Layering drawings into the background of charcoal – the traces of lines; confusion, chaos?- reference Harty:2015
Adele Underwood – her process in a drawing workshop…
I began with an enacted dance. I was then going to draw back over the sweeping intuitive lines with a carefully recorded, grided up observation study of tree branches. (lines in human form and lines in plant form) But I became bored! The process was boring. Why did I want to subject myself to that? Life is annoying enough without creating artifaces that expound it. So, I swept the floor with a cloth, gesturing like an old maid on a 1950’s lino. Swept away for something new. Destroyed. Re-worked. The cloth making satisfying grey traces of looping marks, echoing the original lines.
Next, a gestural drawing, inspired by enactments in my sketchbook, but with a nod to observation. A reductive drawing, a balance of line and tone. My hand pointing. I was thinking about that moment – between action and intention; that stretch between Michelangelo’s Vatican ceiling man to God. I then rubbed out again and covered the background with Twombley style loops; gestures, – almost writing, almost drawing, satisfyingly flowing. So, some letters next, the ABC, a nod to Magritte and subverting semiotic representation, finally, rubbed away and a Matisse drawn over. (To be added later) Also a nod to my son’s reception school teacher who gets the children to draw letters in the air, in the sand, in shaving foam – large looping gestural letters to practise their refined movement. (Ingold was wrong – it’s not only Chinese children that do this!)
I considered artists such as Taylor, Kentridge and Auerbach as I drew – their process of constant working and reworking. An additive/ reductive method that shows the traces, the process.
I also liked taking a photo of each section of the process. Like a pause; a digital drawing, a capturing and reflecting. Balancing above it, feeling like I’m developing my exploratory line of inquiry. Getting closer to it – what is it saying – recording the tracks of my progress, the gestures of my subconscious, the markings of my physicality…
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