UPDATE:
The highlight of yesterday (Monday) was completing this opus of a drawing! There is a point in a drawing (or painting) when you look over every portion of it and realize there is nothing more that needs to be added or removed and that every part of it has a kind of life, even areas where it just whispers to you.

Yesterday Kal and Michael got up on tall ladders and installed all the infrastructure for the sculpture pieces, including the cables from which everything hangs, and steel grids for one installation. That meant we could just about start right in on putting that work up when we arrived this morning (Tuesday).

Talking with Mandy Salter, the AGM's new director|curator, when she stopped in for a look yesterday, she shared something I found interesting: she said that so much of the work that gets shown in a gallery arrives made and just needs to be installed; by contrast she really enjoyed seeing the process of my drawing being made over the past few days. 

I remarked that while drawing this large has been really challenging, it's also been so satisfying that I think I'll have to send out more proposals that involve large, on-site drawing. 

Show opens this Thursday July 2!
Reception: 6 to 8pm
Runs through September 13 at the 
Art Gallery of Mississauga

Well, a lot can change in a day, and not a moment too soon! The big wall drawing, I'm delighted to say, is close to being finished. On Monday I will re-work one hand and make some adjustments as needed, (based on having fresh and rested eyes), and that will be it.

This morning Kal picked up my chain links from the powder coater and while I've only seen portions of the results peeking out from their protective wrappings, I think it's safe to say that they look gorgeous!

Discussed installation for the sculpture pieces with Michael, the wonderful installer they use at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. Installing is his business, he does it for all kinds of galleries/museums including big ones, and based on this week I would hire him too. So calm and friendly, full of quiet competence and great can-do attitude. Just what you need in the stress of installing a show.

No actual installation happened today for my chain link sculpture as we figured out that we need to exchange one hardware item for the next size up to make things easier. So Monday morning that will get started, then I'll finish the drawing, then – after some clean-up – the sculpture pieces can be fully installed.

Somehow it's hard to believe we're at that point already; if all goes well my whole show will be up by the end of Monday. Failing that we still have Tuesday. The show will be open to the public on July 1 since Celebration Square in Mississauga will have throngs of people then.

In the meantime there is still the final drawing layer to do on 4 of 6 of the drapery panels. A friend is coming on the weekend to help out with that, bless her :-)

I'm looking forward to a long sleep tonight and a weekend of not being as dirty as a coal miner! Hope you have a lovely weekend too, even if it rains as they are predicting here.

If you missed my earlier reports on this installation:

Day One (click here)
Day Two (click here)

Exhausted after a big day of drawing at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, with probably an even bigger one tomorrow. Big areas are likely to be erased away in order to get a fresh start. (To get the inside scoop, don't forget to ask me what I've been using to erase with!) 

Tomorrow is my last full day to work on this massive figure (detail only shown above), so the pressure is really on. Of course when I'm drawing I need to forget the pressure (somehow) in order to draw usefully.

Just working on a figure this size feels like pressure enough. It can be a little terrifying if I allow myself to think about it too much. I'm glad to say though that there were times today when I didn't think at all; I listened to my music and just felt my way through the drawing. Did some of my best work that way. I hope I spend a lot of tomorrow in that state, in which case I know it will work out.

Also tomorrow the support structures for one of my sculpture installations will be installed. Went out this evening with Kal to buy some of the hardware bits for that. So glad to have Kal back home! This drawing requires all of my attention and energy, so Kal assists me by attending to some of the details for the other pieces.

Please wish me luck, I am going to need it!

PS: On the weekend I will work on the time-lapse photography I've been shooting as I draw, so watch this space!

Did you ever draw on the walls when you were a child? I certainly did (and worse!) and I've never lost my appetite for it.

In order to practice, working out the pose and technical details, for the massive drawing at my upcoming solo show at the Art Gallery of Mississauga (opens July 2 through Sept 13), I've been testing and drawing all over the biggest wall in our house.

What you see here is not a finished drawing and quite different in character than I imagine my gallery drawing will be, but drawing is a way of thinking and I am thinking my way through the problem that this drawing represents.

I have to admit I am really starting to enjoy drawing this large and will be sad when I have to stop... we will need the use of this wall back in order to reclaim a good portion of one bedroom!

This drawing is one of many reasons my post is so behind schedule. I hope you'll have a chance to come out and see the final gallery drawing.