Titi le penseur (2)

I will be drawing this model again on 9th May and I am going to be very sensitised to his head on hands poses after assessing last year's work and finding so many of them. (nude study, oil colour on brown paper, 50 x 60 cms 2007) It certainly does make geometry with the body, as in this case where it breaks up into two squares... of course I did not think of that at the time, but was trying to catch his thoughtful mood.

a bientot

Jane

Man walking away from me

We used to be rather crowded in the Nicosia studio where one of the few life classes on the island took place on Wednesday nights. However there is a sense of space in this nude study (Charcoal on brown paper 70 x 40, charcoal 2004) which looks as though the model is walking off into a distant horizon, weighed down with uncertainty... some license must have been taken as I assure you we were practically sitting in each other's laps. Moreover the model will have been stationary rather than walking away, although there have been many times I have made studies of models in motion: that's another story and another challenge.

a bientot

Jane

Titi le penseur

Another sketch probably from the same day as the last posting. (Titi le penseur; charcoal pencil on paper A3 2007) It is very different in feel to the previous one but shows the same preoccupation about grabbing the essentials from a pose when there are only a few minutes to complete the drawing. Looking back over many drawings and paintings of this model I notice he is particularly fond of posing with his chin resting on his hand like this... from certain angles it can create some interesting triangles within the body.

a bientot

Jane

Different model same idea

Titi, so called because of his man-boobs, (unfairly in my view), is here seen at work, (Titi, chalk on paper, A2, 2007). I am also seen at work, a hasty 2 minutes grabbing the nugget of the situation, and his reflection in the mirror is also indicated. A typical Rijswijk moment.
a bientot
Jane

Pink Sofa no 2

This quick large chalk drawing was made either just before or after the one posted below. The artist is headless.. possibly departing... I have tried to capture the rather bulky form of the model - and his strong presence in sleep...

a bientot

Jane

On the pink sofa

A very quick and rather large sketch from about a year ago when my colleague posed for me. I was feeling the lack of male models and he turned out to be really good. (Artist and Model - chalk on brown paper, 90 x 70 cms 2007) I think that this work has a slow reveal. First you see the artist in the background.. me.. then a confusion of geraniums or whatever - poinsettias if I am not wrong - and then all that scribble in the foreground turns out to be a sleeping person dissolving out through the bottom of the frame. Of course I am not in the background but looking straight at him from a couple of meters in front.. it comes from a time when the artist-model relationship was at issue in my works.. one way or another it always is.

a bientot

Jane

For Pippa Bacca

I used to call this technique of white ambiguous layers the "Turkish White Veil of Death" .. I was sort of joking but not any more. Hoping for the permission of its owners I rename this painting Under the Turkish White Veil of Love..... A tiny, tiny, tiny embrace - (watercolour, white oil paint, paper 10 x 15 cm 2005) to put back the clock.
In Pippa's memory, and for us all to move on, I quote James Agee, whose words I heard movingly sung today. Pippa desired something more like this... not the eternal black wedding night of death but a peace adventure lit by stars.

Sure on this shining night
Of starmade shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole
Sure on this shining night
I weep for wonder wand'ring far alone
Of shadows on the stars.

a bientot
Jane

Life made flesh

It goes without saying that people who have lived well into middle age have long life and experience behind them with many stories to tell. They may have lost the bloom of youth but the patina of age has its own attraction. To the artist - to this one anyway - older subjects are rich indeed. Their bodies and faces tell stories. I would give half a dozen satin-skinned twenty-something models for this one .. I don't know him, or even his name, but he had a depth that made drawing him absorbing. He would have been extremely handsome at 25 but less good to draw. One can read the story of his life on the lines of his face, and body and all of them suggest subtle things to the pencil. (Man, standing, charcoal pencil A3. 16 04 08 with apologies for the photo) In fact, in other studies where he was facing me, there was a danger of giving too much attention to the high level of interest in his face - craggy but fine - and still handsome actually.
a bientot
Jane

Mine for fifty minutes.....

Another very big, very quick, sketch from the Artist-as-Hawk-Model-as-Prey period (Artist and model: 100 x 130; chalk on brown paper; 2007) I lurk in the background reflected. Of course I am actually right in front of her. That's easily forgotten.

a bientot

Jane

Model as prey. Artist as hawk.

The artist's predatory gaze, the menacing background elements, the violence of simplistic colours, the huge format size and the scribbly speed of execution all add up to a kind of menacing of the model. At the time (Elizabeta, chalk pastel on canvas (I know, I know, I must be mad) 100 x 120, 2007) I was really questioning what we were doing all standing around our easels with a naked person in front of us. At the Academy I never questioned the innocence of the practice. But last year the complex questions circulating in my mind resolved themselves into a kind of violence for a while. Artist as hawk. Model as prey. Strange.

a bientot

jane

Model in Rotterdam

Getting back into training after three weeks away - a couple of quick model studies made yesterday. I was trying some new chalks - the waxy quality of the one I used for the sitting pose appealed to me wheras the smudginess of the conte crayons in the recumbant pose didn't really go my way.

a tres vite

Jane