Returning Rook

This canvas has been sitting untouched since January and today I had a thought about where to go next – texture. I would usually have the texture on the substrate before whatever the thing is that’s going to be the Thing, but I had not much more than the sketch and some value blocking, so I didn’t think there was much to lose.

I added some modelling paste to some acrylic, and used some of my handmade stamps. The rook skull is a motif that has been with me for a long time. It’s a stamp carved using a pastel drawing of an actual rook skull that I found. The rook had died by the side of a road I used to walk on a lot. It was winter and the bird was still feathered and not long dead, so I shuffled it under some undergrowth and waited, checking on it every so often. Eventually in the spring it was stripped bare, and I took the skull home.

I’ve used the skull in my work occasionally, but not for a while, and it may or may not make it to the final layers, but it will still be part of the story.

Til the morn,

Suzanne

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