Full Circle

Peggy...a gesture

For me, all of the experimentation in line, doodling, layering, smudging and smearing done in our expressive drawing workshop have the express purpose of leading me back to seeing realism in a new way. My goal is to be a "freer me".....where I can express exuberant lines and shapes without the dark cloud of correctness continually hovering above. On our last day we did a series of gesture drawings, some only 2 minutes, some 20 minutes. I saw so much beauty in the lines that all of the artists made! It is then, somewhere on the path to achieving perfection that we go astray. All this is my own opinion, of course. "Peggy gesture" is a drawing from last year's workshop. I like it very much.....perhaps because its freshness is still in tact.

Child's Play

Stand of Trees...an ink drawing

I am a firm believer in playing with art materials in order to gain a freedom of stroke and a disengagement from the perfection that will kill a work. "Stand of Trees" was done in our expressive drawing workshop. I used a tongue depressor that has been cut straight on the top and given a slight bevel in order to hold the ink. Most of the work was done with that crude tool, using it by pulling in various directions and by using a corner for the finer line work. The lighter blue color is ink that I borrowed from another artist. The bright blue sparkling touches were added by using crayon. Our goal was using direction of stroke to support the concept.

Do the Frieda Kahlo

Doodle

Another exercise that we did during the workshop was inspired by a page in Frieda Kahlo's published diary. The exercise starts with random ink spots or blobs on the paper. I consider the blobs a "given", or something to initially spice up a work and to stifle the status quo. We then connected the dots and did uninformed or free consciousness doodling in the spaces. This is a wonderful way to practice and learn all of the elements of great design without worrying so much about reality. It was such fun! One participant asked me what the point of this exercise was. I had to think a minute. Does one really need a purpose in order to play? I hope not.