Pots: Past & Present

Here is a quick post,  just trying to get one in this week!

A few pages back in a past post,  I showed you a couple drawings quite similar to this one below, except that those were highly realistic with strong color and form. (Check last year's "Old Jug and Jar) This mixed media piece is much softer with the image more a part of the support's surface, barely breaking free of the background. Still, you can see my appreciation of 3D forms as I rendered the soft reflections on the solid surface of that old stoneware bottle and the more distinct reflections in that little glass jar.  Notice how those high-lights contribute to the essential emphasis on 3D form.









That interest in form was also present more than fifty years ago when I produced this stoneware covered jar in my Bridgewater, Ma dairy-barn  studio. You can see those same reflections there on the glazed surface that help you understand the form.  Just as I then - years ago - held the clay form in my hands as it spun on the potters wheel, today I feel the form rise from the penciled surface as I observe and draw.

Whether human figure, ripe fruit, clay pot or ancient tree - I find that an awareness of form is almost always present in my work. That's a good thing - I like it!



"Form is expressed in the light tones by dark accents, in the dark tones by light accents."
 Harvey Dunn

"What tis a sketch but a moment's passion, searching for the truth"   Stephen Aitken

Making History!

This drawing seemed to go wrong from the start!  After multiple corrections and alterations with my Prismacolor pencils, the drawing was a mess.  I gave up and turning to a fresh sheet considered a new beginning.  It was probably what my daughter refers to as "The Inner Donkey" that made me go back to my pencil box to find a lone Staedtler "Pigment Liner", my favorite pen!  Using the previous color marks as scaffold and freed by the knowledge that it would be lost anyway, I redefined the figure with loose line and hatching, saving the day!

One lesson here is the old "Never Give Up",  but perhaps a more important one is, "History Preserved"! Sketched lines, approximations of position or proportion for example, show not only the progress of the drawing but open a window on the artist's visual problem solving process.  The ability to participate in the creation via appreciation of preparatory marks and the archaeology of layered materials  gives the viewer a richer experience.  This is a much more interesting and vibrant drawing than it otherwise would have been!  I like it!