"Half "
Original
36" x 36"
She is a vessel. You can see inside of her -- I rendered her this way in order to pose the question of how you view your own life - is it half full, or half empty?
The Human figure is a fascinating subject matter. I've been intrigued by the human figure ever since I was quite young (4th - 5th grade, maybe even younger). I was a people watcher. Always watching how people communicated their emotions with their body language, choice of words, or tone of voice. I liked sitting quietly off to the side of a room that was filled with people. Maybe that sounds weird, but you can learn a lot about people just by watching them move, and from their facial expressions, and mannerisms. I think it's cool.
In College, when I was 18 years old and still quite naive, I took my first Life Drawing class. All I knew when I got to college was that I wanted to take as many art classes as I could! It didn't matter what the classes were -- if it was art - sign me up! I thought that "Life Drawing" meant drawing live plants, or people in costume, etc. My first day in class I was so excited and nervous, because the class was full of students that were "older & older than that!" They all looked as if they were seasoned artists. They were already set up and waiting patiently at their easels when I arrived. I, on the other hand, stumbled into class, searching for an empty easel, and struggled to get set up (looking at how all the other students were set up in order to get set up properly). Then the instructor walks into the classroom, looking oh so sophisticated and interesting. She explained that we would be doing 30 second sketches, so make sure you have your materials ready. Then out walks the model from the dressing room in the corner. She hops up onto the center platform and removes her robe. And like an idiot, my mouth drops open, my eyes just about pop out of my sockets, and I stood there looking around the room to see if anyone else was just as shocked as me. . . . . Nope. I was the only one. (OH MY...She's NAKED!, I thought to myself). DUH! I think to myself now! The next thing I knew, the model was in a pose, and changing into a different pose every 30 seconds. OH MY GOSH! This is nuts! I love it! The energy was rich, paper was crackling between each pose as the students flipped to a new blank 24 x 30 page of newsprint, and my heart was racing.
I was hooked!
I was told over and over, during my years in college, that the human figure is one of the most difficult subjects for artists to master. Yet, I was drawn to it like pencil to paper. Now, 25 years later, I still never bore of drawing & painting the human figure. I like to paint contemporary figurative oil paintings, especially of women and children. I suppose it's because I am a woman and I understand the heart of a woman far more personally then a man's, and since I'm a mother I guess it was pretty natural for me to want to paint children.
I enjoy the process so much that it makes this journey worth waking up to everyday!
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1 comment:
I still haven't taken my journey to "check out" yet. I was looking through your blog and found it very interesting. I like this one, it reminds me of when I took my first figure drawing class in college. The difference was I knew the model would be nude and I was much older than most the other students. I was a bit nervous at first and watch the reactions of the younger students when the model disrobed. Like you, as soon as she started posing, I was totally into the process going through page after page. It has been 11 years since that class and I'm still fascinated by the human form. Most my work centers around the face and figure, I see people I want to draw every where I go. Unfortunately I tend to be a little shy while I draw in public. That is something I'll work on as I get more confident.
Keep up the good work as an artist and as a mother.
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