Monthly Studio Update - June, 2003
STUDIO UPDATE: JUNE 2003
Studio Update:
Hoedown in Paper Space
Before I begin the reel and start calling out visual sidesteps I will try to layout the context for this informal dance.
In the last year I have been exploring the medium of pencil line drawings. Instead of showing only my drawings I thought it might be interesting if I showed you a few of my influences from art history, which will give you something to compare them with. This includes some artists, such as Picasso, Kline, Lichtenstein, which might surprise you.
Last year over beer in a Scottish pub I had the honor to talk with several of the world's leading vision scientists. One of them, Andrea van Doorn, told me, based on research, that if your eye is fixed on one spot after awhile you will see blank just like a blank screen. Physiologically, the eye automatically compares and contrasts objects/light in its visual field. Our eye without our awareness is constantly comparing lights and darks, the person near us and the person two tables away; this is the automatic process that allows us to see.
But for an artist to translate what they see from 3d reality to a flat 2d surface is anything but an automatic process. To be successful at placing objects in space the artist can't take for granted their visual field but must consciously study it.
Before you grab your partner hold on for two more seconds: The setting for this dance takes place between the sheets...hmmm, I mean between the edges of a flat sheet of the paper and we will see how artists deal with this flat element.
Qualifying note: I am analyzing the following works through a highly selective viewpoint of compositional balance in both 2d and 3d. This does not mean that the artists were attempting solve all these particular problems, so when I mention what they didn't do it is for comparison, not a criticism of their work.
Kline, New York, N.Y.,
1953,
Oil on canvas
(Image downloaded from the fantastic art library,
www.artchive.com)
For better or for worse I grew up and was educated in the postmodern era. In my younger days as a teenager I sometimes sensed a living force coming from all kinds of painting. When that would happen I would wonder "what is the thing that is making this piece "hit" me?" The black and white painting above is a Kline. Admittedly, he followed a reductionist path, no color, no form, no depth, but let's look at what IS there. Within the edges of the canvas we have a great balance of black and white areas. He has reduced everything to stress the balance of the organic composition, organic here means that the areas are not symmetrical. If I was calling out the dance step it would be sidestep left, sidestep right, look up, look down. Do you get the idea? The whole composition from side to side and edge to edge has a wonderful balance of different-sized flat shapes.
Unknown, Zsantosprito, Renaissance
This is an innovative Renaissance drawing because of the perspective. It is a one-point perspective with a vanishing point, like the end of the railroad tracks but instead of two railroad lines there are several invisible lines that fan out along the ceiling, the floor, and along the capitals ending at one point low and towards the center right side of the drawing. Changing the dance step, to step forward into the space and to step back. Can you imagine a wedding procession walking down that isle? Notice how the human figures are subtly smaller as they are placed further into the space away from us. The Kline is very different from this because it is flat spatially this work gives us the sense of the 3d interior space. But in another way, looking at the flat composition, do you sense an element of unbalance when you look at the work from side to side, and top to bottom? Something like too much stress and weight towards right of center? I do, and this may or may not because the drawing is a bit damaged and smeared.
Ingres, The Artist and his Wife
1830
Pencil on paper
(www.artchive.com)
Drawing plays a huge role in supporting sculpting, painting, and architecture and the most basic and fundamental part of drawing is line, the proverbial, stick figure. Rarely do artists limit themselves to only line but it is amazing how they can, with a few strokes of line, capture bellowing folds, expression, and movement. Ingres is one the great masters of drawing. Here is a self-portrait with his wife. Notice the spatial depth between him in the background and how she "pops" forward. Notice the dark lines that accent her bow and bust line and compare how this places her forward to how the lighter lines of his collar places him back. We have a fantastic sense of depth here but again like the perspective drawing do you sense unbalance in the composition? I mean she is solidly centered and he is on the left, which weighs the composition off to the left.
I hope you are still with me as we just covered a lot of ground. From the above examples I wanted to convey to you two things: 1) Flat composition; looking for the balance of the composition from edge to edge of the surface as in the Kline abstract. 2) 3d perspective; looking for placement of things INSIDE the drawing. This effect comes from two things: 2a) Perspective drawing; is achieved by the receding lines and that subjects get smaller as they go back as in the Renaissance drawing and 2b) Atmospheric Perspective; where the forward subjects are more "popped out" with contrast and the behind subjects are more "airy" as in the Ingres.
