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Jon Swihart The impulse to draw is a universal phenomenon and our most commonly shared "art" experience. Historically, drawings have been made for a multitude of reasons. Drawing as a tool, as a means to generating ideas, documenting experiences and events, and as a preparation for work in another medium can be exemplified by the work of Jon Swihart. I will discuss a sheet of pencil sketches, an unfinished painting, and two oil studies along with the completed oil painting "Untitled Nude" (1997). The pencil sketch (Figure 1) consists of a series of studies the artist drew small in size and scale and initially in different parts of a sketchbook or on loose sheets of paper as ideas manifested themselves in his head. They are improvisational and were modes of capturing ideas in order to objectify them. The ideas came from musings, readings, re-captured moods, photos or recollections of early mornings experienced in the Forest of Giverny, France. By careful study these drawings were selected and cut from their place of origin and pasted onto a sheet of plain notebook paper. What began to crystallize in this arranged cluster of images were notions of a nude, woods, late fall, a quiet atmosphere, and a sense of mystery. In some of the drawings a figure starts to emerge before the female nude. From this cluster of drawn images a small painting was started of a nude female figure seen from the back. She is near a large tree in a forest with a figure coming from the ground as an image of mystery. It can be seen from traces of ghost-like images on the surface that during the course of painting, the figure of mystery was moved from place to place in an attempt to realize the composition and crystallize the theme. The painting unrealized was set aside. Later, more compositional drawings were done each one of them realizing more choices to contemplate. Decisions had to be made as to the placement of the figures, the size of the main tree and the forest, lighting, atmosphere, time of day, time of year, and the distance of the main image from the viewer. An oil study was done based on all of the foregoing studies. From all of these drawn and painted images a solution was arrived at in this oil study in the following manner. A model was engaged, posed, drawn from and photographed. The photographs of the model did freeze a consistent lighting on the figure although they tend to flatten the figure. Photos do not show what the artist knows is there: the inner structure and pulsing of life and energy of the figure. The drawings from the model were utilized as aids to the memory when referencing the photos of the model for this oil study. Then an oil study (Figure 2) is created as a guide for the finished painting that is sketchy but more finished than all the prior oil studies. In it a nude female figure is seen from the back, in a position suggesting having just moved away from a group of objects perhaps a shoe box of letters left purposely indistinguishable on the ground in the lower right hand corner. She leans her hand on the central and dominant wide girth of the tree trunk. The nude peers around the tree trunk to the right. Old leaves cover the ground. The place is a forest in the morning light. All of these studies are in different sizes. Therefore, a group of drawings and an unfinished small oil painting engendered more drawings. Some sessions were with a model with two of the oil studies made. The last oil study was the closest to the final painting (Figure 3). The painting (Figure 4) is three times larger than the studies. It was enlarged via an overlay of acetate paper on the final oil study, girded and used as a guide to the finished painting. In the completed painting the nude is lithe, graceful, idealized, and sensual. The main tree base where her hand is gently caressing is a tall, thick, sturdy trunk, painted green with futility. Behind it is a dense wood with morning light just beginning to drift in by a small patch of visible sky. The entire ground is carpeted in rich autumnal leaves. The objects she has momentarily left behind in the lower right are now clear. On a draped pedestal, a golden calf sits, a candle in a silver holder, and a full cream pitcher are on the ground beside the votive looking calf. The time of day is early morning. The lighting is cool; the time of year autumn. What the nude viewed is now off right and not seen by the viewer and therefore mysterious. The painting has been defined, the place chosen is the woods, the time is late fall. The atmosphere is that of mystery and the nude is painted and represented as one who seeks with curiosity. Usually what happens to the preparatory work is that the drawings, photos, and tracings are tossed. Some of the oil sketches are saved for future reference, but not exhibited. What is suggested by these preparation drawings and paintings is a skill of drawing, a skill of rendering the figure with long hours of study, skill of composition, and a skill of painting with an intelligent decision making process. Mr Swihart has a deep understanding and appreciation of the human figure. What the viewer receives is the knowledge about the struggle of the creative process. The struggle to attain a well thought out and skillful realization of not just a figure, some objects, scene or narrative, but an elusive naturalistic human feeling of it becoming concrete for the purpose of communicating something to be contemplated. This is reinforced by the title "Untitled Nude". By Ronald Steen |
