texture | poemimage

Tag: texture

January 25, 2024

The pen – the book – the plan.

So far in January I have used the pen & the book to keep track of the hours I put into my current B&W work – on a long roll of Fabriano mid-weight paper.

Working on the floor like an iguana I am almost 1/3rd through the roll of paper working with black & white gouache, B&W ink, water-soluble graphite pencils, and drawing pens.

At first I thought this might be Boudicea, Queen of the Icenis. I considered developing a metaphor based on her famed history & Celtic roots. Then I started thinking ‘more of a shapeshifter than Boudicea.’ My main impetus is not to illustrate an idea or theme but to watch images (in relationship) develop organically and interpret the meaning. Some images are planned and some are spontaneous.

The pen and the book to keep track of the plan. Writing hours worked after they are done.

I will shift into a different ‘feeling’ of depiction soon. Around the 1/3rd mark.

2nd section – my phone camera is disappointing.

This work will mirror (in part) & dovetail with my previous subject matter on the ‘long blue roll’ of Fabriano mid-weight paper (same height and length).

S. McCabe, Druidica Blue: Deja Vu (Cave Art of the New Psyche) 2022, 5’H X 35’L

So it seems I will have a two-part work on two rolls of paper.

Now it seems the plan is for the work to become a diptych. I think this fits the criteria for a diptych.

My goal is to reintroduce images from the ‘original’ (first) ‘mostly blues’ roll of paper into the B&W (second) roll of paper and develop the themes manifesting my investigations over the last few years.

My plan will take a few months longer as I complete part two of this two-part work (a mere 2/3rds of the current roll of paper to complete).

Info about the overall project:

In 2022 I completed a long painting/drawing on Italian mid-weight paper titled ‘Druidica Blue: Deja Vu (Cave Art of the New Psyche).‘

Mostly Working in Silence

Section 7 (of 11) from the 5′ X 35′ work:

In 2023 I began working on a long roll of paper using B&W in painting/drawing. I posted about beginning this:

Yes, it seems I have….

A detail of the B&W work in progress with the working title: ‘On the Day Boudicea Rode at Midnight.’

10 Comments

August 10, 2022

Expressive Encounter

I worked on the back porch early

drinking black coffee

like in a trance

creating expressive black & white works on paper

I thought of as ‘cave art.’

As the rising sun created light and heat

Denisovans climbed the back stairs

to the porch.

Denisovans stood watching me

in a dark and cool room.

I pointed outside the window

they touched their skin.

June 19, 2022

paper

The thing about working on paper is that one touches-feeling the otherworldly textures of this very world. A reminder of the gift, the circle, one has been given.

One can imagine glimmers of this very world.

As tree roots signal compassion & nurture while snaking out and spiralling into the secret dark soil. As their compassion reverberates like ripples in water.

As a forest of vertical bodies reach skyward. As they etch circular rings in their wooden hearts. As they record circles in orbit around the sun. A living symbol of experience. The experience of this earth.

The thing about working on paper is that one performs mark-making enveloped within sacred heaving breath. As delicate breath-shadows dance beneath sunlight falling like holograms. Like a ballet. The story of archetypal tree as mother. How easy to forget.

As paper absorbs watery emotions, even eyesight – like daylight, starlight or candlelight, received intuitively. Quietly the visceral eclipse. How easy to forget.

One can imagine the tree like an iceberg with secret rooms. Multi-dimensional and unknown. Concealed.

Offering utilitarian circle & body. Of this very world. Like an animal. Like sky. Like an eye. One does not forget. As this very world does not forget. As the animal, sky, and eye do not forget.

Bird Vision, a painting on textured watercolour paper

5 Comments

September 23, 2021

Bird Vision

I did this painting titled ‘Bird Vision’ this summer on a large sheet of mid-weight mixed-media paper. I liked the paper’s softness. I tacked it to a piece of plywood resting that on my easel. Then just started. The artist Marc Cohen described it as ‘Neo-Neolithic with a touch of Fauve.’

Tag: texture