Harry AND ThE Trees
drawing
Draw Up. Draw In, Drawing
Drawing, that thing that most people do even if it’s an absent minded doodle. Drawing, that process that art schools condemned not so very long ago, but is now right back in fashion (it never really went away for most of us). Drawing, that thing that needs constant practice. Drawing, that thing that helps you develop your own language for expression. Drawing, that thing that thing where people say, ‘oh that’s good,’ ‘that’s not right, but mind you, I’m rubbish at drawing.’
No two people draw alike. Your drawings are as distinctive as your handwriting
I have always made myself work. Don’t just sit staring at the daunting, expectant paper. Just put something down – hopefully it wll lead to another thing, and before you know it the drawing may be underway like a slow locomotive pulling out of the station before it speeds down the track. Gerald Scarfe, The Long Drawn Out Trip, Little Brown 2019. https://www.geraldscarfe.com
The moment you put down two or three marks on a piece of paper, you get relationships. They’ll start to look like something. If you draw two little lines they might look like two figures or two trees. One was made first, one second. We read all kinds of things into marks. You can suggest landscape, people and faces with extremely little. It all depends on the human ability to see a mark as a depiction. David Hockney, http://www.hockney.com/works/drawings/2010s
Drawing could start anywhere. A crayon scuffs paper and the child holding it sees a mark emerge. A brush runs along a batten and look, there is a line. Yhe skid of a swung stick describes fine curves in the sand; the effects of our actions interest us and we make further marks. A zone of attention forms. Within this mental zone, whatever dots, edges or curves we produce seem to gang up and find ways of relating to one another- rhythms, behaviour patterns. Julian Bell. Ways of Drawing, Thames and Hudson 2019. https://www.royaldrawingschool.org
How Drawing Can Set You Free www.ted.com/talks/shantell_martin_how_drawing_can_set_you_free
Draw up, draw in, draw something today!
5 Objects and Some Flowers
If you were to prepare a still life using 5 objects that symbolize what was most important to you in your life so far what would they be?
How would you arrange these objects or metaphors?
Flowers bring colour and a need for light, they offer beauty, smell, seasonality etc. and evoke memories.
Would you photograph them, paint/draw them, make a model of them, just write prose/poetry about them – maybe I’ll draw something from the prose/poetry? The objects are few but the possibilities are up to you
The last sentence is the clue. I’m interested in you sending photograps or documents to me,(kevinshome@me.com) to see how they collectively emerge and what is evoked in me as an artist when I receive whatever you offer.
This idea is based on an original idea of Charles and Elizabeth Handy
Some Resources For Today + a fun bonus
Resilience
I met Chris Johnstone whilst he was still lecturing at Bristol University. A softly spoken doctor with a huge experience that you can rely on. Easily understood, and simple graphics, followed by questions.
Coronavirus
https://www.covidviruspandemic.com
A great American resource whose focus is obvious from the name!
Flow
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a bit dry but he gently shows the outcome of his investigations into happiness, career choices and what it means to be in a flow state or as sports people would say, in the zone.
Kevinshome 