Mending

I love the marks that the team are making as they repair the gyproc. so beautiful and subtle. Years ago I made a book "Why I Paint" [link here] using the photos I had taken of a friends renovation; all sorts of marks, repairing the broken and damaged walls and soon lost beneath a coat of paint.

Trowel, 2016

Plaster, gyproc, 2016

2. Plaster and gyproc, 2016

3. Plaster and gyproc, 2016

4. Plaster and gyproc, 2016

A New Brush

In a fit of reckless splurging last week I bought a new brush. It's another in the Liquitex Feestyle line but it's 8 in. wide. I'd been dreaming about some marks I wanted to make and  I was sure this brush could do it. What pleasure!

The first 4 marks, each panel 17 x 11in. mixed media on paper, 2014

Variation on the 1st 4 marks

The 1st stroke,  17 x 11in. mixed media on paper, 2014

Details

I now have a roll of Kozuke Ivory, a Japanese paper [thanks Stan and Lorraine] and have had the best time playing. I wonder why artists never seen to talk much about the sheer pleasure of making things, of putting ink on paper. Ink meets paper is a sight to behold. It's like "Hello Big Boy"; there is such attraction and energy between them. The paper buckles in pleasure and I am in love with the marks; some looked scratched or etched, some strong and deep. I find myself making lines, that's all I want to do, line after line after line; stacks of lines, flourishes of line, fat lines, skinny lines, galaxies of lines.

detail, brush strokes

detail of more brush strokes

detail of more even brush strokes

Exploring Memory

Memories of my clothes making days, working with tissue paper patterns, made me think that if these hard pencils I've been using that leave groves in the paper and can be filled and smudged with graphite and chalk, why not try the old tracing wheel and transfer paper. I really like the idea of making marks using tracing paper; leaving traces behind, a faint image. An added plus, I love dots.

Experiment 1