Orichalcum Have I

Things I like that aren't materials

This section is for other beautiful things that aren't exactly substances, nor concepts, but that fit the mood.

Birds

Well, the first lockdown here in my Irish suburb was particularly good for appreciating quietness. Some days there'd be stretches when no car was audible. The garden birds (this was last spring, in 2020) absolutely loved it. I learned the blackbird's distinctive major triad motif with a bent third. Birds, I believe, were understood as bringing spiritual messages by the Ancient Romans. At the very least, I interpret snatches of birdsong, or the presence of birds outside my window on the telephone wires or trees, as a reminder to be present.

I moved out to an even quieter estate two months ago. Just want to report that the bird activity is incredible. They seem to really like the rangy, ivy-covered tree right outside my window. There's thrushes, finches, blue tits, coal tits (I think) and of course the usual suspects, magpies, blackbirds and gulls. But loads and loads of them. I think the larger birds like letting the small ones scout out food.

Misty mountains

It delighted me when, as a kid, I realised I could simulate atmospheric perspective when painting mountain ranges, by fading them into blue. We don't have epic mountains in my country, though on the way to County Cork you can see some lovely ones that might have their upper reaches swathed in rainclouds (though I'm not certain, I think my memory must be of the Galtees). Misty mountains (I use the term as a gentle nod to Tolkien, that master of evoking the rhythm of walking through a landscape, in the rhythm and pace of prose) can appear pink and purple in photos taken at sunrise, or peach- or bruise-coloured during dusk or a storm.

Badlands

There are definitely no badlands in Ireland - unless you count the Burren, a karst landscape of deeply furrowed and burrowed pale grey limestone (which I associate with certain calm, accepting, grim and patient states of my personality via the metaphor of "bedrock"). But I love depictions of American canyons, buttes and mesas very much, particularly those in Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. As a matter of fact, I am very fond of many drawings of rockfaces and cliffs. There's something about this subject that brings out an artist's natural pen stroke - the texture of their mind (and the music in their hand!). Hergé as well as the masters of E.C. era (1950s pulp comics) come to mind. I have done a couple of studies of these in my sketchbook and it's a subject I intend to revisit!

Insects

I have a thing for iridescent dragonflies. (Other invertebrates iridesce too: beetles - my God, I've been checking out pictures of beetles with green shells, I'm amazed at the depth of dark, glowing colour on those dimpled, metallic wingcases; weevils such as the nettle weevil with its irregular bright hairs that seem to stand proud of, and then at other spots blend into, its dark shell; damselflies.) There is a lovely river bend in Co. Wicklow that I go to in my mind sometimes. One time when I was there in real life, I saw, on a rock by the riverside, two blue wings from a dragonfly that some creature must have munched.

Temples

I love looking at photos of Chinese temples such as White Horse Temple, Luoyang. Old, well-made institutional buildings have a calm energy. It's nice to detect that mood - wherein even awkward architectural juxtapositions, garish decorations or bathetic details have all been somehow made perfectly acceptable by long passage of ritual, cyclic time - in a non-Western garb. (I love Christian cathedrals and small churches very much too, but they come with a whole lot of baggage that I don't want leaching into this page too much right now. The same could be said for Greek and Egyptian ruined temples.)

Tree trunks

No need to say too much here. Tree trunks carry a lot of personality. So many different kinds of bark fissures, often in pied patches alternating between textures. Then there are the muscle-like curves and channels in the main trunk where it feels like a branch is straining to split off, but is still fused. Often there's an overall lean. Then you've got the circular scars of removed branches, plus the long triangular channels or niches at the bottom heralding splitting roots. I've been drawing a fair few tree trunks recently, but I have a long way to go.

Flowers

Today I drew a pistil of a flower (I copied it from a line illustration in a book, more of a graphic element than a lifelike impression). I have some ideas for using shapes of plants, such as seed pods and bulbs as well as flower parts, as shapes to frame drawings. In general, I really hope to do a lot of drawing this Spring when, um, you know, nature reawakens and all that kind of thing. I might do some of the drawing indoors using plant parts picked from nature, arranged on a sheet - I believe this technique could allow a more 2D, decorative approach.

Flowers often have great names, such as "corydalis".

In the last while I've drawn a few more flowers from that book. However, the daffodils and crocuses are fully in bloom these days, so for the rest of the spring I hope to draw plants from life!

Today I found out about sweet box AKA sarcococca confusa, a plant with astoundingly good-looking leaves. They are lanceolate (spearhead-shaped) and each springs from the thin stem at angles of about 60 degrees away from that below. Their subtle colour is affected by many things at once. They have glossiness, so say in a room at dusk with a light on but a blueish sky outside the window, white and blue highlights would be seen. These highlights appear dusted on because they are disrupted by the crinkling texture of the fairly large but otherwise invisible veins. The leaves lighten in colour towards their edges and along their centre as well. They are rumpled, about half as much as basil leaves. They are also remarkably translucent! A shadow cast on the top is clearly visible beneath. Finally, the leaves are waxy and thick, so even though their flesh lightens at the sides, the fat rounded edge generally results in a line of shading along the borders. So we have a lovely long leaf ranging from the white of those brushed highlights, through nearly lime green, to a dark cool blackish green. Phenomenal.