Hydrant Graveyard - Original Oil Pastel

About The Work:

Dauphin MB, where I lived for a while, had to replace all their older fire hydrants as they could no longer get parts for repairing them.  Most of these hydrants had been decorated years ago as part of a contest to beautify the community.  The hydrants slated for replacement all had a bright blue spray painted 'X' on them; they were then dug up and hauled away to an industrial site by the railway tracks.  While this was going on my husband and I drove around town taking photos of as many of these decorated hydrants as we could find.  We also ended up buying one and installing it in our backyard’s fenced in dog run.

I executed this work using a sgraffito technique with oil pastels. Practiced in Italy since the 1730’s, Sgraffito is an old and beautiful “subtractive” method of creating images by scraping away a surface of medium in patterns and shapes, creating an image by exposing the underlying layer of color(s). While in Italy I became captivated by this art form and had to explore this technique. In my studio, I design my image, transfer it onto paper, block in vibrant colours of oil pastel - the first layer. I then add a top coat of dark colour, gently mark my image back in and start scraping away the dark top coat. I love the creaminess and the smell of the oil pastel while working with it and the whole process of “revealing” the image in the undercoat, the transformation from dark to light.

Size: 8 x 10 inches artwork, matted to 11x14 inches

Medium: Oil Pastel on acid-free paper

Year: 2013

This work is matted to fit a standard size frame and enclosed in a protective clear plastic sleeve. A Certificate Of Authenticity is also included. Frames are not supplied.

Please note that colours may appear slightly different on screen than they do in person.

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