The Athlete Wraps Her Ankle, work in progress, oil on linen, 40”x30”
We were actually working out other poses for the painting, all of them seated. Seated, because Rachel’s ankle is injured and she can’t do a sustained standing pose just yet. So I was drawing other poses, and then she was wrapping her ankle, and I said, “Stop - that’s it.”
Preparatory Sketch for ‘The Athlete Wraps Her Ankle’, pencil on paper, 15”x11”
As I was drawing, I realized it had triggered some memory in me - it took a little while to place it, but then I remembered.
Boy with Thorn, Also Called Fedele, and Spinaro, Roman Copy of a Greek Original
The next session, we got to work on the painting. I was using the impasto technique I’ve been teaching myself lately - first a heavy burlap-like canvas, and then the sculpted transparent oleopasto underlayer, and finally thick paint (for me) on top of that. And I was getting the same satisfyingly physical results I have gotten since I started.
detail, The Athlete Wraps Her Ankle, work in progress (apologies for blurry cell phone picture)
At the end of the last session, I had a little time left over - not enough for the face, but more than one wants to waste. Rachel had a very clear tan line from a week in the Caribbean, so I figured we should do a drawing of that. I love tan lines in art, a thing I learned as a child from the dazzling, carefree, sunlit world of Hockney’s Beverly Hills, so similar in its drowsily sensual way to the unmarked glowing hours of Matisse’s afternoons in Nice.
David Hockney, Sunbather, 1966
As I was getting ready to do my drawing, I explained to Rachel that I had recently switched from a 2b pencil to a softer 3b pencil, because I was finding I wanted to make my darks darker and heavier. And she said, “Oh, so it’s like your painting.” And I said, “What do you mean?” And she said, “You went from your thin, delicate surface to this thick paint in just the same way.”
I hadn’t thought of that. But of course it’s true.
Rachel’s Tanline, pencil on paper, 15”x11”
An artist-model collaboration is something special. The model observes how you are with her. She will notice whether she is naked or "a nude" in your eyes and how you look at her. There is the look of excitement when you perceive and comprehend what is special with your model.That recognition is reciprocal and an integral part of the very special world that is then created - the artist and the muse. It is an archetypal form of communication which requires absolute trust in one's instinct.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really thought over the mechanism in this way, Michael, but what you say corresponds with my experience of it - thanks for taking the time to write it out in this way.
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