Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author
"there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion" Sir Frances Bacon, Of Beauty, Essays" 1625
I came across this image while poking around on the Morgan Library and Museum website. It's a beautiful sketch by Audubon. In the notes I discovered that Audubon had written a few lines in graphite on the back of the paper. I don't know the circumstances that would have enabled Audubon to work at such... Continue Reading →
I'm ending the week with this new ink drawing called Forbidden by the Deep. I took the title from a quote by Leonardo da Vinci that I came across in Ian Leslie's wonderful book Curious. "I came to the entrance of a great cavern, in front of which I stood for some time, astonished and... Continue Reading →
These are images of my new drawing called "Pins." To see a larger view, click on the image. I'll be sending this one to a show in July called "of Beauties and Beasts" in Troy, New York at Clement Art Gallery. - Richard.
I thought it would be fun to show a few old pieces this week. Although this scan doesn't do the image as much justice as I'd like, the image still resonates with me. Compositionally, Wintersun was meant as a visual pun. My main impetus for creating the piece was to study the form of this... Continue Reading →
I now have 10 giclee prints of my drawing "The Drowned Library" available in my print webstore.
More ground covered on "Pins." The graphite might be challenging to see depending on your monitor but the ink should show up okay. My plan for this piece is to work my way around the background and then finish with the figures. There is no technical reason for that, its more of a motivational strategy.... Continue Reading →
This is a new piece, a playful take on The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke for an upcoming show at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra California. The original FFMS was painted by Richard Dadd. Later, the band Queen based a song on the painting. Here are the show details: Like a Rolling Stone: A Rock & Roll Reflection... Continue Reading →
The Warm Sea is coming along, slowly. I'm departing from what is physically possible here; water like sculpture, heavy headed plants on spindly stalks, to say nothing of the airborne jellyfish. One of the pleasures of drawing is you get to re-invent reality. Now seriously, wouldn't you like to live in world where jellyfish can... Continue Reading →
Here's a vignette from a new piece that I'm working on called Lamentation for the Last Drop of Honey. I always have fun with the title of my pieces, but this drawing had at its heart a serious concern: the devastation we've seen in honey bee populations. I'm not a scientist, I am an artist,... Continue Reading →
I really like this book plate of tree hoppers. I found it on-line somewhere.
Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author 