I confess that this 'book' is really just a drawing I was experimenting with in order to plan and prepare for a couple of large drawings in a similar vein. I have finished one of the large ones - 1300mm x 720mm - but actually reduced the amount of defined detail as I didn't really like having such realistic work.
This smaller piece works quite well folded as a book as I can contain what I now see as 'realism' between the covers and only peep when necessary. For years I have enjoyed making marks and suggesting, often obscurely, my work rather than making my drawing representational. This means that very often no one understands my work even if they love it ..... hence my decision to introduce an element of realism back into my work. I will actually post on these large drawings I am doing at a later point, but let me say now that I was really unhappy to actually see or recognise in my drawing, that which I was drawing! Not sure that makes any sense other than to me. As here in this book you can see the sea urchins even though they are not drawn in great detail - I find myself alienated from this work, enjoying the areas where I have not defined the subject far more so than the objects I have drawn. Blah! A whole lot about nothing really.
love their are beautiful underwater urchiness
ReplyDeleteplease excuse the typo Susan, here's a second go at loving your drawings beautiful underwatery urchin-ness!
DeleteThanks Mo - or a double thanks. Really rather liked urchiness! Glad you saw the sense of water too :-)
DeleteThis, of course, looks quite wonderful to me, but your post does raise questions. What is it about the sea urchin. The shape, of course, is the first thing that comes to mind, but is there an "essence"--a connection that the viewer might not see if confronted with a literal image of a sea urchin---that you want to hint at? Just wanting a peek inside your creative brain--nothing personal (ha!)
ReplyDeleteHello Diane - love that you are intrigued with my thinking. The reason I wanted to draw urchins is that I have seven sitting on my desk - collected from a beach wander along one of the Pilbara/Kimberley beaches on our trip last year. I set myself the task of making a few semi realistic drawings while Steve was away - thinking of these urchins and their patterns and also the Musseander that I drew into one of my early books this year. I drew the musseander first and although I thought it was a fine drawing, couldn't bear seeing it so realistically. I turned it upside down and turned the drawing into one very large waratah! It was a little the same with these urchins - my test page was what I intentioned, though when confronted with such obviousness, I was not satisfied hence in my large drawing the urchins are far more subtle and I may just call it 'beachwalk' or 'flotsam'. Steve sees dismembered bodies! And I like that people can look into my work and see what they want, rather than me telling them what it is .....
Deletelooks lovely from here! And a good solution to a book a week when you haven't had a week to make book!
ReplyDeleteA great solution Fiona! Cheating but still committed to the project :-)
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