Lendy and I have been trading drawing images lately. She sent me these by Ginny Grayson. Lendy and I often share artworks with each other, some of them end up in V. Notes. We’ve been sharing drawings especially because we both love them so much, and they are underrepresented in galleries and museums. People often want to learn drawing so they can move on to other mediums, like painting. But why? How can an entire medium of loveliness be seen as being inferior to another, viewed as a stepping stone, when clearly they are beautiful and conceptually rich on their own.
Perhaps it is the money. Drawings on paper need to be framed and protected, and often the frame ends up costing more than the artwork itself. Paper and graphite earns 1/10th of what paint and canvas earn (I am making this number up but I am publishing this on the Internet so it must be true), and work on paper doesn’t last 300 years like some paintings do, leaving drawings unprofitable for investors and unaffordable for both the artist and the gallery. What a pity.
And yet drawings are wonderful to make, and lovely to look at. So much is learned and experienced through drawing. I have deep reverence for the sound of charcoal on paper in an otherwise quiet room. The soft brush of charcoal on paper is the sound of focus and curiosity. The process of drawing is the process of seeing, and that is not unlike the experience of falling in love.
On the artist’s website, Ginny Grayson says “(…) my preference has always been for the works that look more like a smudge / pile of dust, then the form slowly becomes recognisable. It is the process of working with the medium, mistakes and what evolves that I find most rewarding.”
Welcome to the 30 Day Challenge The goal of the 30 Day Challenge is to start the new year with a creative habit. The challenges are diverse, and open to all. Before & After. We start our 30 Day Creative Challenge with two separate self portraits: one as you imagine you were on January 1, …
[image_with_animation image_url=”8635″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Maggi Hambling Welcome to your day after Saint Patrick’s Day. Hopefully you feel better than these people do. I’m starting a Maggi Hambling fan club. Who’s with me? ” load_in_animation=”none
If you have taken or taught a class at the Seattle Artist League in the last year, you are invited to submit up to three artworks to our online show. We can’t promise we’ll show every piece, but we will show at least one artwork per person. This show is about you as an artist, so you …
Preparing for my Unconventional Portraits class this Friday night, I asked Google to show me famous portrait painters. I saw this: In a line of 27 portrait painters, 24 are white men. The exceptions are two black people, and two women. One person in the line is both black, and a woman: Amy Sherald. That …
Ginny Grayson’s drawings
Lendy and I have been trading drawing images lately. She sent me these by Ginny Grayson. Lendy and I often share artworks with each other, some of them end up in V. Notes. We’ve been sharing drawings especially because we both love them so much, and they are underrepresented in galleries and museums. People often want to learn drawing so they can move on to other mediums, like painting. But why? How can an entire medium of loveliness be seen as being inferior to another, viewed as a stepping stone, when clearly they are beautiful and conceptually rich on their own.
Perhaps it is the money. Drawings on paper need to be framed and protected, and often the frame ends up costing more than the artwork itself. Paper and graphite earns 1/10th of what paint and canvas earn (I am making this number up but I am publishing this on the Internet so it must be true), and work on paper doesn’t last 300 years like some paintings do, leaving drawings unprofitable for investors and unaffordable for both the artist and the gallery. What a pity.
And yet drawings are wonderful to make, and lovely to look at. So much is learned and experienced through drawing. I have deep reverence for the sound of charcoal on paper in an otherwise quiet room. The soft brush of charcoal on paper is the sound of focus and curiosity. The process of drawing is the process of seeing, and that is not unlike the experience of falling in love.
On the artist’s website, Ginny Grayson says “(…) my preference has always been for the works that look more like a smudge / pile of dust, then the form slowly becomes recognisable. It is the process of working with the medium, mistakes and what evolves that I find most rewarding.”
See more on her website.
There’s a Tuesday evening drawing class starting October 8th. Who’s tempted? Click here to learn more.
Related Posts
30SAL Challenge: Before & After
Welcome to the 30 Day Challenge The goal of the 30 Day Challenge is to start the new year with a creative habit. The challenges are diverse, and open to all. Before & After. We start our 30 Day Creative Challenge with two separate self portraits: one as you imagine you were on January 1, …
Paintings about Hangovers
[image_with_animation image_url=”8635″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Maggi Hambling Welcome to your day after Saint Patrick’s Day. Hopefully you feel better than these people do. I’m starting a Maggi Hambling fan club. Who’s with me? ” load_in_animation=”none
CALL FOR ART: Online Anniversary Show
If you have taken or taught a class at the Seattle Artist League in the last year, you are invited to submit up to three artworks to our online show. We can’t promise we’ll show every piece, but we will show at least one artwork per person. This show is about you as an artist, so you …
Amy Sherald
Preparing for my Unconventional Portraits class this Friday night, I asked Google to show me famous portrait painters. I saw this: In a line of 27 portrait painters, 24 are white men. The exceptions are two black people, and two women. One person in the line is both black, and a woman: Amy Sherald. That …