Feet out of context

Life-drawing colleagues frequently applaud my feet. I do hands just as well. But here is a quick compilation of  recent feet.

A poem full of ambiguity

Here we are at the Spring Equinox, a turning point in our solar alignments, and in the seasons, and I am feeling a turning point in my life-drawing, which I have recently described using the terms

• spatial ambiguity
• transparency drawings
• simultaneous representation of entirely different viewpoints

Am I seeking for a new language which leaves behind

• my morphism
• my collage
• my overlap
• my superimposition
• my exaggeration. 

Are these now fundamental to my art (will always be there)?
How will I evolve?
What part will Picasso, Cezanne, Bellmer, Hockney, Schiele, play?
Will I now evolve from them OR will I go deeper into their ways?
How significant is Picabia?

Ambiguity, significantly raises itself, i.e. the quality of being open to more than one interpretation. There occurs doubtfullness and uncertainty as regards interpretation. But I say this from the beholder's viewpoint. Whereas my interest is that I am creating this in my drawings from within myself. And not from a conscious attempt to generate confusion.

I have noticed (through my own observations and analysis of my recent drawings) that I frequently include:
a) the overall 'gestural' form, together with
b) a detail (hand, foot, breast, head profile, etc.).

This can be a result of me wishing to respond to and record the whole pose (because of its beauty), but also to get up close to and inter-react with a fascinating part of the anatomy:
a) conveying/capturing the essence of the gesture
b) focussing on a 'characteristic' of the anatomy of the muse.

The above are my five drawings (Sorry! Presented in reverse order) from the five 30 minute poses (March 21st 2019) by Andrew up in the ropes at 'Extreme Poses' which are the life-drawing classes designed and tutored by Paul Fowler at Pegasus Art in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England.

The poses created by the model, supported within the harness of straps, suspends for the life-drawer the traditional conventions associated with the standing, sitting or lying pose. Already there is presented a deconstruction and a challenge to the norms of life drawing. So, from this radical base, the student of life drawing is automatically stimulated to develop their own response. For almost a decade now I have found this a continuing challenge which has allowed me to realise a particular and personal response. One which seems to evolve with each Thursday morning session. And one which is facilitated by 'muses of devotion' and a 'tutor of insight'.

Jemma on March 14th at 'Extreme Poses'

Inspiration thro' experimentation with Clare at 'Extreme Poses'

For a student of the human form and anatomy our model Clare is an inspirational delight. Perhaps more than any previous models at Paul Fowler's 'Extreme Poses' at Pegasus Arts in Stroud she takes on the task of climbing into the ropes and pushing the boundaries of challenging poses. Many have done this before, and Clare is up there with them as she utilises her athletic and performance skills to place before us a range of gestural anatomical structures that ask us to go beyond the usual conventions of life-drawing. After a few years of life-drawing I ached for change to the standing, sitting or lying body. Discovering Extreme Poses was a revelation, and from the first visit I have evolved, almost at every visit. So, these ten drawings are my latest. And they follow a very satisfying three days at Niel Bally's studio in Talgarth, which seemed to provoke in me quite a session of reading, research and reflection, which I appear to have externalised and described in my very recent postings. I have talked of dialogue between artist and model, back and forth, two-ways...…….Thanks Clare! ….For me this is the outcome...………………………

3 days in Talgarth - fifteen drawings

I look

I draw

I see

I experiment

I then see differently

I analyse

I research

I make connections

I begin to understand my art

In this process, recently, I place Cezanne, Picasso, Duchamp, Picabia, Schiela, Bellmer and Hockney as those who have helped me to gain meaningful insights into my drawing the nude.

The above are my first drawings from the first morning at Niel Bally's 3-days of life drawing over in Talgarth. I have talked of my cubism, and here the model moves around, standing and stepping forward and lying and rolling over, reminiscent of Duchamp's 'Nu descendent l'escalier' of 1912. What a start to further my fascination with viewing a muse from different viewpoints simultaneously.




