I sense some themes coming to the surface.

 July 6th at Extreme Poses with Shelley our muse:

I believe these compositions of selected parts from five 5 minute poses are becoming a clearly identifiable outcome, having an integrity and presenting to the beholder a challenge to search in order to comprehend them.

The theme here is one of a compositional diagonal.

Jenny Saville provoked beholders to examine attitudes to the female body by displaying the body as hanging carcases in a butchers shop. Does this image relate to her intention? Certainly not my intention in any way. Didn't cross my mind until now.

So much of Extreme Poses is about the suspension of the traditional, classical, atelia approach to drawing the human body. My theme here could be identified as how strap and anatomy co-exist.

I'm in my element here. I could draw the whole pose un-deconstructed. But at the scale I engage with the body and the anatomy I would need a whole wall. So I am almost dividing the pose into horizontal sections and bringing them together, moving them up or down, overlapping them, superimposing them, colliding them. I am including all the parts which excite.

Performing with both hands

We've just arrived home after after attending a performance by one of the worlds leading harpists at the Caerleon Festival in Gwent in South East Wales. Catrin Finch who was born near Aberaeron over in the west of Wales talked through her life with the harp from the age of five thro' to her appointment by Charles Prince of Wales as the Court Musician and now working with so many of the worlds leading musicians.

I was sitting about three metres from her, being totally captivated by her playing, and closely engaged with viewing her hands and fingers as both hands created the most amazing sounds. After about fifteen minutes or so I began to realise I was watching a two handed performance. I have been in the presence of musicians on many occasions, but have never previously thought about how they employed their hands. I can't think of a musician who plays with one hand only. Some employ their two hands in different ways, e.g. playing a guitar. Some equally, e.g. as with a piano (I assume I am correct in making this distinction). 

I am known as '2pencilbob' because for the past ten or so years in my life-drawing I use both hands. I have researched two-handed activities and tasks, read papers on left-brain right-brain relationship, and searched for parallels in diverse disciplines. I came across only one artist who draws with both hands simultaneously, and she lives in Santiago, Chile and exhibits in Los Angeles and New York, but she was not particularly interested in pursuing with me the process we both engaged in.

So, this evening, apart from the satisfaction of enjoying Catrin Finch's playing, I came away with the realisation that I had been researching in the wrong places. It is not discovering other artists who perform with both hands who are going to be able to help me understand my own process and technique ('cause there don't seem to be any) but I need to look at musicians (I did spend many hours, years ago, reading up the research into machine operators, but it emphasised aspects of health and safety and it become very boring and I concluded irrelevant to my art). 

So watch this space! Drawing with both hands is now natural to me. My right had remains the dominant. Mark making is different from each. As Paul Fowler said some years back after I had been using both hands for some time, "Bob, the mark-making by your left hand is more lyrical". I believe this is still the case. After I have searched the form on the paper with both hands it is my right hand which goes in to confirm the final line.

LINE-drawing-LIFE-drawing

 "The search for the right line that goes on, or rather the accumulation of the wrong lines, implying the existence of the right line somewhere amongst them, is the most interesting thing about drawing" This is a variation of a quote from Alex Kanevsky. Many will employ an eraser and remove the so called 'wrong' lines. But with me, drawing in ink, all lines remain on the paper, and their role is very important. They tell of the search for the 'right' line and hold a record of the making of the drawing. 

Lines start with spontaneity and finish with control (and this transformation will be repeated many times throughout the process of making a drawing). Lines start from the sub-conscious and finish with the conscious. Lines start from the heart and finish with the mind. Lines start from feeling and finish with objectivity.

This morning I had the pleasure of being with our muse, Callie, who has an amazing ability to project herself into making connections with the inner depths of the artist. I really am on a high, which grew as the morning progressed, and its level remains with me at this moment, so I just had to photograph, post and introduce my five 30 minute drawings. As Akira Beard claims, "Art making can be inclusive of one's inner life" and concludes that "Art is a conduit for experiences including growth, transformation, healing and more"

Two blackbirds eggs

 

AND AN OLD HOSEPIPE FITTING

THEN

Created by Claudia, Penny the model.

Just drawn myself away from Glastonbury pounding away on the tele, feels like we are there with the sun pouring in through the windows. I've laid the table outside for this evening's meal, opened the wine, and all of this is a wonderful way to celebrate a really fulfilling day of life-drawing in Monmouth. So good to draw Penny again after a break from her of a few years. She is amazing. Thanks Penny.

Here are my eight A1's, ranging from a compilation of selected parts from a series of short poses, thro' to longer poses, of which the longest was about an hour. Will likely do some analytical comments at a later date, but here they are in no particular order, but more or less chronological.

In anticipation of tomorrow

I'll be off to a full day of life-drawing with the model Penny and run by Claudia Peake in Monmouth. I have drawn and known Penny for many years and here is an extract from my email to Claudia as part of my preparation for the day:

Wednesday, 2 July 2014

Dialogue between the artist and the model: something special!

