a journey in mark making
Coming Soon…..a chance to view and buy artwork by the members of the Unlimited Palette group in The Carlton Gallery at Katikati. Artists will be in attendance during the opening hours 9am – 4pm daily during the week, and 10am – 2pm during the weekend. You are invited to call in and have a chat with them.
The gallery is inside the building that used to be the local Library on the Main Road in the town, opposite the Town Hall.
Putting layers of opaque paint over an already layered board substrate, my preferred surface for collaging, scraping, sanding back and generally degrading the surface. Many colours applied at random, new and varied colours I would not normally try. Perhaps it could be harmonised with a glaze, but what to choose.
I used some black Fabriano 300 gsm to try out my paint pen. The result was crisp and I added some crayon over the top. Gives a good balance of texture and line, the things I always try to achieve, even on a small scale. More Lockdown magic. Level 1 here we come.
Trying out black oilstik on Pittura 300gsm and then adding colour with acrylic. Gives an interesting effect on this ridged paper. I quite like it.
Another small piece only 15 cms square.
People are asking is it because of the Lockdown that I am working small and tight. I don’t think so. But I like the idea of having a body of work which relates one to another, and which I can show in due course as “this is what I did under lockdown ” – Level 2 now.
After ‘printing’ with oilstik I worked back into the print with oil pastels and moved the colour around. Then I scraped back in places to get back the lights and added some brights for contrast. Once again line and texture are an important part of the overall effect.
This method adds some new tricks to my tool bag and could hold promise for work in the future. Have to graduate to something larger in due course.
At Level 2 now in the Lockdown scenario – 7 weeks indoors more or less. The country begins to move again.
Working on canvas for something completely fun, trial and error but still another learning – bit messy though. Not sure how this could be sealed as it is acrylic paint and crayon.
Moving to level 3 of Lockdown after 33 days, in some ways a relief and in other ways not much will change. Stay home, break the chain. New Zealand has done amazingly well in these dire times.
Another small fun piece. Losing track of which day we’re in as far as the lockdown goes so no number for this one. It will have a sibling in due course. Using the paint pens I bought a while ago, tracking over many layers of paint.
A quote I found attributed to one Neil Gaiman.. “The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before”
ain’t that so
Working in acrylic paint to print with recycled plastic bags onto standard 110gm cartridge paper – not bad for a first effort. I want texture and line in my work, that’s a given, so this pleases me, but it’s only a start. The process can be frustrating, but hey, it’s a learning.
This is a relative of the previous piece, a bit more structure and linear approach here. Getting the balance. Could make a diptych in due course. The graphite gives the underpainting a slight sparkle, hard to see in this pic. Using a palette knife and the edge of the card as I often do, and scoring the straight lines with a sharpened stick.
