In the Fold

Student Drawing, from "The Natural Way to
Draw", by Kimon Nocolaides

Lately I have devoted my time in the studio to a subject that I love, but find very difficult to paint--namely fabrics, and the way they drape. I have long been obsessed with artists' depiction of drapery, whether in the Renaissance frescoes that I saw in Florence, or the grand portraits by John Singer Sargent. Not to mention the Dutch masters! All those gorgeous folds, looking so three dimensional on a flat painted surface!

"The Tribute Money"
Fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Florence, Italy
Masaccio, 1427

"Lady Agnew"
John Singer Sargent, 1892

I should have been born in an earlier era, when women wore full length skirts made of lush fabrics. Or even earlier, when men and women wore tall ruffled collars, with all those yummy curls of starched linen. Nowadays, I don't see too much interesting drapery in everyday
clothing, but it is still to be found in other situations. Often the situations are very simple. Overflowing laundry baskets, for example, have been a way to satisfy my cravings. Thank goodness for my vintage wicker laundry basket, which has become a favorite prop for the laundry series.

Photo (c) Lesley Powell 2017

I have also started a new series--expressing my own take on the beautiful drapery seen in some of my favorite Old Masters' paintings. This process turns out to be more difficult than I thought it would be, but it's fascinating nonetheless. I am trying to quiet all of those nay-saying inner voices that whisper "You can never make it as interesting as the original", or "Nobody will like these", or even "People will think you've lost your mind!".

Photo (c) Lesley Powell 2017

Sometimes I practice drawing drapery before I paint. I love the test proposed by Nicolaides (illustration at top of this post): "Imagine that a small insect (preferably a pleasant one) starts at one side and crawls horizontally across the drapery. Imagine that his feet have been dipped in ink so that he leaves a trail. This trail would move up the side of a fold, flat across the top, down the other side, flat across the base. Coming to an undercut, the insect would disappear and then some out again... It is like walking over a landscape, up over hills, down into valleys." You are to take your pencil and mark the insect's trail across the drapery. It's a stringent test!

"Full Basket"
Oil on Linen, 18 x 18
(c) Lesley Powell 2017
Available Here

In painting, my aim is always to simplify and extract the essence of the subject, rather than to render it in minute detail. But with a subject like drapery, you can't succeed with simplification unless you have first taken time to understand the subject quite well. Stay tuned to see how this series progresses...