I Need to Draw and Sketch Today
One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil. (Balthus)
This quote really applies to me. Looking back over my last few Blog entries I can see that I have been storing images in my brain from the stimulus of my garden and nature. Even as a child I was often reprimanded in school for “daydreaming” instead of being busy, and I always felt embarrassed so I tried to hide my seemingly lazy behavior. It was years before I realized that I was memorizing “things;” objects, shadows, sunlight, tree branches, the arch of someone’s neck, the placement of a hand a rest or at work, the patterns of leaves on the ground or pebbles…… I was drawing without a pencil.
I’ve been drawing without a pencil for weeks now, and today I feel the strong need to draw with a pencil, or a pen and ink, or maybe add a splash or two of watercolor for emphasis. Drawing satisfies a part of me that wants to “loosen-up” and play. It is quick and results are immediate, yes, I find immediate gratification seeing an idea emerge and take shape, and change, and fill a page. Painting for me is much slower, although none the less rewarding. But, somehow there seems to be a time and a place where drawing is more appropriate, or a better vehicle to sharpen one’s ability to see and understand something.
It is hard to explain. If I look at a tree, and start to draw it with my eyes, I find so many more details and characteristics that were not evident on first glance, or will ever be visible in a photograph of the same subject. Drawing from life unravels the complexities of structure, reveals the truth, the flaws and the singularity of an object or place and allows the artists feelings to emerge.
One must always draw, without drawing we soon forget and loose understanding, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil. These words bring great comfort to me and make me very eager to actually draw with a pen and ink today. Immersed in my visual memory, uninterrupted by the world of business, totally connected to the line on the paper, I’m in my zone.
Gail Niebrugge, pen and ink artist