Now we come to a Picasso, a portrait of Vollard below, in which he INTEGRATES fantastically all of solutions to the above problems.
Picasso, Portrait of Vollard,
1915
I think Picasso solves this composition problem brilliantly. Lets first step into the painting and look at it from the perspective of depth, notice the man's two shoes and how naturally they are placed in space. Look at slope of his leg; form from the tip of his right shoe to his knee. Even though the hands are highly detailed and have a high contrast of light and dark they sit comfortably behind his knee. Notice the marvelous turn of movement between the two shoulders. The chair also rests well in its place the corner comes forward and the back leg feels back. Also he is not floating in space because there are enough interior details through Picasso's command of perspective to give us the sense of the room he is in. Lastly notice how much spatial difference there is between is right foot and his head. Now switching our focus let's look at the flat composition from side to side. Combining his head, hands, and the detail of the corner of the wall (on the upper right side) the upper half of the drawing is slightly weighed to the right. But going to the bottom half of the drawing the focus on his right leg and the corner of the chair it weighs slightly to the left and the combination creates a perfectly balanced drawing.
Ingres, Portrait of Guenepin,
1809
Pencil
In this Ingres portrait, unlike the Picasso, the subject's hand and book do not swing forward but are a bit lost in a ghost-like space. The flat composition here is very good. His head is right of center and it is balanced by the buildings on the left and by the pyramid of his cloak.
Degas, Portrait of Rene Degas,
1855
Pencil
This Degas has a much better sense of space than does the Ingres; notice the boy's pronounced forward left hand and compare that to his spatially receding right hand. Also notice, like the Picasso, there is a nice sense of the interior setting behind the boy. I do think the weight of the composition is slighted towards the left but the boy's strong glance in the opposite direction is a great balancing touch.
Cassatt, Tramway,
1891,
Black Crayon
Here we have a marvelous composition by Cassatt but spatially there something off here. Notice the dark lines accenting the woman in the center but she is supposed to be behind the mother and child. What is not coming forward are the things that would be naturally be so like the child and, especially, the left woman's hat and forehead.
Newberry, Self-portrait,
2002
Pencil
Can you see the influence of the Picasso on my self-portrait here? I concentrated very hard to bring my knee and cuff of my jeans forward and keep my head placed behind them and yet keep it in front of the background so that there are, essentially, three levels of space here. Though the main subject is left of center notice the accents of the corner of the chair and pillow, and the accented darks of the objects behind on the right, which help balance the drawing.
Pulling back the Kline I wanted to know if you could see the connection between the balance of his shapes with the pencil drawing of my interior below it?
Newberry, Hallway,
2002,
Pencil
8x10"
(Available)
In this drawing I was working to compositionally balance the big shapes and at the same time to be true to the subjects' real proportions and create depth with the different tone of line. Here in lies an interesting enigma. I wanted to reduce this drawing to only line and Kline wanted to reduce his painting to simple flat shapes. But even though my drawing is made up of simple lines those lines represent a foundation of form, depth, perspective, and compositional balance. With the Kline, he dispenses with form and depth and leaving only a balance of flat shapes as the means. (A discussion of expressionist style, making the painting look as if was spontaneously painted, is outside of the scope of this presentation.)
Michelangelo, Study for the Sistine Chapel,
1509-12
(www.artchive.com)
Michelangelo, so far, is unmatched in his ability to convey anatomy, form, and movement of the human form. Even though this is a study of a main figure and sections of a figure notice how well balanced the flat composition is. From side to every side, everything there is beautifully placed. Also because it is a study of a body with floating satellite human limbs Michelangelo wasn't composing a figure with a background scene. I mean he was not intending the drawing to be a surreal scene, like a Dali, of a man with floating severed limbs!
Parenthetically, both Kandinsky and Dali have wonderfully composed paintings which are similar to the Michelangelo study because they balance the composition with floating objects.
