Play on Perception

It’s quite startling to see this drawing in the studio/class room where it was produced because at the same time you can also see the pile of cloth and pottery that it was produced from. Before he starts to draw the artist, Linné Dosé, selects a portion of the still life.  What that means is that he sees a coherent unit and deletes everything else from his vision.  This is a skill he has developed by himself and to great effect.

The effect is that an object appears on the drawing paper, very convincing and solid but without any spatial reference. The object elicits a double take.

We read the drapery as cloth (soft) and at the same time as a column (solid).  The pot appears to be heavy and three dimensional and at the same time we can see it’s an incomplete drawing. It’s a play on perception.

Drawing by Linné Dosé, graphite, ~18” x 14”

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What Next?

That’s how it started. What happens when the conversation starts with rectangles and squares? Because, you know, that’s what this is, a conversation. So, he puts down these rectilinear shapes and colors and then what? Then he goes across the room and looks. Just sits and looks. Listens, might be the better word. Because, the painting tells him what to do next. Suddenly he gets up and puts in lines, like that spiral on the lavender square. Then he lets it dry for a week, comes back, sits, listens/looks, gets up and puts in the flowers and vase. Whoa, some realism! Where did that come from? From the conversation, you square! So surprising and so right. Still not there. Let it dry and sit some more. Next week he created the illusion of a fluted column on the left, just enough three-dimensionality in that to keep the vase and flowers company. Now the conversation has come to some insight, can’t diagram, analyze or explain it, but it feels complete. That’s the painting process. Mysterious and so right.———————————–

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
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