International Women's Day - 2026

 

Eddy - graphite, pencil crayon on paper - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"

This year I turned seventy and for the first time I am radicalized to the point of understanding the importance of International Women's Day. We are in this together and we have great work ahead of us.

On Saturday evening I was sitting in on the Portland Folksong Society weekly Zoom Song Circle. I pulled out a picture of Eddy and my pencils and pencil crayons and puttered away at constructing a drawing. 

My rule for pulling pencil crayons from my collection of 120 colours is to select pencil crayons that I have not sharpened. This indicates they are a colour I haven't used yet. Next, I select for a dark colour for the first layer. I had International Women's Day on my mind, and the colour violet, or purple. I happened upon a very warm, dark violet, trending to brown range, for my first layer of colour after I was done scribbling with the graphite. The colour on this pencil crayon is marked Van Dyke Brown.

The first, darkest layer is focused on the darkest areas of the image - to deepen the shadows and, consequently, move the highlights forward in my sense of perception. The darkest areas contrast with the lightest, untouched areas to give a feeling of shape and contour. The darkest areas recede into shadow, the highlighted area pushes forward and takes my attention.

My second colour selection is based on triangulating from my first colour in two dimensions. I'm triangulating for hue and tone. For hue, I'm imagining the colour wheel and colour theory of Johannes Itten, my first introduction to colour theory when I took a correspondence course on colour through Emily Carr in 1994. Triangulating from the darkness of the violet tone, I selected a green that was in a mid-tone range - neither light nor dark. This green was a warm, almost olive hue, which made an interesting relationship of resonance with the Van Dyke Brown. The colour on this pencil crayon is marked Oxide of Chrome. This layer would serve as a transitional space between the darkest shadows and the lightest highlights, adding depth and a dynamic movement across the image. The shapes of things emerge, the edges of things show whether it is a flat, gradual plane, or a sharp contoured edge. 

It is pure luck that I have actually chosen a warm colour for the darkest depths, and a cooler colour to indicate areas closure to the viewer in the picture frame. This sets up an interesting play between the darkness, intensity and warmth of the darkest shadows, and the midtone, lighter coolness of the intermediary planes. In our perception, the shadows are drawing us in with their warm hue, and the midtone appears to be drawing away from us with cool disinterest. However, because the Oxide of Chrome is a warm, olive green, it also contradicts its cool hue with a warm inflection.

At this point, the drawing is working with three layers - the mycelium scribbles of the graphite, the strategic shading with the Van Dyke Brown, and the elaboration of shapes and planes with the Oxide of Chrome.

My third colour selection is informed by triangulating from the Van Dyke Brown and Oxide of Chrome to the space between yellow and red - into the orange range. I select an unused pencil crayon marked Marigold. This colour bridges the connection between the highlighted, untouched areas of the image, and the areas already layered with graphite, Van Dyke Brown, and Oxide of Chrome. The Marigold colour is very light in tone, closer to yellow spectrum hue. 

As I add touches and shades of Marigold, I am thinking about the light source on the image. I start adding Marigold shades to the left side of the drawing, as if the sunlight was emanating from that side of picture. I pick up my Oxide of Chrome and work through the right side of Eddy's face, to slightly darken the shadow side. I pick up the Van Dyke Brown and work from the right side, adding warmth and shadow to that side of Eddy's body and ear. 

Now as I look at the drawing, there is this uncanny sense of movement, as if Eddy is in the moment of breaking her gaze at me and turning her head to her left, the right side of the picture plane. 

This drawing is a work in progress, I will be adding layers of ink wash to the background and the shadows and contour plans of Eddy's portrait.

At this time my loyal companion is sprawled on the floor at my feet. The gas fireplace is lit to push off the cold of this March morning. Outside it is snowing. The snow is slanting from the east and laying down a wet, chilling blanket on the neighbourhood. 

My drawing for International Women's Day 2026 is not complete, but then, is anything we do ever truly 'finished'? I am constantly reading meaning and drawing comfort from my creative works. Just for today, Eddy is my mythical creature, comforting me in both her presence warming my feet, and her presence giving me her full, if fleeting, attention, from the picture plane.

This International Women's Day - 2026 I shared this drawing of Eddy and good spirits to all the women in my life - my daughters, grand-daughters, sisters, and elders. 

We are all in this together, we are not alone, we have great work to be done.