Magical comment: "I'm looking at a portrait"

 

Paul and I standing in front of my drawings displayed on the wall at the end of the morning's session:

Me: "Well, Paul, What do you think?"

Paul Fowler: "Something different today" "Your drawings: I'm looking at a portrait of Shelly"

A portrait? Paul is referring to the whole drawing. Although a part face/head/profile is included, he is addressing the whole of the composition, in which I have brought together and synthesised selected parts. I feel this is a huge complement. It implies I have reached a rare level of connection and dialogue with the model. This achievement is not possible without the special contribution of the model herself and her own awareness of the part she plays in this sharing and egalitarian process. 

A comment on my mark-making:

Today I started all drawings with a fine-liner pen in each hand to explore the one or two or more of the parts I have selected to start the process off. Then to help myself clarify, identify and articulate these individual parts of the pose I place in some charcoal tonal work, which I blend in with a finger. I then take up two graphite pencils, but from here onwards most marks are made through my dominant hand. The principal function of these final set of marks is to draw attention to the darker tonal areas and to point to junctions and focus points, but also to give some continuity of connection across the drawing.

Pose Nos 1.

I saw the arm and back of her hand with her left eye beyond and this went in first. Way down below the foot had to be included. Then her left hand. From the foot I then extended a suggestion of her leg, up to the knee and then her thigh, right up through the drawing. Her breast went in to complete the composition. 

Pose Nos 2.

My immediate response was to look into the cave created by her overhanging arm and hand, and her left leg, within which her breasts were seen. A strong and distinctive, single structural line was introduced, which was one side of one of the supporting straps. Two additional introductions followed: the right leg on the plinth, and the outline profile of her back moved across into the composition.

Pose Nos 3.

I was presented with a full elongated vertical pose from the foot on the plinth, up her leg to the knee, then her breasts beyond and under her overhanging arms and hands, with her face looking over the top. Impossible to get all of this as a complete whole pose drawing. So, how did I react? I started with the foot, then up the leg, The knee was brought down and outlined. This concentering process continued as I brought the breasts down to overlap and be superimposed upon the drawing of the knee. Now to include the arms and the head. Arms went in, and the two hands were then, at last, seen in detail and outlined. How to deal with the head and face. Well, my rule is never to include the whole face, as I believe this will then become a focus for the beholder and will distract their attention away from the rest of the composition. So one side went in. I then returned to the fingers and took the lines of the upper part of the breasts to overlap with the drawing above. The reflection of the foot on the surface of the plinth and a few other additions completed the drawing. 

Pose Nos 4.

Two aspects of this pose attracted my attention right at the start: the face profile peeping over the shoulder, and the grouping of straps and hand. Her breast resting on her chest then had to be included, followed by the curves of her bottom. What next? How to continue, and further the composition? I decided to place on the left of the drawing, at a different scale, an outline profile of her back starting at the top left of the paper with her head and ending up joining with the curve of her bottom previously included. This was deliberately drawn at a smaller scale to fit on the paper. I had always during this time been aware of the need to suggest the stretched out length of the pose, which I satisfied by introducing and superimposing the long leg. 

Pose Nos 5.

By this time I was exhausted and my powers of responsiveness were depleted. Marks appeared on the paper, but are best not viewed. I usually do post all my drawings from a session, but this time not worth the effort.

Recent insights

Having just written the previous posting I was prompted to seek recent examples which illustrate the characteristics of my art which I believe I am attempting to describe in my analysis. Here they are:

De-Construct in order to Re-Construct

Is this a description of my process, peculiar to me, or is it what we all do? Do most life-drawers then re-construct in a near realistic way as is possible, a true representation of the pose they see before them, as near photorealism as they can achieve? Whereas I, following the de-constructive phase of my process in which I have separated out the parts and selected the ones which I will explore in my drawing, end up with a new and radical juxtapositioning of these parts. 

Do we all de-construct then re-construct but in very different ways? We do all compose a pose. The muse composes her/his pose. This Composed Pose is then de-composed by the artist then re-composed during the making of the drawing. 

So what can we mean when we start to talk about de-constructing, de-composing, etc.?

De-construction: 

• reduce (something) to its constituent parts in order to reinterpret it
• to break something down into its component parts, typically for analysis
• a way of understanding how something is/was created
• questions traditional assumptions.

De-construct:

dissect, disintegrate, take-apart, investigate, probe, study, think-through, research, itemise, perceive, dismantle, observe, examine-closely, inquire-into, look-into, conduct an enquiry into, penetrate, dismantle, take-apart:  YES this is what I feel I do when I am life-drawing. These terms describe the process I am experiencing when I am life-drawing.

