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| Downtown Construction charcoal 4 5/8 x 6 5/16 inches |
Although made in the 1983 when I was just out of college, I still admire these drawings. Having just finished the Master Workshop at Southampton College , Southampton , New York , I moved from Reno , Nevada to Dallas , Texas
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| Parked Car charcoal 4 5/8 x 6 5/16 inches |
The charcoals demonstrate the kind of imagery I would soon pursue. Without even knowing it, the reality of my surroundings began to settle in. I was no longer in or around the mountains of the West that characterized the paintings I made as a child. I was now around buildings and traffic, which by the way was a pretty good fit. Much of what we know of the city has been dressed in black and white. The drawings have a bit of a patina for me; I mean they have a stature that makes it difficult for me to ever tackle drawing in the same way. Some of that comes from the gloss of photography. The black and white nature of the print signifies the past; our knowledge of urban life was recorded by photography that also includes TV, movies and newspapers. Information primarily came in shades of gray. This is just a thought, but perhaps Impressionism and the movements that followed were reacting to a world increasingly seen through technologies that captured life in black and white.
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| Volkswagen Bus charcoal 4 5/8 x 6 5/16 inches |
The drawings were made with stick and powered charcoal and an eraser. The process was all about simplification. This can be seen particularly well in the drawing of a Volkswagen bus. Nearly the entire street scene takes place in shadow. Definition is defined by slight shifts awash in the gray tailings of a charcoal filled sponge. A little shove with a charcoal stick here and an eraser rub over there assail abstraction in representational rendering. The foreground is bound by a single mark separating street and curb from blind whiteness. Even to this day, I do not know how I made this drawing. Although, I know the process, I am afraid I would fail if I tried it again. This is due to its simplicity. Whereas the complexity of painting provides endless opportunities to get it right. Painting a manifestation of patience is not reliant on luck.
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| Cars charcoal 4 5/8 x 6 5/16 inches |
Ever since the onsite spontaneity of French Impressionism there has been high praise for the painterly. Just out of college, I was well aware of that position and never really questioned it. A great attribute of charcoal is its ability to move. There is nothing quite like it in the realm of paint. Watercolor may come to mind, but there’s always a danger of harsh and unwanted waterlines. Providing that the compressed charcoal is left for last, the application of charcoal remains fluid through the process of editing. Here charcoal easily becomes a car and the refraction of light in tight spaces that jam downtown. It is difficult to sweep layers of paint across canvas and maintain the atmospheric light Monet caked onto countryside. Few do it in fact. Paint became celebrity, gone were the days when content drove painters outside to spontaneously grasp at the sight of changing light. These days about all that remains is paint, the commodity of meaning, few see that thickness can be a bit thick. Vigorous painterly paint may not be that bold. Meeting preconceived notions of what greatness entails avails painters a pass. Real scrutiny only goes to those doing the unexpected. We seldom evaluate the known stances and practices that define the climate of our times.
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| Hotel charcoal 4 5/8 x 6 5/16 inches |
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