Week 1

Still Life - objects

This week deepened my understanding of observation. In our still life exercise, I learned that drawing isn’t just about objects — it’s about relationships between shapes and space. Shifting focus from outlines to tone, I began to see how light and shadow quietly tell the story of form.

Through chiaroscuro and erasure, I explored drawing not by adding, but by revealing — letting light emerge from darkness. These early exercises reminded me that drawing is as much about perception and patience as it is about pencil or charcoal.

“This week I was reminded that drawing is more than capturing what I see — it’s about translating an inner experience onto paper. Barnett Newman speaks of the ‘plasmic image,’ something alive that emerges not from copying the world, but from feeling and imagination. I found that idea comforting — even my awkward lines carry life when they come from within.”

“In the stillness of my first drawings, I thought of Antoni Tàpies’ idea of the ‘void’ — that beautiful, uncertain space where meaning can emerge. Not every mark needs to fill the page; sometimes, it’s the space in between that speaks the loudest. The gaps, the pauses, the negative space — they’re all part of the conversation.”

Further Readings:

🔸 Barnett Newman – "The Plasmic Image" (1943–45, pp. 24–26)

Newman urges us to think of drawing and painting not just as technical acts, but as a search for the "plasmic" — a living, breathing form of expression. He challenges the idea that art must imitate nature, instead suggesting that the true artist reaches into their own inner world, pulling forth a new reality.

🔸 Antoni Tàpies – "Painting and the Void" (1985, p. 56)

Tàpies explores emptiness and the value of the void in art — not as absence, but as a powerful space of potential. He believed that true creativity happens when we make space for silence, mistakes, and accidents. The void becomes a mirror of our being — imperfect, mysterious, human.