Paul Klee: Burdened Children/Belastete Kinder
graphite, crayon and ink on board
1930 (650 x 458 mm)
Tate Collection
The title of my blog post is a quote from the artist Paul Klee (1879-1940). The importance of drawing is stressed by many artists. The painter Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) said: "Drawing is the basis of art. A bad painter cannot draw. But one who draws well can always paint".
So I do a lot of drawing. Every week I present 20 sketches to my teacher. This week I was
short of 15 sketches so I set my alarm at 5 o´clock in the morning to do some drawing before going to the studio. Well. I ignored the alarm and fell asleep again. I have a one hour commute to the studio so in desperation I took out my sketchbook and started scrawling on the paper, riding the bus and the metro during rush hour. Each sketch was made in seconds.
I´ve been apprehensive to sketch on the bus and metro because I don't want to offend my fellow travelers by staring at them. But it was a liberating experience; I had
to draw superfast since the objects were constantly moving. The sketches have a playful freshness about them that I like.
"L", pencil on paper
45 minutes
"L", pencil on paper
45 minutes
45 minutes is like a lifetime compared to whimsical sketching made on a bus in rush hour traffic.
I´m happy that I´ve improved my drawings skills over the two years I´ve studied drawing at the Farigh Ghaderi studio. The portraits I make now look more like real people than aliens. (See this blog post to see an alien).
Before the summer break I did a portrait of the art student Anna. I think I spent around 10 hours
drawing this portrait. The picture reproduction is not perfect but is it not amazing what you can do when you put your might, mind and strength into something!?
Anna, pencil on paper, 2015
My son Arne as a model
This Wednesday my son was kind to be the model at the portrait painting session at Folkulturcentrum. Sorry I don´t know the name of the artists but this is how some of us perceived him:
Arne by Vendela (I think)
Arne by Lazlo
Arne by me
pencil on paper, 30 minutes portrait
I end this post with a quote from Frederick Franck (1909-2006):
"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen".
