I've talked in the past of 'continual change' in that which appears in my drawings from one session to the next. 'Evolutionary change' I believe describes the phenomena best. Most often small and perhaps imperceptible to the beholder. Yet significant to me.
After my break (during May and June) for my foot surgery I picked up my fine-liner pens and the outcome can be seen a few postings ago. My response was that nothing fresh was apparent, so in the next session I picked up my graphite pencils and the three superimposed (part) poses of Penny suggested something challenging to me. The feeling and ideas I had are best described in the quote I recently referenced by Jenny Saville
"If I draw thro' (and I would add 'and/or over') previous bodily forms in an arbitrary way or a contradictory way, unexpected forms emerge from the nature of the drawing...……..and it gives a visual shock"
For me, the 'shock' is often that the resultant drawing 'reflects', 'encapsulates', 'enhances', 'holds the essence of', 'summarises', 'extracts' and 'provokes' the character, the quality, the gesture, the fundamental form, the spirit, the feeling, the engagement and the connection with the pose, i.e. 'the muse-artist dialogue'...……
OR
Is the true perception of the artist being revealed?
I am asking myself "Is this how I am seeing it?" Is this my inner self being brought out from the process and finding an expression and a format of communication thro' drawing?
Jenny Saville talks of unexpected forms emerging. Whilst is the past I have experienced the surprise to myself when I stand back and look at what has arrived on the paper, I do believe in that in my latest drawings I can apply her concept of a visual shock. Yet the shock does not remain purely a visual one from what one is looking at in the drawing. It is also a psychological shock to actually see some evidence of one's perceptual processes, presumably ones which are deeply sub-conscious, in operation during the making of the drawing.
My interest in the overlap and transparency of Francis Picabia is also playing a part in helping me gain insights into my art. When I draw one part of an anatomy on top of another I am not designing the drawing, I am much more allowing an experiment and exploration to take place, the outcome of which I will view (and perhaps analyse) when I stand back from my easel. I am liking the challenge I am setting myself to see if I can draw one thing on top of another, whilst avoiding any difficulty and confusion in my own mind, but in fact sometimes I am drawing behind and beyond that which has gone before. To me this represents a truly 'spatial enquiry'.
