This a study for a potential painting of a seated nude, drawn in pencil on cartridge paper. It’s A2 size (84cm x 60cm) and is supplied unframed.
In it, I’m considering how to represent the planes of the human figure using simple monochromatic tones and varied mark making and smudging as opposed to previous investigations using flat colour.
I’ve deliberately left the drawing ‘sketchy’ and unpolished as evidence of the process of discovery and of trial and error by the ‘hand, eye and heart’ to quote David Hockney.
I was thinking of the faceted figures painted by Picasso & Braque in their early Analytical Cubism phase and trying to seeing what would happen if I increased the number of planes/facets portrayed compared with my attempts at less faceted paintings such as ‘The Sculpture Garden’.
I’m keen to investigate if it’s possible to find a mid point between the beautiful, flat – almost ‘colour field’ – Abstract Realism(?) of artists like Milton Avery and Etel Adnan, and the faceted, almost 3D approach of the Cubists, in order to try and produce work that looks 2D and 3D at the same time.
