Robert Gould: Ebenezer Drawings- "Black Water" Creating space

Sunken Ebenezer- Oil stick

I had some time to work on a collection of drawings last week. I started thinking about Ebenezer Creek again. I was looking at some photographs of a set up I did, and trying to figure out how to enhance the story telling elements. I want to create a emotion of the events there, an “atonement”, a non-literal representation. I thought about drawing over the photographs but I still haven’t found a convincing process yet. This time I am looking for a more abstract image. I started playing around with images of water. In particular the wave patterns on the surface. I have arranged the following drawings in the order that they were created

Oil Stick on paper

All these drawings are on paper grocery bags. One group of drawings is in oil sticks and oil paint on top of prepared paper. The second group is Conti crayon, sumi ink, white house paint, & tempera paint. In the first session the work evolved in two stages. First stage I worked with images of water waves viewed as if you were under the water or from the side, looking forward. The first drawing I also placed a rock like form in the center. The sunken Ebenezer.

Sumi Ink, Paint, Conti crayon on paper

Sumi Ink, Conti Croyon, Charcoal on paper

The next group of drawings I have changed the vantage point to above looking down upon the surface of the water. The waves form a pattern on top of a dark background. A sense of space is perceived by looking through the pattern. I tried to convey a sense of movement with the light colored wave pattern drawing. In a way, this work is similar to sumi ink drawings I created that related to my drawings of sound wave patterns. I progressed to the next session by starting with the elements that I liked from the first group.

Oil Stick on paper

With the next session of drawings I expanded on the idea of creating depth of field with adding an illusion of looking through the surface of the water. I applied cut out leaf patterns to the surface & worked on top of them. I also added a sense of perspective to the water pattern drawing. This added a landscape effect to the space.