Indian Ink

And the Day Came..., Indian Ink, Tod Evans

Recently I have been enjoying using inks in my work. Black Indian ink, when diluted, creates soft shades of grey. It diffuses gently when watered down, but try adding it full strength with a brush onto wet paper and it explodes in an exciting manner. The painting above was created in response to the challenge of making work inspired by poetry, song or quotations for the recent West Norfolk Artist Association spring exhibition. (Unfortunately the photograph has a very blue tint to it, apologies). The starting point was choosing a quotation, this was the easiest part as these words attributed to Anais Nin (1903 - 1977) have long held resonance for me:

'And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.'

I relate to it because I wasted a lot of years wanting desperately to paint and draw, but was too fearful to try.

Having decided on the quotation I jotted down several ideas in my notebook, starting with something that was almost a mini installation. As my brain worked out the logistics the ideas became simpler until I ended up with this. I initially used pencil to draw the stages of the bud, semi opening and then fully opened blossom on Fabriano '5' hot pressed watercolour paper. This paper is smooth and bright white, a great contrast to the black ink. I introduced passages of ink into the background first before tackling the blossom. Areas were strengthened and some spatter added.

Background and stages of blossom in Indian ink...

 
I considered carefully whether I wanted text on the painting itself. Having made the decision to include it - how and where? I chose to write the quotation sideways, and to repeat it several times. To help integrate the words into the overall design I used counterchange with white ink on the darker background, and black ink on the lighter areas. I created a mottled effect by brushing diluted black ink over some of the starker white writing to 'push it back' visually. Finally, I added some linear work with a dip pen, again using counterchange. The block of writing to the left of the paper helped to balance the image as the larger open flower on the right is quite commanding. I was pleased with the end result.

Detail of text added sideways to left of painting

Is there a piece of poetry, song lyric or quotation that has personal meaning for you? How could you respond to it in your artwork? This challenge could help give you a nudge out of your usual comfort zone, it certainly made me think as I don't usually include words.