Artists & Illustrators - UK (2020-01)

DRAWING

Draw things that affect you...

Don’t pretend to be interested

in things that you are not

IN-DEPTH

I

n her 1927 storyStreetHaunting,

VirginiaWoolftakesthenarrator

fora walkthroughthewintry

streetsofLondonatdusktoshop

fora pencil.Theprotagonistwalks

andlooksandletsherselfbedrawn

intowhatshesees.Herimaginative

selfmeetsmemoryandhistoryand

makesanarcoftime,setagainst

contemporaryOxfordStreetandthe

RiverThames,“rougherandgrayer

thanremembered.”

I lovethesenseinthisstoryof

watchingthroughtime,andI imagine

myselfdrawinga linewiththepencil

thatWoolfhastuckedbehindherear

onherreturnfromthestationers.

Perhapsdrawingcanbesimilarto

Woolf’sideaof“streethaunting”–

a saunterofdiscovery,inhabitingthe

livesofothers.Whenweleaveour

day-to-dayactivitybehindtowalk,to

draw,“theshell-likecoveringwhich

oursoulshaveexcretedtohouse

themselves,tomakeforthemselvesa

shapedistinctfromothers,is broken,

andthereis leftofallthesewrinkles

androughnessesa centraloysterof

perceptiveness,anenormouseye.”

Drawingitselfis a kindof

empatheticstorytelling.Whatkindof

humannarrativeareweobserving?

Whatattentionis paidtolineand

mark,atmosphereandlight,to

setting?Perhapsthisis notthesort

ofstorythathasa lineartrajectory

• a beginning,middleandend.
  Thebeautyofdrawingis thatyou
  canplaywiththespaceofa page
  anddisruptitssenseoftime.

Likemanyartistsoftheearly

20thcentury,Woolfunderstoodthat

breakingtherulesofnarrativeoften

comesoutofanexpressivenecessity.

Similarly,it canbesurprisingto

explorehowweperceivetimethrough

drawing.A lineinitselfrevealsa

narrative– thelinesofLouise

BourgeoisandVanGoghtellof

differentwaysofseeing.Nature,

too,hasanunderlyingpattern–

a narrativeofthelawsofscience.

Manyofthethingsweseearethe

repeatedformsofnature– thehair

atthecrownofa head,whichlooks

likea rose,whichlookslikea celestial

constellation.Wecandrawstories

acrosssubjects;everythingis

connected.

Imaginetheweatherandthetone

ofa drawing;theshadowsfromthe

lightsofthecity,slantedandvisceral;

themoodandthetime.Theshapeof

thegaze;thefactthattheeyemeets

bricksandlooksthroughglass.

Imaginethecharacterofyour

Walk

the

Line

Royal Drawing

School tutor SARAH

PICKSTONE leads

an exploration of

drawing’s capacity to

move – across time,

personal experience

and artistic modes

ABOVE Sarah

Pickstone, Disegno

after Angelica

Kauffman,

watercolour on

paper, 153x116cm

OPPOSITE PAGE

Sara Anstis, Sitting

Eating Crying, soft

pastel on paper,

76x63cm

Artists & Illustrators 51