The Dog and the Tinderbox

I've been thinking a lot about the practice of drawing lately... realising how narrow my own concept of drawing is, and questioning it roundly.
As part of that I've been reading heaps and absorbing images and information,like the fish that I am.

I draw for several reasons,(probably more, but two main reasons spring to mind) the first is to map out an idea (so this is one of the definitions of drawing for me) - loosely, quickly and with an immediacy that hopes to trap the idea and fix it to the paper before it's lost. I seldom complete these drawings and often their value to me is fleeting. (Why does this drive mothers mad? Mine used to retrieve all my scraps and press them smooth!)
I also draw to render an image as finished art and my practice as an illustrator has defined my understanding of 'finished' as being ready for publication or release, amongst other things. (This is a fish hook for me - and I guess I'm trying to get to the bottom of it, to toss out some old precepts and develop a new broader understanding). This is the area of drawing that interests me at the moment, though not in reference to illustration. I'm focussing on both the artwork itsself and the process by which it's made; which I'm exploring with eyes the size of dinner plates, like the biggest dog on the treasure chest.

What do I mean by that odd word finished? (And for that matter, by what set of definitions do other artists define their drawing practice?) For example 'erasers are verboten' is one that belongs to my studio mate Steve.
Why do I constrain what I do this way?
What constitutes a drawing and how can marks on a jotter pad in an art shop be a collaborative drawing (of course they are but ...?)

Browsing around some artists blog sites tonight I came across this link to an exhibition of 'trees drawing' (yes that's right - trees).

As part of exploring drawing I've been reading about the figurative drawing of Ralph Hotere (an emminent and prolific New Zealand artist) and poring over the beauty of his expressive irregular line, the simplicity and the elloquence of it. I found this lovely description in the chapter titled 'Woman (1962 -1964) The early works', which I shared today with a friend, so I'll add it here as part of my thinking around this.

" ... Since he has lived in Carey's Bay, Dunedin Hotere has had a favourite tree at the end of his garden. He will often take a small section of shed twigs, in lengths of approximately 300 -400 millimeters, carefully testing each one for it's flexibility and rejecting those that do not quite suit his purpose. He will then cut the tip and break the wood up by mashing it so that the end becomes fibrous, working it until it's exactly as he wants. His method of applying the paint from this point, for both the figurative images and the abstract works is quite meditative. With the figure drawings he will start with a blank piece of paper laid flat on a table, pick up the drawing instrument and after some minutes of looking at the model, draw in the air above the surface of the paper and then, returning to look at the model, trace her outline in the air. He will repeat this process at least twice before committing a mark to the paper. The pauses and periods of time spent carefully assessing the figure can take anywhere from five to ten minutes. He will then finally look down at the paper, draw in the air above it one last time and very rapidly and intuitively draw the figure in the space of a few breaths. It is a process almost like a dance, with the image pouring onto the paper.
This is the same method he uses for the abstract works. Before applying paint, ink, or graphite to a surface there are always these long meditative pauses followed by a series of rapid movements. Each long drip of white paint, every skeinlike fleck and every contour of the figure is carefully balanced in his mind before it is resolved on the ground of the image."

From 'The Desire of the Line' Ralph Hotere Figurative Works by Kriselle Baker published by Auckland University Press

And the amazing thing to me is the freshess and sensuality that he captures in his drawings - they fairly drip with it !

Through Space

One day in another life I'll take up photography - not. You can tell I've had a couple of wines by now when you look at this.
This is a picture of our sculpture as it is today. I've been adding layers to it all week - first gesso and then acrylic paint. It's going to be gooood !

All of a sudden our rendering of the concept of figures moving through space, and of spacial planes moving through figures - is working well.
Once I add the receding diamond pattern to the base, the sense of space will be amplified too. To come still is the height element - a wire frame of the view our figure group is passing (the sea). I'm thinking this should be patinaed copper and also the series of spheres bisected by another plane (these represent the sculptural light balls on the wharf area).

I was worried I'd not do the sculpture justice with my paint application - but it's looking fine.

