| Toroazul Painting and Fine Arts |
| I T A L Y |
| "The Terrace of the Infinite," which perhaps I could subtitle "A self-portrait," was painted in pastel, based on quick sketches that I made while visiting one of Ravello's villas in Amalfi recently. The image on the left shows the underpainting phase of the final pastel, early on. In this overlook in Ravello, I was particularly taken by the busts of noble or heroic figures along the promenade -- and by the poetic solitude of the place. But this painting is very much an evocation of space and infinity -- as the terrace's name implies. And so, even in spite of its dreamy, poetic nature, it falls into a general preoccupation of mine these days with memory, time, and space, and of how to represent these. |
| This painting, then, reflects some personal meditations (for example, in the vast emptiness of the sea, or in the particular poses and attitudes of the statues). But the final image came as well from the initial, quick travel scribbles I did on site and from the more meditative layerings of color -- done in my Rome studio -- meticulously and, yes, ever so slowly. In fact, for me painting is in essence a color drawing, and truly successful color layering follows patterns and laws about space and time, just as line drawings do. This is why I devote much of my time in Rome to line drawing of the kind illustrated below. The studies on this page, conducted on site during my drawing lessons in the center of Rome, were executed in Francesco Borromini's church of Sant Ivo alla Sapienza, not only a challenging exercise in geometries and perspective but also an opportunity to see how the rationality and right ordering of the arches and parallels in this facade produce what one may also call the gracefulness of its design. It is my hope to gradually understand gracefulness of line and of color as two sides of the same thing. |
| In my drawing classes here in Rome, I find myself implementing more and more the sorts of lessons that are taught to the freshmen, especially, at the University of Miami School of Architecture, where I taught freehand and mechanical drawing for about 10 years. These lessons were invaluable to me! As I tell my Roman students now, one must draw to UNDERSTAND, and the best drawings consist of lines drawn with intention and understanding, and not simply because they "look good." |
| While issues of right proportion and perspective are important in the process of drawing a subject like Sant Ivo, I find that AXONOMETRIC analysis is one of the most helpful means of understanding a 3-dimensional form in space. Axonometry involves the mental "setting up" of a form or subject on the X-Y-and-Z coordinates in order to make sense of the form and how it is built -- of how its volume fits together. At the same time, a slow and deliberate axonometric approach to drawing can and should emphasize the importance of line weights and their ability or duty, almost, to describe the weights and positions of the various surfaces of a volume to each other and to the viewer. (CLICK here to read more on AXONOMETRY.) |
