A day with Penny

 

Drawing Shelley at Extreme Poses on January 27th

 

January 20th at Extreme Poses

 

Drawing as a story, a narrative.

 'Bits and pieces put together to present a semblance of a whole', perhaps this can be description of my process. But my 'whole' is HOW I have engaged with the parts thro' the time of the pose. A drawing may appear as a collection of parts, thrown together, but I believe my drawing is descriptive enough to be illustrative of the pose/body/form as a whole. My 'whole' is the sequence of events as I move thro' time, and the whole has a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

Yet I also see my drawings as continuing expansions and characterised by evolutionary developments. I focus on, and engage with, the intimate spaces of the body. My process then becomes a meditation on a human form. Drawing is a meditation.

Drawing is also a kind of hypnotism: one looks in such a way at the model, and she comes and takes a seat on your paper. But she has to pass through you, and it is this that makes what appears on the paper so special, so particular, so individual, so personal to the artist, and tells the story of the making of the drawing, saying much about your perceptual and selective processes.

An attention to 'spatiality': the addition of a line.

 'Spatiality', and here is my current definition. Two aspects:

1. 

'Overlap' and 'Superimposition' results/leads to a 'Transparency'.

'Transparency' is enhanced with linear drawing/mark-making technique (although I have achieved it, but differently, with 3D/sculptural and tonal work.

2.

'Architectural Form'.

This is where straight lines (often representing part of a plinth) suggest planes.

These planes can be given perspective, thereby suggesting depth.

In this drawing (see previous posting) the full edge of the plinth was incomplete at the time of completing the drawing (see first image). Returning to the drawing after a few days it was clear to me that the line of the edge of the plinth could be seen and therefor extended to the left of the tummy (see second image). As a result of this addition the whole depth of space to the left of the central figure is opened up, and the central figure becomes more prominent and its form so much more clearer and more challenging to the beholder.

Different again?

I feel pleased that I, and others, can detect a continuing evolution within my art.

I am with Shelley who increasingly initiates a particular response from within me. More than any other model I feel that when I am drawing her I am building upon earlier dialogues. Any change is only realised after the event. In the studio, at the time, I am just responding to the moment. After a few days pass, and I get the drawings out, it is only then that the change can be observed. When I talk of 'building upon earlier dialogues' I am referring to this extraordinary deeply felt, sub-conscious memory, never rationalised, experience of the interaction of the two of us, model and artist. 

These drawings from last Thursday strongly indicate to me further movement from the characteristics and qualities which Paul and I talked about a week or so ago. Some very subtle. Others more obvious.

• confident single-line drawing once the basic form had been lightly suggested with both hands holding a line-liner pen
• cluster of two hands holding two feet all supported by a strap
• breast bulged as it is pressed against the upper thigh
• as I arrived late due to traffic congestion time was limited to 15 minutes and hence only a partial response to this first pose, so my intention was to add part or all of a second pose to this drawing. However, I hesitated, as perhaps it held something in its present form. With each of the other 4 poses of the session I moved into other responses and never did return to this drawing.

• I have challenged the strong perspective of the pose which is created by the advancing feet with the body leaning back into the distance, by dividing the pose into three and superimposing them all at the same scale
• I first drew the feet up to the knees
• I then was attracted by the clasped hands which went in with the arms resting just below the breasts
• I wanted to include the head and employed a key criterion of mine which is never to include 'two eyes, a nose and a mouth' as a full face always attracts the eye of the beholder away from the rest of the composition
• two opposing strong diagonals create a powerful composition
• there is a range of weight of line

• parts of two poses, different scales

• as with drawing nos2 the pose is divided into three parts
• the hands dangling from arms resting on straps
• the feet taking the weight of the standing pose down on to the plinth
• superimposed over the drawing of the hands and feet are her waist, buttocks and upper legs
• a series of straight lines in the upper and lower parts of the composition suggest a space within and beyond

• again three parts of the pose are focused on and moved to overlap and superimpose
• kneeling on the plinth bottom sitting on feet
• arms supported by straps
• beautiful line of the breast and tummy
• also in this composition one outline of the torso (the breast and tummy) is moved to meet closely with the other outline (of her back and bottom) to create a tall vertical space within which other things can happen: in this case the head has been brought in from the far right and placed here

Another line experiment.

It's the last two hour Monday evening session before Christmas with tall long lean muscly sinuous John as our model. These are both two-handed fine-liner pen drawings but here I have now gone over all the marks with a 3B graphite pencil. This eliminates the diversity in weight of mark-making and transforms the drawing into something completely different. In applying this one weight of line I was making no reference to what the original line was actually making a reference to or representing. I simply wanted to see what the result would be if all lines were brought to the same plane and perhaps a challenge introduced to my 'spatiality'. A reversal, perhaps, of my usual journey which starts with a two-dimensional beginning and enters a process which unfolds into the fourth-dimension. 

