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
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 →
On Friday, I took part in the Beasting, a live painting event held during the Kitchener-Waterloo Night Market. Each artist was assigned a body section—mine was the pelvis—and told to interpret it as as we wished. We were each given a 2' x 2' panel with the connections to the next panel marked in pencil.... Continue Reading →
Past the Light is a new work in ink and watercolour, which explores some of my favourite themes of transformation, decay and natural history. I've included a few close ups below. This piece is available for sale on my Big Cartel webstore. Past the Light, 2023, ink & watercolour on board, 14" x 10"
A few years ago, I had to give up painting in oil because the paints triggered ocular migraines. Every painting session ended with me lying on the couch feeling like I was on a bad acid trip. Not fun. Then I learned about M. Graham odourless paints. These paints are a game changer for me... Continue Reading →
It's been a busy summer so far working on some commissioned illustration work and revising my next novel. I have managed to squeeze in a few smaller personal works though, some of which have made to to my shop. Here's the link if you are interested in checking them out. One of my recent favourites... Continue Reading →
The Assembly is a collaborative piece I did with American artist Joe MacGown. Joe prepared the board and started the drawing in ink. Earlier this year, I finished the piece, adding imagery to the top and bottom. I enjoyed working on this so much, I'm determined to do more work in ink on panel in... Continue Reading →
Witch of the Wormwood, 2020, oil on panel with handmade stained pine frame. Solitudes, 2020 oil on panel with handmade stained pine frame I took some time today to update my webstore on Big Cartel. I added a stippled ink drawing called Scout (not shown) and two small oils completed at the end of 2020.... Continue Reading →
Munchfish, 2021, charcoal and watercolour on hotpress watercolour paper, 9 x 6" approximate Gap, 2021, watercolour on 300lb coldpress paper, 11 x 7.5" Two slightly different watercolour techniques on different papers, with the same palette. These pieces are available in my webstore.
Cardinal, 2020/21, oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches Oil paintings are notoriously difficult to photograph and even worse to scan due to reflective properties. Fortunately, my printmaker has amazing skills in this area and was able to get me a nice clean capture of Cardinal. I've already added it to the cover design for... Continue Reading →
I’m a couple of days late with this week’s post. Most of the past week was spent marshaling supplies needed for a couple of big illustration jobs, making sketches and basically getting into the creative headspace needed to immerse myself in a multi-month task. I’ve also been in the workshop assembling strip frames for my... Continue Reading →
Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author 