No.34 A date with a mysterious medium on a faraway island

In which I spend a day playing with tones and textures on a rural estate

“Old Laundry” One of the stone buildings and a section of the fabulous wall on the Welbeck Estate in Worksop, England on a sunny day in May

Back in May, I took a solo trip to England for about ten days. After a red-eye flight landing around 8 am in Heathrow, I jumped on the tube to King’s Cross and then a couple of trains up to Worksop, a small town near Sheffield. The following day I’d be taking a drawing workshop. After a bit of wandering around the town, I had dinner at my hotel, and I booked a taxi for next morning to take me out to the nearby Welbeck Estate. By then, I’d been awake some 30+ hours, so early to bed!

Three photos: 1. Another section of the wall on the estate, with a sign pointing toward the west workshops 2. The wall outside the door to Hope & Elvis workshop, with a burst of red climbing roses and some pots 3. an unfurled antique paper package containing many sewing needles, emblazoned with Victorian lettering and embellishments, which hung on a wall inside the studio

I arrived at the fabulously named Hope & Elvis studio, excited to meet Letitia (who works under the name Mrs Bertimus). I’d done a couple small online workshops of hers through an artists’ group of which we’re both members. Through those, and following her Youtube channel, I felt as though I already knew her, and it was delightful to meet face to face.

The workshop was called Drawing: from Realism to Abstraction, and Mrs B took us through a number of exercises in a variety of mediums. We sometimes drew blindly, drawing an object in our hands, hidden beneath the table, by feeling it with our fingers. We drew with our non-dominant hands. We drew on different types of paper; primed and unprimed. We drew with pencils; charcoal; inktense sticks; gesso; with powdered, water-soluble graphite and paintbrushes. We even drew with with wooden skewers and wet-wipes. Illuminating discoveries and jolly good fun!

Abstracted shapes of a seashell drawn in rust-colored inktense (a kind of water soluble conte crayon) on light brown paper

Three photos: 1. Mts B in the studio, with some of the artists cleaning up behind her 2. Some shapes of a seashell drawn without looking at it, only by feeling it, in charcoal on white paper 3. Fellow artists Theresa (left) and me (right)— She generously offered to drive me back into town at the end of the day :)

The day flew by too fast, all of us wanting to carry on with our projects when it came time to clean up. I have loads of notes in my sketchbook from the day; the exercises we worked on, and lists of prompts and reminders Letitia had pinned up for us to refer to. I’ll be using some of the warmups again, and referring back to the prompts for sure.

Mrs B also had lots of her own drawings and sketchbooks for us to study, as well as some wonderful books on drawing that she recommends. She also had a table with some of her works and prints. I picked up a few things—some to keep and some to give as gifts.

Interior of Hope & Elvis Studio, jammed to the gills with supplies and fabrics, vintage finds, and some beautiful wood flat files. I love the tricolor fabric flags :)

Wend, who runs H&E, was as much a delight as the studio itself, which doubles as a source of supplies and shop of vintage treasures. Everyone was sweet as pie, so friendly— and a daring and talented lot in the drawing exercises, too. I wish it weren’t so far away!

My large-scale gessoed-paper with abstracted shapes inspired by the curves, folds, and crannies of a deer skull.

Above you can see my large-scale piece covered in abstracted shapes. It feels like it wants to be some sort of abstract Victorian wallpaper, which makes me happy. These shapes were drawn with powdered water-soluble graphite, which turns into a kind of gel you can paint with. We used 1” flat brushes, wooden kebab sticks, and baby wipes (for lifting and lightening) to work the mysterious medium on the primed surface. I did many of these shapes with my non-dominant hand. Such a fantastic and strange thing to work with— I bought some straight away when I returned home after my trip.

I also took the opportunity to try the charcoal ‘gel’ on the unprimed pages of the concertina sketchbook I’d brought on the trip, seen here in the house where I stayed in York.

A big thank you to Mrs Bertimus, her assistant Sam, and to Wend— and to all my fellow students who felt like fast friends. It was the best way I can imagine to’ve started my trip. Next day I’d be headed to York, formerly known as Eboricum (by the Romans) and Yorvik (by the Vikings). But that’ll have to wait.

And that concludes this peek into the first day of my trip— by far the most actively art-filled day. Have you worked with water-soluble powdered graphite? If so, let me know in the comments— I’d love to hear about / see what you’ve done with it.

As always, thanks so much for being here and for reading. If you enjoyed it, please tap the little heart glyph— it helps my work find its way to more artists and readers here.

See you next time—

x Liz