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 the future. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy checking out this fun project. The Assembly is available for sale through my Big Cartel shop.
Richard
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. The sharp eyed among you may also notice I changed the theme of this blog. What do you think of the new look?
Richard
Two slightly different watercolour techniques on different papers, with the same palette. These pieces are available in my webstore.
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 my next art booklet, Darkling Lands II, which will be available in February.
Just a reminder that if you are interested in my newsletter, you can sign up on my website. It only takes a second. At most, you will receive a concise email once a month.
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 8×8 oils, varnishing and trying not to amputate any essential digits. At some point in there I cleaned up the digital file of the Harbinger drawing so that it is ready for the printer in January.
This week I’ll get going on the aforementioned illustrations, and start a couple more of the 8 inch oils. I have an idea for another large ink, so I may spend some time on that as well.
On the writing front, I am almost finished working through the copy edit of Tailor of Echoes. My morning writing project (new novel) is making progress as well. I’ve edited everything I’d written earlier in the year, and now I’m producing new text. It’s very motivating to see that word count climbing.
Currently reading the Quincunx by Charles Palliser and listening to Cluster. If you haven’t seen the Brian Eno documentary called Man Who Fell to Earth, – an odd title given its association with Bowie – it’s on Amazon Prime. I stumbled on it a couple of days ago and it reminded me of a ton of amazing music I’d all but forgotten about.
Until next Sunday. Stay warm, stay healthy.
Richard
It’s been a busy week. I’ve been working steadily on Harbinger (see previous post), and on this series of oils (below). These are rough and ready iPhone images off my drawing table and once they are properly finished I’ll put some better shots on my website. Birds and flight seem to be the central theme. I hope you like these in-progress views. I’m really enjoying interspersing my other work with these color pieces. The largest, Cardinal, was actually started the summer of 2019 and had to sit in the studio for a while while I attended to other things. It’s great to finally get back to it. These works will be available for purchase once they are finished, dried and varnished.
Late this week I received the copy edit of Tailor of Echoes from PS Publishing. It doesn’t look too onerous, so I’ll be working though that in the coming weeks, as I also begin work on the illustrations. Progress on the new novel is slow but steady. I have a great sense of my protagonist and the story is unfolding nicely.
What else, oh yes, this week I need to get back to my book blog Amnesiac’s Library. It has been badly overlooked in the past few weeks.
Finally, if you aren’t listening to The Dark Art Podcast, hosted by Chet Zar, get on it. I’ve been listening to some of the recent interviews while I work in the studio. The most recent is Chet’s interview with Kris Kuksi! I had the pleasure of showing with Kris a number of years ago when we were both with Strychnin Gallery in Berlin. Kris’s interview is fascinating. The interviews with David Stoupakis, Matt Levin, Erwin Tschofen, Cris Velasco, Dos Diablos and EGO are also highly recommended.
Truly, finally, if you have a few minutes, please check out my studio sale on Big Cartel. If you use the code ECHO on checkout, you can get a 20% discount on your order.
This a newly completed piece. I hope you enjoy it! The work is available for sale. Please message me for details if interested.
Firebug, 2020, ink on Arches hotpress paper, 18 x 12 inches
Detail 1
Detail 2
Detail 3
Detail 4
Here’s another quick ink and watercolour piece. I’m starting to think about a slightly more ambitious piece.
Weight, 2020, ink & watercolour on archival illustration board, 10 x 8 inches
Detail
I hope everyone is doing okay. Today I’m posting a couple of things I did over the weekend. I hope you enjoy them.
Red Bird, 2020, ink & watercolour on 300lb coldpress, 8 x 10 inches
I found a little scribble in an old sketchbook and decided to turn it into a drawing. The watercolour gives the piece the feel of a children’s book illustration. One of the faces is even smiling, albeit a little wistfully, which is fairly unusual in my art.
Yellow Skull, ink on archival illustration board, 10 x 8 inches
This piece was more or less freestyle. I love playing with the hard silhouette of a profile. This character’s head has the shape of a flea. The foreground character was meant to evoke a death’s head moth.
Both of these pieces are available.
The Darkling Lands is a new 40 page perfect bound book, which reproduces 28 of my images and includes a new weird tale titled Ecesis. I posted 10 copies on my webshop yesterday, and I am pleased to report they went quickly, but there will be more copies available in about a week. As I noted in the book’s introduction The Darkling Lands of the title, first appeared as a setting in my short story Magpie’s Ladder. The project itself is conceived as a kind of inexpensive portfolio of images from the past few years, selected because they work together. You may have noticed that this is Volume 1. My intention is to create future volumes that follow the same pattern of art and writing, and always include something new with each volume. I hope you enjoy it.
Richard A. Kirk 