{"id":4830,"date":"2018-10-25T17:09:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T17:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/?p=4830"},"modified":"2018-10-25T17:12:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T17:12:56","slug":"whats-your-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/whats-your-line\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Your Line?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time wears on and my weeks continue to be a balance between drawing and stitching. At the core of each is line — everything else seems to branch out from there. Although it’s surely more time-consuming to try to make room for both disciplines most days, I wouldn’t give up the exchange between them for anything.<\/p>\n

\"Model

\u00a92018 Elizabeth Fram, 24 x 18 inches, Graphite on paper\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Capturing\u00a0 dramatic makeup is a worthy challenge. How to convey it without being too heavy-handed?<\/p><\/div>\n

In my life drawings, I can’t seem to move away from using .03 and .05 pencils (H, HB, & B). I would prefer richer darks, but don’t want to lose the immediacy and detail in each stroke to smudging or quickly blunting pencil tips, as commonly happens with a softer, darker lead. Using finer points allows me to build layer upon layer of marks that eventually carve out a form that tells a story through patience and time, for me and for the model. I don’t know our sitters, but I have the illusion of feeling I know them better at the end of each session.<\/p>\n

\"Model

\u00a92018 Elizabeth Fram, 24 x 18 inches, Graphite on paper<\/p><\/div>\n

When I look at the art of others, as I may have mentioned before, color can draw me from across a room, but it’s line that brings my nose inches from the piece and keeps me there for careful study.
\nAfter visiting the Boston MFA this past weekend, I am still thinking about the expertise of two very diverse artists who exploit line to its fullest and best effects.<\/p>\n

\"Dandelions

Dandelions<\/strong>, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, 1867-68, 16 x 19.75 inches, Pastel on tan wove paper, Boston Museum of Fine Arts<\/p><\/div>\n

The first was a surprise. I think of Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet as a painter, not as a pastel artist. But in the current exhibit French Pastels – Treasures from the Vault<\/em><\/strong> (on view through January 6, 2019), a dozen of Millet’s pastel works (along with selections from Cassatt, Degas, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Redon and Renoir) allow one to experience the breadth of his fluency with line, conveying each scene to the effect of intimately enveloping a viewer. The rhythmic strokes give the illusion that you are peering over his shoulder while he works.<\/p>\n

\"Dandelions

Dandelions,<\/strong> detail, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, Boston Museum of Fine Arts<\/p><\/div>\n

In another part of the museum and in a completely different way, EH Shepard’s illustrations in the exhibit Winnie the Pooh: Exploring a Classic<\/em><\/strong> (also up through January 6th) are pure delight. I was weaned on A.A. Milne’s books, so it was enchanting to see Shepard’s working drawings, including the written notations between him and Milne as their collaboration developed. Shepard’s ability to convey so much — mood, emotion, & personality — with such brevity, is breathtaking. If you too are a fan of the Hundred Acre Wood, try to get to Boston to catch this special show.<\/p>\n

\"Tree

Tree for Wol’s (Owl’s) House<\/strong> from Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926, E.H. Shepard, Pencil on paper<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Piglet

Piglet and Pooh<\/strong>, E.H.Shepard<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Do

“Do you think it’s a Woozle?”<\/strong>, E.H.Shepard<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bumpity

“Bumpity Bump going up the stairs”<\/strong>, E.H. Shepard<\/p><\/div>\n

\"100

Hundred Acre Wood<\/strong>, E.H.Shepard<\/p><\/div>\n

And finally…
\nLooking for a light-hearted, uplifting, and inspirational art movie to cap off your week? Check out the film Faces Places<\/strong><\/a> by Agn\u00e8s Varda and JR, available through Netflix — or try searching to see where else it may be streaming online. In it, a line of a different sort grabbed me. In response to an onlooker who asked Varda what was the point of the artwork she and JR were creating she quipped, “The point is the power of imagination”.
\nPerfect!<\/p>\n

\"Endpapers\"

Endpapers for the House at Pooh Corner<\/strong>, 1928, E.H.Shepard<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time wears on and my weeks continue to be a balance between drawing and stitching. At the core of each is line — everything else seems to branch out from there. Although it’s surely more time-consuming to try to make room for both disciplines most days, I wouldn’t give up the exchange between them for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[216,83],"tags":[853,851,852,691,850],"class_list":["post-4830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-exhibitions","tag-agnes-varda","tag-boston-museum-of-fine-arts","tag-jean-francois-millet","tag-jr","tag-line"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5kO5z-1fU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4830"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4847,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions\/4847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elizabethfram.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}