Shadowplay

Shadowplay 2011
7x7 inches, coloured pencil

It's 10 minutes before 9 on a Saturday evening, and I've just finished saving my artwork.  That's right - saving it from an ignominious death because of a stupid accident, which was all my fault.

You see, I was speeding along with my coloured pencils - I was in the Zone, yeah - the music was playing (ZZTop, Sharp Dressed Man), the windows were wide open to let in the spring breezes, my dog Dasch was snoozing on the floor beside my chair, and everything was perfect. I was in-the-zone.

And then it happened.  I reached for the odourless solvent to dissolved the layer of wax bloom, and I knocked it over onto my piece.... aaarrrghh !

Quick - blot up the solvent with paper towel! Oh no! It dissolved the wax, but also made the pigment loose - so when I removed the towel the whole bottom of the image smeared - and stained the paper to boot!  AAAAAARRRGH!

Luckily it hadn't come near the green leaves at the top of the painting.  So I wiped down the bottom - what an UGLY brown stain on 2/3 of the image - sigh.  Then I went to bed, absolutely disgusted with the whole situation.

It's amazing what a good night's sleep does for you, and a couple of days not even looking at the mess.

I went back to the painting two days ago, and started to repair the image. 

I notice the paper has softened considerably - the solvent must have dissolved some of the sizing. Have to be careful now, the paper is fragile.  Add white to the spaces between the shadows - OK that's looking a bit better.  Now make the shadows multi-coloured so the staining blends in - hmmm, that seems to be working. 

OK - now leave it alone!

And here it is - my Monstera (yes, that's the actual botanical name of the plant) throwing shadows on the ceramic tile in my bay window.

I will sleep much better tonight :-)

TTFN