Kandinsky, Black Spot,
1912
(www.artchive.com)
Dali, The Hallucinogenic Toreador,
1970
(www.artchive.com)
Actually the more I am looking at the Dali I think it is weighted more on the right side, no?
Ingres,
Lady Harriet Mary Montagu and
Lady Catherine Caroline Montagu
1815
Pencil
(www.artchive.com)
In contrast to the last three works, here we have a drawing by Ingres which, though probably a study for a painting, is a whole scene. If you can see it on your monitor there is a cityscape behind the girls done in very light line. Ingres draws incredibly well; his lines suggested the form of their faces, hands, and clothes even though he leaves large areas of white paper untouched. Can you see how natural the girls' hands are and how real the faces are? Looking at this piece depth-wise, the space between the city and the girls is amazingly deep. But if we switch to look at the composition from side to side Ingres does not balance out the scene, the focus is in the center, on the girls, the upper 3/4's of the background is empty. I don't know if you can sense this but doesn't it look like the girls are posing indoors and the scene behind is simply "pasted" on, as if they were posing for a photograph with an artificial background? Compare this drawing to the earlier Picasso and I am sure you will feel that the Picasso has a much natural and real sense to the scene.
Durer, Portrait of Duerer's Mother
1514
Charcoal on paper
(www.artchive.com)
I really wanted to show you some 13th and 14th Century drawings, but I couldn't find what I was looking for, they would have served as great contrasts to this incredible life-like drawing of the artist's mother drawn in 1514. The leap that the Northern and Italian Renaissance took, in the 15th Century, to create 3d realistic people is one of the most radical developments in the history of art. That said there is an amazing "sense of life" difference between the north and the south. Here we can almost recount this old woman's backbreaking chores done in the miserable Flemish weather. Look at her skewed eyes! Da Vinci would have drawn her as a grotesque, as a foil to divine beauty but Durer accents all her idiosyncratic features with love. But back to our topic. Notice the closeness of the accented dark line of her cheek compared to her receded right shoulder and the intense very dark lines of her, even closer, left shoulder and clothes. Her head fills the composition wonderfully though because there are no background accented lines we have no sense of where she is.
Da Vinci, Study of Grotesque Heads
c. 1490
(www.artchive.com)
I am going way off topic but do you sense that these grotesques of Da Vinci are more like caricatures than real people especially contrasted to the Durer? Also, below the magnificent idealized woman's head has something of a personal distance as if she where an angel not of this earth.
Da Vinci, Head of a Young Woman,
1510
(www.artchive.com)
Newberry, Self-Portrait 2,
2003
Pencil
9x11"
(Available)
Again I apologize for going off the theme of the presentation but...I can't resist. Just now I was thinking of the sense of life difference between the Durer and Da Vinci and how does the sense of life of my self-portrait fit in? I know when I pose for a self-portrait, as reflected in a mirror, I try to find the most flattering angle and I don't accent or include blemishes. I don't think I could ever accent the ugly or unattractive features in a subject I care about as in the Durer or the comedy sketch by Da Vinci. On the other hand, I don't think this drawing is as idealized as in the Woman's Head by Da Vinci. You might get the understanding of how through the art of drawing I am trying to show the best of reality not to show the other worldly quality of the Da Vinci nor the heart wrenching reality of Durer.
Now that I got that call off my tongue. In the composition of the self-portrait can you see how I have tried to balance the composition both in depth and flatly and I included the interior details to give you a sense of the setting?
Da Vinci, Casting of a Giant Cannon,
1503
(www.artchive.com)
I want to show you a few very complex drawings with lots of things going on in them. Da Vinci here made a drawing of the casting of a large cannon. It has some marvelous perspective as in the mold/case in the foreground. But it also has some weaknesses, their are some very tiny people in the foreground, children perhaps, but they don't look right compared to the some of the larger figures to the right. It is also a bit hard to distinguish the middle ground from the background.
Lotto,
Martyrdom of St. Alexander of Bergamo,
1520's
Pen and Ink
Another Renaissance drawing in good perspective which has the large man, lower front center, contrasting well with the people diminishing in size as they are further away. It also as a wonderful linear composition but like the Da Vinci the atmospheric distance is harder to unravel, look how the group of five or six figures upper center are darkly accented and convey the same distorted space as in the Cassatt and you can contrast this with the brilliant depth of the Van Gogh, 2nd image down.
