drawings

      


            
Vermeer van Delft's painting


            
Maidservant pouring milk

            


            While perusing G.H. Gombrich's, The story of Art, this
            reproduction caught my eye and I took a second look. Although
            there is no single reason for my choice of this particular painting,
            it is considered to be a 'masterpiece' and was an accessible
            text reproduced in a book I happened to be reading. Perhaps I
            was looking for examples for lecture notes, or perhaps it was
            a moment of pensive domestic reflection. Or perhaps it was because
            I enjoyed copying reproductions of paintings as a young person,
            thus bringing a long-term memory into consciousness. 

            A large cardboard folder contains over one hundred loose drawings
            predominantly executed on cartridge paper (60 x 42 cm), from
            which several drawings have been selected and reproduced here.
            They tell a story of how this reproduction evolved over time
            to become a series of large paintings depicting waterfalls. 

            A more detailed narrative with added illustrations can be found
            in my doctoral thesis (From head to hand and beyond: thought-image
            drawings in sketchbooks) on pages 162-193.

            

            

            
Vermeer van Delft 1623-1675,
            'Maidservant pouring milk' circa 1660

            
Oil on canvas, 41 x 45.5
            cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            

              

                

                  


                  
Quick copy of tonal and
                  linear directions of composition showing positive and negative
                  shapes, emphasising eye paths.

                  
Pencil, 60 x 42 cm.
                
                
 
 
                

                  


                  
Topographical map of viewer
                  and Maidservant in the same space, dissolving the picture plane,
                  thus reconfiguring the time element and the picture frame.

                  
Charcoal, 60 x 42 cm
                
              
            

            
 

            
 

            
 

            

              

                

                  


                  
Imagining altered time
                  and space.

                  
Charcoal and pastel, 42
                  x 60 cm
                
                
 
 
                

                  


                  
Using non-dominant hand
                  to make image while touching space with dominant hand.

                  
Charcoal and pastel, 60
                  x 42 cm
                
              
            

            
 

            
 

            
 

            

              

                

                  
 

                  
Using non-dominant hand
                  to draw with eyes closed, utilising thought-image in memory.

                  
Coloured pencil, 60 x 42
                  cm
                
                
 
 
                

                  
 

                  
Entering picture space
                  to view Maidservant from another viewpoint.

                  
Oil on watercolour paper,
                  60 x 42 cm.
                
              
            

            
 

            
 

            
 

            

              

                

                  
 

                  
Cubist-type drawing finding
                  edges of depicted objects with emphasis on milk stream.

                  
Charcoal and white pastel,
                  60 x 42 cm
                
                
 
 
                

                  
 

                  
Milk is still flowing after
                  350 years.

                  
Mixed media, 52 x 40 cm
                
              
            

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            
 

            


            
Vermeer Waterfall, oil and paper on canvas mounted
            on found timber, 190 x 155 cm

            

    

      
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