September has been a month in which I have focussed on drawing weeds. Why? As I mentioned in an earlier blog Disruption and Influences I like their tenacity, infiltrating the urban, literally breaking through tarmac sometimes. They are often overlooked, and as a stranger in a new city I am drawn to this aspect of them. I have enjoyed discovering the complexity of their form through drawing. Things that I thought were familiar simple shapes, like nettle leaves, have been revealed as far more intricate when I have tried to put them onto paper or canvas.
Autumn has definitely arrived here. Though sunny I only managed to draw yesterday in bursts of about an hour before retreating inside to get warm. And the weeds are already showing signs of retreat, some turning brown and withering. Rather than making more drawings my focus will probably shift to working on these further - adding elements from the city, distant views, to break the composition and perspective. I have already sought to break down perspective in some of them through the way in which I added colour, flowing the same colour over different planes of the structure of a plant, or between several plants. Then comes collaging or sewing for the canvas pieces to truly break down and disrupt the image.
Sorry for the poor quality of some of the images - photographing my work has never a strong point and the light here is pretty poor.