Abstracting Italy

July 15, 2016

A description of how my abstract images come about
I remember visiting Barcelona some years back and being completely uninspired to sketch anything. Feeling like I didn’t want to just repeat what I had done so many times before, my sketchbook remained empty until we happened to visit the Miro modern art museum on the hilltop. From that experience I was energized to change my process to seeing and capturing interesting forms wherever I came upon them, and to throw my typical location sketching out the window. What a welcome realization!

impressions, impressions

It was for me a return to what I have thought of as my walkabout sketching approach in earlier travels, where I simply collect interesting things on the page as I came across them, with no plan to create a drawing.

tuscany

Then later I began to connect the dots into what might be something interesting. Drawing lightly with pencil gave me the freedom to add things to the page without committing to them. Sometimes I will see shapes that are interesting, and only later realize I should document them in pencil.
 Taking photos helps this process as I can look back to find things I decide to add to a preliminary drawing. The trees, leaves, stonework, wrought iron, medieval weaponry, signage, all can factor in where needed.

florence

silent villa, tuscany

monoliths

Can you see elements in the photos that I’ve used in the drawings?

I like the feeling of being on a sketching adventure, where I don’t know what might come along to be added to the page. In addition to these four drawings I created on my recent travels in Italy, I’ve added a few photos that show the kind of images that find their way into the drawings.