Drawing & Painting vs. Photography

Apropos the reservations expressed in the previous post about the efficacy of using photography to represent certain aspects of the essential pearness of pears & specific physical qualities of the pears in question, I decided to make a couple of studies in order address my dissatisfaction with the results achieved using that particular medium, the first in graphite & the second in watercolour. Both, in their technical realization of form by a process of layering & accretion of visual information over a period of intense contemplation, scrutiny & decision-making, & by virtue of their own physical presence (not fully communicable here in a virtual context, alas), come closer in feeling and aesthetic to my original intention, whatever, ultimately, their sketchy nature & quality or absence of: undoubtedly, there is some form of virtue, some purpose, to be gained from the ‘hard(er)-won image’, it seems.



Below is featured a large-scale charcoal drawing of some Comice pears made some years ago during the course of my undergraduate studies, which seems to illustrate a much deeper level of engagement with the subject & more profound aesthetic experience altogether. This piece utilizes gorgeous, heavyweight Fabriano ‘Rosaspina’ paper, intended for printmaking but wonderfully receptive as a support for charcoal too, the surface of which breaks down easily to allow access to an underlying soft, crumbly texture perfect for retaining the marks of a drawing’s process, a record of its making and revisions (the drawing in question, like many of its contemporary fellows, was heavily worked over a period of time), layers of memory fixed in physical form, the scoring of the surface echoing that occurring on the pears with the passage of time, becoming a particular physical aspect of the drawing-as-an-object (as opposed to it being ‘merely’ two-dimensional) and incidentally giving the drawing something of the appearance of – perhaps somewhat ironically – an aged photograph, transparency or grainy film still. More of such work can be found on my art & design website, in the drawings gallery via the home page.