Drawing on Masters ... an Out Of Body Experience

    As a high school art teacher for 35 years, I had many occasions to engage my students in the study of many artists from throughout history...to learn about their backgrounds, influences, and techniques, and to be able to to recognize their styles. This process would also generally involve making drawings of specific works of art to assist them in getting familiar with the artists they were studying. I found myself engaged in this same process of making visual notations as I took classes at Maine College of Art in Portland, especially in the sculpture classes taught by John Ventimiglia. I had always enjoyed taking classes as an adult. The experience of being on 'the other side of the desk' allowed me to fully commit to explore, analyze, and absorb solely for my own enrichment. The notebooks that I kept for John V's classes were rewarding in many ways at the time that I did them, but they continue provide enrichment and inspiration as I look back through them from time to time. The most fascinating aspect of doing the drawings is that moment when you realize that the line you have just made actually makes you feel like you were running your pencil over the surface of a three dimensional figure - and that the original artist made the same line while drawing from a live model and had the very same feeling. It is truly an out of body experience - and worth repeating!

                                            * Below are a few samples of pages from my notebooks 
                       with the titles of the reference books and their authors listed below the selections.

   Three American Sculptors...   by J. Wasserman          A Concise History of Modern Sculpture   by H. Read

   The Woman Sculptor...  by M.B.Hill  (catalogue)                       Modern Sculpture     by Jean Selz

        Gauguin to Moore...   by Alan Wilkerson                  Sculpture of the 20th Century   by Andrew Ritchie

       The National Sculpture Society Celebrates              Origins of Modern Sculpture: Pioneers & Premises 
            the Figure    edited by Jean Henry                                                by Albert E.Elsen