The Slow and Silent Creation of Art

Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself.  When you look at it or hold it & let it be without imposing a word of mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you.  Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you.  This is what great artists sense and succeed in conveying in their art.  Van Gogh didn't say: "That's just an old chair."  He looked, and looked, and looked.  He sensed the Beingness of the chair.  Then he sat in front of the canvas and took up the brush.  

Eckhart Tolle

Block-in Portrait study with Angela Cunningham

In October of last year I took another workshop with Angela Cunningham at the Townsend Atelier in Chattanooga, blocking-in the portrait from observation in graphite.  Angela's class emphasized understanding and practicing of the visual tools of blocking-in to develop measuring and shape-seeing abilities. Focusing on block-ins is a traditional academic training method that allows one to fine tune foundational skills for high accuracy.  Here is my block-in from the class with a value study I did following the class.  Of course, the portrait is not finished at all.  But this gives an idea of how accurate measuring in the very beginning creates a basis for a good likeness of the model.