GEMMA BLACK : ARTIST / CALLIGRAPHER

I have taken my Study in Capsicum a little further but as yet it is unfinished. I am however, quite happy with the visual image the palette is throwing at me.  Acrylics on Glass (my palette) Acrylics on Canvas Side by side they could almost be two paintings. And what do pen sketches and painting have to do with calligraphy? ... a great deal! Any type of drawing is invaluable to calligraphic studies. If you are starting out in calligraphy I would make a habit of drawing every day ... just some little thing ... do this just for yourself. Take drawing classes parallel with your calligraphy classes. You will be all the better for it.  Enjoy and learn.

After experimenting with many tools for quick sketching with pen & ink I have settled on the Bic Biro finepoint. The tool is so responsive & sensitive it's almost like a pencil.  To qualify, I hold no shares in the Bic Biro Pen Company. These quick capsicum studies are the basis for a painting.  

Today five years ago Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an Apology to Australia's Indigenous People. I quote from the Prime Ministers speech of that day: "We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry." This document, a transcript of that Apology written on calf-skin vellum and commissioned by the Government, can be seen in Par