Every Thursday morning Darryl walks through Arch 3, mapping his way towards his garden room studio at Project Art Works. He starts drawing with graphite and pencils with extensive energy; painting large on the wall with rollers and brushes, mixing acrylic straight on the canvas with circular movements, pouring green ink on a printing plate and making vertical marks with a silicone brush, long droplets of ink marking the paper around the plate – the first layer for a later drawing.
Darryl tears red tissue paper; in strips, then in squares, watch them scatter on paper, pouring water over it, generating new tints with a brush or graphite. Darryl’s marks are whirlwinds of pure kinetic energy, a rhythmic soundscape, that connects us in the space through movement, a silent choreography of passing and placing materials, humming, laughing, reassuring.
In the absence of this space I tried to connect by mirroring Darryl’s energetic marks and the sound of pencils and brush, looking up at green leaves in the trees.
In the absence of this space, Darryl goes for long walks, sometimes wearing his painting clothes. At home, a dedicated support team have carved a space and a time each week, where he can connect with his mark-making; drawing with chalks, crushing crumbles in his fingers, sprinkle it down, tend to the paint mixing on paper.
Thank you to Darryl’s support team, for continuing to make this happen.
Thursday Parachute Club Artist – Magda Pata