The Artist at Work

Chet Lawson, president of the Anderson Artists Guild, was the presenter for our July meeting. His topic was “Drawing, A Means to an End, or Just the End.” He wanted to share the following information and pictures as a follow-up:

“During the demonstration portion of the presentation, I had promised to show the finished drawings and paintings that I started that evening. So as not to detract from upcoming presentations, I wanted to share these with you on our blog.

“Working in my home studio with the same objects placed on a still-life table with backdrop and lighting, I went to work finishing these five pieces.

“Drawing 1 and the Watercolor were created from life as well as sketch references made during our session. Both are examples of representational work and attempt to capture local color and texture of the subject.

“In Drawing 2, I decided to take a slightly different approach by viewing the amphora from the top, resulting in a slightly abstract composition while still rendering the surfaces realistically.

“Inspired by the top view drawing, in Drawing 3 I decided to continue the theme by viewing the amphora from the side with only slight perspective, relying on the strong side lighting to define the shapes and contrasts.

“The Oil on Canvas is the last piece and is obviously inspired by Drawing 3. Compositionally, this was a real challenge since I was working on a square canvas with only one object as the subject. I decided to challenge traditional thinking by placing the subject 'dead center' on the canvas and relying on the subtle asymmetry of the handles as well as the folds in the cloth backdrop to complete the composition.

“Just for fun, I decided to add the title in metal leaf.”