A stack of books and inspiration

Curled up by the fire with a stack of art books from the library and Little Feat on the stereo - bliss.
I found these quotes from a book called "Drawing from the Modern" (Maurice Merleau Ponty) which I think are cool for their eloquence and their fluency - the post renaissance view still rings true in many ways.

On the subject of line :
'Akin to handwriting, line is a graphic declaration of the presence of a particular persona," (it is) "...the residue of the activities of a particular hand"
- which I think is a nice way of expressing the personal quality that we each bring to our drawing, the past experience and the hand-memory.
Another phrase, even more poetic, describes line as 'a seismograph of the soul' (yeah ?)- lovely but uncredited I'm afraid so I can't assign the quote here.

And this from a woman artist called May Stephens from the book called "Lines of Vision" whose author I omitted to note,I'm sorry.
She says ..."Between a line and a smudge lies a bridgeable gap, a shift of the eye. A line is a trajectory; too close or too far, too slow or too fast, it's a smudge and a blur. A smudge is a trace of what was or is to come. But a line is here."
- I like that - a line is here.

And now it's my turn

Ricky has cast our sculpture and it's looking great (see Catsup and you'll know what I mean). It's sitting in the studio now and between coats of paint I've been staring at it and getting to know it from all angles. Last time I saw it, it was a photo and before that, just a sketch. It's so much better in 3D and with the refinements Ricky's made to the figures.
It's my turn to build the next part of it (with a little help) and to add the painted surface that will bring it to life and complete it. It's so cool to see the product of our joint imaginings and the day we spent conceptualising the piece. Over the next month I'm going to work on it between painting. I haven't worked in 3D since 5th form so this is going to be fun !

Traveling through space

Here's my completed painting of the 'ripples' concept (well, after I took this picture I signed the painting so technically...)
It's nice to be happy with a piece that's for sure !
This version has mystery and still retains the surreal quality of it's predecessor, but the figures have momentum and I like their loose description. It was worth the wait and the angst to get this out.

The painting's about social space - and again I'm thinking more of transitonal spaces. The way we create ripples as we move through - and the groupings we fall into natually as we pass through or stop to connect with others in a space.
Why the backpack ? Well that's the baggage we all carry on any journey.
OK, so why the nakedness and lack of hair on the figures? I'm interested in stripping away the things that identify us and I wanted this to be about us as humans, our sameness and our essence as vulnerable people (some of us hide behind hair don't we ?). Right now describing fabric and clothing doesn't interest me, but rawness, texture, line and emptiness does.

Life's just a big pool isn't it ?

...Hey that might be a nice title for this piece!

Now I feel like dancing. I've gessoed another canvas for next time. I want to make another expression of this idea - it's a goodie and I'm not finished with it, but for now I'm content. (Yes i know, it's a contradiction in terms!)

Begining and Beginning and Beginning

Making art and for that matter any creative endevour is a series of beginnings again and again. Empowering yourself to do just that is the interesting (and sometimes hard) bit. It's also the joy and the rush and the compelling part of it.

I sorted all the issues with my Ripples image the weekend before last - but it's not there yet. It needs the mystery added back into the image, so it's a work in progress at the moment and I'm waiting for the time to begin to work on it again. I'm thinking I need to hide bits of it - to reveal and conceal and to add more surface texture. At the moment the focus is the line (no bad thing) but by itself the line is obscuring the message to the viewer because it's all there is, and it's strong. In short - the painting's not finished !

I heard an incredible sound performance by Jeff Henderson at the Govett Brewster Gallery (Sound/Bodies winter lecture series) in New Plymouth last weekend.
To me it was an aural version of the concept of stripping out the interstitial spaces and collapsing what's left into a whole new image/pattern. It was as if the audience experienced the artist as he was calling to someone from two hills away and bits of his sentences were lost in the atmosphere across the distance. Vocally the sounds we heard were no longer whole pieces of language - just the upper and lower registers of vocal expression rendering partial words from afar (but without the dopler effect).
It was so exciting to HEAR a rendering of the sound concept of the idea I've been playing around with. Made me realise I could have done it so much better with the pleated canvas ... and that I need to revisit the idea and add back the sense of space I've lost through so much use of colour. I was so inspired I wan tto begin again!!