“For of the soul the body form doth take:
For soul is form, and doth the body make.”
From An Hymn In Honour Of Beauty BY EDMUND SPENSER
figura
Art is the contemplation of the world in a state of grace.
Hermann Hesse
The Nude as an art form brings the transformative civilizing influence of beauty into the world in a simple and profound way because the human body speaks to us in manifold ways and at a depth that nothing else can touch. The Nude is in fact the purest form of Beauty.
When the ancients invented the art of the nude they achieved a moment of equipoise and felt themselves walking closer to the gods. In a similar way while beholding the bodily form in works of art we have a valuable opportunity to encounter our deepest self as participating in what it means to be truly human.
A suite of academic studies of the nude from direct observation
This group of long-pose drawings selected from the collection of the artist are made from the live model in Conte crayon on Arches Rives BFK cotton rag paper 30”x22”.
Each pose required approximately one week.
short poses
This group of abbreviated drawings (see below) selected from the collection of the artist were made in the presence of a live model in Conte crayon on handmade cotton and laid Ingres papers, 16”x12”. Each drawing was under one hour, most frequently between ten and twenty minutes in duration.
NUS AUX TROIS COULEURS
Some have valued the concept of “originality” as the most godlike and defining characteristic of the artist. However those artists who do not esteem equality with God as something to be grasped at, on the contrary carry their own originality lightly while holding historic precedent in high esteem.
The lexicon
The lexicon of artistic vocabulary itself is a reminder of the materials, methods and artisan traditions handed down from master to apprentice over centuries especially to artists who value the lessons of history. The three earth colors sanguine, noir, blanc that famously comprise the drawing palette of Rubens, Watteau and Boucher were already in use by the unknown master of the murals at Lascaux along with the addition of jaune giving us the four color four value old master palette containing within itself the entire color gamut.