So, what happens when I am putting things back together? What is the opposite of de-construct?

synthesise, assemble, fuse, merge, conglomerate, marry, put or join together, create, compile.

All the above has at its core the concept of PROCESS. I have many times previously claimed that I am a 'process' artist. 

So what is Process Art?

• It is where the end product is not the principal focus; the process of making is the most relevant aspect.
• Perception plays a key role in the making of the drawing: i.e. looking, sorting, collating, associating, patterning and initiating actions and proceedings of mark-making.
• The process of creating the drawing is an art piece in itself. This process involves both the artist and the muse.

It is the journey, not the destination!

• What is the role of  my 'Minimalism' in all of this?
• Is my  'Process Art' synonymous with: 

             my 'Transparency'?

             my 'Overlapping'?

             my 'Superimpositioning'?

             my 'Spatiality'?

When I talk of my 'spatiality' I am referring to a broad embrace of:

• the complexity of depth and penetration within the composition of the drawing on the paper
• the model/artist dialogue 
• and the complex dialectic of artist-muse-drawing which takes place within the studio

Creative Disruption.

A further term I recently came across was in connection with The Breaking Project which explores creative disruption in writing, theatre, art, etc. 

Perhaps I do see myself in this role. My drawings are (mostly) not conventional representations of traditional life poses. I choose a path of radical change in the way I perceive and draw the human body, I break-away, break-in, break-up, and break through.

After a clear out

Over the past few days I have been sorting through hundreds of drawings, which have been gradually, and inconveniently, stacking up in various parts of the house. I have retained those I consider significant for various reasons. I mention this because during this process it is probably inevitable that I have taken into my subconscious significant aspects of my drawing. I could try to list what these might be, but I am not going to do this at this stage. But what might be interesting is to look for any changes in this latest set of five drawings from my earlier work. The model again is Shelly, this morning, at Paul Fowler's 'Extreme Poses' in Stroud. The straps suspended from the ceiling and a plinth provide her with opportunities to pose in challenging and attractive ways, quite opposite to the boring standing, sitting or lying poses found in other venues. I post them in order of making.

5 x 30 minute poses: 3 most special responses.

 October 7th, with Shelly at Paul Fowler's 'Extreme Poses', and I am following on from last week's re-introduction of some tonal additions to my mark-making: see 

Friday, 1 October 2021

Back with tone: so three mark-making tools (plus tissue and finger).

It is now Monday evening October 11th and I have just made some notes following a few days of reflection on the processes and outcomes of these responses to the five poses by Shelly. My overall conclusion is that the fairly rare event of all of my responses to the 5 Thursday morning 30 minute poses have different outcomes, and represent a diversity of response to a pose.

So, is there some aspect of a pose which each time stimulates a different response? Is the model influencing/controlling the artist's perception/response?

Shelly's first pose:

• deconstruction, re-assemblage, my anagram approach (from Hans Bellmer: 'the human body is like a sentence which can be de-constructed and the words be re-arranged to enhance and emphasise its qualities and its meaning').
• a concentration of parts, condensed with hand and feet projecting out into space.
• a form, independent of any context: no plinth, no ropes, no background - a form in space.

Shelly's second pose:

• this is an emotional response on my part, of singular confident lines, to Shelly's sensuous energies. Paul Fowler commented on the special dialogue between Shelly the muse, and me the artist, which he says is evident in this piece. I think I have to agree with him.
• Head (face) and foot are suggested only, and this partial inclusion does therefor not become a focus for the beholder. But, in the centre of the composition is the sensuous curve of the breast. I wanted, needed to get this right: an earlier line indicates I had initially underplayed its role.
• there is a 'cave', a 'space within' between the breast and the underside of the right upper arm, thro' which can be seen a hand in shadow.
• depth, penetration, sensuousness.

Shelly's third pose:

• Hand on head..........elbow on knee........foot on plinth: support and gravity are central to the philosophy of structure in this composition.
• It seems, perhaps, at first glance a straightforward drawing of a whole pose. But it isn't! Only the right side of the model is drawn - then one realises that the left knee and thigh is coming into the composition from the right side of the drawing. Cleverly, the model's left profile has been superimposed made up with a line which starts with her neck, in the top left of the drawing, then the shoulder, then torso and down to her buttock.
• this squeezes together the two halves of the image, and gives emphasis to the principle of structure described above.

