Trust in the Process.
Thinking of the work of Frank Auerbach, “trust” is a word that comes to mind. I think the charcoal drawings of Auerbach perhaps more so than the paintings reflect the obsessive nature of his process. Laying down instense, exploratory marks on paper to then dust and erase away. Leaving a trace only to draw over and erase on that same spot again and again until at times the very surface is destroyed. Bright surface to black and back again. Almost like a self-help process rendered in time-lapse charcoal. Deconstructing and breaking down who you are in order to build yourself back again.
Trust in your Vision.
What do you see in your mind when you start an artwork? Can you reconcile that with the result in front of you? Should a work of art be produced within a certain timeframe? With Auerbach we are left with abstraction as a by-product of the creative process. The work is done when it’s done. Not before.
Trust that the muse will make an appearance.
That state of conductive energy where you yourself are the conduit and there is a force working through you circumventing time. With these drawings there is a sense of the muse at play here in a pure form. The questions asked by Auerbach are internal. We as viewers can see the function of art at work – take an object that exists and reinterpret into something other.
Trust in Discipline
Just knowing the breakthrough will eventually come is a trait to be admired all by itself, regardless of the work. It’s an attitude that comes with years of experience made all the more true to me when I read that Auerbach spends 365 days a year in the studio – year in year out since the 50’s. He used the same handful of models and painted the same outdoor scenes from his local area in London. The less distractions and decisions you need to make the more you can focus on finding the truth in your art.
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Drawing is an economical and immediate way to start and work on your own discipline of creating art. Take a nice generous sheet of paper, a rubber eraser and some quality charcoal, and just explore the line, rework it, do it again and again.
Auerbach’s work is contrary to the idea of the genius artist making a simple line and declaring the work is complete. Auerbach is one of us! Exploring and toiling away until we see a semblance of our original vision. We are left with figurative abstraction as a by-product of his creative process. Each drawing displaying it’s own history. The charcoal portraits from Auerbach are a testament to the faith of being an artist.
Read about one of Auerbach’s contemporaries here.