Week 86

If you’ve ever been to a Smithy, you’ll know how the hot air greets you as you enter, waves of intense heat hit your face, threatening your very breath as the flames erupt hotter and hotter. The blacksmith billows air deep into the embers and sparks explode in the dark. Wisps of smoke escape, running toward the light, small cracks in the roof that speak of sunlight and the world beyond. 

The heat flared but the Smithy never faltered. His smartly curled mustache hovered over a mouth at ease, his hat, trousers and boots calm in accompaniment. He welcomes the red hot as it begins to imbue his iron with it’s own brilliant glow, white and pulsating. The heat is his catalyst, and he is a master of this ashy crucible. Slowly bending, mindfully controlling and patiently allowing the thing most would run from, to work for him....to create the impossible for all.

Heating the Iron

24” x 18” | Oil on Wood Panel