Shelly's fourth pose:

• Having enjoyed and re-immersed myself in tonal issues I picked up two fine-liner pens for this response.
• Note my enquiry into the connection between foot and underside of thigh; between suspension straps and the parts of the anatomy they are supporting; and how the flesh bulges over the straps at these points.
• As with the 3rd drawing, I have superimposed the outline profile of the right side of the pose upon the first part of the drawing (the long leg and underside of foot) in order to complete a compositional form and to give a clear representation of the pose.

Shelly's fifth pose:

• Her right foot and leg are close to me and goes in first. Then I see that beyond this her body is suspended, and this I then draw.
• Then I feel this drawing needed something more: I saw the hands gripping the straps, so I superimposed them on top of that which I had already drawn. 
• These two aspects of the pose are drawn at different scales and I have brought down the hands into the composition: they were way above my viewpoint and so way above the rest of her body. 
• I used two graphite pencils for this drawing.
• Conclusion: a sense of real suspension.

Themes in my art: Nos 3. Minimalism

 

Themes in my art: Nos 2 The Muse

 

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

Early Influences 6

THE MODEL.  Early on, but not at the beginning, I became aware that a special relationship between model and artist emerged over time. This, of course, was dependent on having the same model over a period of time. I have been extremely fortunate that I have attended life-drawing sessions with the same models over a number of years.
Some time ago I wrote briefly of this. I feel very honoured and privaliged to be able to engage with such professionals.

Themes in my art: Nos 1. Morphism

 

No trips this last year to engage with new inspirations. Recalling India.

 

Monday, 17 November 2014

A special moment: like a kiss!

A few postings ago I suggested that my visit to India would stimulate a change within myself which would find expression in my life-drawing. There is no doubt that the experience was spiritually uplifting and emotionally challenging. How this has influenced the direction of my life-drawing journey remains to be seen. A moment which was and is very special is captured here: A wonderfully shared moment! 

Moments of reflection and celebration

Having just completed this posting and published it I then realised the main content was compiled just prior to the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic (about 18 months ago) with its accompanying restrictions and closing down of so caleed 'normal' patterns of life. My life-drawing did continue, but virtually via Zoom, and this blog/diary did also continue and I reported and commented on all that took place in my life-drawing journey. The fact that feel I am in or entering a comparable such 'reflection' as restrictions are lifted and a new 'normal' arises is quite fascinating. It might be that during the 'virtual' period my journey went off down another path which turned out to be more of a cul-de-sac and now that I have returned to the 'culture' of Paul Fowler's 'Extreme Poses' in Stroud and resumed the dialogue with the model Shelly I have picked up where I left off. It is probably not a coincidence that the first model to greet me when I returned to Stroud was Shelly, and I can recall my sheer delight when I entered the studio and there she was. 

 Every so often, and at varying levels, I reflect. Almost certainly after every life-drawing session as I look at my drawings during the process of photographing them and placing them on this blog. My reflective notes usually accompany the images. Sometimes when I feel I have not moved on I say nothing. But, then once in a while I enter a deeper state of reflection, probably when I see some fairly fundamental evolution is taking, or has taken. place. I feel I am entering one of these at the moment, which I am just starting to note in recent postings, but it is not at all articulated and so is not yet described. 

However, there are a few moments in the past which are most significant and which, when I recall them by scrolling back, I get uplifted by my own insights and description. Here is one from about 18 months ago which still has so much relevance to me and perhaps could be written now. It could be that a particular depth of engagement with thinking about my art has been aroused by the presence of the model Shelly. As you will see and read she is at the centre of this earlier reflection. Here goes:

My most recent thoughts on my life-drawing process in which I am attempting to understand my touching a level of spirituality and super-consciousness.

1. My blog posting of February 15th 2020 following drawings of the model Shelly at Paul Fowler’s Extreme Poses at Pegasus Art in Stroud on the morning of Thursday February 13th.

I start with this because it sets the scene for my follow up thoughts which were then explored and recorded in my notebook.

2. Unedited writings from my notebook from 21.02.20 and 26.02.20

Our Heads are Round so our Thoughts Can Change Direction' 

This is from the exhibition of the art of Francis Picabia held during 2016/17 at MoMA in New York. It is titled after one of the artist's catchiest aphorisms, and I believe it particularly refers to the changes in the explorations and work of Picabia as he moved from his early Impressionist phase into Cubism then into Dadaism then his mechanistic phase and then, in what has become particularly relevant to helping me understand my own drawings, a period of transparency characterised by a spatiality achieved through complex superimpositioning of images usually drawn at different scales.

I have in a number of postings brought Picabia's approach and philosophy into helping me in my own analysis of my life-drawing with the result that terms such as 'superimposition', 'overlap', 'multi-viewpoints', 'cubist', 'different scales', 'transparency', etc., have become my language in describing what I do.

