Blackout studies
acrylic on paper
2019
Working on blank paper I initially miss the given structure of the printed page. The placement of text and image, often on an underlying grid, gave me something to black out, to work with and against. A blank page offers no such structure. There’s nothing to work against, save for the edge. Anything goes.
Most of this week has been about the logistics of art. Sorting out a test space, writing lists of the bits and pieces I need to purchase, nutting out the steps to execute a work, drawing things to scale on my laptop and more.
I also made time for a few more “blackout drawings”. I’m really enjoying the way the paint behaves on the paper surface. The glossy magazine pages are less absorbent than uncoated paper and yet still provide a nice degree of resistance to the brush.
In this latest batch, I’m thinking some of the drawings may benefit from being worked over with a different colour and a thinner brush – something else to add to my lists of things to do.
Following my instincts, pushing paint around on pages torn from an old art magazine. Blacking out the recognisable, the art, the people, the blocks of text to create new forms and compositions.
From the top:
Drawing found in old sketchbook
Acrylic on magazine page
Digital drawing on found image
