Ghost Orchid
Despite not writing on my blog for a few months, I have been working. And although this panel doesn’t look so different from the last post, a large portion of this flowery orchid-looking thing located in the bottom right-hand corner is now complete. Well, complete for the time being. There will be more added/erased/layered/blurred/overdrawn in the coming months or years. In hindsight, starting this drawing on January 1, 2020, and continuing to work on it over the past 18 months is an interesting time in our history to dedicate to a single work.
The biggest change this month is on the second (middle) panel. I started to draw what I thought were random patterns. Over time, they started to remind me of The Winged Victory of Samothrace (La Victorie de Samothrace). I remember loving this sculpture the first time I went to the Louvre. In part, the love came from her placement within the architecture. When I started to see what I thought was her wing develop in the drawing I decided to go with it. I know figurative drawing/painting is not cool but I don’t give a f*#! at this point in time, so here she is. What she means and why she decided to turn up, I don’t know. It is a process of unknown pathways. I recently contemplated giving her a head - not sure yet.
Below are the three panels in their entirety at this stage. I feel like it is difficult to share them as they are so far from where I want them to be but hay ho, here they are.
Where to from here? I think I want to add something architectural. I mocked up the below image in Photoshop and superimposed it over the three panels. We will see what happens. So many layers to contemplate at this point in human history.
Honestly, these images look better than the real drawing, mainly because the blacks are blacker than the real deal, and I am always trying to create the blackest of black. I kind of hate looking at these images and knowing these blacks are what I want in real life.