People create lines whatever they do, whenever they are, and wherever they go (1) Many of these lines have a material presence, such as a path, road and wall. Others such as a boundary on a map and the route of a ferry are at once tangible and ethereal depending on context and experience.

Day 3 was heavy rain so in the studio I decided to refer to Anita Reynolds again. She creates ‘memory sketches’ (they are on her IG feed) which is such a simple and direct way of moving from the observational into a more abstract realm. Anita uses short term memory to ‘revisit’ a place using charcoal on paper. In that way only the essence is maintained, the superfluous is discarded.

It is something I had come across in my MA studies; the artist Michelle Whiting was a visiting lecturer. Her research interests investigate issues of space place and site. Primary methods include durational walking and drawing, considering walking and memory as a way to question the role of visual memory back in the space of the drawing studio.

A student on my abstract course had highlighted the writings of artist Oliver Reed whose Memory and Visualization in an Art Practice deals with aspects of place and memory. Its an aspect I want to investigate further.

Whilst the memory of the underpass wash fresh in my mind I created ‘memory sketches’ . This enable me to focus on what was important… the dark overhanging shape contrasting with the distant light

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Discussing the days progress with Camilla was really helpful. We encouraged each other to keep pushing forwards. Seeing how far my work had come in just three days was encouraging. Those initial fears, the resistance were falling away, I could see a path.

The rain continued so as well as the memory drawings I did some painting using black and white gesso looking at the collection on the wall, selecting aspects from them, responding to them. I aimed to work quickly, to not overthink…

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I also chopped up one of my drawings to make a series of ‘found compositions’ further emphasising the shapes. these may come in useful when I am creating outcomes.

On the last of our four days (…still raining) I stayed in the studio to create collages; selecting the important shapes and values, working quickly. Anita had shown in the video how she uses collage in a similar way, as a way to connect with what is important, to allow an idea to develop. In my Approaches to Abstraction I also use collage as a way to ‘consider’, to move away from the single viewpoint. It is such direct way of working and can be done both in and outside the studio easily. Collages can be worked over, built on, covered up.

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I was pleased with the collages. They reflect the strong shapes, the sharp values, the colours and textures…a ‘sense of place’. I will use these sketches, collages and the ideas behind them to inform painting or prints, to create work ‘about’ not ‘of’ the underpass. I will return to do rubbings of textures, and take photographs of section of grafitti.

Camilla and I spent a long time on this last day talking about the experience and how valuable we had found it. Neither of us expected to make final outcomes. What we achieved had far more ‘value’, we shared a journey, faced our fears and resistance together. I have no idea where these studies will lead but I had more that I had the week before, and not just in terms of paper. I had a line of enquiry that continued on from my MA, something to build on.

On reflection I’m sure if I had just taken this as a solo project I may have stayed within a comfort zone, the pandemic has made my world smaller. Although I now connect with students all over the world it is from the comfort of my studio. In addition we both agreed that having a critical friend meant that we were accountable, we had a commitment to each other to show up and help. It is something we both wish to continue with and highly recommend.

 

1. Ingold, Tim, (2015) The Life of Lines, Oxford: Routledge

*Abstracting the Landscape by Anita Reynolds is a course from Newlyn College