JeniBlogs

Drawing Straight Lines

18/2/2015

One of the most common things for people to say is ‘I can’t even draw a straight line!’. To which the cheeky answer is ‘use a ruler!’

Who wants to be able to draw straight lines? Where’s the fun in that? I know that it’s just an expression used by people who don’t feel able to draw anything realistically, or don’t particularly want to, but it’s an interesting statement.

Here’s a brainteaser for you – how many lines can you see in the picture below?

How many lines are there? There are three.... two black ones and a white one between them!
Yes, one and one equals three - things aren't always the way you assume they are......

Everyone has things that they know more about in a tactile sense. I can draw people, cats, Maltese farmhouses and a few others things reasonably well from imagination, but they don’t look ‘real’. They don’t have the subtle qualities of light and form unless I draw them from life. Even using photographs can be tricky (although tempting), as they don’t have that three dimensional real-life dynamism. Drawing from imagination can only bring up symbols stored in your visual memory. If you don’t replace your childish symbols with more sophisticated studies of the world as it really is, those symbols will not change.

Most people can draw one thing well. It will be something that they know, that they have a lot of sensory information about. Maybe they use it, touch it or smell it every day. It’s probably something they like, a feature of their hobby or pastime. A golfer, for example, could draw a pretty accurate number nine iron from memory – a chef might draw a good saucepan, or a cleaver. When we invest more than just superficial ‘looking’ into a subject it is more deeply seen and understood. It engages more than simply sight; we have a physical, visceral feeling for it too.

This is the great gift of art, and why it can enrich our life. By practicing drawing everyday objects we begin to notice all sorts of subtle things that we would not have noticed otherwise. The more deeply we can focus on just copying exactly what is there in front of us we will begin to notice more and more in the ‘ordinary’ objects around us.

This is true on both a figurative and conceptual level. We might never notice the way colours reflect differently in china and metal until we see it in a painting. Or try painting it ourselves. The messages in abstract art, installations and video art etc also confront us with new and sometimes shocking ways of seeing ourselves and life around us.

One of the basic functions of art, and artists, is to notice things that others don’t.

Every time we work creatively, we are helping to breathe new life into the world. Even if we are faithfully copying an old master, or singing someone else’s song, or playing a great piece of music, our own nuance will be there, making it our own. Our skills grow every time we practice, and it is the tiny steps that move us onward.

0 Comments

Fifty Shades of Grey Nudes

8/2/2015

0 Comments

This Friday, 13th February, I would like to invite you to a special Friday Gallery at my studio in Manikata. I will be showing the whole collection of 50 drawings and paintings in charcoal, acrylics and ink of male and female nudes.........

There will be wine and light refreshments - I look forward to seeing you between 7 and 9pm.
After Friday, please contact me to see the collection by appointment.

0 Comments

Drawing as Meditation

4/2/2015

0 Comments

Anyone can do this. You don’t need to be able to draw at all, but you do have to be prepared to focus all your attention on one small, complicated thing for a short time, say ten minutes. Works produced in this way have a pure, strangely beautiful quality of line. Sometimes they can be very accurate in a technical; sense too, but this is not necessarily the aim.
So, maybe find something small and complicated that you can hold comfortably in your non- drawing hand. Maybe a flower or a walnut. Take a few deep breaths and tell yourself that the actual drawing doesn’t matter as much as the time you’re going to invest in yourself. Put your pencil on the paper and don’t take it off until you have finished. Gaze at the subject until you can see a shape in the middle of it.... don’t be tempted to draw an outline. Start to draw the shape, then the shape next to it, then the one next to that....... do this very carefully, very slowly and as carefully and intently as you possibly can.

I am really keen on the idea of ‘art’ being a tool for self expression and for connecting our inner and outer worlds in deep and personal ways. By using it to explore our feelings it can be a valuable method of self-discovery and self expression.

Using drawing in this way encourages a very intense way of seeing which usually leads to a deep state of relaxed concentration. By focusing intently on a subject to the point of generating alpha waves, we start to feel a connection that goes beyond just sight. This is a very similar state to meditation, which has been proven to promote both mental and physical health. Linear time disappears as our minds become occupied with the drawing, and we escape from our daily worries and concerns.

This form of meditation is unique in that you have an end product – the drawing. It will be a record of the precious time you have spent in an altered state of mind. It will record where you were distracted and where you were completely absorbed. When you were stuck and analysing too much, and when you were free. With practice your drawings will become a more and more accurate reflection of the subject, but that’s not the aim of the exercise. The only aim is to experience freedom.

0 Comments

Drawing Straight Lines

Fifty Shades of Grey Nudes

For more details please contact me here

Drawing as Meditation

Jeni Caruana

Categories

Archives