Still Life: "It is so fine, and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas"

Cezanne once said "It is so fine, and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas." It is so fine because a blank canvas means the a new piece and a new beginning. It is refreshing. At the same time, it is terrible because it is so intimidating. A blank canvas means that the artist is back to square one. 

After reviewing Cezanne, the class put together some props for a still life. Ranging from paint cans to wires and scarves, we had a wide variety of items in our still life.

The initial assessment of the objects was to draw them very loosely in relationship to one another. Specifically, focusing on the negative space between the objects. Drawing the objects surround the subjects, but not necessarily part of the still life was also important to grasp the relationships. The table was especially important in this process.

 After the objects were roughly sketched, then detail could be added to each object.

While I was able to fulfill this process for the most part, there were still times when I would add detail to an object only to have to erase it because it was not in the right place.

The sculpture (shown in the sketch left) took a lot of time to get the shape and negative space right. I began to add some detail to this object.

The image shown  below shows the detail that I began to add to the coils and the surrounding objects. I found it much easier and that it looked a lot better, to draw the coils as a whole more that as individual pieces of wire.

The image shown right is a picture of the set up for the still life sketch.

In working on this still life I could really to relate to Cezanne's quote. Having something new to draw, and especially something so complicated and detailed, was exciting. However, looking down at a blank piece of paper and then looking back up at the scene that I was supposed to put on that paper was exhausting in itself. With each shape and detail the piece got progressively easier to handle. Though, as it got easier and got more detail, the "newness" of sketching the piece began to fade away.