Studio Notes: The Eternal Subject
The Human
There are slower periods in my practice, when I am not creating that much, but rather spending time on reflections. It’s especially important for me in times when I am not feeling inspired to create due to busyness or a temporary creative block. It helps me to still show up for my art, gives me an overview of where I am heading, and also gives me new ideas and inspiration.
Recently, I have been making a lot of work and studies focused on the human as its central subject. I’ve been avoiding this subject matter for a long time due to a variety of reasons - from a lack of skills to the emotional component of it. Improving skills is something that is achieved by practice and learning, and I am glad that I found ways to work on that. However, the emotional overwhelm I can sometimes get when I am working with the human as a subject is something I am still figuring out.
A big help for me on this journey are amazing books I already mentioned several times - Bill Buchman “Expressive figure drawing” and Emily Ball “Drawing and painting people: a fresh approach”. They allowed me to find more expressive ways of creating work and also gave food for thought.
Emily has a chapter that is called “The Primitive, the Goddess and the Now” which is devoted to the concept of a human figure as an eternal subject, which inspired this post.
She talks about how focusing on the human is connected to our desire for self-examination and searching for the meaning of life, and how depictions of the human figure can reference myths and be symbolic, and, thus, have a timeless and universal quality. This all speaks to what I want to explore in my own work and probably at least partially explains why I tend to get overwhelmed when focusing on the human figure.
In January and February I spent some time developing ideas around the female figure and its poetic interpretations in art:
I also finished a small collection of halo portraits, exploring how I can bring symbolism into my work:
Right now I am in a busy period, with only small pockets of time I can spend on making art. That is why this year I devoted my 100 days project to portraits - in a very free and undemanding way. I am creating blind contour drawings on paper using only one material at a time, and allowing myself to adjust and tweak them afterwards:
I am not sure which direction all these pieces are taking me, but I am enjoying the journey. I’m trying to notice what is it that excites me, and what are the common threads that run through this body of work.
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I always love hearing from you in the comments - what are your favorite depictions of the “eternal subject”?
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Until next time!
Lisa
I always love to follow and read how deeply you take your art explorations, it’s really inspiring Lisa ✨ and I’m enjoying so much your 100day project!
They are very expressive, I love them!