Penny brings out the best in me. Something special.
I have had the privalege of drawing Penny for about six years.
When an artist and a model become friends so many barriers are disolved.

"The above is from a posting on my blog way back in 2014. So, by then I had been with Penny for six years. The first time was probably with Alex Brown in his studio in Dean, over in the Forest. Then with Angela in Brockweir, then a few times with you in Monmouth. I have researched the artist/model relationship and have come to understand something of this complex relationship that can develop over time. Not been with Penny for a few years now, so am anticipating something special to emerge on Sunday. Penny is a rarity in the life-modelling world. She more than most understands the contribution that the model can make to the life-drawing process. Her personality, her energy, her theatre, her body, they are all there to be received by the artist and awaiting their response. The dialogue which can develop between muse and artist, and which evolves and becomes more intimate over time, is something very special. My art has evolved, particularly through my regular (almost weekly) sessions over at Paul Fowler's studio in Stroud, which I continue to indulge in. The community of artists who have been magnetized by Paul's mentoring and encouragement is something I highly value, and it keeps me on my experimental and evolving journey. For me, the act and process of life-drawing is an intellectual and academic activity (I research it and write about it on my blog), but it also reaches a therapeutic and meditative depth which helps survival in a disintegrating world. The life-drawing act, for me, is way up there together with organic vegetable growing, hill-fort living, heat pump and solar panels for energy, self-building and loads of grand-children." 

So lets look back at Penny in early 2013:

 

 

Shelley on June 22nd

Plinth and suspension straps were supplemented this morning with a long pole grasped by Shelley in different ways.

Parts of five 5 minute poses.

Drawing each basic element of the pose superimposed and more or less in the right spatial relationship.

Detecting the mood of the model.

No observation or analysis to make on this one.

There is presented a complexity in this response to what was a very simple conventional pose.

One of my specials

 

This morning: it was good with Shelley

 

Selected parts from 5 five minute poses.

A minimalist response capturing the essence of the pose.

The highlight of the morning.

OK, but not resulting in an identifiable new form.

The final pose: we had 20 minutes remaining.

 

My response to a feeling of aged depression

I drove the 40 miles over to Extreme Poses in Stroud this morning after a few days of feeling extremely low brought on by...........not too sure what..........a combination of...........learning of the deaths of two same age friends/learning of the debilitating illnesses of two of my contemporaries/me feeling a bit weak/etc/etc..... And it is amazing how uplifting a session of life-drawing can be, especially within such a provocative context as is Paul Fowler's creation of EXTREME poses. The outcome........I am now back into my positive life, and after posting my drawings will venture up into the vegetables and potter around. Any reflection on what took place on my A1's this morning will wait. But, I do know, that during a brief conversation with Paul Fowler, when we stood surveying my drawings on the wall, just before I packed up, he homed in upon and celebrated a number of new aspects and innovations. His observations were confirmations of how I was feeling about them...........but he took everything to a stage further. Can't wait until I get down to take a good look at them and draw out some thoughts for the journey ahead.

Some more associations with the drawings of Hans Bellmer

In my last posting I brought in some drawings of Hans Bellmer and indicated that I had discovered the similarities in his drawings some years after I had been responding to my models in the same kind of ways. I have just explored this relationship further and here are one or two examples:

This is Hans Bellmer's drawing. It is something about a brothel. But I wish to focus on the play of bodies, the fluency of line, the transparency of the superimposed poses, and the obvious speed of execution.

Here are two of my related drawings:

Next, let us look at the role of the straight line as it complements and helps emphasise the organic of the body. 

Firstly a Hans Bellmer drawing:

Now we will see how the architecture of the straight line contributes to the spatiality of the composition. The plinth is a frequent component of the set up for the model to compose the pose, and I regularly include a reference to it:

A final association with the drawings of Hans Bellmer may clearly be followed in the following examples. The leaning diagonal of the body across the composition leads upwards and morphs in to some kind of representation of a head or face profile looking into the space beyond. Firstly a darwing of Hans Bellmer:

Now, here are some of mine from recent life-drawing sessions over at Niel Bally's studio in Talgarth and from Paul Fowler's 'Extreme Poses' in Stroud:

 

,

I've found two I categorise as having a degree of 'humour'

 I expected to find more. Need to keep looking OR to redefine my definition.

So this was my starting point:

Just found this one, perhaps the breast is looking into the space.

And here are two early ones with Penny in which I am consciously attempting to be funny and clever by playing with juxtaposing eye, breast and nipple. I think in about 2013. Is this humour?

These last two early drawings remind me that some years after I produced them I came across the work of Hans Bellmer and discovered similarities in the extraordinary and provocative superimposing of key anatomical parts. Here are one or two examples from his prolific output:

This is a self portrait.