Here is where I am now

In my previous posting I took a look back to 7 years ago.
Here I select two drawings which say where I am now.

What was I doing 7 years ago?

My life-drawing is a journey into the unknown and unexpected.
A look back recalls those earlier steps.
Is there a value in doing this?

Immersed in a dialogue between the model, the pose and the artist.

I find myself in the early stages of externalising my emergent thinking about a dialogue which, for me, I believe is taking place bewteen the model, the pose that she or he creates, and myself the artist. This is very recent idea of mine, and has been helped by the particular personality of the model Robin, her most creative and professional approach to her job, and additionally the challenging poses which she presents us with. In other words, I love drawing Robin. And when I draw Robin I enter into another world.

Tania Kovats, invited artist at the current RWA 'Drawn' Exhibition in Bristol, says in her introduction to her work "I draw to find my way out'. My interpretation is that this is also describing stepping into another world, leaving behind the concerns of everyday life, tranforming into a different state, one that I have previously referred to as both meditative and therapeutic.

Her full text is this:
"I draw to find my way out.
Drawing fills the space when I'm not sure what I'm doing.
It's my mechanism for map-making and my search engine,
even when I don't know what I'm looking for" .

I warm to these words because they echo the essence of my own life-drawing philosophy 'Paths are made by walking" from the Spanish poet Antonio Machado:
"Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing moves,
the road is made by walking.
By walking one makes the road,
and upon glancing behind one sees the path that never will be trod again.
Wanderer, there is no road,
only wakes upon the sea"     [So, no plan, no goal............start drawing............the marks come from the feeling, a record of the dialogue]

Here are yesterday's drawings of Robin.
Two-handed pencil on A1 cartridge paper. Each pose is for 30 minutes but I was finding I was using only about 15 minutes at the most, each time.

Drawing Natalie: March 19th 2015

"Plagiarism or Revolution"

I seem to recall it was Paul Gaugin who claimed that "Art is either plagiarism or revolution", and I am beginning to be able to offer my own definition of a meaning of this.
I have always searched the work of others, mostly with the aim of discovering similarities which will help me understand and art I am producing. Inevitably, in this process,  I have adopted aspects of 'technique', 'style', etc., consciously and unconsciously. So in this sense I am a plagiarist. But I have always acknowledged, at least to myself, any obvious or conscious 'borrowing'. It is the quest for 'stimulation' and 'inspiration' which is the true reason for researching the work of others.
I am far happier, and find great interest in examining my situation under the revolutionary banner. But not in the sense of wanting to change art. No, this is about revolutionary change within myself. For me life-drawing is about taking on board a new interest, a different pursuit. It is about discovering a meditative and healing activity, it is about entering into a mental space which during the 'process of creating the drawing in front of the model' has elliminated the world around me.
One of the most significant aspects of my life-drawing journey is that I now feel I own what I do. Central to this is my pencil-in-each-hand way of mark-making. Standing at my easel, feet apart to allow a comfortable posture, a pencil in each hand waiting to start their mark-making simultaniously, my whole perceptual-motor system gets activated, my whole body comes into play, I become lost in the dialogue trilogy which is emerging between myself, the pose and the model. For me this is wonderful. This is my revolution.

Here are my drawings from this last week. Three sessions. Three different models. All drawn with two hands on A1 cartridge paper. Some are 5 minute quickies, most are 30 minute drawings with the last seated pose just over the hour.

I believe I am drawing how I'm feeling about the pose.

By this title I am suggesting that my drawing is the product much more of what I want to say about the pose than what I am actually seeing (the object) before me.

What you are looking at is not meant to be a drawn representation of the model.

You are looking at that which I sensed was important/significant/particular at the time and pertaining to each pose.

[ so, inaccurate proportioning is acceptable, page composition is not consciously considered, I don't make up what I can't see (I.e. those parts hidden behind the supporting straps), and I am attempting not to be too conscious of my mark-making (I.e. the marks made by my pencils are the outcomes of a 'sub-conscious' dialogue between my whole body (my perceptual and motor systems) and that which I sense to be significant about the pose of/and the model before me ]