The idea for Contemplating a Sculpture came to me last year and it's one of several compositions I've drawn in recent years on the narrative theme of people engaged with art. Five or six of the ideas have made it to the easel and have been painted, such as In the Clay Room which I posted about earlier this month. Drawings for a number of other ideas are still floating around the studio, waiting their turn.
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Contemplating a Sculpture
9" x 10", oil on linen, 2016
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The only bright color in this painting is the golden-yellow shape. All the subdued and neutral colors surrounding it serve to enhance the focus on the sculpture.
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drawing #1
2 1/4" x 4", pen on paper, 2015
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The first drawing for this composition had the two figures placed together on the right, but when I returned to the image two months later, I decided to move the sculpture to the center.
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drawing #2
3" x 4 1/2", pen on paper, 2015
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The sculpture also became a woman's figure in the second drawing; a change I quickly abandoned because it was too literal and off point.
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drawing #3
5 1/2" x 6", pencil on graph paper, 2015
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drawing #4
5 1/2" x 6", pencil on graph paper, 2016
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drawing #5 (final drawing)
9" x 10", pencil on graph paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2016
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In the final drawing, I added an abstract painting that has personal significance but more importantly bridges the gap between the two figures and completes an arching movement around the sculpture.
This is an intriguing work, made all the more interesting by your composition progressions. I think it was quite brilliant to alter the position of the sculpture, since it completely changes the dynamic between the two people and their interaction with the object. Now the people are no longer looking at the sculpture in the conventional sense from a shared perspective, but rather are engaged with it, yet from wholly different viewpoints. It is an engagement which is more intimate, and allows for greater exploration of their respective reactions: lovingly? longingly? quizzically? Equally, the focus on the sculpture is now more central to the work, serving to draw the viewer into the painting almost as a third person/perspective. Excellent.
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