painting as drawing
Often, my work will start as an underpainting of the abstract object shapes themselves, forms laid in against one another directly with the brush. More effort is spent constantly correcting that painted drawing, simplifying, but keeping the picture as loose pieces of paint, rather than exactly rendered parts of the whole. The definition of ‘drawing’ seems often to be thought of as a more understandable form of a description, where ‘painting’ might easily mean anything, rather than some specific expectation. Since these paintings are more exacting, I like to see them akin to that distinction of drawn imagery rather than what might be thought of today as painted imagery. Regardless of the loose application, the expressed traditional composition continues to recall historical process. But hopefully the wash and action of the paint itself fashions the illusion within a fresh, facilitating style. With that, less can be more.
The painting as drawing is clearly more traditional to a painterly surface, where that of drawing as painting is a more graphical representation. I will do either, as I’m inclined, having no difficulty with the difference of each design as what may or may not be important to how my desire for either image makes that particular picture complete.