Rembrandt, Lot and his Family,
1655,
Pen and Bistre
I can't comment on art with out the sublime Rembrandt being far away. Here Rembrandt has a complex scene with lots of people but he accents them spatially giving us a sense of spatial hierarchy and order, the first people are in front and then there are softer suggestions of the group behind. Though this is more vague in detail than the two Renaissance drawings it is much more authentic in capturing a real sense of depth. Compositionally notice the dark accents on the left which help balance the group weighed to the right.
Van Gogh, Harvest
1888
Reed pen
If I recall my Van Gogh history correctly, Van Gogh spent several years concentrated on drawing before he embarked on the colorful canvases that we associate with him. As far as line quality goes this drawing is by far the most radical piece we have seen. It is made up of intense dots and stokes that convey shape, depth, and even light. And this is a brilliant, brilliant composition. I think of all the drawings we have seen this one has the best perspective. I apologize the image is not clear but perhaps you can see the wheel cart in the foreground and compare that to horse and cart direct above it and to the horse and cart on the right edge. And how the plots of land recess to slivers in the distance. There is wonderful balance in the weight of shapes when we look side to side and up and down.
Newberry, Desk,
2002
Pencil
Here is one of my most complex compositions, actually it was, in reality, a chaotic mess. But I always wanted to draw my computer and it was an additional challenge to visually organize this mess. In perspective this was a huge challenge because nothing was placed symmetrically with the exception of the computer; it was lined up with the table edge. Notice the depth of space from the table edge to the wall behind, the floor below, and how all the objects "fit" in-between.
Newberry, Chair,
2003
Pencil
11x16"
(Available)
This drawing is less complex than the above nonetheless it is an entire interior. Does the texture of the mark making of the chair remind you of the Van Gogh?
Newberry, Interior,
2003
Pencil
11x13"
(Available)
I think this drawing looks simple but it, in truth, very complex. Drawing the French Easel alone is very difficult.
Picasso, Portrait of Rosenberg,
1915
The quality of this Picasso reproduction is not good and it looks deceptively simple but, I think, it is a wonderfully organized composition on all counts.
Newberry, Balloons,
2003
Pencil
11x13"
(Available)
These balloons had been outside so that the location of my studio exhibition, in early May, could not be missed. I don't know if you can sense through this drawing the let down I felt after that show was over? Notice how the balloons are placed in space and compare them to the drawer in front and with the objects in the background.
Picasso, Portrait of Apollinaire,
1916
Another Picasso with another great composition.
Newberry, Table and Chair 2,
2003
Pencil
7x10"
(Available)
Newberry, Table and Chair,
2003
Pencil
11x13"
(Available)
Two recent drawings of a wrought iron table and chair that I love. It is a real pleasure to play with the ovals and ellipses. As with all my new line drawings I am working on integrating the spatial perspective with the flat composition.
Lichtenstein,
Still Life with Goldfish Bowl and Painting of a Golf Ball
1972
Oil and Magna on canvas
(www.artchive.com)
This Lichtenstein has magnificent balanced flat composition. It is, of course and intended by the artist to be flat as a pancake. I find the balance really great.
Newberry, Paper Edge,
2002
Pencil
This is, superficially, the most simple drawing I have ever made but I hope that after your visit to the Hoedown of Paper Space that you can see that it is anything but simple. I think the flat composition is as bold as in the Kline and yet the piece has lots of depth and the objects have distinct form. From a personal point of interest, the objects have a very warm place in my heart. The salad bowl and candle holder came from wonderful guests to my home in Rhodes; I loved the table and fireplace; and believe it or not I feel affection for my paper towels as one of the tools of my painting process. The piece in front is a hand-torn edge from sheet the highest quality cold-pressed, 100% cotton rag acid-free paper--by just feeling that paper I can have visions of images that should go on it--and a beautiful hand-torn edge is the ultimate way to divide paper.
Thank you for your participation in the dance and I hope that you are not reeling from too many in, back, and side to side steps.
Several of my drawings here and other works as well can be purchased through www.RomanticRealism.net
Until next month,
Cheers everyone.