THE ARTIST AND HIS MODEL
Years ago I recognized that the view across an expanse of the human body was an beautiful as any landscape. To paint it realistically, however, would bring to the forefront of perception many of the ramifications of human nudity. These intimacy issues could easily crowd out what I saw. Ergo, abstract it. Maybe I could make it work.
Some preliminary drawing convinced me that I should use a model for the grounding of the abstraction. As this was only one of many projects I intended to paint, it had to wait in line like the rest. Several years passed.
One night at dinner with some of the “Back Door Poets” in Pensacola, in a conversation about how arts are made, I mentioned my waiting list of “projects” to a poet-friend sitting on my right, and that one of them required a nude model. To my surprise and pleasure, she replied that she would pose for me, if I wished.
Thank you, yes. I’m not quite ready to start that project. I’ll call you and we can work out the details in a week or two. I’m not quite ready. . . .
My friend Paul Bissell, a Black Mountain painter in the early 1950’s, told me that any woman who thinks she has a good looking body will pose for you. Of course, it is not actually that simple, though I remembered his words.
Caroline came to the studio. I explained the project concept, the supine postures that I would need, and here’s a bathrobe to change into.
Though she was a bit nervous at first (as I was), she took to the poses easily. I did quick, large drawings, sketches really. When I would turn the page of the large drawing pad, she knew to change the pose. Or, I would change the lighting, and so on, and on. In a couple sessions, I had about sixty drawings.
Four of those drawings are in the show. To study the drawings without smudging their graphite lines and shadings, I photo-copied all of them, reducing them to about 9 x 12. These xerox-process images became material for transfer through an acrylic medium process using adhesion to acrylic primed supports (paper, canvas, etc) plus later coloring the acrylic surfaces with acrylic paint.
After some study of the drawings’ perspective, structure, etc., I began painting. About 18 of them are in this show.
There are 39 pieces in the show. Most are untitled. Sorry. It’s not artsy snobism. I just cannot quite add words to these pieces in a way that feels right. They are severe, sculpturesque, little, defenseless bits that cannot bear the semantic burden of words.
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