In reading one or two reviews of the exhibition I came across various phrases which attracted me by further helping to describe and therefor understand what I do. However I have played with some of the wordings and added a concept or two of my own in order to present a more complete picture of my art at this stage in my journey, and are particularly appropriate to my latest drawings posted here;

• ambiguous pictorial space

• sensuous compositions

• erosion of formal representations of the nude

• multivalent interpretations of the spatial fourth dimension

• strangely juxtaposed anatomical parts

• multiple layers of transparent images

• transparency enhances simultaneity

• fractured forms cavort in a pictorial space

The drawings below of the model Shelly from Thursday morning February 13th seem to me to take quite a leap forward. That all the drawings from the five 30 minute poses possess a consistency of approach and execution is very pleasing (often the first two or three may have a shared or developmental relationship followed by the others which depart into another world and can become unworthy of the paper they are on). I believe they possess an intensity and a complexity but at the same time, to me, also a degree of simplicity and clarity. Colleagues commented that the drawings hold the attention of the beholder because time is needed to work out what is taking place. They cannot be understood with a casual glance. New bits are discovered as the drawing is explored.

So how has this pleasing consistency and quality come about? What is the context?
Could it be that my reading of the exhibition reviews and my writings in my notebook of the above 'terminology' got absorbed into my subconscious (I certainly was not consciously thinking of them during the morning) and so influenced my perceptions, my way of seeing, my selection of what to draw, etc. Or, was it because this life-drawing session came after me experiencing a most traumatic week, and I grasped the opportunity to throw myself into my art, into a therapeutic act, putting behind me all my troubles and allowing myself mental freedom and complete relaxation and thereby delving into my innermost SELF and bringing forth my life-drawing highlights.

A brief note to explain my traumatic week ……….. gale force winds brought down some huge trees on the ramparts of the hillfort; trees were felled blocking access to the house and bringing down telephone cables; continuous torrential rain made it impossible to work outside in the fields; however I did build a stone wall but strained myself and needed to go to the doctor; my feet shot from under me on slippery muddy ground, I fell and cracked my head, blood and swelling; our big dog had two more fits following a clear period since Christmas Day. 

So, you see, I was ready for a meditation, and an engagement with my Self.

 "Within you there is a Stillness and a Sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself"                               

Hermann Hess, 1877-1962, poet, novelist and painter who explored an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality.

Postscript:
I believe my head to be round also. I have changed, developed, evolved, throughout my life. So here is my evidence for claiming 'The Round Head of my Evolutionary Exploration and Development of my Art'.

1. Phases in my life-drawing from the beginnings thro' to the present day:

• full pose realistic representation

• figurative expressionism

• abstract expressionism

• the deconstructed nude

• morphism

• cubism

• spatial complexity

2. Mark-making materials in my life-drawing (generally in this chronological order but I do occasionally return to an earlier material):

• wood pencil

• charcoal

• pastel

• conte

• tinted charcoal

• graphite pencil

• fine-liner pen

Under this heading I might also include an early engagement with collage, and drawing on gesso treated papers.

3. My movement from singlehanded drawing to drawing with both hands simultaneously
(known as '2pencilbob').

4. In the past I engaged with 'tone and tonal variation'. More recently I have become a 'linierist' with my graphite pencils and particularly my fine-liner pens. Yet I have often posted about how I believe I present, indicate, emphasise, explore the qualities of tonal variation with thickness and weight of 'line'.

To the above evidence I want to add my life-time's exploratory and experimental changes in direction within my evolving architectural philosophy. This list is significantly chronological:

• arts and crafts tradition

• modern movement

• indigenous and vernacular architecture

• alternative technology

• ecological

• social process (user/community participation)

• sustainable design (this for me was a synthesis of ecological and social).

Unedited writings from my notebook:

21.02.20

Just come across ‘Thinking with our Hands, Drawing with our Minds: Preserving the Embodied Wisdom of Sketching and Drawing’ by Brandon R Ro, Utah Vally University. The simple concept held in the title just enforces my belief, held for some time now, that the whole body is interactive and unites in my perceptual/motor/cognitive process. I’ve been linking this with my thinking around the effect/influence of ‘emotion’ on ’perception’, and it is with this that role and influence of the muse enters the discussion, and the dialogue between artist and muse.

“The drawing records the way the body is seen or experienced” (Michael Graves).

“drawing is a spatial and haptic exercise that fuse the external reality of space and matter and the internal reality of perception, thought, and mental imagery into a singular dialectic entity” (Juhani Pallasmaa)

When we are drawing we are not only thinking with our hands but we are also drawing with our minds.

