The pleasure of sketching

Since I’ve started with drawings and sketchings and cartoons I’ll give you one more: little boy I’ve sketched during the Bromont Art Symposium… Was it 2002? 2003? I don’t remember any more. But I know I did a lot of skethcing then, waiting for a collector to come and buy everything… Usually,  they didn’t bother but I still covered my expenses and leave there with a little profit… Danu, the capitalist… Anyway, recently I’ve seen some sketches by Watteau, this “artiste maudit” avant la lettre, dead at 37, like Rafael, like Modigliani, Van Gogh and others who “kicked the bucket” at this fatidic age… I was impressed by the spontaneity, the vigour and, at the same time, the exquisite delicacy of his drawings. I could only imagine him, drawing. All the pleasure that sketching would have brought in his poor life, all the joy. Painter of the so called “fêtes galantes of the end of the 17th and beginning of the 17th century in France, associated with “joie de vivre” and eroticism, he was quite and auster artist. Delicat, discretely erotic but not at all as Fragonnard or Boucher. I would say I will appreciate him even more for that… and he was a great draftsman, just as good as Bruegel and Rembrandt an Rubens. It is not rare to be able to tell more about an artist looking at his/her drawins. No “comission” for that… Just the artist, unadulterated,  “pure”…

Mixing techniques

I’ve always like to try new things… to mix techniques and try new drawing instruments (for instance, the dry reed is an excellent one, used by Rembrandt, Bruegel and Van Gogh). Practically, with acrylics, and acrylic mediums and pastas you can use almost anything to shape your painting: a comb,  all kind of plastic dinner forks and knifes, knitting needles, your hands and nails, the other side of the brush (the handle) etc. etc. Only your imagination puts a limit to this… The excellent adherence of the acrylic paint – inks included – makes very interesting the combination acrylic base + pastel (oil pastel is preferable because of its better adherence and simplicity – no need to apply a fixer…) This is one of my first experiments in mixing acrylics, watercolor and pastel. Not a masterpiece but it can give you an idea of what I’m talking about… And it will make a contrast with some sad, melodramatic postings I did lately…

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Mi-a placut intotdeauna sa experimentez. Sa incerc noi tehnici picturale, noi materiale, noi instrumente de desin…de ex., trestia taiata pe care atat Rembrandt cat si Bruegel si Van Gogh au folosit-o…Practic, odata cu culorile de tip acrilic (inclusiv tusurile, ca si nenumaratele varietatzi de paste si mediumuri acrilice) campul de experiementare a devenit practic nelimitat (doar limitele propriei imaginatzii constinuie “limita”…) Datorita excelentei lor aderentze si a faptului ca potzi modela tabloul tau cu practic aproape orice instrument, de la piepteni la ace de crosetat, etc. o baza ade acrilice poate fi foarte usor si bine “desenata” cu pasteluri (personal le prefer pe cele de ulei – in cazul acesta – fiindca adera mai bine si nu trebuie fixate, ca cel seci…)

Nudul prezent e una din primele mele incercari de “tehnica mixta” . Nu e o capodopera, dar va putetzi face o idee despre ce inseamna “tehnica mixta” acrilice-pastel, cu ceva acuarele in plus…Si face un contrast interesant fatza de unele postari triste si melodramatice pe care le-am facut recent…