Artwala Road

In drawing class this week I had everyone work from photographs of flowers again. The class is most comfortable drawing nature and this gives us the chance to work on skills and to think about how we might like to use color in a strong expressive way. We looked at art in a book of prints and studied how other artists approached using both color and line. We experimented with making our drawing in a pale line then going back into it with color and deepening the lines if we wanted to do that.

At the end of the morning one woman said the class had changed her life. She’s a brilliant colorist but had never drawn before. The distance she’s come in a few months is amazing but more amazing is the way we are all coming forward together. It’s not just mutual support for what we’re doing but joining together to play and explore in the spirit that everyone has something brilliant to bring forward.

I’m taking that brilliance seriously. I’m intending we grow our art to the point that we can bring forward whatever we want to express. We’re studying boldness. There are so many ways we’ve all been shut down, so many ways our spirits have been tamed, especially we women. We’re all about being wild again. We’re moving beyond any need for approval or permisssion and letting it rip. We’re giving weight to nothing but the spirit that moves us. Hooray.
The image here was made first in pastel in class, then scanned and posterized in Photoshop. Just to make it bolder and brighter. We’ll explore digital printing as we go on.

February 26th, 2007 | Category: Drawing Life | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL