Friday, June 5, 2009

Deer, 1974

This was the first piece that I ever did in high school art. I just went overboard as far as obsessiveness on it, but I had lots of fun doing it. It was achieved by using a special paper that was made to be painted with an India ink wash and then the ink scratched away, leaving a drawing. I think my art teacher’s only comment was that the picture looked a bit flat. Quite a thing to remember given that it was said more than 35 years ago. But he was right.

Click to enlarge

I loved that we had art class in high school and I think that all schools should. We were exposed to many media, like clay that was fired in ovens, crea stone (that was poured into square casts then carved), linoleum cuts, plaster casting from clay, wax statues, water colors, oil paints and more. We were taught to draw from life and ours was a good teacher.

My Mom has two of my sculptures, a clay one of a monk praying and a carved crea stone one of a musk ox. I have a water color too of lilacs. This is one of the few drawings I have from that time, and I will always treasure it.

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