Around us a different world is emerging, one we are still trying to gauge and understand. Very little is as it was, but we can see that flowers continue to bloom and birdsong fills the air.
Six Flowers, oil paint on prepared cardboard, 30”x40”
I created these flowers for a mural project. Now I'm drawing each one larger, scaling up the energy and motion a big wall painting will need. I've splattered my white canvas with paint ahead of time to activate the surface and generate some chaos on which to overlay order, or my drawing.
I try to get the image down with as much speed and accuracy as possible, recording my first observations.
After that first quick impression, the process slows down to allow for closer investigation as I begin to refine the sketch. Drawing is observing my way forward from those first marks, deciding along the way what to record and what to omit. With persistent looking over time, things reveal themselves. It stuns me that I can spend hours looking and yet keep seeing new things.
Wild Violet Sketch, charcoal and acrylic paint on canvas, 38"x48".
Once the shapes and lines begin to evoke the thing I'm drawing, I stop. At this point drawing has served its purpose, creating an understructure. Now I'll go in with paint, still looking hard and trying to further reveal what is there.
Is there a place in your life where you keep discovering things you didn't know were there? Reply below and let me know!