If you need to remember something, then draw it! -  “Drawing improves memory by encouraging a seamless integration of semantic, visual, and motor aspects of a memory trace” (Wammes, Meade & Fernandes)

Drawing shouldn’t be about performance, but about process – not a ‘professional skill’, instead ‘a personal capacity’. That’s why I threw away my eraser ages ago.

PICABIA:

Illusionary quality and optical ambiguity of many of his transparencies

Interweaving of linear imagery through which the beholder must visually traverse the composition.

Picabia did lots of writing. When asked “Why do you write?” Picabia answered “I really don’t know, and I hope never to know”

----------------------------------------

Conscious – logic and judgement

Sub-conscious – passion and romance

Super-conscious – harmony, balance, wisdom

• The conscious mind determines action

• The sub-conscious mind determines re-actions, and is influenced by past actions

• The super-conscious mind is the hidden spiritual system behind intuition, spirituality, and physical and spiritual healing

• the problem solving part in us, and allows us to feel joy, excitement and empathy

• helps aspire to a richer more meaningful life

Question: How to enter ‘Superconsciousness’? perhaps meditation or some other ways?

Book: Colin Wilson – ‘Superconsciouness’

I have an ‘out of balance’ solar plexus chakra.

(from previous page)………… Picabia…….”and I hope never to know”  

But do I know why I draw? 

Now, I would respond – ‘to reach a level of spirituality in my art’ or rather ‘within me, thro’ my art’

But during the last day or so, I have felt I wanted to a level of spirituality in all I do. Firstly, I thought I wanted/needed something else/additional to do, in order to achieve this change. BUT, I am committed to engaging with a number of activities, which have never been ‘just physical’ but also ‘Philosophical’, and I now say could reach a spiritual plain – AND some have already done this!

So, what are these areas of interest, activity, commitment which I can work on to evolve further into levels of spirituality and further benefit my inner SELF, and my well-being?

• Life-Drawing

• The Smallholding System on the Hill(fort) 

• As a Baggie

Does my Spiritual Level equate with Superconsciousness?

If I do ‘conclude’ why I do Life-Drawing, then I will have come to the end. And, as Paul and I know my life-drawing evolves – from session to session! So, I hope I never know. Infinitesimal evolution.

My fall and a bang affecting the parietal lobe between ear and back of head (on my left side) (left side of brain ……… and all that). Decreasing activity in the parietal lobe you lose your sense of orientation and self………………….in universal mind or experiencing quantum consciousness.

All information we know is stored in the energy fields outside our bodies

Did I initiate communication with this superconscious higher levels of mind with the impact of the blow to my head?

Is this ‘bang on the head’ the reason I am/can explore this phenomena of superconsciousness  –  and my feeling for something ‘different’ or ‘better’ in my life.

[Bang on the head, Friday Feb 7th. One week later – started the thoughts. 22nd/23rd – more thoughts. Monday 24th – wrote the above notes]

………………………………………..

---- fullfilling the deeper spiritual hunger within -------------

 

Wednesday Feb 26th (torrential rain, retreated again inside to my note book, and my drawings)

Getting ready for tomorrow at Extreme Poses:

Looked thro’ recent drawings, last three sets.

Last set of 5, Shelly, particularly significant. 

THEN, one emerged as outstanding (not the one I had previously enjoyed, i.e. the first drawing above)

Here it is: 

Why this one?

It holds/represents/celebrates the essence of ‘the model in the ropes’, i.e.  tension, energy, dynamics, of the ‘contact’ between the anatomy and the supports

• Head on hand

• Elbows on knee

• Foot in strap

• Foot on plinth

To identify these four points, and to articulate them so clearly, within 30 minutes is an extraordinary achievement.  [I do not recall I had any intention to focus on these points at the time. I do not recall exactly the sequence of drawing them. I had no concept of the selection of a theme i.e. points of contact]

Other aspects which appeal to me are:

• head/eyes and hand are full size (does the full size of the eyes etc initiate a closer engagement with the beholder?)

• overlap and superimposition (a foot within a thigh)

• a dynamic in the lines across the composition

• contrasting mark-making: heavy lines where necessary

• the head, hand, and feet grouping are advance/are prominent, yet the elbows on the knee have an identity of their own

• the breast (and nipple) on the line of the top of the thigh, is in fact a 5th contact/dynamic point [just seen after sitting in front and studying the drawing for some time …….. And I am the author!!!!!]

• the face in the triangle of its own space.

Bob Fowles

Notes from my blog and note book 28.02.20

bobfowleslifedrawing1.blogspot.co.uk