Drawings from the field

Trees, a wonderful family

Aloneness and oneness

Birds and trees, old friends

Here you can Look at some of the drawings realized during the period of the years 1988 to 2002.

They were done on the spot just observing any square inch of nature, most of it without choosing a particular subject. Everything was good enough to Learn and draw. The tools were very simple. A mechanical pencil and small sheets of ordinary paper. No eraser, no magnifier and glasses. Alone to not be disturbed by irrelevant chattering and other noises, and better come closer to the plants, insects or even stones. It is the only way to establish a very intimate relationship with Nature. So your mind is quiet and you don't stress the life around and in you too. You discover at every moment and your perception intensifies. When you Look carefully and draw at a small scale with just the 0.3 or 0.5 mm tip of the mechanical pencil filling the image on a small surface ( usually 40x28 mm or 38x65 mm ) your breathing slow down and you are almost still. Nature therefore get use to your presence quickly since you are not perceive as a danger. Birds and other small creatures like squirells can even, intrigued by your silent still presence, and even more by the quick movement of the tip of the pencil, come much closer than you could have thought. They are very curious and want to see closer this little thing moving on a small space. You might smile while reading this, and if the thought that it is a bit imaginatif and far stretched, come to your mind, you are invited to Learn to do it alone in the woods and see by yourself.

But not all the drawings are close-ups. Some are in fact from creatures seen quite far. Like trees, birds, mountains etc... You may or may not know that it is a very good exercise foe the eyes and their "muscles" to Look far and then close, very far like the shapes of the clouds or the silhouettes of the distant trees on the hill, and very close like inside a flower, ants in activity ( by the way its almost a pleonasm to write that since ants seems always busy! Have you ever seen a ant resting, lazily enjoying the breeze? The only ants not in movement were dead!).

Another point. When you draw like this your material consumption is very low. What is meant is that with just few A4 sheets of paper and a refill of 2B pencil leads, no camera of course, nothing else that your genuine intent to Learn by Looking at this world, not man made and not made in few years or centuries by in probably millions of years, with only that it is possible to produce a great collection of drawings. Drawings for perhaps others to see, but more importantly to Learn about yourself, develop a unique skill, be free of fear, not worried about the material aspect of Art, and the lack of inspiration!... Nature will provide an endless, yes really endless, treasure for your eyes and ultimately for all your senses. And when all your senses are alive, awaken, sensitive, there is an intense awareness taking place in your being. All the mechanical, restless, loud noise of the social, industrial activity give the way to the subtle murmur of the natural life. There is a lot of impredictibility in it and awareness is required.

Is this meditation? It may be, and yet you don't know. You don't know because you are not really practising anything, but just open your eyes, feel the life buzzing around and let the curves and contours of the many "objects" guide your hand. Your hand probably quite clumsy at the beginning, but you will be astonished to find out how fast the tuning take place. How fast your fingers Learn the right amount of movement, speed and pressure to tell the story of what you are Looking at.

So maybe now enough verbal details, and let's the visual, pictorial details speak by themselves.

Just a last point: as you do, maybe everyday, some drawings among the flowers, the leaves, the trees, the butterflies and other insects, the birds, the lakes, mountains and clouds, you are Looking all the time to the light which make it possible, and as you Learn, your Love grows deeper and deeper for this magic world which has made us alive enough to... Live.

L'Homme d'Art