Louise Grunewald

DRAWINGS: Landscape as (E)motion

As I worked on my drawings, I began to realize the emotional content that being in the out-of-doors has for me, how it sustains me and informs my work. So the title morphed from Landscape as Motion  to include the “E” in parentheses, and I was inspired to create a body of work containing twenty-one pieces.

 

I like that viewers can make these drawings into any images or feelings that suit them. This is some of the fun of writing words within the drawings that can only be “read” through an inner response. I know what I was drawing and feeling but does it help to know that FLOW is about the Animas River in high spring runoff? Or that “flow” also had to do with getting back to the movement of life after a grieving process which had left me feeling stuck? I am not sure.  At this point in my artistic life I believe that if I know what my work is about and express that honestly, I will have made a connection with the viewer.

 

Perhaps less profound, but important to me, is that these drawings are fun to do. I love to draw and wanted to work on a series that included pencil, with all its nuances of line and shading. I also love working with walnut ink, a peat-based medium that flows freely from a pen. Sumi, of course, is a traditional ink for a calligrapher. Working with these media and a splash of transparent water color here and there is a unique experience, dealing mostly with value and contrast. It has been a pleasurable exploration!

VIEW GALLERY:

Landscape as (E)motion:

Drawings