Tuesday 16 September 2008

Searching for Objects to Draw

I can't find models, subjects, or objects to draw right now. Nothing will do except some really wonderful statuary. Ancient, un-fresh, time-worn, and with a patina that is almost impossible to recreate on paper or canvas. Mind-blowing beauty is what I am referring to here. I can't stop thinking about where I could find a Roman or Greek head, a soldier warrior maybe, or some great hero of the past, but outside museums, they don't exist, and I want to take one into my home to practice my drawing. Yes, pretty crazy and obsessive I know but these thoughts won't go away and they are pretty well darn near unrequited. Artists suffer from the weirdest moments... Moments which could be called Proustian in nature, triggered by the most unsuspecting assaults on the senses, which turn one inwards to other moments long-gone when one was face to face with the drawing board, just stroking that chalk or pencil across the paper, not noticing time or light or breath, just the two of us, or maybe the one of us; artist and subject, a unit in time breathing in the wonderful fragrances of the artist's life. The Drawing Vault will have to wait a while for the statuary, but I feel so pressured now to find that classical 'something' to have in my home that I could investigate from every angle, with every material and under many different lighting conditions. This will happen.

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