Expressive Drawing

I've really enjoyed looking at Steven Aimone's book Expressive Drawing (2009).  It is a book full of workshops designed to liberate the artist so that drawing becomes more spontaneous.  The bonus is that there are vignettes of many artists and many of them are new to me.  I've chosen one or two to include in my blog - the reasons for the selection are explained under each heading.

Elizabeth Layton 1910-1983

Elizabeth Layton
elizabethlayton.com

I've chosen Layton because although she was a successful career woman, wife and mother she suffered severe bouts of manic depression for many years.  When her youngest son died in 1976 she fell victim to debilitating despair.  Art saved her and she went on the become nationally recognised. 

Layton said of herself

 "I was deeply depressed, but that was inside me....I started drawing, and started liking myself better."

I worked with adults with severe mental health problems for over 30 years and I saw art transform the sense of self and turn lives around.

In her work Layton addressed social issues with a sense of the absurd.  Many of her images are of herself in various guises.

Buttons 1982 - Elizabeth Layton
Crayons and coloured pencils 55.9 x 76.2 cm
elizabethlayton.com

Buttons shows Layton as a social activist.  In an article in the Washington Post she was nicknamed "Grandma Moses on Tabasco sauce"

I'm into Art Therapy - Elizabeth Layton. 1987
elizabethlayton.com

I think she must have been quite a woman.

Bill Traylor 1854 - 1949

Bill Traylor was born a slave on a plantation in Alabama.  He gained freedom at the end of the Civil War but continued to live in the place he grew up.  He married and raised a family and eventually when all those close to him had died or left he moved away from the familiar surroundings to Montgomery. Traylor was illiterate but when he was 83 he took up drawing with minimal equipment and produced a body of work that most artists couldn't fulfil in a lifetime.  Whilst segregation was still a factor in American life Traylor was discovered by Charles Shannon who organised an exhibition of his work and it met with acclaim.

I love the fact that Traylor began his artistic career so late in life and that he was able to communicate so much with his symbolic figures and shapes.  There's lots of movement and action and they rather remind me of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Walnettos Figures Construction - Bill Traynor. 1939
Poster paint on cardboard

Brown Mule - Bill Traylor. 1939 

pencil, crayon and gouache on board

petulloartcollection.org

From disadvantaged beginnings and entirely self taught Traylor is now hailed as one of America's foremost folk artists.

Will Barnet 1911 - 2012

Barnet gets just a brief mention in Expressive Drawing but it's very relevant to me because it features a representational portrait in charcoal.  Having just had my first real experience of working in that particular medium I can only be amazed at what Barnet produced.

Portrait of Carole - Will Barnet. 1982
Charcoal on paper
Aimone (2009)

This is a salutary lesson in using light and shade to define the image.  I love it.



Aimone S. (2009)  Expressive Drawing.  Lark Crafts.  New York.