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June 16, 2006

Sneaking up on drawing

"Could you teach me to draw?" she asked hesitatingly.
"Yes" I said confidently.

I like teaching drawing. It's a Good Thing.

I'm not saying everyone can draw, well, ok, I am saying everyone can draw – only just not in the way most people think they want to draw. But give me a few hours and I’ll usually get someone making marks that they are half-way pleased with and they can begin to see a dim glimmer of light at the end of a long tunnel they thought was impenetrably dark.

suon-02.jpg

[It only looks dark because there is a tricky bend a few yards in, after that the light just gets bigger - honest.]

Enough of the elaborate metaphors…

suod-01.jpg

The thing is people have an idea what they think a drawing should look like and they set about trying to achieve that, instead of looking at what is in front of them and starting to begin to commence to see it and make marks accordingly.

“Drawing is the most direct, closest to the true self, the most natural liberation of man. And if I may guess back to the action of very early man, it may have been the first celebration of man with his secret self – even before song” David Smith

Posted by john at June 16, 2006 10:03 PM

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