Archetypes

In the 1990s, Diana Halstead broke with the formal abstract paintings she had been exhibiting in the preceding years, and in a rush of work created a remarkable series of drawings, a selection of which are contained in this book.

Halstead used an unusual technique in the works. She began each image with a crayon, then added oil paint, then put on a layer of watercolour paint. This process has given the images a strange mixture of spontaneity and fustiness. The quickly drawn crayon lin…