Failed Scratchboard #7

Someday my spring will come, and with it perhaps, a prince.

6" x 6" masonite painted with acrylic and lovingly worked until satisfaction.

Failed Scratchboard #6

Driving at night during a snowstorm. Hypnotic. Headlights illuminating flakes hurling toward me, when in reality I am the one being hurled - into a tunnel of snow. Snow-spotted void. 

6" x 6" masonite painted with acrylic and worked over until it cried "uncle".

Failed Scratchboard #5

This is winter: gray, vertical tree trunks, salty roads, piles of dirty snow, people dressed in black.

6" x 6" masonite panel painted with acrylic and worked with patience.

Failed Scratchboard #4

Fish in the sea, are there always more? In the darkness I see jellyfish, I see herring, I see whales and vast schools whirling, silver bodies shooting forward in arched trajectories. . . 

6" x 6" masonite painted with acrylic, brought to life with faith and intuition.

Failed Scratchboard #3

Have you ever walked the cement canyons of Manhattan in the small hours of the night?

6" x 6" masonite, painted with acrylic and worked with determination.

Failed Scratchboard #2

Perhaps this could be a colorful slub in the warp and weft of a winter coat.

6" x 6" masonite panel, acrylic paint, and a lot of frustrated gouging, scraping, and smearing.

Failed Scratchboard #1

I tried making my own scratchboards, painting masonite with plaster-loaded gesso, then with gel medium darkened with india ink. The result was an impenetrable surface. And so "gougeboard" was invented. Being a good sport, not one to let failure deter, I commenced to gouge, scrape, smear, rub and generally work the surface until I'd had enough. The result are seven confused-looking abstract panels, children of these dark winter days.

This is a 6" x 6" sheet of masonite, painted with acrylic. It is number one in a series of seven.