p farrell artblog: Fun with graphite

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Fun with graphite

There's something about powdered graphite... These are recent paintings that play with the surface qualities created by working layers of the graphite into oil paint that has some tack. Though hard to capture by photo, some of the color peeks through. What can't be seen because of the straight-on photograph is the 1 3/4" deep cradles that are painted the same color that peeks out from beneath the graphite, lending a slight object-ness to the pieces.

Powdered graphite, though a rather pedestrian substance that we use daily in pencils, and one that is used for its lubricating properties in manufacturing, somehow retains some mystery as a material.

Many artists have used graphite to wonderful effect--following are a few examples:

David Schutter's graphite on vellum

Susan York's incredible sculpture and installations

Mark Sheinkman's smoky linear abstractions