Come Sit with Me, Georges Braque

Come Sit with Me, Georges Braque, 30" x 24"

I am happy to have finished this piece well ahead of deadline. I made it in response to a SAQA call for entry with the theme "Turmoil". This show is to be held in conjunction with the "Tranquility" show, for which I also created an entry.

It was exciting for me to set aside my Cityscapes series and techniques and try something different. This piece is inspired by a sketch I made while taking a class on Cubism in November. The teacher, Jessica Houston, explained that Cubism was the dismantling of the single-viewer perspective as devised in the early Renaissance. Instead, artists like Georges Braque used multiple, simultaneous viewpoints, to create an impression of reality as we actually experience it, moving through time and space. This breaking with convention created turmoil in the art world.

preliminary blind contour drawing of the stool:
made without looking at paper, without lifting pencil from paper

Our instructor placed a four-legged stool on a tabletop for us to draw. After a minute or two, she turned it upside down, and we continued to draw. She kept turning the stool, and we kept sketching.

another sketch with some lines erased and others emphasized

We were told to erase some of our lines, and emphasize others with a heavy line of charcoal.

We were then instructed to cut out an image of the stool from newspaper, without benefit of pencil, and incorporate the cut-out into another drawing. This third sketch was the one I worked from to make Come Sit with Me, Georges Braque.

A full-size maquette and various cut-outs, all part of the process

oil paint stick was applied to cloth shapes

Violin and Candlestick, Georges Braque

I continually referred to one of Braque's paintings, observing his use of colour, shape, line and brushstroke. The Cubists were innovators who collaged non-traditional materials like newspaper and wallpaper into their paintings. I referenced this by using some commercial cotton printed to resemble newsprint.

The dimensions of my piece are the minimum for this call for entry: 30 x 24". The announcement of which pieces have been accepted for both shows, "Tranquility" and "Turmoil", will be at the end of March. Fingers crossed! Meanwhile, Come Sit with Me, Georges Braque will hang with its companion piece Come Sit with Me, Patrick Caulfield at my upcoming solo show in Ottawa, both marked as NFS (not for sale).