Subtle Yet Precise

Silverpoint: you draw on a prepared ground with a stylus that is made of silver. The metal leaves traces on the ground which then darken (tarnish) yet never become really black.

Numenius and I went for a walk today in the hills, given that we’ll be doing Thompson Canyon for the Christmas Count in two weeks and I haven’t been hiking too many hills what with oil spills and whatnot. We saw a hermit thrush in a buckeye, which was now all bare apart from a few beautiful pendulant fruits. (We brought some home to draw and paint: think horse chestnut/conker, with all that velvet warmth, but twice the size.)

Oh, said I, that would be a good Bateman subject. Nah, said Numenius, too monochrome, it’s more up Keith Hansen’s alley.

Nah, said I, that’s too dark, black. This was subtle gray. Warm grays on silver grays. A moment…

Silverpoint. I gotta get me one of those. Good thing I have a brother who’s a jeweler. (We chanced upon the Open Studios on Point Reyes last week and saw the work of Gary Smith who had some very large silverpoints, stretching the medium to places I didn’t know it could be stretched, but that’s why you go to these things…)