Erica Lindsay Walker
THE FINE ART OF THE PENCIL
All images and text generated by Erica Lindsay Walker on this site are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without written permission from the artist.
Chess
The main attraction of chess was its potential for symbolism. After all, it is a game of archetypes. At first I arranged the pieces on the chessboard, but as the series developed, the pieces ventured off the board into other still-life situations. I have been amazed at how the most familiar objects can take on so much new, surprising meaning when these chess pieces are part of the scene.
At first I thought that graphite would be the perfect medium for this series - doing chess scenes in black and white seemed very fitting. But as I worked I discovered that sometimes a drawing needed to be in colour. There was no "reason" for this - I just felt that some pieces would work better in colour, others in black and white. Sometimes the colours are symbolic themselves, other times I choose them simply because they work best artistically.

20 x 28" Coloured pencil on paper

24 1/2 x 15" Graphite on paper

12 1/2 x 16 1/2" Coloured pencil on paper

16 x 21 1/2" Coloured pencil on paper

12 1/2 x 18 1/2" Graphite on paper

18 x 25" Coloured pencil on paper

12 x 16" Graphite on paper

18 x 25" Coloured pencil on paper

22 x 14" Coloured pencil on paper

12 x 16" Graphite on paper

20 x 16" Coloured pencil on paper

12 1/2 x 16 1/2" Graphite on paper

16 x 20" Coloured pencil on paper

18 1/2 x 24 1/2" Coloured pencil on paper

15 x 20" Graphite on paper

16 x 14" Coloured pencil on paper