To set up the exercise I gave a simple instruction to the class: Plan on doing two drawings. In the first, study the shapes and produce a representational drawing. In the second, take off and play with form, with a deliberate departure from representation.
Of the seven students in the class, only two students followed this suggested program.
Vera C. first produced a drawing in which the pots and drapery are recognizable as such (above). The style of drawing, with the soft contour and the arbitrary shadows, is already an emphatic departure from realism. In the second drawing (below), she interpreted the still life as–what looks to me like—round objects caught in a tornado. It’s an apt image and it made me see this pile of familiar, oh so familiar, objects in a new light: the relentless roundness of the pots does have this hypnotizing effect and we know that on the potter’s wheel they are “thrown” in a process that is messy, relies on centrifugal force (notice the tangential lines in the drawing that suggests this centrifugal force) and also the centripetal, containing power of the potter’s hands. The other stuff on the still life table, the drapery can also be seen as evoking this swirling, vertiginous feeling.
This is an inspired, stimulating drawing. It comes out of a modern sensibility in the sense that it draws us into the artist’s state of mind and her fresh perception of these objects. (A pre-modern sensibility, say from the 16th century or even the 18th century, would direct our attention to the objects themselves.)
All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.
artamaze by Katherine Hilden 