In the Clay Room
14" x 12, oil on linen, 2016
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Two drawings for this composition:
drawing #1
7" x 6 1/4", pencil on graph paper, 2016
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drawing #2, final
14" x 12", pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2016
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In the Clay Room
14" x 12, oil on linen, 2016
|
drawing #1
7" x 6 1/4", pencil on graph paper, 2016
|
drawing #2, final
14" x 12", pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2016
|
In the Clay Room is a striking work. I am reminded of some lines from Eliot's The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock:
ReplyDelete"There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that we meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate."
The lines seem entirely appropriate to the painting. The woman, strikingly defined in red and black, seems not so much to have created the clay heads but rather to be confronting them. Choosing one (of herself or others) from her past or present, she places it with delicate care on the stand, taking pains not to disturb the clay with her hands, and stares at the head as if it is a grey-brown ghost from her past. What memories are coursing through her head? What questions does she seek to answer? And looming above all in the background, pinned to the wall, is the great half face and fixed single eye watching everything unfold.
It is a complex and singular piece, Andrew. Well done, indeed.
-GS