A day in the life of... me

I sometimes wonder where my 'drawing' time goes. Yes, I waste time on 'marketing' myself a.k.a. facebooking, checking emails, and tweeting. However, serious internet time is spent catching on my blogging friends, adding content to my facebook page, and checking out possible art opportunities etc. So after finding no time to draw today, I thought I would chronicle my day.

It started at 12.45am when I got up, not being able to sleep, in order to finish my submission for an exhibition, whose deadline was today. I went back to bed an hour later with it 99% finished. 7.30am I got up for the second time and fiddled with my submission on and off for a couple of hours, whilst facebooking, eating breakfast, showering etc. 

9.45 I got in my car and drove to the printers I use for scanning and got the drawing scanned. I then sat in the car putting it its frame. From there I drove to the gallery, which should hang my work later this year, which is at the far end of Muscat. At the gallery I swopped Festival Face #5 The Grandfather, which I had taken with me, for His Brother's Musar. The reason was that I'd received an email the evening before from someone wishing to purchase His Brother's Musar and I need to mail it to its new home in Australia.

From the gallery, it was a mad dash in Muscat Wednesday traffic (think Friday evening in Europe) to the Omani Society of Fine Arts, arriving about 11.30. I handed in my drawing, relieved, was asked about submission details, which I had emailed last week... BUT then was asked about the cd with the jpeg of the drawing aarghhh. Dashed home, cleaned scan from printers in photoshop, burnt a cd, and drove back to OSFA. As I was pulling into the carpark my phone rang, my mum, quick chat, then I sprinted into the building to drop off the cd at 12.45, just 15minutes before they leave for lunch and possibly the weekend.

I drove home again, via the post office as I'm waiting for a package of greeting cards (of my drawings) to be forwarded on, cooked and ate lunch, showered, changed, set up an autoresponder for my mailing list, and was out the door again at 2.30 to go to the day job, which pays the bills. Six hours later I got home, had a quick drink and catch up with my neighbours, ate a late dinner, and collapsed in front of a tv programme. Then, I wrote this post. It's now 11.10pm.

Time to draw??? Tomorrow I hope  after buying packing material, taking the picture to the couriers...

BTW. In case you are wondering about the picture, I'm not sure I'm allowed to publish it prior to the selection day, so I'm not posting it yet. However, here's a sneak peak in an early WIP shot.

WIP Moon Rocks ©Sue Pownall 2012

Calligraphy

Susan written by © Anwa of OFAS

I have wanted to learn Arabic calligraphy for a long time now. I think it is beautiful as an art form in both traditional and modern art. One of the best exhibitions I've been to in the last few years was a Sotherby's pre-sale exhibition featuring Early Islamic, Ottoman and Contemporary calligraphic art in Doha December 2010. My first attempt was in February, and was posted on my facebook page, trying to copy a whole phrase Knowledge is Enlightenment.

First attempts by ©Sue Pownall Feb 2012

Whilst my membership application for the Oman Fine Art Society has only just been submitted (fingers & toes crossed for acceptance), twice I've been able to sit with their calligraphic group when they meet to practise and get guidance from more experienced members. The first time I was there, Anwa wrote my name as a gift (above) and it is now on my inspiration board.

Talk at calligraphy group OFAS ©Sue Pownall

Impatient to run before I can walk I am finding repetition of my A, B, Cs (actually alaf, baa', taa') a struggle especially last night, my 2nd evening, when 2 men gave talks to the group in Arabic. Due to the talks there was not the interaction between the group members as they listened and I was left to keep repeating my letters. Consequently I started sketching, including sketching the letters on the chalk board.

Sketching takes over my pratice ©Sue Pownall

Before I left, Anwa took my notebook, I thought to check my letters, and showed my sketches to the other girls and there was a lot of giggling as they recognised the people. She then told me to practise everyday.  hmm that's as likely as my studying 3 times a week.

*****

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