But then, something far more conventional and classical. The issue of 'perspective',  and how much to bring forward and to exaggerate the part of the pose nearest, and how much to diminish and reduce that part of the pose furthest away. I have so many times explored this issue and looking back thro' my blog they come up time and time again.

I have used the bench in a metaphorical sense in a recent posting as a base for exploring and explaining where I am in my life-drawing journey. Here the model moved around on the bench and each time I quickly responded to the moment.

In these next two drawings I would like to think I am touching upon an essence of cubism which is looking at the same object from different viewpoints simultaneously. I am unsure how this happens in the single pose. But, I am looking down upon and at the same time looking up from underneath. Also here we find parts of the anatomy of the pose are located within a larger outline of the whole pose.

I am so pleased to have been influenced by those lovely line drawings of fusing couples by Egon Schiele. Here the model turns from one side to the other in a fairly quick pose

This is an example of my 'morphism'. I select a part which appeals and draw it, then the next part, then the next and gradually a form emerges which goes beyond the pose itself. I am unsure about my degree of control or consciousness as the drawing takes place. I am often taken-a-back when I stand back from my easel and observe the outcome on the paper. I feel I am touching Hans Bellmer but without the erotic.

Not at all sure about this next one, as I am unable to place it within my current pre-occupations. My jury is out, at the moment.

The next two poses are placed with a large mirror beyond. The setting is quite complex. The model is lying upon a sloping surface and the mirror is not vertical but angled. So we have quite a challenging contextual geometry. I still am unable to recall where the dangling arm, from the top right down through the centre of the composition in the first drawing, came from.

Finally, this is my final drawing of the three days, and perhaps the most significant in recent researches to try and comprehend my art. I am still within the process of justifying my high level of satisfaction with it. Take a look, and I will then try to explain my thinking...…………..

Picasso and Braque developed their cubism from Cezanne. They looked at objects from multi-viewpoints simultaneously They revealed what was beyond, behind, unseen by others. They challenged the restrictions of one-point perspectives. Cezanne had structured his landscapes into a series of planes, one in front of the other. Picasso and Braque took the eye into the space of the landscape and painted what they saw looking down and back and beyond. Then Picabia came along and went one huge stage further and introduced transparency so that we could see though what was in front to the world beyond.

So here is my analysis of this final drawing:
there are four (Cezanne) planes

• the foot
• the knee
• the Courbet area (I name it the Courbet area after his 'L'Origine du monde' of 1860)
• the curve of arms, breasts and head.

In making the drawing I placed the curved arc, of the arms with breasts and head above, in first. This was a strong form and attracted my attention at the start.
The foot advanced towards me, and I wanted to respond to this. So I drew the foot. Big. And I became aware that the big toe was slanting to the right and that there was a relationship with her head that was slanting to the left.
I then engaged the idea that there were two other parts of the anatomy spatially located between the foot and the original arc of arms and breasts. So the knee with it's expressed patella, and the Courbet area, went in.
I recall I was conscious that each of these four parts would require their distinctive individual scale, and so this has appeared to have taken place. In other words 'perspective' has structured the overall composition.
My final intervention was to introduce the form of the lower leg extending up across the paper from the foot, and also the outline of the leg above and below the knee. This introduced a significant degree of transparency into the drawing and engaged with my recent understanding of the works of Picabia.

I feel there is a great deal more to contribute in the analysis of this drawing. This will emerge over time.

Starting with a bench........

