I spent too long at the allotment today trying to make my shed more rectangular and less like a parallelogram. So I didn't have time or energy to sketch. Hence I've posted this drawing which I made five years ago - a copy of a William Orpen drawing (1912). Copying it was a lesson in the economy of line - form - anatomy. The original drawing is in the Higgins collection. William Orpen was a contemporary of Augustus John with whom he established the Chelsea school of Art. Orpen himself had attended the Slade and was taught by Henry Tonks - famous for his anatomical studies of injured soldiery from WW1. There's an honesty of gaze in both their work. Orpen's career as a war artist was forever altered by what he saw in the trenches. My own grandfather, a surgeon, was there in the Royal Medical Corps, and his older brother - my great-uncle Gordon - was killed in October 1917 at the third battle of Ypres. 99 years later, I thought about that when I sketched this in the Higgins museum. Drawing helps you see - and think. |