Left-handed Self Portrait (drawing with writing)

I've taken a pause in my painting routine to get back to basics with good old pen and ink drawings. I'm trying exercises such as blind-contour, drawing from film stills, drawing with my 'wrong hand', which for me is the left, and opening my mind up more to the idea of writing as a form of drawing. 

The above drawing is left-handed. I like how the lines are sometimes quivery and hesitant. This is actually quite a focused one, while others have been quicker or done without looking at the paper much, if at all. The following is a good example of this:

The following is a combination, accompanied with some cut-up poetry:

RAPTURE (poem)

Rapture is the collapsing of a gateway

to euphoric sweetness so powerful

that even a brain so indignant as this

has been known drop everything

and to fall to its knees, wheedling,

Welcome home, my Master,

as you can see, in your absence,

I've merely been keeping your kingdom in order

for you to do with, upon your return,

as you please...




~

CONSENT (poem)

About a month ago
I confessed to a friend
how much easier
life without art would be.

She smiled, and responded,
"Yeah, you'd just go to work,
come home, and watch TV."

Sometimes I think shopping
for art supplies
is a measure of true dedication.

My hope, always,
is that something worthwhile,
something authentic,
will sprout forth
from my swipe of consent
at the eftpos terminal.

But along with this hope
walks the acknowledgement
that most of my time, effort, and money,
will result in the less than remarkable.






~

GUSTS (poem)

As this pen of mine skates
from column line to spiral bind,
I can't help but wonder,

"If a well-renowned poet
were here right now,
just how would she, or he,
go about this?"

Pausing to gaze out the cafe window,
I witness an abandoned shopping cart
awkwardly pirouette the parking lot
so aptly disposing of my question.





~

Desolation #5 (painting)

Desolation #5

Acrylic on Canvas

16"/20"

This is the first painting of the Desolation series to have light and shadow, which added a new challenge, and there was also more detail to contend with in this one. I was keen to just break it all down into basic shapes and have the painting rely on the relationships of colours and tones, which I wanted to be more aesthetic than expressive in this one. The orange of the digger, with the yellowish cream colour of the building behind it, were to complement that kind of pale oxide blue as well as the blue of the overcast sky and the other buildings.

I kind of like how not all of the lines are parallel or perpendicular, because it goes well with the crooked fence and the overall theme of the painting, which is about conveying the character of a city at a particular time in its transformation.

Desolation #4 (painting)

Desolation #4 

Acrylic on canvas

16"/20"

The challenge all along for this painting was going to be the brick-work, which when I began the painting, I didn't really know how to approach. I forgot again to provide photos of the process for this one, but it wasn't unlike any of the previous examples of how I build it up from flat colours/shapes. The difference with this one was that, while all of the brick-work was done with a "brick-ish" base colour, the brick-work on the front building had to then be comprehensively covered with a white-ish blue tone, as this was the colour I wanted the mortar to be, and then gone over again with another brick-ish tone, applied with a small chisel-edged brush, in horizontal strokes, with some dry-brushing here and there to give it a dusty look.

The other brick building behind it was done the other way around, with brick tone first and the light tone of the paint-work was applied over this with that same little chisel-edged brush.

I tried to resolve the problem of the wood-grain on the front building by going over the flat tone with a watered down 'stain' of a darker tone, which at first I wasn't happy with, but I think it gives it kind of a damp look, which may indicate a wet day when thought of in context with the way the sky looks.

My hope, again is that people can see the graphic formalistic nature of the composition, as well as feel something of the atmosphere in Christchurch on a Winter's day with the scars of the earthquake apparent.

INCAPACITATED (poem)

The attempt of mine, in youth,
to take the bull by the horns
left me lying prostrate,
my eyes and lungs filled with dust;

the perfect position
from which to view the world.





~