Sidewalk of Knots by C.nick

Sidewalk of Knots

So this is my Celtic knotwork done with sidewalk chalk, charcoal and soft pastels. I got a book about Celtic knots at the library and decided that a sidewalk would be the perfect place to practice this art form. I found that it was very open regarding space and let me think about manging space in ways that were different than how I manage it on paper. It took about three evenings to create and there was a minor mishap with water but for all that it turned out really well.

All the Colours of the Rainbow

Coloured Pencil, 18 X 24, C.nick Tuigsinn

All the Colours of the Rainbow so pretty in the Sky,
Are also on the Faces of the People going by,…

What a Wonderful World

C.nick                                          

If you like my work please take the time to check out my Zazzle Store or my Imagekind prints.

Footballer

“Footballer”, Graphite, 2012

C.nick
If you like my works please take the time to check out my Zazzle Store or my Imagekind prints.

Cu Chulainn

(Death's Harbinger, C.nick Arach, 2012)

This is a depiction of the death of the Irish hero Cù Chulainn, Cù Chulainn was a feroucious fighter so much so that no one believed him dead until a raven appeared. Cù Chulainn's name comes from an incident in his youth when he killed a gaurd dog belonging to Culann, to make up for the death the then Sétanta changed his name and became the hound (Cù) of Culann gaurding Culann's house until a replacement could be trained. Because of that name sake Cù Chulainn has a geas (a taboo) placed on him forbidding him from eating dog meat, it is the breaking of this geis that marks the beginning of Cù Chulainn's death.

 C.nick Arach

Beowulf

  (Beowulf: Wyrd's Call, C.nick Arach, 2011)

"The hoard-guard heard a human voice;
his rage was enkindled. No respite now
for pact of peace! The poison-breath
of that foul worm first came forth from the cave,
hot reek-of-fight: the rocks resounded.
Stout by the stone-way his shield he raised,
lord of the Geats, against the loathed-one;
while with courage keen that coiled foe
came seeking strife. The sturdy king
had drawn his sword, not dull of edge,
heirloom old; and each of the two
felt fear of his foe, though fierce their mood.
Stoutly stood with his shield high-raised
the warrior king, as the worm now coiled
together amain: the mailed-one waited."   -Beowulf

Beowulf has been a favourite of mine ever since I was ten, for me at that age the story held adventures (with dismeberent) and interesting words (like Gloaming), I was pretty much in a sadistic literati barbarian child's heaven. Coming back to the poem as I grew older I became drawn to how the Beowulf poem deals with death, the inevitability of it, and how the poem shows that the dragon was alive as well and that two lives were lost. I am also fond of Wiglaf alluding to Beowulf's bravery might also be stubborn pride.

"At the mandate of one, oft warriors many
sorrow must suffer; and so must we.
The people's-shepherd showed not aught
of care for our counsel, king beloved!
That guardian of gold he should grapple not, urged we,
but let him lie where he long had been
in his earth-hall waiting the end of the world,
the hest of heaven.-This hoard is ours
but grievously gotten; too grim the fate
which thither carried our king and lord."  -Beowulf

C.nick Arach

Sir Gawain & the Green Knight

(A Prayer for Christmas Eve, C.nick Arach, 2010)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a fourteenth century alliterative poem and this scene depicts Gawain finding a castle in the distance on Christmas eve, after he has prayed for a place for mass . The castle and the armour is fourteenth century same as the poem.

"Thus in peril and pain and plights hard through the
country wanders this knight all alone til Christmas eve. At that tide to
Mary he made moan that she might direct his riding and lead him to

some dwelling."

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by W.A. Neilson




C.nick Arach

The Black Cat

(The Black Cat, C.nick Arach, 2010)

This is inspired from the short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. It is about a man's decent into crazyness, he ends up killing his wife and bricking up her body but he mistakenly bricks up the black cat as well. I intended it to feel surpressing and claustrophobic as little streams of light come through a crack in the wall.

C.nick Arach

Top's Jump

(Top's Jump, C.nick Arach, 2010)

This sketch is from Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island". It shows Top (the dog) jumping in the balloon in a storm during the group's departure. The balloon tells the story of their stay on the island.

C.nick Arach

Through the Fish Glass

(Through the Fish Bowl, C.nick Arach, 2010)

This is a sketch of a fish looking at himself in the side of his bowl and seeing the kid staring at him.

C.nick Arach

The Weighing of the Brain

Your brain is made up of two hemispheres a left and a right, these sides of the brain control different functions. It is the difference between literal and contextual, exact and approximate, optimism and pessimism.

Why have I opened a post this way? Because my sketch depicts a judging of the hemispheres. It's bare bones right now but when I paint it, I hope to base the figures off the different gods and goddesses that control logic, wisdom and creativity, inspiration.

(The Weighing of the Hemispheres, C.nick Arach, 2010)

C.nick Arach

Is that a Dagger?

("Is that a Dagger that I see before me?", C.nick Arach, 2010)

This drawing was inspired by the dagger scene from Macbeth:

"MACBETH: Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw."


*Notice how the frame tells the story up until that point.

 

You can find the painted version here.

C.nick Arach

(Balyn in his wheels, C.nick Arach, 2010)

This is a sketch of my dog Balyn (a corgi). He is in the front seat of the car looking into the mirror.


I got this idea from riding in the car with him on my lap.

C.nick Arach

The Study of Sherlock

(Sherlock's Study, C.nick Arach, 2010)

This sketch is from the "Musgrave Ritual" a short story from "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes". It depicts Sherlock's study as described by Watson in the beginning of the story:

"But with me there is a limit, and when I find a man who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece, then I begin to give myself virtuous airs. I have always held, too, that pistol practice should be distinctly an open-air pastime, and when Holmes, in one of his queer humors, would sit in an arm-chair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges, and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V. R. done in bullet-pocks, I felt strongly that neither the atmosphere nor the appearance of our room was improved by it."

That's it for now,

C.nick Arach

Flora's sunny afternoon

(Flora's Sunny Afternoon, C.nick Arach 2010)

This sketch was inspired by "The Turn of the Screw" a novella written by Henry James. This 'ghost' story is about a governess who takes charge of two seemingly perfect children, but then the 'ghosts'of two former servants start appearing. Are there ghosts? Or is she mad? Literary critics are still debating.

This sketch is of the lake scene where Miss Jessel watches a playing Flora.

C.nick Arach

The fair Emily, a Knight's Tale

(The Fair Emily, C.nick Arach 2010)

These sketches come from the story "The Knight's Tale" from the "The Canterbury Tales" .

It is about two cousins who are prisoners in a tower that looks out upon the courtyard. One day they chance to see the fair Emily who is out strolling in the beauty of the day. Instantly they both fall in love with her (yeah right!) and a feud breaks out between them. This feud ends in death (most sensible, really).

C.nick Arach