Thursday, April 19, 2012

return to the figure

He moved like a dancer and held each pose like a still life. It felt great to be back at figure drawing yesterday, at Hipbone Studio in Portland. Jeff Burke, owner of the studio and facilitator of the sessions, greeted me by name and commented on how long it had been since my last time there. Ah. Good to be back! Back among friends, models, and the feel of charcoal dust on the old wooden floor.

When the model took this pose, I instantly fell in love with the angles and the lean of his torso and weight supported by the back of the chair. How elegant!

I did a few stick figure sketches to locate the lines of the shoulders, back, hips, and limbs. It's all too easy to straighten up a leaning figure and the stick figure drawings are a help to me.

It doesn't happen every time, but most times when I am at figure drawing, I am overcome by the sense of honor I feel at being able to draw from the live human figure. What a great tradition in art practice! And I am participating in it, too! The more I think about it, I am struck by how it's not just about the bones and skin of the model, but I am in awe of the beauty of the human being in front of me. It gets to me!



2 comments:

Roxanne said...

Well said and elegantly executed painting.

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

Thanks, Roxanne!