Friday, April 29, 2011

LIVES PAST - SKETCH


I've started something a bit somber.  Here's the sketch before I transferred it to watercolor paper to begin the painting.

For this painting, I'm trying out my new Saunders Waterford 140# cold press paper (if it's good enough for the Royal Watercolour Society, it's good enough for me).  It has a warmer color than Arches or Fabriano.

This one will be long and thin - a strong horizontal picture plane.  I've already changed my mind about the fruit (was going to have a lemon but instead pomegranates seemed appropriate).  


And a poem...

Dark Matter

by Jack Myers


I've lived my life as if I were my wife
packing for a trip—I'll need this and that
and I can't possibly do without that!
But now I'm about
what can be done without.
I just need a thin valise.
There's no place on earth
where I can't unpack in a flash
down to a final spark of consciousness.
No place where I can't enter
the joyless rapture
of almost remembering
I'll need this and I'll need that,
hoping to weigh less than silence,
lighter than light.

5 comments:

debwardart said...

I used Saunders for a while because it was less expensive than Arches. It is a soft paper - won't stand up to a lot of glazing or scrubbing. Curious to see how you like it, and good that you are trying different things, that's the best way to learn.

Unknown said...

Nice drawing. I look forward to seeing this piece finished!

RH Carpenter said...

Deb, I don't do any scrubbing of color or glazing so I may be okay with this brand. I just wanted to try something different and I know it's what most of the British watercolorists use.

Tim, thanks. I've begun the painting but am slow going right now but will have something to share soon.

Jane said...

I am normally not a big poem fan, but I love this one ...and looking really forward to see what comes out of those skulls!

RH Carpenter said...

Jane, I found this poem very touching - almost like Buddhist philosophy of packing light for the journey you must take alone at the end of your life.