This is the latest piece for my solo show at The Signal Arts Center

A scraperboard with texture done from a 20 minute life drawing.

The exhibition continues until June 2010

Kontrastprogramm. The Art of the Scraperboard 13.2.2010 – 20.6.2010

The exhibition “Kontrastprogramm” brings a dark art to light: the scraperboard technique. The scraperboard is a piece of white board that is covered with a layer of black ink. Using a cutter to scratch and scrape, the artist then exposes the white beneath the black. The unusual white lines and hatching and the often large percentage of black in the resulting drawings turns our seeing habits upside down. The scraperboard technique is frequently chosen by artists seeking gloomy, expressive images for stories that revolve around the yawning abysses in human existence. Others use it for portraits, caricatures and illustrations that playfully exploit the drama and abundant contrasts provided by the scraperboard. The Cartoonmuseum highlights the more than one hundred year history of the scratchboard technique with works that oscillate between classical caricature, topical comic and free art: from the woodcuts by models such as Gustave Dore and Frans Masereel, to works by the contemporary artists Hannes Binder (CH), Raphael Boccanfuso (FR), Brian Gallagher (IE), Matti Hagelberg (FI), Line Hoven (DE), Matthias Lehmann (FR), Thomas Ott (CH) and Mark Summers (USA). Raphaël Boccanfuso (FR), Brian Gallagher (IR), Matti Hagelberg (FI), Line Hoven (DE), Matthias Lehmann (FR) and Thomas Ott (CH) were present at the opening. Thomas Ott was doing drawings live!

http://www.cartoonmuseum.ch

This is the finished image of Ernie O’Malley

I’ve been working texture in to my scraperboards recently.

This is one of King Tubby…

Eye Eye…..It’s an eye!

Here’s looking at you.

]]> http://bdgart.com/blog/2010/02/aye-aye/feed/ 0 http://bdgart.com/blog/2010/01/ernie-omalley/ http://bdgart.com/blog/2010/01/ernie-omalley/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:54:36 +0000 Brian http://bdgart.com/blog/?p=191

Ernie O’Malley portrait

http://www.ernieomalley.net/

A small scraperboard of Tory Island which I’ll be showing at The Crow Gallery Dublin.

http://www.oileanthorai.com/

Details of the exhibition here-

http://www.crowgallery.net/exhibitions/LittlePictureShow.htm

Next image in the series.

One of a set of portraits I’m currently working on.