Are Replicas Changing the Way We Experience Art?

Precise Digital Reproductions Allow More People to Own and View Masterpieces...Minus the Work’s Soul

You are in the Chauvet cave, 35,000 years old. As you enter, the walkway you traverse winds around spot-lit, saber-toothed stalactites and stalagmites. The rough-skin texture of the stone walls is slick in the perpetually damp dark. Your flashlight picks out first one, then more, prehistoric paintings on the wall. A deer, bison, a rhinoceros, all painted in charcoal black by Paleolithic hands. Or were they?

Something is missing, even a blind person could tell that. The scent is all wrong. Instead of damp mustiness, it smells of, well, tourists. You are not in the real Chauvet cave, which is closed to the public, as the atmospheric conditions which preserve its fragile paintings must be maintained. Instead, you are in the Caverne du Pont d’Arc, a recently opened replica of the Chauvet cave. It’s accurate down to the last undulation of the stone wall—to the last stalactite—but patently false.

CLICK HERE to read more...  article by Noah Charney (Aug 8, 2016) in Zócalo Public Square, Arizona State University.

Why We Do The "Difficult" Drawings

In our five-day Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain® workshops, our students produce drawings of subject matter that is usually considered to be among the most difficult of all of the enormous range of subject matter available for teaching drawing skills.  Our teaching subjects include:

  • A drawing of one’s own hand
  • A chair in perspective
  • A landscape or interior view of a room or building
  • A profile portrait of a fellow student
  •  A self-portrait

We do not do this to torture our students.  Drawing is always the same task, always requiring the same basic skills, just as reading is always the same task, no matter what the reading material might be.  Therefore, we might as well go for the satisfaction of drawing the “hard stuff” as opposed to the “easy stuff,” such as a potted plant or a simple still life. 

The purpose—and the advantage—of using difficult subject matter is that it encourages accurate perceptions and provides valuable feedback to the person doing the drawing.  Misperceptions will show up instantly in a portrait, whereas misperceptions of daisies in a vase, for example, will not be apparent, nor will anyone care.  Our second motivation comes from the thinking of American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) who said that the greatest satisfaction comes from learning to do something really difficult.  Once our students have acquired and practiced basic drawing skills, our hope is that over time they will expand their personal styles of expressive drawing.

The following is a supreme example of superb early realism and expansion into myriad styles: A series of self-portraits by Picasso.

Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881 to April 8, 1973) grew up as an artist trained in the classical tradition who went on to become perhaps the most innovative painter of the 20th century.  He was christened Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, but became known worldwide by the single name “Picasso.”  Born in Spain, he lived most of his adult life in France.  His work spanned over seven decades and thousands of artworks.  Throughout his long career, Picasso often used self-portraits to depict himself in the many different guises, disguises, and incarnations of his autobiographical artistic persona.  The range of styles of these self-portraits over a lifetime, from realism to abstraction, is astonishing.

Better Aging Through Practice, Practice, Practice..of Drawing!

What to do about growing old?  In this article in the New York Times, the author Gerald Marzorati suggests that one way to offset the feeling of growing old is to “Find something—something new, something difficult—to immerse yourself in and improve at.”  The author cites growing evidence that learning and practicing a complicated skill can improve brain functions, especially memory.  Mr. Marzorati chooses tennis as his “skill to be learned, practiced, and improved.”

I would like to offer an alternative—learning to draw—for those of us who are not inclined to learn and practice an arduous and physical skill such as tennis…not that learning to draw isn’t arduous!  It is.  Because no exceptional physical strength or stamina is required, drawing can be continuously learned and practiced into great age, something that is not true of playing tennis. 

Drawing fits Mr. Marzorati’s recommendation for those who are aging to find a skill that can be endlessly learned and improved upon, no matter the age.  I can attest to that in my own work, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain®.  Since 1979, I have published four editions of my book, each time trying to improve upon and express my new learning about drawing and my continuing search for the best methods to teach those basic skills.  I truly believe that I can never completely get to the bottom of it.  It is an endless search.  And, I should say, there is great pleasure, joy, and satisfaction in continuing to learn.

The great Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) put it this way:

“I have drawn things since I was 6.  All that I made before the age of 65 is not worth counting.  At 73, I began to understand the true construction of animals, plants, trees, birds, fishes, and insects.  Consequently, when I am eighty, I’ll have made more progress.  At 90, I will enter in the secret of things.  At 100, I shall have reached something marvelous, but when I am 110, everything—every dot, every dash—will be alive.  I am writing this in my old age.  I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign myself ‘The Old Man Mad About Drawing.’”

~  Betty Edwards, May 6, 2016

The Power of a Sketchbook

You will see and remember things so much more if you sketch them, rather than just take selfies or quick photos with your phone!  Click here to read how one of the greatest museums in the world, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, encourages its patrons to sketch!  Bring Your Sketchpad & Pencil To The Museum!

Most museums allow this, but take your sketchbook everywhere with you.  You never know when you might see something beautiful, unusual, or memorable!

 

 

Negative Space in Calligraphy

It's all about negative space and continuous curves! Using drawn marks to learn to see.

This 11 minute video is a wonderful illustration of negative space, created by Peter Fraterdeus.  You might be interested in his Website: http://www.fraterdeus.com/zen   

Peter has taught seminars on calligraphy, type, and printing, in Berlin, Venice, Barcelona, Chicago, Two Rivers, and elsewhere.  He is a calligrapher, typographer, photographer, fine-printer, and life-long student of consciousness and symbolic communication forms. 



9 Things That Happen When You Carry A Sketchbook With You Nonstop

You might find this article interesting:  9 Things That Happen When You Carry A Sketchbook With You Nonstop!

However, I offer one piece of advice:  I’d suggest that you carry a smaller sketchbook than the one shown in the photo, say 4” x 6” in size. Pocket Sketching Notebooks  

It will easily fit into a pocket or purse and will attract less notice from onlookers, who often ask to see what you are drawing.  That is, unless you want to make some new friends!   There is nothing that beats someone drawing to attract an audience.

~  Betty Edwards, 2/24/2016