On gesture drawing
Gesture drawing implies that the object of observation is not stationary and that the lines, as products of the movement of the hand, are able to convey the sense, rhythms, speed, feeling and gestalt (configuration) of the actions of the moving object. The aim in gesture drawing is to depict what the object is doing.
If we think of objects, any object, as resisting the forces of gravity, there are no immobile objects in the world. Even a stone is somehow occupied in keeping its shape, resisting, standing against the forces of the elements and against the pull of gravity of the earth, as well as the gravity of every other object and their fields of force. What we see in the world is the product of a conflict of forces, balance is a sum of efforts. Balance in life as in art is activity, not passivity.
In gesture drawing the physical act of marking the surface of the paper is the clue to the product. The drawing will reflect or express at the same time the qualities of movements of the subject and of the object. Both the physical involvement of the artist with the medium by means of the artist's own bodily actions (including hand, arm and by extension the whole body, physical posture, muscular tone, energy, speed, ect.), the artist's gestures, and the configurations of the object in space, the object's actions and what those actions communicate, that is, the understanding of the object's form and dynamics also as gesture, that is, as expressive form.
If we think of objects, any object, as resisting the forces of gravity, there are no immobile objects in the world. Even a stone is somehow occupied in keeping its shape, resisting, standing against the forces of the elements and against the pull of gravity of the earth, as well as the gravity of every other object and their fields of force. What we see in the world is the product of a conflict of forces, balance is a sum of efforts. Balance in life as in art is activity, not passivity.
In gesture drawing the physical act of marking the surface of the paper is the clue to the product. The drawing will reflect or express at the same time the qualities of movements of the subject and of the object. Both the physical involvement of the artist with the medium by means of the artist's own bodily actions (including hand, arm and by extension the whole body, physical posture, muscular tone, energy, speed, ect.), the artist's gestures, and the configurations of the object in space, the object's actions and what those actions communicate, that is, the understanding of the object's form and dynamics also as gesture, that is, as expressive form.
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