Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Un-reliance

We artists can sometimes get lazy. Relying too much on photographic reference, our paintings can conjure a feeling of artifice. They stiffen and fall flat. Feel contrived. Overly orchestrated.

To avoid the bland, I turn to drawing from scratch. I love to draw and wonder why I don't sketch more often. Other artist's drawings intrigue me. Drawing can illustrate line, direction, speed, chains of bodies in space, ovoids, nuance, milieu, tenor - okay, so I'm sounding like my art history professor and you get the point.

In an attempt to express the dynamic:

ocean horse
equine sketchhorse drawingI considered foreshortening the front leg. In a large canvas this could be effective, on this small panel I decided it would look awkward.

horse in water"Lively Wave" oil on panel, 14"x11"

Fun exercise. It ended up with a slightly Asian feel. Like it? Make me an offer...

When you do dance, I wish you a wave o' the sea, that you might ever do nothing but that - William Shakespeare

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hoooo weeee! I love the power, the gesture, the essence of movement in these drawings Sharon.
What a great way to " see " first, before thinking about plying on the paint.

Just so wonderful.

Sharon Crute said...

I find myself doing this more and more Bonnie. Color is fresher and makes sense when direct from the brain.

And, my fellow sketcher, it's all in the lines.