Terracotta Figure Poster

One continuous cream line travels across a terracotta ground and leaves behind a seated figure: a bent knee, a shoulder, a small round head turned to the side. The line is chalky and uneven, thickening where the hand slowed and thinning where it moved, and it never lifts. Because the drawing is open rather than closed, the terracotta reads through the body as much as around it. The ground is painted canvas, visible as a fine weave under the colour. It is the kind of drawing that takes seconds to make and years to be able to make.

Terracotta is a forgiving colour in a room with wood and clay, and this print carries a wall without adding noise. It suits a living room, a study or a hallway, and it works in a pair with another line drawing in the same palette. Oak keeps it earthen; black makes the line read as graphic. On canvas the painted weave under the line is reproduced closely enough to look like the original surface.