The model spreads herself along the bench, then, next, gains support curling her hand over the edge of the bench, and later her foot springing off the surface. Yes, I do sometimes draw the whole pose, and I do regularly and frequently focus on hands and feet. But this is not my art! The bench in these cases is the context, and I very rarely include context. I emphasised this in a recent posting. So what is my art? My answer to this question I would like to suggest is that my art is my process. But I have claimed this before, and if I look back at my postings on this blog then the analysis and descriptions of my life-drawings and my life-drawing journey most often centres on process. Rarely the drawing as a finished work is mentioned and almost never have I attempted to produce a completed work. However my fascination with my process has increased, my research attempts to understand what happens when I draw a muse have been revealing, and above all I am beginning to gain a real insight into what is taking place in terms of perception, emotion, feelings, dialogue with the muse, conscious and un/sub-conscious thought, and perhaps some other aspects as well. I have become aware that (sometimes) after starting a drawing, i.e. selecting what to start to draw on the paper, the next really conscious event is standing back to view the drawing and being surprised or even taken-aback by that which I am looking at. Now, this doesn't happen every time, but it has been an increasingly occurring experience. And I am enjoying it. I have talked in the past about periods when I have felt I have taken an ownership of my art. That my art is coming from within myself. But this has been with reference to my mark-making (particularly with graphite pencils and fine-liner pens), my drawing with both hands simultaneously, and the way I select and juxtapose parts of the anatomy of the muse through morphing, overlap and transparency. Yet, experimentation is at the heart of my process. This is not a conscious will to dabble into the unknown, but more simply not having a plan or a goal or something to aim for. So, when I enter the life-drawing session I do not have a plan (I think probably I did in the very early days). But I believe now that a significant overall life-drawing strategy is taking place. This is not a conscious designed strategy........it is simply what happens...….. 

This blog is basically a weekly diary in which I post my drawings and attempt some sort of analysis of them, and at times provides a context following my reading and research which itself is usually prompted by what has occurred. A few days or the evening before a life-drawing session I often look though my previous drawings, sometimes I may go though the hundreds stored on my tablet, and just think about what has been happening, those I like, those I find have a radical aspect, those which suggest something to pursue, etc. So this then is the conscious part of the overall process. What happens when I start to draw? What is different? What is it that drives one forward? I believe that activation is maintained in the unconscious by the intense desire to solve the problem at hand. At Paul Fowler's Extreme Poses in Stroud the 30 minute pose creates a problem. Basically it is one of time. Something will be produced within the 30 minutes. The intense desire to solve this problem can produce stresses that in turn cause associations that are not possible in conscious thought. Hence my surprise on occasions of what I have produced. 

During the evening before February 28th at Extreme Poses I made these notes in my note-book of a kind of summary of what I was seeing in my latest works:

• depth through transparency, and not depth through perspective
• ambiguity via my morphic fusions
• different scales in one drawing
• an overall pose alongside several selected anatomical parts
• parts confined within the parameters of an outline of the overall pose
• layers (Cezanne)
• the big, confident line

My overall term for all of the above is 'Spatial Ambiguity'. And I place this alongside the term 'Transparency Drawings' which I borrow from Francis Picabia which may be defined as 'complexely layering them and piling them on top of each other to provoke confusion and strange associations'. Picabia was around in Paris with Picasso and Braque and can be seen to have developed his own version of cubism through overlap, different scales, and transparent layers of drawings on top of each other. I first came across the very complex drawings of Picabia perhaps 4 or 5 years ago, found them fascinating but did not study him or his art at all. In fact I rather dismissed his work as too complex and not relevant to me. But very recently in reading about Picasso's cubist journey I discovered that Picabia's ideas and approach to figurative response and representation seemed to appear so similar to that which was emerging with me. One may conclude that my un-conscious took note when first coming across his drawings 4 or 5 years ago, and then in the stress situation (noted above) of the 30 minute pose at Extreme Poses caused an association within the un-conscious thinking taking place around the current drawing.

I feel that my own version of cubism is flourishing. Metzenger and Gleises in their seminal publication 'Du Cubisme' unleashed the standard definition of cubism as representing a scene as if the observer were "moving around an object (in order to) seize it from several successive appearances".

