Carbon Based

'Carbon Based'
1m x 40cm
Pastel, Ink, collage, gold leaf, real leaves and charcoal on colourfix paper

The two sides of my painting personality have been fighting for attention lately, but they seem to have come together and are now shaking hands. Hopefully this is the start of a beautiful friendship :) This one is for my upcoming pastel exhibition, I know technically its mixed media, but it is mostly pastel! Its a rare thing for me that I finish a piece and I am completely happy with it - not wanting to tweak it here and there and not seeing any little spots that bother me - but I really like...no...love this piece! This is how I pictured it before I started (that NEVER happens!) I was inspired by the poetry, and it made me think about how we need to live while the livin' is good, cos there is one thing certain in life..........I don't want people to see this as a dark piece, its quite the opposite for me. Its about the joy of being alive, and a bit of a nod to my left brain (on the left of the piece is an scientific article about the life cycle of plants and some real leaf skeletons) and my right brain (on the right of the piece is an excerpt from a vintage poetry book by Longfellow). Obviously the model was Erik :) All of the colours I used are ones that make me feel good, and I put the dragonfly in cos I like bugs :)