I showed these to Paul Fowler hoping for an observation that would place them in a context. His immediate comment was "These are like prints". We talked of 'blocks' of space and parts put together, resembling a woodcut or linocut. I asked if he agreed that by applying one weight of line to all marks irrespective of their original lightness or heaviness that the drawing had become a two-dimensional work. He felt they still maintained a three-dimensional and spatial quality. Interesting!.

"They are different. It is still you": Part Two

 I had noted (previous posting) that each drawing contains a 'confluence' or 'grouping' of hands and feet within the overall 'flow-lines' which are the limbs. I had decided that after photographing them I would do some work with graphite and perhaps tone to explore their 'grouping prominence'. I used a 4B graphite pencil to do this purely experimental exercise. No tonal work yet.

I'll leave these now for a while, and think about them. Watch this space!

"They are different. It is still you"

 Thursday January 6th 2022: the start of a new year......................

And the words of Paul Fowler at coffee break as we stood in front of my first three drawings of 2011. He added: "Your spatiality is very strong. There is a freedom. I see no conscious control over placing of the parts, carefree". I was pleased with these observations as I too felt a complete lack of any 'constraints' or 'consciousness of any parameters' operating on my process. 

Looking at these five drawings after a few days I notice a common characteristic in them and that is a grouping of parts together in each composition which I feel would be worth returning to and giving an emphasis to them in some way. So I will do that and then post the outcome later.

Pause for Thought

Live life-drawing opportunities have been limited during Covid. And the Christmas break has also contributed to one's limited kinetic engagement with the live model. But this does not prohibit a continued academic and intellectual confrontation with the art. 

This confrontation, for me, is a real battle. At times I am winning, and as a consequence feel I am riding high. At other times I feel I am in a rut and not moving. 

My note book records these ups and downs. But it is the ups I want to reflect upon, and use as a platform to spring from for the journey ahead.

3/10/2021  Themes in my Art: 1. 'Morphism'; 2. 'The Muse'; 3. 'Minimalism'.

5/10/2021  Keep drawing at every opportunity; Keep writing (blog) and therefor 'reflecting'; Keep reading e.g. Academia papers on Art, Artists and Art History (via email are random insertions into my life).

Then here I recall a number of items which I feel help to describe my approach:

• De-construct in order to Re-construct. De-compose then Re-compose. Is this what is happening in my process when I confront a muse and make marks on my paper?
  
  
• 'A weird fling' is an anagram of 'life drawing': and it takes me to a dimension way beyond everyday existence. 
  
  
• "The nude is timeless, elemental, primal and universal. It is the subject of ultimate empathy" Brigitte Hilner. From ancient Greece, thro' the Renaissance, and the more recent Ateliers, and in architectural education, the study of the human form and anatomy has been regarded as essential.
  
  
• "When I am working I forget the object as well as the fact, that I am drawing. I forget myself too. That kind of trance attracts me a lot" Barbara Camilla Tucholski. I have often acknowledged the meditative and therapeutic properties of life-drawing.
  
  
• A few weeks ago I posted: 'DE-CONSTRUCTIVISM: my particular cognitive and perceptual engagement with the subject'. And 'SPATIALITY: my fundamental architectural paradigm', as core concepts.
  
  
• I also generated a description/definition of my art, as I now wish to go along with. It acknowledges my understanding that I am a PROCESS artist. Here it is: 'A SEQUENCE of ARRIVAL of SELECTED PARTS OVER TIME, TAKING THEIR PLACE in SPACE, yet INDICATING no 'CHRONOLOGY OF ARRIVAL' and SUGGESTING no 'HIERARCHY OF IMPORTANCE' to EACH OTHER, EXCEPT in PROVOKING DEPTH and PERSPECTIVE, TOGETHER WITH a DEGREE of AMBIGUITY and UNCERTAINTY, THROUGH OVERLAP, SUPERIMPOSITION and TRANSPARENCY'

4/1/2022  the journey ahead...............................................................

Looking through recent drawings I have been attracted by the following characteristics of my art:

1. DETAIL  e.g. hands/feet on strap.  strap bulging flesh.

2. A CONFLUENCE OF PARTS  i.e. a central structure, then with arms/feet/hands radiating outwards.

3. SPATIAL TRANSPARENCY  usually helped by some parts receiving tonal treatment.

4.THE ESSENTIALITY OF THE FINE-LINER PEN  together with contrasting mark-making.

[I intend to insert an example of each of the above four 'qualities' here at a later date]