sketchbook: March 2011 Archives

fence posts

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After yoga one day I snapped a photo of a fence post with torn wire fencing  and the Naples yellow field behind was cut by the pale blue winter sky. I didn't see the connection then but as I drew from my image I saw the correlation to my plates.

Landscape-drawings.jpg
 The last few afternoons I have walked with my camera looking for the intersection of bare tree trunks and the fields beyond. The sky weights the hills down. These colored drawings are becoming clear fodder for my slab plates.

landscape-plate.jpgUrban myth has it that when Bob Dylan first heard the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, he only made it through the first few songs. He turned it off afraid his own creative process might be influenced or blocked by the inspiration of the Beatles. I find that I need to look at lots of stuff. I need the stimulation of other artists and visions to translate and focus my own ideas. My motivation grows by seeing other versions of excellence. I remember being inspired by Sean Scully's paintings when I saw them at the Met a few years ago. He opened my eyes and heart to brushy stripes of resonant color.  I am revisiting my horizon plates and interrupting them with fence posts, tree trunks and window mullions.

landscape-series.jpg
Last weekend I was also very taken by  a series of images called Sunday walks and Shower songs by Leanne Shapton the former art director for the op ed page at the New York Times. If you have time you should check them all out.