Year in Review

5 days ago4 min read

2024 was the year of pastels, ink, brayers and paint, monotypes, charcoal, stencils, steel wool, and razor blades. Crows — the companions for this media emersion — modeled for me from tree tops, fence posts, cobblestone streets, museum cabinets, and salmon-shedding river beds. Their portraits eventually filled a drawer in my flat file.

Along the way, twigs and scrunched paper were drawing tools. Textures and surprising marks revealed the personality of living things. I loosened up — and abstraction made its way into my pictures.

I started the year hoping that these gutsy materials were already a part of me in some way—that I would intuitively understand them and they, me. There were moments when it felt like that, and those were glorious.

Here’s how the art/illustration year went down —

Jan, February, March

Celebrated International Lab Animal Week with an illustration at the start of the year.

Rearranged my space to make way for pastels — soft, chalk, and pan pastels gifted by a friend. Then, a road trip to Mount Vernon, home of Dakota Pastels — Mecca! I was set for . . .

. . . the Pastel Innovations (online) Workshop with the exquisitely empowering Dawn Emerson. Four intense weeks of making things with ink, paint, monotypes, stencils, and pastels (of course). The workshop had me stepping into color after a year of black, white, and grey. The 100 Crows project was launched.

In DC, the Natural History Museum’s Loxoddonta Africana became the model for my first picture made exclusively of textures (with charcoal).

April, May, June

Color studies made an appearance. They’d be instructive, I figured, like doing value studies had been. For color, I settled on pan pastels on top of white or black paint rolled on with a brayer. This under-paint influenced the color I could get from the pastels. Color mixing was a charming necessity.

In April, I traveled to London for an art workshop with the fabulous Laura McKendry. I brought my pan pastels along. For five days, the eight of us got up to our elbows in paint and charcoal, and you name it. Laura was a champion for hands-on experimentation, fun, and artistic development.

Elsewhere in London, I took in the winners of the Derwent art competition at the Oxo Gallery, visited The British Museum, the Cartoon Museum, the Tate, and a Banksy exhibition. I became intimately acquainted with Kings Cross Station.

Then, in May, back home, I did it. I started a one-on-one mentorship with Dawn Emerson. Hooray for Zoom! We dove into different approaches to drawing. More exploring pastel innovations. Go bigger, she said, and soon I was standing at an easel working, well, big. 18” x 24” became my new standard.

Making pictures became physical. I liked it.

Color began to show up in crow and life drawings. Pages with random swaths of color kicked off my drawing sessions.

July, August, September

I continued to work with Dawn — monotypes (dark-field and light), more brayer, paint, pastels, and charcoal. We also talked about science and art, possible directions and next steps. Dawn put me on to the Nautilus and Undark newsletters (both draw from their magazines with articles highlighting the intersection of science, culture and life).

Dawn was marvelous.

I, however, was faltering. My work at the easel was limited. As the ceiling in my studio upstairs was low, I’d been working on the landing next to the washing machine. And that wasn’t happening regularly.

Then, sometime in the middle of the summer, an idea took hold — we’d convert the big shed in the back garden into a studio for me (and a workshop for Neil). I’d be able to stand up with the easel, move around, and spread out.

The shed project began in late September.

Layne Maheu’s Song of the Crow inspired me to create an illustration for its book cover.

October, November, December

While the transformation of the shed continued, I mixed pastels with charcoal, paint and brayer, monotypes, and ink — at my drawing table upstairs under the eaves.

Weekly life drawing sessions were on at the museum. I worked big, used pan pastels and colored pencils on top of paper prepared with brayer and paint. The fruits of my labor were laid out on the dining room table, where they remained for days afterward.

Then, suddenly, just before Thanksgiving, the shed was finished. The studio space was ready — it was move-in time!

Over December, I settled in.

Today, I’m working big at the easel again.

And to wrap up —