Quick sketches with large felt-tipped pens helps reduce to-do list

MICHAEL Pope is an artist on a mission. The Townsville-based artist and art teacher laughs that he always overloads himself so the quick nature of his works allow him to tick off more items from his to-do list.

Pope uses an Artline 70 permanent marker and an A3 sketch pad to create his exquisite works, which are on show at Murky Waters Studio for the Marker exhibition.

“That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been working with a marker pen of late because you can’t really get down to fine detail, if you are detailed you’ve got to kind of choose your lines a bit more carefully so it speeds the process up,” he said.

“Some of the works are five pages long so obviously they take a bit longer but mostly it’s like a two to three hour process. Usually about an hour to draw the work and one to two hours if I’m painting it or inking it but not all of the works are inked though, other times I might add tone by hatching or cross hatching.”

Pope said the quick turnaround time was also a bonus when travelling.

“I also overload my life so when I go travelling there’s 10 things a day to accomplish, it’s about working my way through that list,” Pope laughed.

“So I took up drawing and I thought let’s rediscover this, let’s use it as a way to slow down so you when you go to that temple in Bali you take the time to notice the details.

“And because of the way I think I just got quicker and quicker at drawing so I can still accomplish my 10 things on the list while still drawing as well.”

Pope has produced about 70 works for the exhibition with each work produced in less than three hours.

Pope said he discovered his love of working with permanent markers back in university.

“I got a bit addicted to it and I guess it’s (Marker) me revisiting that,” he said.

“A lot the subject matter is very different but it’s just a bigger inkpen really. The page size I’m using is A3 landscape and it suits that size. This last two year period I’ve been working that way.

“You get into a little bit of a comfort zone with the art so the marker is the go-to now.”

Pope said while he had worked in galleries, he had been re-energised by working with art students.

“When I changed over to teaching I found I had that creative energy again,” he said. “Working with the kids doing art all day you kind of want to do a bit yourself.”

Marker documents Pope’s travels to locations in Far North Queensland, Central Queensland, Brisbane and in and around Townsville.

Pope said while Marker was grouped thematically by location, there was no preferred subject matter to the works which include people, buildings and tanks.

>>Marker is on display at Murky Waters Studio until March 14. The exhibition is open Sundays from 9am to 12pm or by appointment (0409 871 977)