Remains of the Day (oil on canvas, 2022)

I have spent many thousands of hours drawing from direct observation. For me, it has been a way to both develop technique and, more importantly, to develop fluency in the language of visual form. When you stand before a subject with a blank surface and some type of mark-making instrument you are faced with an almost infinite number of ways to translate what you are seeing into some kind of visual form. What parts of the subject to include in the composition and how to compose the subject within some kind of a frame, whether to use a linear approach or to use shapes, how to render the value relationships, whether to use objective colors as you see them or to use a more creative, subjective approach to color, how much detail to include or to draw in a more abstract, suggestive way. Grappling with these myriad choices is an inherent part of the drawing process. A visual artist, when working representationally, can, if they have the skill, render a convincing likeness of their subject but they can also render other content that is not based on optical perception. An artist can suggest emotions, atmosphere and weather, convey a narrative, create a sense of drama, and force the viewer to see things that they might not otherwise notice. All of these elements, including optical representation, are communicated through the use of visual language using lines, shapes, values, textures, colors, and the means by which these elements are organized.

For the past ten years or so, I have focused more on drawing in my studio, from memory and imagination, as a method of finding ways to convey “non-visual” elements through visual language. When working in this way, the emphasis is on visually representing the intangible, similar to how a musical composer might convey emotions or narrative through the arrangement of sounds. Although it may seem like a purely self-indulgent act of playing with the materials and seeing what happens, it is actually a much more focused attempt to create a visual representation of something. The struggle, through the process of drawing, is still about representing the subject visually, but the reference is not something that I am looking at; rather, it is something from inside, but the rules of effective visual communication still apply. It is actually more challenging than drawing a subject from direct observation because there is no reference for me to compare my work to. In the end, I am really the only one who can assess whether or not the work is a success.