A 45 minute pose from my figure drawing class this week.
Cont’e and pastel on 9 x 12″ paper, and a good exercise in selection and restraint. How much does it take to say just enough? I’ve developed a motto that has served well in such instances: “Suggest, don’t explain.”
That doesn’t imply that I wish to maneuver around the difficulties inherent in art by rationalizing (aren’t you weary of artists offering the disingenuous “less is more” as a justification for an actual weakness in artwork?), but likewise, there is a line one can cross where the display of technical ability, what Hilary Holmes once termed “muscle flexing”, will get in the way of poetry and create coldness. The task of the student and the work of the artist aren’t the same; a point which is becoming more apparent to me.
To that end, in my next post I’ll offer a little drawing from my files that has always been a an ideal of where I’d like to arrive one day.
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