Drawing to See

Drawings are a document of the process and a direct reflection of thinking and artistic decision-making. An Artist’s Handbook, page 58

Many thanks to the wonderful artists who participated in my drawing program, Drawing to See, at Tenuta di Spannocchia in Italy this summer. There is an overall theme for the course, Genius Loci (spirit of place). In addition, each artist chooses their own theme and a related poem. There is an emphasis on materials, process, and the open-endedness, ongoing and unfinished nature of a drawing. Using exercises from An Artist’s Handbook, the importance of the unfinished aspect of the drawing process – an exploration of ideas, an embodiment of the transition and flux in the act of experience – is addressed. Artists work from direct observation, from the flat, and from memory, visualization and imagination. Here are some images of this season’s artists and their work.

Studio (limonaia, lemon tree barn) at Tenuta di Spannocchia

Sketching in the yard outside the studio at Spannocchia

View of Spannocchia farmhouses from the yard outside the studio

Alexandra Eldridge in the studio

Alexandra

Etruscan Mirror, graphite, ultramarine blue violet pigment, ink on found antique paper

Spannocchia is an Etruscan place. There is a small museum, a former granary, on the estate with objects on display excavated from an Etruscan cistern during a dig in the area.

Sketch of a floor tile in the Piccolomini Library in Siena, graphite (below)

Pierced, terre pozzuoli pigmented trace for transfer (above)

Transferred image, terre pozzuoli pigment on Magnani paper (above)

Silverpoint drawing on Magnani paper with prepared ground (below)

Siena

Revelation (Spannocchia Cat), silverpoint and iron gall ink on prepared ground

Nest in the Villa Windowsill, graphite, conté crayon, ink on found antique paper

Tiny Moment, Refuge and Sanctuary (villa bedroom 2 bath), indigo ink on Fabriano Artistico paper

I Find You in All These Things, iron gall and indigo ink on vellum, conté crayon on Fabriano Artistico paper

Poem: I Find You in All These Things, Rainer Maria Rilke

Theme: Revelation

Amy Conway in the studio

Flower, graphite (stumped and erased) on vellum

Charcoal sketch after Giorgio Morandi

Pierced, terre pozzuoli pigmented trace for transfer

Transferred image, terre pozzuoli pigmentSketches after Susan Topilkar, sum ink on kraft paper and Japanese Kitakata paper

Silverpoint sketch, of a Memmo di Filippuccio fresco detail in Palazzo Comunale in San Gimignano, on Arches buff paper with prepared ground, adhered with thread to mulberry paper

San Gimignano

Teasels, walnut ink on vellum

Tiny Moment, Watching the Cypress Tree Breathe, sum ink on Arches paper

Nocturne, indigo ink on Fabriano Artistico paper

Sketch of botanical subject, sumi ink on Fabriano Artistico paper

Poem: In the Garden of Possibilities, Amy Conway

Theme: Liberation and Illumination

Yu Rong in the studio

Silverpoint highlighted with white and yellow on tinted ground

Eternity, pressed botanical material on tinted ground

Bound book, sumi ink and collage on vellum

Nocturne, Sovicille Night, iron gall, indigo, and walnut ink, watercolor on vellum mounted on rag paper

Doorsien (a view out the studio window), watercolor

Doorsien, Abbazia Di San Galgano, silverpoint, watercolor on tinted ground

Abbazia Di San Galgano

Abbazia Di San Galgano

Fragrances, silverpoint, iron gall, walnut and indigo ink, botanical material on prepared ground

Poem: Fragrances, Bashõ

Theme: Fragrances and Nature

Joe Sasarak in the studio stitching line

Teasels, silverpoint on tinted ground

Teasels, sumi ink on vellum

Doorsien (studio entrance), silverpoint on tinted ground

Sketch from Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Annunciation (sinopia underdrawing), Monte Siepi Chapel, San Galgano, conté crayon

Silverpoint sketch of villa bedroom pillows on prepared ground (after Albrecht Durer)

Lance, charcoal sketch on moleskin

Club Kid, bound and sealed book, sumi ink, thread, collage, vellum, mulberry paper, tinted rag paper

Evolution, sketch from Jacobo da Pontormo’s Nude Boy Seated, conté crayon on laid paper

Nocturne (The Chambered Nautilus), iron gall and indigo ink on vegetable vellum mounted on rag paper

Poem: The Chambered Nautilus, Oliver Wendell Holmes

Theme: Evolution (artistic)

Castello di Spannocchia

The Spannocchia Foundation is a private foundation with a focus on sustainable resources. The Foundation occupies a twelve hundred acre, forested estate in Tuscany. Spannocchia is an Etruscan place, with an Etruscan museum housed in a fourteenth century granary, adjacent to a twelfth century castle. Among other endeavors, the Foundation blends early farming methods with state-of-the art twenty-first century farming practice. My Painting, Drawing and Art History Programs resonate with the Foundation’s vision, in that there is a concentration on early drawing and painting methods revealing the art history and tradition within the context and location of early practice, examined through the lens of contemporary art practice.

Drawing to See artists at San Galgano

San Galgano

San Gimignano

Monteriggioni

Florence from Giotto’s Campanile

Scriptorium, our favorite drawing materials source in Florence

Scriptorium

Painting at Farnesia, Michelangelo gave Daniel endless advice. One day he even came in to visit him and , not finding him, he climbed on the scaffolding and drew a huge head with charcoal. It is still there. Daniel respected it and did not put color on it so that posterity could know more about Michelangelo, even when he was playing.

Stendhal, The Italian Schools of Painting