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Study (after Watteau). Sherrie writes, it is no accident that some students are drawn to certain teachers. When we resonate with another artist's work, it is because we recognize it. The philosophy behind it lies deeply within us already.
I loved that of all the books in the UNM Fine Arts library I could have pulled off the shelf I somehow found my way to Watteau, and that one of my greatest influences had felt the same feeling. Resonance and recognition found in charcoal and paper.
Study (after Watteau). I brought one book with me on my weekend getaway, The Language of Drawing by Sherrie McGraw. I'd copied drawings from her book a few weeks earlier for this project but I hadn't had a chance to actually read it for a while. It was next to the kiva fireplace, as snow fell outside, that I discovered that one of her greatest influences was.....Watteau.
Study (after Watteau). I stayed in Andrew Dasburg's room. I love his paintings. The room was perfect for my artist's escape; thick adobe walls, vigas, wood floors, Mexican tile and a view of Taos mountain. It snowed hard as evening set in, I started a fire in the kiva fireplace as the white landscape turned deep blue. There was no TV or internet in the rooms now, as there wouldn't have been in Mabel's time. Once my nervous system surrendered to finding no screens, I felt my vision grow wide.
Study (after Watteau). I recently spent a weekend in Taos at the Mabel Dodge Luhan house. So many of the artists and writers I love, such as Willa Cather, Carl Jung, Georgia O'Keeffe and Andrew Dasburg stayed there in the past at Mabel's invitation. I loved eating breakfast at the long wooden table and imagining the conversations they might have had.
I read that Georgia O'Keeffe was in a depression and couldn't paint, she was living in upstate New York and found the world around her to be too green. So Mabel invited her to Taos to see if that would help. It was in the desert that her depression lifted and she began to paint again, many of those paintings are the ones she is most famous for.
Study (after Watteau). Watteau did so many studies and I love how many he did of heads at different angles. I struggled with this one a bit, thinking that the mouth was at a funny angle, but when I adjusted the mouth it didn't change. When I returned after stepping away I could see that it was not the mouth that was the problem but that the left side of her forehead (her right) was too wide.
I loved the way her hair turned out and I didn't feel like changing it so the poor girl remains with hydrocephalus but great hair. I thought it was interesting too how this drawing problem solving relates to the work I do with yoga therapy -where the pain is felt is rarely where the problem is.
Study (after Watteau). I love this drawing. One of the things I'm trying to do in learning how to draw heads is learn how to do so with line. This seems obvious at first but it's not really. I see more naturally in terms of light and and dark mass, as in painting, and it's challenging for me to describe form only with line.
Sherrie McGraw explains the difference between between painting and drawing here,
The language of drawing and the language of painting separate forms differently. In drawings, forms are separated by line. In painting, forms are separated by creating two distinct planes. One form lies next to another and changes either value or color. The painter never uses a line to make a separation as in drawing. Painting depends on flat shapes to communicate.
Study (after Watteau). I ventured to the UNM Fine Arts Library, one of my favorite places in Albuquerque, to find more drawings to draw. What I found and fell in love with there was the drawings of Jean-Antoine Watteau.
I remember, in my art school days, finding Watteau's paintings too frilly for my taste. But discovering his drawings in charcoal and conté years later I felt amazed.
