Abstract Landscape Painter.  Rural Dweller.  Lover of Modernist Art and Design.

Sketching

It snowed again overnight on Sunday leaving us yet another white covering over the landscape.  The studio is closed on a Monday, so I get to catch up on a few jobs and maybe do some sketching.

The drawings that I make are another source of inspiration for me.  When I sketch I work very rapidly, often simply making reference to a shape within seconds.  I'm almost not looking at the paper, just allowing my hand to follow the shape that my eye is reading.  It's a bit like when I write, which happens very fast and rather loosely, as my hand cannot keep up with my thoughts.

The rapid sketches are a way for my brain to record the seen objects. Just making the shape with my hand is laying it down somewhere in my memory.  I have found that even the quickest and roughest of sketches will be of use to me later as reference material.  When it comes to working on a painting however, I do not refer to them directly.  Rather, I look at them before-hand, then close the sketchbooks and simply begin to paint, otherwise I can find them distracting.  It is better for me that I let my subconscious use them in the composition.  I am learning, over the years, to trust that part of my brain.  The best work is the freest work.  If I let it, it will do the work for me, rather than my conscious mind telling me what I "ought" to put there and what it "should" look like.  Forget "ought" and "should".

Bypassing the conscious brain is not easy.  It is perhaps similar to meditation - a space created by discipline.  It does not involve a random letting go, but learning to recognise gut feelings and working quickly with them to solve the puzzle of the painting, resisting the inevitable inner dialogue which will begin to discuss the elements laid down.  It is necessary to hold other mental intrusions at bay by strength in order to create a peaceful place to work.

All text and images ©2013 Carol Saunderson