Sea-way Drawing

In my early oil pastel history, I would often fill the artwork with rough geometric shapes, and then begin laying down a grid of lines that would eventually suggest simple structures and roof-lines. At some point I started to become more intrigued with the idea of developing the geometric shapes as an end in itself. No doubt there is a debt to Paul Klee in these works. My method of working is to build layers, rubbing oil pastel into subsequent layers, and redrawing on top of that. During the spraying process there can be the addition--or subtraction--of material by pressing scraps of older artworks onto the surface which when pulled away might take some layers of oil pastel with it, or might leave material behind, like scabs or scars. I love the surface created by layers of mark-making, as well as the randomness of the scars. The paper that the artwork is on is in the measurement above, but the actual image is 61 x 79 cm. The paper is a Stonehenge heavyweight made for printmaking, but provides an ideal "tooth" for the oil pastel process.