Main Gallery (Black & White)    

This art piece depicts an old abandoned rail switch. Operated manually, these switches and the pits which house the levering arms for moving the switching rails, have been replaced with new automated devices. This scene allows for some of the more interesting textural extremes possible in pencil art. Old, cracked wood, dried leaves and grass, rusty metal, gravel, and moss all work together to produce a surprisingly earthy feel to a composition which is largely based on a mechanical device. Do railroads inspire?

This piece was created to accompany the two shown immediately below. This mainsheet block is an old wooden double sheeve block through which the boat's mainsheet runs. The block hangs from the boom, generally near the end, and is an integral part of the mainsheet system for adjusting the boat's mainsail.

After drawing "bullseye" (below) I was eager to capture some more bits of beautiful nautical and maritime culture in pencil art. I shot a few rolls of film of sail rigging and the like. Here I've depicted an upper deadeye with its lanyard. This is paired with a lower deadeye (the lanyard reeved through the holes) and is used to keep the standing rigging for the mast taut. Though the smaller, more user friendly turnbuckle and wire ropes have almost totally replaced these, they just can't compare in terms of style.

This was my first drawing in a maritime theme - I was inspired by the beautiful old wooden sailing boats around Kristiansand and thought the textures and values of wood, brass and rope were perfect for pencil art. I drew this and was so pleased with it that I immediately decided to continue with several more. The two drawings shown above are the result - a nice set of three. After some sleuthing, I discovered that this little item is called a bulls-eye. According to an old nautical glossary, it's "a small, oval piece of stout wood with a hole in the centre for a stay or rope to reeve through, without any sheave, and with a groove round it for the strap, which is usually of iron." In this case the strap is another rope.

This old retired 1941 2-door Chevy Sadan was resting under a blanket of snow one beautiful winter day December, 2001 when my brother-in-law and I spotted it. We grabbed a camera and shot it along with several other vehicles as they seemed like great subjects. Of all the shots, this one had real personality. This angle really gives the impression of an old face, one with a sad expression. But I've made sure that this old guy won't be forgotten.

I went through my Father-In-Law's basement and found some very old tools from his father. Used to mass produced plastic handled tools, I was amazed at these old pieces of art. They are so beautifully made, I decided to capture them as though they were just used in a project. I grabbed a couple of other old things - a key, some wooden wedges, an old bit of rope (great contrast in texture), and set up the still life on an old shelf in the basement. I used the Stanley plane to shave some curled wood-chips and took great care to position the tools so they lead the eye into the center of interest. Does it appear that the carpenter has just set his tools aside, finished for the day? We can only wonder what beautiful object those wood chips are a part of.

This makes a great Father's Day gift for the handy-man!

Just for fun, I decided to revisit my old medium of choice - pointilism (or stippling if you like). It's been over 10 years since I used this medium of using a fine tip pen to set thousands of small ink dots down. It's painstakingly slow and has its limitations but with certain subjects it works quite well. I think this turned out alright.

This is quite an old drawing I created after being inspired by an encounter with a bobcat in the forest near Williams Lake, BC. It had just killed a rabbit and would not leave its prey, thus enabling me to take a few photos. Unfortunately none of the photos were good enough to draw from, but my collection of photographs included one of a lynx. The drawing is the first attempt at capturing fur with both dots and lines in ink. I added a watercolour wash to the original drawing and was stunned by the effect it gave the eyes, but even in black & white, this cat is a captivating subject.
Only black and white prints and cards have ever been made.

This pen and ink drawing in pointilism style (or stipling) is actually the first of this technique that I ever tried. I was thirteen and though my patience was tried, I continued with the style, and variations of it for quite a few years. This young screech owl is in its grey phase (not just because the image is black and white) and is still one of my favourite pieces. Since this little owl has always been popular, I maintain the availability of cards and may even produce some open edition prints soon.