I’ve often heard that everything has already been done, that it’s impossible to do anything new… but I don’t believe it. In the last three months I’ve created a number of fine art works that feature woodburning in addition to acrylic and or oil painting on paper. I’ve also explored an untraditional use of charcoal by diluting it in water and applying it with brushes. And I’ve recently been developing stylistic ideas such as ‘partially transparent drawings’ and ‘anti-contour shading’ to provide an extra dimension to a more traditional piece. Sometimes, though, it isn’t my technique or mediums that are experimental but rather it is the subjects, ideas, or theories behind the artwork.
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‘Prehistoric Rock Art Sculpture’ (woodburning + acrylic painting on paper)
This piece was a contemplation of how prehistoric rock art and cave paintings might have looked when they were first created 10,000+ years ago. It was inspired by both the artwork in Altamira and African rock art. The colors are those which are most commonly found in prehistoric art: red, yellow, black and white. (The brown/bronze colors are actually the burned parts of the paper made with a woodburner.) Here I also employed the slightly skewed perspective and an unidentifiable animal that are elements often found in cave paintings.
‘Windmill by the Sea’ (charcoal painting + woodburning on paper)
This abstract experimental piece features woodburning (the brown parts) and traditional charcoal used in an untraditional way… I diluted it with distilled water and applied it with a paintbrush.
‘Dollface Pirate’ (oil on 16 x 20 canvas)
I stuck to traditional oil paint on canvas for this piece but it is the subject matter which makes it interesting. This is a scene from an imaginary play titled ‘Dollface Pirate’ which would be a comedy about a pirate who no one takes seriously because he has a doll face.
‘Appleface’ (watercolor painting)
I began this watercolor painting with the intention of making a regular, everyday, run-of-the-mill still life painting of fruit. But then I got carried away.
‘Discrepancies in Time’ (Ink, pencil and chalk pastel)
This is one of my recent explorations of the idea of a partially transparent drawing which intermingles two and three dimensional elements and retains some sketch-like features. This style has evolved out of my quest for the perfect sketch.
Madonna and Child in a Modern Context (oil on 16 x 20 canvas)
There is a very long tradition of artists painting Madonna and Child scenes dating back at least 800 years and I too wanted to contribute to the theme. I wanted to reflect on the timelessness of the story and it’s modern relevance and I thought an urban parking lot setting would be an appropriate modern context because it also reflects the state of humanity today.
‘Nature vs Nurture’ (ink, pencil and chalk pastel)
This is a serious drawing but with a funny backstory. The drawing juxtaposes nature (represented by the river in the foreground) with nurture (represented by the heap of man-made structures in the background). The luminary in the sky has been replaced by a pocket watch which shines ‘time’ on all the structures but not the river. This is because time appears to work constructively with nature and destructively with the works of man. It is a contemplation of how time decays and ultimately destroys the efforts of man.
The funny story behind this drawing was that I was actually trying to make the worst drawing I could possibly make to see if adding a touch of color really could salvage any drawing. The answer is apparent in this result.
‘Farmstead in Blue’ (oil on prepared paper)
This was an experiment in monochromatic oil painting using just Prussian blue and Titanium white. Prussian blue is nearly black until white is added so it is a great stand-in for black.
It is painted on prepared paper because I ran out of canvases and then stumbled upon a story of an artist who painted with oils on prepared paper in the early 1800s which are still preserved in museums today. So far I’ve tried out this approach twice. This one is painted on acid free alpha cellulose and cotton watercolor paper which I prepared with a thick coat of acrylic gesso on both sides and an additional ground of solid acrylic color.
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