Art for a rainy Sunday Afternoon

When Lyrics, music and nature inspire illustration

I have been drawing in a dedicated sort of way lately . Sketching too. I have been trying to find my way with an approach long buried *.

Last week I was interviewed for a local magazine in my home/ studio . The interviewer was lovely and sensitive to my space (and our devil may care dogs!) and I instantly felt at ease. The interview became a conversation and although I was recorded also (and photographed !) it was thankfully a relaxing experience.

I am a worrier and fret-er . I had imagined in advance our dogs leaping, licking, barking and all in all attention seeking in the worst way. Most fortunately his easy going energy helped them trust his presence in our home . I also looked around at my space (which truly does not look like any studio you might encounter in a magazine ) and wondered if I should have warned him in advance ! Again no cause for alarm as he was intrigued ,curious and accepting..

I was asked to start a painting as part of my photograph session which left me afterwards with a lot of painted blobs on paper where the landscape outside my window should be ..

I finished it later and noticed that I had been integrating a few styles of recent used in sketching with my gouache paint and pencils -I had merged my old approach to mixed media (with the image of photographer) in with the new ..

I have been noticing details of the landscape that surrounds me with heightened focus lately. Thanks to Susannah Fisher’s post ..I am trying to pay attention to the sounds of nature around me that I seem to have ignored/overlooked for the past 16 years! It is so true -I do not always use all of my senses when I am paying attention to nature

Weekly Prompt: Sound Maps

Yesterday’s audio capture of bird song and rain at 5:40 am :

This all weaves in to how I am working on approaching my art practice with a new lens.

I posted this next project in my threads here-but without the lyrics . I thought it might be more interesting to post images with the words.. (The video link is at bottom of this post to hear the song .)

It’s a set of drawings based on a beautiful mournful song by Irish singer Lisa O’Neill called “Old Note “ This song truly reached into my soul. It also provided me with a challenge to try to illustrate the lyrics in a meaningful way.

I had enjoyed the poem illustrated by artist Marty Molinari and posted here:

Illustrating a poem for the first time

and this prompted me to try this in my own style -to illustrate this poetic song!

The wind whistled you in behind the springtime

Float , Old Note new among my mind

You hold the note ,the note just moves to move mine

Let go the note and so move everything

I can’t come to quantify the feeling

I was walking home half in the dreamin’

The things that I was thinking I was singin’

The wind whistled you in behind the springin’

A star ran rings around the star before me

and spun and swooped and sank in rock beneath me

and mirrored what I’ve carried since I met me

and shot me back into the ground below me

and there I met another note long buried *

and sat upon its shoulders was a memory

A home but see above me’s gone so noisy

I almost think I do not recognise me

Feathered friend , dig up and resurrect me

I long to live among the song of birdies

A lawless league of lonesome, lonesome beauty

Skies and skies and skies above duty

Song and Lyrics by Lisa O’Neill

I realized after I finished the illustrations that “Old Note “ could also represent a physical paper note -but for some reason the image of a music note arrived first in my head !

Have you tried to illustrate a favourite song ? When lost for ideas or feeling stuck it’s a most interesting exercise!