The illustration is of an object I brought at a craft fair in Hackney City Farm. Unfortunately didn’t get the name of the designer/maker. It is a little bigger than a matchbox and is made out of wood, which has then been painted and varnished.
Prison. Black hole. Underground. Stair-less. Door-less. Viewing box. Captivity. Room. Solitary. Void. Home.
It reminded me of early Tim Burton films, and of Hayao Miyazaki – Howl’s Moving Castle, as well as Emily Dickinson’s poem One need not be a chamber to be haunted.
Couldn’t resist making an illustration of it with a new watercolour set. It’s the first time I have used watercolour in about 10 years although I have been playing with ink this year. The illustration looks like it could have been done in any painting medium other then watercolour! More water needed… had fun though.
My life drawing has become too safe I need to challenge myself. That’s my reasoning in treating myself to the watercolours. Not because the paint box opens and unfolds to reveal 12 tiny paint pans each individually wrapped like sweets.
