Sketch Book for the Artist

OBJECTS

AND

INSTRUMENTS

Bench Marks

WHEN WE DRAW A COMMON OBJECT like a chair, its

character, craft, and place in the world are truly seen. From

component parts we understand how to put it together and

make it stand sensible in space. Sarah Woodfines flat cut-out

model plan is a witty and surprising drawing. A renegade

from the paper dolls' house, this chair presents us with a

clever visual contradiction: deeply drawn shadows tell us it

must be solid, while the tabs make us see a flat paper cut-out.

We are left a little confused as to what we should

do, and where the chair belongs.

With homey contrast, Van Gogh's tipsy seat is a

metaphor for an absent person. Drawn in more-or-less

conventional perspective, it has so much familiar

personality that it seems to talk to us. Its wobbly gait

and squashed symmetry mumble endless homey tales

about the life it has seen.

SARAH WOODFINE

British contemporary artist graduate

of the Royal Academy Schools, and

winner of the 2004 Jerwood

Drawing Prize. Woodfine exhibits

internationally, has published several

catalogs of her work, and has

drawings in numerous public and

private collections.

Two-dimensional This highly finished drawing

was made using a sharp pencil and ruler

on smooth white drawing paper Woodfine's

glistening dark drawings are two-dimensional

artificial representations of known things

in the world, each drawn with the same

unfaltering lines and tones that are balanced

between reality and impossibility.

Chair Cut Out

2002

22 'A x 23 in (565 x 585 mm)

SARAH WOODFINE