Original Ballpoint Pen Art on Board.
 
As an artist and photographer I try to utilise differing amounts of light instead of colour to capture the essence of this dahlia. I needed to apply many layers of ballpoint pen ink to create a rich print-like finish. This process of very fine lines takes many hours to produce. 
 
I made some sketches and took some photographs of some dahlias in Buckland Village ‘Walled Gardens’ situated within Dartmoor National Park. 
 
One of my favourite artists and a huge inspiration for me is the 17th-century Italian painter Merisi da Caravaggio. He took chiaroscuro to the extreme. He often blackened out large areas of the canvas and brightly illuminating foreground subjects. The combination of using high contrast and focused light had an incredible impact.