Charcoal, Paper, Rodin & Air-con!

I scored a fabulous book from the art gallery recently that I just had to purchase at a mere $40!

It contains 373 photos of figure illustrations by Auguste Rodin. This graphic work done in the early 1900's are mostly beautiful drawings rendered in graphite and watercolour or charcoal on paper.  

These drawings were crucial to a full understanding of the great sculptor's work. 

I just love the scribbley, sketchy way he pulls them together and especially the unusual angles and erotic positions he has captured. Many of them quite explicit,  as in the couple of pages below that I photographed from the book. 

I would never have considered drawing the human figure from these points of view! 

Rodin's drawings challenge me to, at the least look closely at his observations and see what I can learn from re-creating them myself.

                                

Following are some of my attempts. My greatest struggle is when the limbs are fore-shortened or only partially showing because of the position of the figure, hence the dis-proportionate parts of the body.

Using charcoal and paper I can sit under the air-con and work from home, especially when it is around 40 degrees outside!

   

 

   

Rust On A Canvas

This is my latest exploration. I have worked with metal paints before and love the special effects!

Touch Drawing Portraits

Touch Drawing. Painted intuitively and expressively with my finger tips using water soluble oil paint on acid free tissue paper. Each drawing around 60 x 40 cm. 

I will paste each of these onto a canvas with gel medium and a handful of the ones I'm happy with will be for sale in a collection soon.

       

When self-doubt creeps in

Very often I can be set back by the outstanding skills I observe in other artists...and I start to doubt my own work. This is a good reminder.

My Next Inspirational Experience

....And then Greg and I came across a tribute film made in memory of Pina Bausch, dancer and choreographer who died of cancer in 2009, age 68.

 I had not heard of her before. 

As we watched the dancers and the amazing choreography, I was totally mesmerised by the physical movement and human expression. 

These dancers defy gravity.

In my search for images of figures that would express the powerful human feelings, I'd fallen into the world of Pina, who was able to almost draw the blood out of her dancers. 

Be it deep angst or ecstasy, joy, sorrow, anger, love, emptiness....it is all there in these dancers.

 I only have to Google images - Pina Bausch and there is a feast for my eyes to gaze on. The other exciting discovery with this short film was the stunning variety of music that Pina used for the dances.

 So....good that we used the Shazzam app on my phone to track it down. For those who haven't used it before, it is an app where you just hold the mobile phone microphone next to the music playing and it will instantly search the web, match the music and there you have all the information you need to buy the song from itunes. Instantly, after enjoying the film, we are listening to our favourite new music in our lounge room. Thats when I love technology!!

  

If you have 90 mins and you want to see some unbelievable contemporary dance/theatre go to this website:

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/80541709
A feature-length dance film with the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, featuring the unique and inspiring art of the great German choreographer Pina Bausch, who died in the summer of 2009.

CAVALIA

The next artistic inspiration that blew me away recently was a Christmas gift from husband. A ticket to see 'Cavalia' Wow! 

It was one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen.

The special effects and technology was out of this world. I've never been into horses but these horses were so beautiful, natural, elegant and majestic. The human participants were very attractive too!

It was truly magical to watch the relationship between the horses and their riders. It was deeply profound, powerful, loving and respectful - horse whisperers indeed. I really can't put into words what I saw but I remember some really touching moments like when some of the horses were relaxed and rolling in the meadow along with falling leaves on the stage in front of us or  another scene when one of the horses was splashing in a puddle of water, or when they raced across the stage with their manes flying in the wind and always in time to the incredible live music being played. 

The sets and costumes were magnificent too. 

Too Much Inspiration!

In the last few days I have been overwhelmed with inspiration being poured out right into my lap. So much that I can not contain it all. 

It has come about as I search for ideas with the Mandorla Art Award and the Benalla Nude Art Prize. These are high profile awards and I am but a small fish in the sea of professional artists but I am enjoying the process of applying, even if I am not selected, I am discovering so much delicious art and music, learning new techniques and studying the greats!

To name a few things that are inspiring me...I'll begin with the artist below - Steven Duluz who I stumbled across in my collection of artists I like. A friend introduced his work to me a couple of years ago and I guess I just wasn't ready to appreciate the mystical, earthy beauty. Maybe I found it a little threatening as I would love to create art like this but didn't know how. I still don't know how, but I want to try and learn from this master and am currently experimenting with my art materials to see what I can come up with. That will be interesting!!

The warm glow of light and stunning texture in these abstract forms presented in his work has me gasping for air! Combined with his art video which he has on Youtube (and I posted it to my Facebook page), there is this sublime, other-wordly music and female voices that melt the heart, soothe the soul and  

took me to heavenly places. 

Artist Steven Duluz

Artist Steven Duluz

Artist Steven Duluz

In my next post I'll share with you my other inspirations for the week...yes, all in one week!