David W Slack

Cyanotype No.5. ‘The Cat and the Crane.’ One Currently Available….Toned Cyanotype on Arches cotton paper 25x20cm. £40.00 unframed.

This time our star du jour is one of those wisenheimer, origami folding Siamese cats who set their stalls outside the Chinese Theatre, luring in the bewildered and the guileless. This one came from a fairly noire short story I wrote about a Private Dick on the trail of three little pigs as they fled through a neon lit and rain drenched Chinatown. I won’t tell you what happened as they haven’t made the movie yet. We are awaiting the call.

Cyanotype No.4. 20x20cm Sold….Toned Cyanotype on Arches cotton paper. This serious and loyal little cur makes his debut in his very favourite velvet jacket and is currently available to a good, loving home.

Toned Cyanotype No. 3. ‘Without You I’m Nothing’ 30x30cm on Arches Cotton Paper. The neutral expression of everyone’s best furry friend and confidante can seemingly take anything thrown at it. In a reflective moment, this little fella is wondering if he might not just be a tree falling in the woods. The grainy texture of Cyanotype on this paper makes me think of childhood books and has a slightly grainy lithographic feel which I am in love with. Watching these images appear and change, through the five stages of production reminds me of taking something from the Raku kiln – the sense of seeing something you’ve been working on for the first time, because science and nature have added their own hand to the piece. Addicted. X

Toned Cyanotype No.2. ‘It Wouldn’t Be Make-Believe….’ 19×24.5cm. Blue Rabbit poses for his umpteenth triumphant appearance, and for the first time in Cyanotype. We catch him in a slightly melancholy and reflective mood, and rather caught up in the drama of it all. This wonderful rabbit was made from a deep and mysterious midnight blue glove by @scruffy_crow_mends and has lived with me for very many years. He’s so dark, that he is almost a silhouette and is a joy to paint. He’s appeared in countless works over the years which have flown across the map in all directions, and has become something of an international sensation in his own right.

Penumbra. SOLD. Toned cyanotype on paper 18x25cm. Well, while my paint is drying, I’ve been deeply immersed in adapting some of my work for Cyanotype. And it’s LOVE in the first degree. Waist high in experimental permutations, and have fallen hard for Fabriano cotton paper which holds up to the very gruelling processes to which I subject it – coupled with and not least the 3 hour neat and hot espresso soak. This reacts with the iron in the pure and beautiful Prussian Blue, to give an archival and more appropriate (for MY work anyway) simmering, sepia blushed petrol blue black. I shall post here, and on my Insta @david.w.slack as pieces become available. I make these pieces by hand and eye, so each will be different, with many variations in texture, tone and expression of brushwork. #tintin #cyanotype #oilpainting #fairisle #davidwslack #prussianblue #espresso