"there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion" Sir Frances Bacon, Of Beauty, Essays" 1625
A few years ago I did a series of silverpoint miniatures broadly called The Human Organizations Project with subsets such as The Committee, The Symphonists and The Secret Society. Collectors bought them as a kind of subscription with drawings arriving monthly until each subset was complete. The collectors had no idea what they were going... Continue Reading →
Since my last post I've been continuing the cycle of work started in January. These works are characterized by their technique of ink and watercolour or acrylic ink washes, but also by a spirit of exploration. As I continue with these, I am starting to think about further images and the possibility of a graphic... Continue Reading →
I've been working on more ink and watercolour pieces over the past couple of weeks. Both of these new pieces were done with a dip pen on art board and then painted with water colours. The first is a clean line style. Explorers is fully cross hatched, which gives it the look of a vintage... Continue Reading →
I'm finding watercolour a good antidote, or at least coping mechanism, for the monochrome of the Ontario winter. These pieces started as ink line drawings done with a dip pen, which I later painted with watercolours. This is essentially Arthur Rackham's technique. The first image, Agitator, was adapted from a tiny pencil sketch I made... Continue Reading →
There are 120,000 + species of flies in the world. Flies have many associations, some darker than others. One of the more positive associations is that of persistence, which seems apt in the context of this stippled piece. I started this drawing on November 1, 2025 and expect that it will take much of the... Continue Reading →
My new drawing, Mockingbird, is featured in a new online show called Moments of Illumination presented by WOWxWOW. The collector’s preview is now online. This graphite, 12” x 9” piece was completed in late November on 140lb Arches hotpress paper. I love the title of this show. One of my favourite books is Illuminations, A... Continue Reading →
I've been working in graphite for the last couple of weeks, playing with line and values. Graphite is wonderfully suited to working out visual ideas without distraction. These two pieces are quite small, but incorporate a lot of detail. The end result is not unlike my silverpoint work, probably due to my use of a... Continue Reading →
October has finally arrived and I have been in the studio working on a number of new pieces for upcoming shows and book projects. My most recent work is called For I Would Ride with You Upon the Wind. The piece is now available in an online show presented by Inverarity Gallery called “Monochrome: Goddess.”... Continue Reading →
It has been a quietly productive summer in the studio . I finally completed revisions on my new novel The Garden of Certhia, which was a great personal milestone and frees me up to tackle my next writing project called Scattered Ghosts. Naturally, I haven't been neglecting my drawing table, and I have posted some... Continue Reading →
To Wander Where I Will, 2025, ink on paper, 24" x 18" Lately, I've become fascinated by fragmentary Greek masks such as the one above. I need to do more research on them, but on an emotional level, I truly love their mysterious, incomplete quality. This sensibility was the inspiration for my latest piece, a... Continue Reading →
Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author 