Scratching the Surface - scraperboard art
Painting with blades is my kind of art. When looking for illustrations for One Sixth of a Gill , I rediscovered the scraperboards (also known as scratchboards) that I created years ago. I liked them but I didn’t expect that anyone else would. My Editor, an avid art collector, thought differently, so I let her be the judge. I also revisited the important things in life, as I once saw them when I envisaged The Human Condition Romantic Love and my teddy bear, Angela . (I still have no idea why I called a male teddy-bear Angela when I was 7. I do remember that I knew he was a boy and that Angela was his name. These truths were self-evident. Of course I still have him.) Making the book and receiving comments from readers who found the etchings ‘intriguing’ and ‘thought-provoking’ made me want to pick up a blade again. After all these years, I wanted a practice board (and the conventional scratch tool) so I put some pre-designed boards on my wish-list and this wa...