Process & Presence

I'm thinking about David Hockney's prodigious drawings and paintings of landscapes: "The Arrival of Spring" (at PACE, New York; just closed). Funny, to hang this show as the Northern hemisphere looks with resignation to the dark and rainy winter months.

David Hockney, Woldgate, 6–7 February, from The Arrival of Spring in 2013 (twenty thirteen). Charcoal on paper. 22 5/8 x 30 1/4 in. © 2013 David Hockney. Photo: Richard Schmidt

David Hockney drawing Woldgate, February 6-7, from The Arrival of Spring in 2013
Photo: David Hockney
source: The Guardian, May 7, 2014

Like my drawings of The South Natick Dam and Lake Waban, Hockney's are probably not the greatest landscape art ever done. A more positive similarity is that like Hockney, and countless other artists, I feel a comfortable command of my medium and metier. I believe we use our fear of drawing badly as our greatest weapon to produce work that matters to us, in the moment, and perhaps for much longer. But who cares? It's simply the process that defines presence.

Looking downriver
charcoal
11-2-14

Looking Across the Dam
charcoal, ink
10-24-14

Tree

charcoal, ink

11-7-14

The Pleasant Street Bridge
charcoal
11-7-14