Tabula Rasa
I believe the adage that when the student is ready the teacher will arrive. In my life, teachers have arrived in many forms to teach life lessons I need to learn even though I may not learn willingly! Another adage: even a stone can be your teacher.
I have been experimenting with many different painting techniques for some time now and have not been completely satisfied, could not express fully the energetic impulse that I've been feeling.
Well, this time the right teacher has arrived in the form of Steven Aimone's book Expressive Drawing: A Practical Guide To Freeing The Artist Within.
The title didn't impress me, afterall, how many books on freeing the artist within can I have? It was the cover photo that won me over. That's it, I thought. That's what I'm after: the vital line, the bold mark.
This book promises a freeform, abstract approach that anyone can master and enjoy. There are "Play" and "Build" exercises that are fun and stimulating and many photos of master works that exemplify the concepts that Aimone conveys. I have really enjoyed feeling the lively movement of line and shape rush through me in a newly liberating and inspiring way. It has really been for me a process of loosening up. I've completed lots of the "challenges" and have used the lessons in my new paintings.
Many of the concepts I "get" intuitively and have used them in many of my pieces, others I have studied and challenged myself with over and over again. But sometimes things just click for whatever reason and the learning is clarified, the path recognizable and inevitable. This student is ready!
Promenade
This painting was the result of using automatic drawing in "flux" whereby the process includes adding and subtracting lines and shapes until you like a compostion.
All Of A Piece
This one uses the horizontal rhythm of a vertical line bar motif using both organic and geometric shapes. Yeah I know this all sounds so difficult and way too arty! But it has been so much fun to learn the vocabulary that once simplified and experienced becomes clear and adaptive to most every composition. I used to think that using my intuition as primary guide would produce the most genuinely personal and unique art, but I have changed my beliefs to accomodate some tried and true techniques that draw upon the ways in which we objectively 'see' any given image.
3 comments:
I really like your pieces the first two especially and think the intuition and the tried and true techniques work well together!
I am also a big fan of this philosophy Marie! Love where you are taking your art these days. Nothing like growth as an artist to inspire even more outpourings of creativity. It's all very self feeding and wonderful. You stick with what you are doing as it is obviously working well for you.
thanks for the review on this book--- I have the author's book on Design which I recommend-- and had this on my Amazon list--- but after your review I think I will order it... thanks.
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