Sunday 28 January 2018

fragments and flecks


I am experimenting with drawing unconsciously made marks in order to create a palimpsest to which I can reactively draw in order to discover remembered places. Starting my process of remembering at various points may enable access to deeper or less predictable memories. 

Starting strokes with a water-soaked brush, pipette-drops of Paynes Grey and Sepia acrylic ink, and free-arm lines made with the end of the pipette. When that was dry I wetted the whole page to increase the spread of colour and reduce hard lines and tinted the edge with diluted turquoise and leaf-green acrylic paint. Once dried, I re-wetted and half-poured half-brushed water containing graphite pencil sharpenings.

A problem was the fixative (Perfix) failed to fix larger flecks of graphite. Therefore, I decided this was the right point to engage with the surface directly with a pencil to recreate the flecks - a lengthy process which knocked them from the surface - consequently, I found myself deciding the limit between the size of flecks I would trace, and those which I thought another spray of fixative would adhere to the surface. These marks are not so dark as the flecks, as they lack three dimensions and shadow, nevertheless, the next stage of drawing has begun.