A Miller is his writings on Picasso suggests "How you look at it, that is what it is". That is really encouraging, and I have no hesitation in placing a great value on my own drawings 'cause I now have confidence in believing they do say something about how I am seeing things. Salvador Dali spotlights the creative aspect of one's own particular and peculiar way of seeing "Knowing how to look is a way of inventing". Rene Magritte suggests a bountiful outcome from this "Each thing we see hides something else we want to see". And it was Picabia through his transparency drawings who revealed how we could show that which was normally hidden and therefore frequently not drawn. If I now add a further challenge in my quest to comprehend what happens when I do life-drawing, and to remind myself that it is the process, but more specifically the perceptual process I am fascinated by, I quote Marcel Duchamp "It's not what you see is art. Art is the gap".

Finally, I want to touch on the 4th-Dimension, which I have introduced and discussed in recent postings, and suggested that on occasions my process is of the 4th-Dimension. Duchamp described Picabia's 'Otaiti' as "creating a 3rd-Dimension without resorting to perspective". Depth rather than surface is the chief characteristic of transparency. The 4th-Dimension is about space and time together. A variant on a Metzenger quote from an article of 1911: a cubist picture can be likened to "moving around an object to seize it from several successive appearances, which, fused into a single image, reconstitute it in time". In many of my 15 or so drawings from my 3 days at Niel Bally's studio in Talgarth I did not need to move around the muse because either the muse took a step forward and around every five minutes, or she lay and rolled over every five minutes, in both cases recalling Duchamp's figure descending a staircase. However, I believe I am fully and truly taking my process into the 4th-Dimension, of space and time, when I am in front of a single pose and I  select a part or anatomical event to draw because it captures my attention for one reason or another, then I select a second part or another anatomical event and include it probably at a different scale, and so on and so on. There emerges perhaps a narrative which helps juxtapose these individual parts, and they gradually relate together. Each may (will) have its own perspective. Each may (will) be drawn to a scale which seems natural to that part. They will be added overtime and reflect my journey in and around and through the pose. Each part will have its place within the space defined by the parameters of the paper, yet the space will go beyond the edges of the paper, and will go into the depths of the paper. And further more, the drawing with the above spatial qualities, will take place within the space between me and the muse, a perceptual- kinetic space which probably extends beyond the 4th-Dimension (but I have yet to research this).

On 08.02.2019 I wrote in my note-book:
A very new/different feeling today with the first three drawings...…..as though my drawings were taking place way beyond where I was in my journey.
Explanation: when I photograph my drawings and place them on my blog, and complete some text, to go with them, I am in effect drawing a line. But this is not a 'conscious' line. Not a deliberate act. Yet, this is what in fact takes place:

• the completion of an enquiry
• the termination of a task
• the compiling of a statement of a set of five drawings which have dealt with something particular and probably something new.

This feeling I had I described about my drawings: this was a kind of 'jump' into the future. Yet, I was still in the present. There was something completely different taking place about which I had no previous experience. I could not describe or explain it other than it was a feeling that I was performing in a completely sub/un-conscious way. This has probably happened in the past but I have not been sensitive to it. Not articulated it. (as I write I'm still not sure about what is taking place).
Is it possible to draw in a future state?
OR
To draw in a way, different to anything in the past, but not be aware/conscious of what is happening?


'Life-drawing is a figurative art' ………. not a quote from anyone as far as I can recall …….. but I have noted that in descriptions of the developments in cubism that following Metzenger's promotion, formalisation and intellectualisation of the works of Picasso and Braque that someone like Gris went on to begin to loose connection with anything that resembled a human figure and eventually people such as Kandinsky departed completely. I am absolutely certain that my muses will never be transformed into the abstract, just as Picasso (according to A Miller) could never come to terms with an abstract art devoid of any figurative content whatsoever. Mine may be deconstructed, re-arranged, morphed, and they may have their anatomies strangely juxtaposed, but I am hoping that the way I see, and the sum of the marks that appear on my paper, say that 'the whole goes/takes one beyond the sum of the parts'. I have always recognised the therapeutic and meditative qualities and benefits of life-drawing and I am now relishing the confidence I have in my ability to enter a deep sub/un-conscious state which has an outcome which can more than often appear evolutionary but at times can be surprising and on rare occasions be...……. well, here, I am lost for words ……. perhaps 'spiritual'.