Thursday 20 October 2016

BLANK CANVAS

BLANK CANVAS

There’s this thing about painting and drawing, the image, the picture that you’re attempting to get out of your head and onto the blank canvas, it’s there, just under the surface, waiting to be revealed. Learning to recognize and encourage the image to come forth,  however, takes concentration and practise. Rush the process, and it recedes, morphs into something unwanted, but something all the same, something that may hold possibility and result in your exploring in a different direction.

Sounds a little like life, does it not. Life begins with a blank canvas, a clean slate with all of the ingredients for one to succeed. Like works of art, however, the majority of the time life takes twists and turns, and we’re faced with possibilties not considered.

In both cases we mustn’t lose hope, and should continue to explore for who knows what might turn into a masterpiece.


It all starts with a blank piece of paper/canvas


1. To begin there's no attempt to make a detailed drawing, just a few pencil lines to indicate the horizon, waves, and the beach.

2. I've loosely indicated the island and using a paper stomp I've begun to detail the waves and the beach.

3. With the paper stomp and a few more lines I've begun to indicate the stormy sky as well as indicating trees on the island.
4. Working overtime with the paper stomp I've given more depth to the stormy sky and island



Stormy day - Awenda Provincial Park    Graphite Drawing


We were at Awenda Provincial Park on the shore of Georgian Bay looking out towards The Giants Tomb, a large island. The wind came up and blew in storm clouds. It never did rain, but the sight was awesome with dark foreboding clouds hanging over the Bay. I made this drawing from memory preparatory to making a painting sometime in the future.