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Description
...Lifeblood thudding in the temples, heart thrashing against breatbone - to love, to die, to act, to live, to sacrifice. A carving with gentle hands, made with brutal strokes...

This was painted in two sittings.

I started painting this when I had started reading the Gormenghast trilogy - anyone who remembers one of the Carvers describing to Keda the carving he will make, will know what first moved me to pick up the brush here. A calm, but steady undertow, a pulse. I was alone with the books, absorbed in their world.

The second sitting happened at the end of the second book. The characters I'd loved were all dead, and I genuinely grieved for them - funny that, how we can feel so bereaved when people who were never real die. The turbulence in the picture comes from that sitting - from the violence this undertow can unleash, from the end result of everything that beat and bled and moved and struggled and needed and wanted and was deprived. The scroll of the dancers bloodstream that first unfurled in a leisurely, orderly manner becomes chaotic, the air became heavier - full of dark shapes, and the dance more violent.

"..the bright birds leave her, one by one..."

Oh, and you might see a reference to Oscar Wildes' "The Nightingale and the Rose" in the pattern of lifeblood...

It took me many months to finally work up the guts to post this - I know the composition is cluttered, and that this scan is terrible and the colours are muddy and further muddied by the unfaithful reproduction on the screen, and that this isn't how you are meant to paint with watercolour. I also know that the feeling in this is as strong as it is ineffable, and i guess I am afraid it might be incomprehensible to other people.

...but here goes, it was worth a try.

Watercolour, white ink, coldpress 300 gsm, sepia fineliner pen, terrible scanner. The colours are richer and more vivid IRL, but this was among the last things I scanned before my machine up-and-died on me, so forgive it. I'll post a better version when I can.

Full view, if you please.

all and any feedback, wether critical, analytical or purely emotional, or only vaguely relevant, is wholeheartedly welcomed, as usual.

more gormenghast themed pictures may well follow.

Description
...Lifeblood thudding in the temples, heart thrashing against breatbone - to love, to die, to act, to live, to sacrifice. A carving with gentle hands, made with brutal strokes...

This was painted in two sittings.

I started painting this when I had started reading the Gormenghast trilogy - anyone who remembers one of the Carvers describing to Keda the carving he will make, will know what first moved me to pick up the brush here. A calm, but steady undertow, a pulse. I was alone with the books, absorbed in their world.

The second sitting happened at the end of the second book. The characters I'd loved were all dead, and I genuinely grieved for them - funny that, how we can feel so bereaved when people who were never real die. The turbulence in the picture comes from that sitting - from the violence this undertow can unleash, from the end result of everything that beat and bled and moved and struggled and needed and wanted and was deprived. The scroll of the dancers bloodstream that first unfurled in a leisurely, orderly manner becomes chaotic, the air became heavier - full of dark shapes, and the dance more violent.

"..the bright birds leave her, one by one..."

Oh, and you might see a reference to Oscar Wildes' "The Nightingale and the Rose" in the pattern of lifeblood...

It took me many months to finally work up the guts to post this - I know the composition is cluttered, and that this scan is terrible and the colours are muddy and further muddied by the unfaithful reproduction on the screen, and that this isn't how you are meant to paint with watercolour. I also know that the feeling in this is as strong as it is ineffable, and i guess I am afraid it might be incomprehensible to other people.

...but here goes, it was worth a try.

Watercolour, white ink, coldpress 300 gsm, sepia fineliner pen, terrible scanner. The colours are richer and more vivid IRL, but this was among the last things I scanned before my machine up-and-died on me, so forgive it. I'll post a better version when I can.

Full view, if you please.

all and any feedback, wether critical, analytical or purely emotional, or only vaguely relevant, is wholeheartedly welcomed, as usual.

more gormenghast themed pictures may well follow.