The Duet, Mixed Media on Gessoed mountboard, 8.5" x 11", 2011

This is my contribution to a world wide sketchbook exchange I am currently taking part in called "The Flying Moleskins".


This is my contribution to Edward Burton's Sketchbook. His theme is music.
I decided to use these two players who I had been longing to paint for a quite a while.




The Duet, Mixed Media on Gessoed Musuem mount board, 8.5" x 11", 2011



I can't remember the origin of the music but I remember sketching a man on the tube and then I got talking to him and he invited me to an art exhibition where music was played alongside. This is quite a while back but I still remember the happy, colourful feeling and the buzzing sounds, I have tried to capture this in "Duet" which is a mixed media piece on Gessoed Museum mount-board with oil, coloured pencil, Liquin and oil pastel,. It was more of an experiment as I haven't tried this mix before. I was happy with the result.

Special Quote
"I found myself questioning the validity of art, and one day I thought, "What am I doing? Why am I doing this?" But I got to work anyway, I started drawing my subject. As I set my charcoal to canvas and began copying the beautiful contour of this Egyptian woman's head, I knew I was doing exactly what I was made to be doing. This is how I was made. I'll set my heart to it and work with everything I have.
I still wonder, occasionally, if art is what I should be doing. There are major difficulties and heartaches in the world, and I'm standing behind an easel, painting a pretty picture. And yet, I think that is almost false guilt. When I really think about it, people need art. I need art. What if we had to go through that hard stuff-the difficulty and heartache-and there was no art or music to move the soul? The real need for art out there. I have found for myself that art in any form allows emotion to become more tangible, whether as an expression of worship or as a release of grief."-Dan Gerhartz, expressing moments of doubt from his book "Not far from Home"