Dusk Yesterday

Late yesterday afternoon I went outside to photograph the wild turkeys walking about the studios and garden. Looking at the photos on the computer had me wondering how on earth I had manged to mess up so completely. Then I looked at the photos again. Sometimes mistakes are just wonderful.

Blue 1

Blue 2

Blue 3

Japanese Papers

I love the size of this paper, 24 x 39 in, a longer rectangle than usual which means you react to the shape differently. It a thin and translucent, creases easily, with a soft surface. Rubbing vine charcoal on it with my fingers meant using the gentlest of touches. And by the time I had finished the drawing [Matchbox] charcoal had seeped through the paper so I decided that I would try powered graphite on the next drawing [Floor plan]. It has a silvery, lighter look, with out the dramatic black. I like its subtlety though; rather like something left behind, forgotten or hinted at.

Floor plan, graphite, 24 x 39, 2013

Matchbox, charcoal, 39 x 23, 2013

Experimenting With Paper

The intense velvet black of charcoal is so seductive and I have been experimenting with different papers to see which gives me the deepest black, and can take the amount of rubbing I do to the surface. Which papers won't "lift" when I remove the masking tape, or for that matter bleed. Trade offs with each, cold press has wonderful surface to grab the charcoal, but the tooth shows, Hot press is slippery but so smooth; my lovely Japanese papers are so delicate that I need to work more slowly. Here is one on Cranson; a good paper to practice on but it is not too fond of the masking tape.

House, 18 x 24, 2013

More Lovely Messy Charcoal

envelope |ˈenvəˌlōp; ˈänvə-|noun1 a flat paper container with a sealable flap, used to enclose a letter or document.2 a covering or containing structure or layer : the external envelope of the swimming pool.• the outer metal or glass housing of a vacuum tube, electric light, etc.• the structure within a balloon or nonrigid airship containing the gas.• Microbiology a membrane forming the outer layer of certain viruses.• Electronics a curve joining the successive peaks of a modulated wave.• Mathematics a curve or surface tangent to each of a family of curves or surfaces.• Astronomy the nebulous covering of the head of a comet; coma.
ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (in the sense [wrapper, enveloping layer] ): from French enveloppe, from envelopper ‘envelop.’ The sense [covering of a letter] dates from the early 18th cent.

I have a stack of glissine envelopes that I keep close, I don't know why but they have followed me about for over 20 years. They may be on a shelf beside the computer or downstairs in the studio. They are always around and they have never said what they want to do, or be, or become, or be filled with. Silent friends; very silent friends. 

Envelope #1, charcoal, 2013

Loving Charcoal

Love how it moves across the paper leaving little bits behind. Love how it fits my hand, love how it loves being rubbed into the paper with my fingers and the whole hand. Love it's velvety quality. Love that it rubs out and I have to keep adding more layers. Love that it has a mind of it's own and we are still forming this relationship. Love the deep blacks it gives.

experiments with charcoal #3

Connections

Back drawing circles again. Lines appeared connecting the circles. I wasn't expecting this. Hmmm, actually I love when this happens. Nudges me along. And I have been wanting to work in the reverse, on white paper, so started some more circles, using charcoal. Still haven't started going back through my old notebooks, seem daunting and easier to just let the connections appear or happen. As this one did this morning. [2nd photo]

# 35, The Black Notebook

in geometry, 2008, Digital image, encaustic, 3 panels, 24 in H x 72 in W

Back and Forth

One of the things I said last New Years [link here] was that I wanted to draw more, and I have, and the usual questions, doubts and joys have arisen. Basically I seem to go in  different directions at once; my love of the minimal and my love of the expressive So now I am wondering if there isn't more in common than I realize. So my hope is for more syntheses, more wholeness. And one of the ways I'll do that is by going through all my old notebooks starting with art college and see if I can sense a different pattern, or identify the treads that I am wanting to weave. Hello minimally expressive.

Stack of old notebooks

Reading

I have spent the last 4 days in sloth and torpor; and I love it. After Christmas and before New Years has to be one of my favourite times; with luck I spend it reading, on the sofa, in front of the fire. This year was a feast and some lovely coincidences. I started with a lovely and charming book by Donia Bijan, "Maman's Homesick Pie" followed by a short typescript by my mother in law, "A Trip To Persia" [1971].  My mother in law happens to be an amazing woman who turned 100 years old last fall and so it was great fun to then read "The 100 Year Old Man, who climbed out the window and disappeared", [Jonas Jonasson] one of the funniest murder mysteries I have read. And I keep dipping in and out of "Paintings on Paper, Josef Albers in America". So many friends have talked about this book and it is gorgeous. Then I might do an essay from "Madness, Rack, and Honey" [Mary Ruffle], then a few more liquorice allsorts,[ discretely hidden behind the stack of books].

A lovely stack of christmas reading

Deep Silence

There is a profound silence in my world when it snows; a deep blanket of snow has wrapped the earth and outlined the trees and branches. That lovely silence always brings peace to me, a sense of quiet joy. That is what I wish for us all, as the days start to lengthen and the New Year approaches.

Dreaming City Lights

We spent 24 hours in the city and I deliberately left the camera at home. Time out. I just wanted to walk, and look; and be. And not look with the eye towards the next shot, and not worry about leaving the camera somewhere. The energy was great; everyone was happy, cheerful, laughing, bantering and I loved the city lights at night. Add in all the Christmas lights and I really began to doubt my decision. Back in the studio visions were dancing, comets streaking across the skies, giant pinwheels exploding in color. The journey back to the light has started.

The journey has started