Deborah Vass
@deborahvass
Artist and printmaker, sketching in the Norfolk countryside and writing about neglected women artists on Substack.
Another pen and ink drawing, and then with a splash of soft pastel. These small sunflowers dance between the French beans and the chard have been such a cheering sight. They are the last flowers standing in the heat. #penandink
About ten years ago, I planted a walnut in a pot. Three years ago I planted the sapling out in my garden and now here are my first walnuts.
Today's drawing, the quince tree in my garden, which though has few fruit this year, is still beautiful. In this week's post, I talk about how drawing is much more than producing a picture and how beginning is the hardest part. stillsketching.substack.com/p/why-drawin...
Why Drawing Matters In this week's post I encourage you to start sketching: it brings calm, increases you attention and the doing might just change how you see things. Do join me. open.substack.com/pub/stillske...
Dipping my toes back into drawing, and the ink pot, after a long break.
This week a riverside interlude and a visit to The Manor at Hemingford Grey, home of the writer Lucy Boston, creator of the Green Knowe books. Come and dip your toes in the water. open.substack.com/pub/stillske...
A forgotten name on a Penguin book cover led me to a cache of Burberry illustrations rescued from a skip, a Vogue profile of a "spy writer's wife" and a story of how easily women's creative lives can disappear. open.substack.com/pub/stillske... #illustration #womensart #midcentury
One of the exquisite wood engravings by Agnes Miller Parker, the illustrator of Through the Woods by HE Bates, which is the subject of this week's post. open.substack.com/pub/stillske...
This week's post explores the perfect marriage between writer and illustrator: HE Bates and the wood engraver Agnes Miller Parker, and how some books follow us through life. open.substack.com/pub/stillske...
For the past few weeks, my garden has been my refuge. This post began as a search for paintings of women in gardens which led me to Roger Fry, Jean Cooke and The Secret Garden. It became a reflection on how gardens can become places of refuge in difficult times. open.substack.com/pub/stillske...
This week I’ve written about the painter Morwenna Thistlethwaite, whose work I first encountered over thirty years ago and a small pencil drawing that brought me back to it. A piece about colour, observation and the paintings that stay with us. stillsketching.substack.com/p/the-one-th...
Two for joy. This pair of magpies took up residence in the garden over winter and I used to watch them chatting to each other from my window. You can see how these were made, along with a few others, in this week’s post. open.substack.com/pub/stillske...
My Winter Visitor fieldfare makes his debut in my latest Substack stillsketching.substack.com/p/painting-w...
I made a little Golden Hare for Easter.https://www.deborahvass.com/prints
She was called a late bloomer-but what if Helen Bradley had been an artist all along? I came across her work by chance and found something much more interesting. A new piece on her life and paintings. open.substack.com/pub/stillske...
It might help if I added the link... open.substack.com/pub/stillske...
This week I look at the women whose work was barely noticed and how Winifred Nicholson helped to change that. #ragrugs #womenartists
This week I look at the story behind a single painting: Farm at Watendlath by Dora Carrington open.substack.com/pub/stillske... #landscape #womensart
Where the blackbirds settle. Another monoprint and collage from my winter collection. www.deborahvass.com
A small voice in winter. This little wren is part of my new winter collection. #https://www.deborahvass.com/shop
In my Substack post, I return to the work of illustrator Susan Einzig whose extraordinary drawings keep calling. stillsketching.substack.com/p/following-...
I am back on Wortham Ling drawing this week. Do come and join me! open.substack.com/pub/stillske...