Hygeia Frieze Colour Studies Celf o Gwmpas Walkway Project November 2020

During November 2020 following the series of drawings, gouache studies were made. The aim of making the studies was to familiarise myself with the colour palate, make adjustments to composition and develop the designs so that colour would be the structure of the image. By this I mean that the image is the interaction of colour, Form and pictorial architecture are described through one hue placed against another. 

Panel 3 featuring Women cyclists reference Eileen Sheridan featured in National Cycle Museum

The colour palette is planned to be saturated colour to maximise vibrancy and dynamic capitalising on  the full quality of manufacturers colour product and to therefore give maximum hue. The gouache range fairly matched the planned colours that would be applied. Using block form, flat and the hard edges describing the linear aspect but also delimiting each colour against the other and therefore maximising intensity, structure is defined. In practical terms this method would also facilitate second and third coates of paint, essential to maintain a good surface for outdoor location and strengthen the overall pictorial effect of colour. Here, by making studies, the issue was to think about each recess in the walkway, the design overall, interconnectivity between the the frieze elements and how the viewer might look at the work whilst passing in either direction along the walkway. As colour enters and leaves each panel, how will it continue onto the next, not perhaps through the actual edge colour but more the main component elements continuing, in part, throughout the frieze.

As I was making the studies and moving on from the drawing that mainly established motif, colour interaction further developed the pictorial architecture by fragmenting some forms and the overlapping (not overlaying) elements and re forming of shapes and features evolved a greater fluidity of form. Without losing touch with the established design (as described in the drawings blog post) colour and the way it works in this kind of scenario was developed to forge new meanings, perhaps in the way the cycle breaks into the neighbouring forms or where the main interlocking form that traverses all panels becomes subsumed into bars and blocks of different and contrasting colour.

Panel 3 featuring Women cyclists reference Eileen Sheridan featured in National Cycle Museum

Panel 2 National Cycle Museum Tom Norton Auto Palace

Panel 2 National Cycle Museum Tom Norton Auto Palace

Panel 4 Cheese making machinery Turner Bros Newtown featured in the Museum

Side Angle views to illustrate how the panel may look from either side as viewers pass by

Panel 1 The Griffin/Dragon start/finish of Hygeia Frieze at either end

Panel 1 The Griffin/Dragon start/finish of Hygeia Frieze at either end of walkway

Panel 5 small panel next to blue fire escape door features less blue. Llandrindod Sheela na gig

Panel 6 Hygeia featuring town emblem Hygeia represented by her bowl and serpent

Panel 7 The Griffin/Dragon start/finish of Hygeia Frieze at either end of walkway

 

Hygeia Frieze Drawings Celf o Gwmpas Walkway Project November 2020

Hygeia Frieze Panel 1 and 7 both feature the Llandrindod Wells Griffin / Dragon. Charcoal pencils 

As a start point for the project, these drawings are about the seven panel Hygeia Frieze for the Celf o Gwmpas Walkway, using themes from the town and culture of Llandrindod Wells. I resolved to make a series of drawings as a way to familiarise the motifs and themes being considered from the research at Llandrindod Wells. Rather than a definitive plan or design, each drawing is a way of locating a composition. In this way, shapes and forms are explored and possibilities considered visually. Although a definitive set of drawings are created, changes in the design are inherent to the process, so the final outcomes will probably be different.  Through drawing, stages of design are registered and built upon, rather than set as rigid statements.

The dragon motif greets viewers on either end of the walkway

Hygeia Frieze Panel 2 and 3 feature the theme of cycling. Tom Norton Auto Palace and Cycles is now the National Cycle Museum. Panel 3 features two women cyclists. In the Museum, Eileen Sheridan, professional cycling champion of the 1950s is featured in a display, unveiled by Sheridan a few years ago. Charcoal pencils

Hygeia Frieze Panel 4 features cheese making machinery from the Llandrindod Wells Museum on Temple Street. Made by Newman Brothers of Newtown the handles, plates and screw fittings recalled Fernand Leger, a constant source of inspiration for drawing. Peter de Francia's essay on the drawing of  Leger is revelatory (1). Embracing Leger's enthusiasm for the machine aesthetic, the Newtown cheese presses inspired volumetric drawings but with added "Futuristic bravado" (de Francia). Charcoal pencils

Hygeia Frieze Panel 5 features Llandrindod Wells Sheela na Gig, found covered from a pre existing church. Charcoal pencils

Each panel introduces a different theme whilst continuing elements across the entire series. For example, the architectural detailing on the Williams and Sons building in Temple Street has a visually engaging horizontal interlocking design that when enlarged to fill the image, creates a strong and dynamic motif that will interconnect across all seven panels.

