Day 4. No straight lines in nature
"Never straight, always forward."
Hello, my 30-Day DrawTogether Grown-Ups Table Friends! (Oh, let’s just call ourselves artists, shall we?)
My high school English teacher used to say “One tree is luck. Two trees are a coincidence. But three trees make a row.” A row indicates intention. It demonstrates proof of larger effort. A row knows where to go. A row knows how to grow.
As of today, you have drawn for ten minutes a day for 3 days in a row. That is no fluke. You are on a creative roll. You’re really doing it. And the doing of it - that is what makes you an artist. GOOD ON YA.
Let’s keep the momentum going… WITH SOME MUSIC.
Last year, the wonderful DrawTogether GUT member
made five 10-minute playlists for us to use as background music and as a timer for our 10-minute drawing sessions. They are available in her public playlists on Spotify here in case anyone wants to use them! (If anyone else wants to create drawing playlists or anything else you think would be helpful for the group, I’m always happy to share it here.)Lines for days
Today we continue our week of Doodles/drawing meditations, with some more line work. (Spoiler alert: soon we move from line to shape, so stay with me - there is a reason we do it this way. We are building attention muscles and skill!) This time, instead of the curved looping lines we drew that were inspired by Louise, Lynda and Hiroyuki, we will shift towards the harder, straighter, more crisscrossy lines.
I saw in the chat that many of us were surprised by how pleasing it felt to draw circles and spirals. It IS surprising how repetitive motions can feel like a form of mediation. And as simple and mundane as drawing a straight line may seem, it’s actually a profound practice. It improves our hand-eye coordination - something that is very helpful with drawing - and helps us let go of making things “right” and get comfortable with doing our best. With our lines being “good enough.”
“You can't make a perfect painting. We can see perfection in our minds. But we can't make a perfect painting.” Agnes Martin
There are no straight lines in nature. And when we’re drawing, there’s no such thing as a bad line. Every line you draw is a good line.
So today we’re going to make some “straight” lines. I promise you, they WILL NOT be perfect. They just need to be straight-ISH. (Really hard not to make a joke here, but I will resist.) We are going to repeat these lines just like we did with the circles. And I have a feeling some of you will like the straight lines more than the circles, and some will like the circles more than the straight lines. It’s always interesting to explore what we are drawn to. Everyone always has a favorite (and a less favorite) and there is no better/worse/right/wrong. We are just learning more about ourselves as artists.
For inspiration today let’s look at paintings by the miraculous Agnes Martin.
Agnes Martin
Agnes Martin’s large, square abstract paintings (which are often drawings) appear simple and clean. I mean really, they’re just criss crossing lines on a canvas, right? They don’t LOOK like anything.
But somehow they hold our attention and vibrate with a calm energy. They are filled with beauty and joy. And while they might not be a drawing OF something, they FEEL like something. Her painting “Summer” feels like summer. Her painting “Mountain” feels like a mountain. How is that possible??
Agnes would sit in a chair for hours until an image would appear in her mind. She’s draw a little postage stamp sized sketch on paper, and then spend days/weeks/months translating the image to canvas. She’s use tape, pencil, a ruler, and sometimes paint to create these careful lines and humming grid.
“I am simply painting concrete representation of abstract emotions such as innocent love, ordinary happiness. I do want an emotional response. And I paint about emotions, not about lines.” - Agnes Martin
Agnes Martin said “There’s no such thing as a perfect painting.” And while we might be tempted to try to “get it right” when drawing straight lines and grids, perhaps what makes her work - and our drawing exercise this week - so satisfying is the impossibility of perfection, and that only through their imperfections do our drawings end up becoming uniquely our own.
Imperfections make our art interesting.
Want to develop your own unique style? MAKE MISTAKES.
Our mistakes lead us to find our style.
One thing I think or 30-Day group will find interesting is that before Agnes Martin became a full time artist, she was a cherry picker, a wheat harvester, and an ice cream scooper. She was even almost an Olympic swimmer! She was on her way to becoming a teacher at 30 years old when she decided to become an artist. And she did it. And when she had a serious mental break later in life, it didn’t stop her from making art. In fact, it propelled her to become the Agnes Martin we know today. She moved to New Mexico, lived simply, and painted every day until she died.
If you want to learn more about Agnes, you can listen to the podcast I made about her for kids - and draw along there, if you like. And watch the video after the assignment below. It’s beautiful to watch her draw and paint and hear her speak about making art.
May we all have a full life like Agnes, and meet our challenges with creativity and openness to change.
Alright, without further ado, our new drawing assignment! Set your timer for 10 minutes…