Hygeia Frieze panel 6 features Hygeia, Llandrindod Wells town emblem. Charcoal pencils

This drawing features Hygeia. Hygeia is the Greek goddess of health and town emblem of Llandrindod Wells adopted to evoke the health benefits of the spring waters available at the spa town, first discovered in 1732 and that can still be taken at Rock Park. Hygeia is the daughter of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, identified by the symbol of a snake entwined around a staff. The Victorian Hygeia emblem of Llandrindod Wells has Hygeia with staff, snake and backdrop of a river. Hygeia is often symbolised with a mixing bowl for concocting medicines or perhaps here, holding the health inspiring spring waters and with  an entwining snake (used in early Greek society as a symbol of healing by licking wounds) making a potent visual symbol. Hygeia is also the origin of the English word Hygiene. 

This drawing also makes reference to the work of IslwynWatkins  

The process of drawing on projects like this commission and also on specific residencies I have undertaken, is one of going back to basics. In my studio practice, painting has reached a state of deconstruction. Here, it is almost like stepping back and importantly, starting again. Beginning over or afresh is a feature of every new series or even individual work I make. Emptying the vessel is an analogy for removing all the information present in a given stage of creative process. It is a constant method of my studio practice: knowing when to stop and recharge. Here, in clearing the desk so to speak, I start afresh with this new brief, partly set by the demands of the commission, but mainly and overall, to locate an original outcome; something different; something not seen before. I did the same spontaneously when I was at the Sauerbier House residency for three months. Here, objective drawing of the place seemed appropriate and the way to familiarise myself with the task in hand. It is a way of looking and beginning to understand. It remains for me, an instinctive reaction and inroad to making.

Charcoal pencils by Derwent. In the making of these drawings a full set was used. 

(1) de Francia, Peter. Leger. Yale 1983. Drawings of Leger (p 137).

Celf o Gwmpas Walkway Project Research and Idea

The walkway that runs parallel with Tudor Lane and connects the centre car walk and Station Way has seven recesses areas, each with a seating area built into the wall and well covered with a glass canopy having a promenade feel. Opposite the walls is an incline with well established evergreen planting. 

My first walkabout in the town revealed many architectural features that had visual possibility. I look for shapes and distinctive features that can become part of a composition. Something inherent in what is already made. A kind of transformation. Featured elements from my first walkabout include Tom Norton Cycles; cycling (referencing the National Cycling Museum); decorative features from Williams Butchers building, Temple Street; the griffin derived from Castel Collen particularly referncing the iron work griffin on the refurbished Exchange House Spa Road; Middleton Street floor tiling; cheese making machines (museum); the abstract work of Islwyn Watkins (museum); Kilvert (museum) and the railway. 

Middleton Street Floor Tiles

Art Deco Tom Norton Cycle building, now National Cycle Museum

Hygeia, emblem of the town, to feature in design

Turner Company cheese making machine from Newtown

Fantastic shapes, the arms bend

Griffin on Exchange House, Spa Road

Castel Collen Griffin

String course along Williams Butchers, Temple Street

Islwyn Watkins (1938 - 2018)

Following the walkabout and reflection on the themes around the town of Llandrindod Wells, I resolved to make an idea of a frieze like work using all seven of the recess areas of the walkway. I recently was in the British Museum and looking at the Parthenon frieze. The horizontal continual visual dialogue seemed to resonate with the walkway project. 

First sketchbook ideas began to develop. 

The full walkabout and sketchbook ideas can be found here