This time for Sketching in the Gallery at the Dallas Museum of Art, we worked from a small retrospective of paintings, drawings, and lithographs from the Dallas Texas artist Edward g. Eisenlohr (1872 - 1961). The exhibition is situated so that most of the artwork is seen for the first time from across the gallery, about 60 feet away. We stopped at that distance to study the artwork, to focus on what we could see, to study the big shapes, the big blocks of color, light and shadow. We then stepped forwards about 25 feet to see what was now in focus. Then we walked up close to examine the details. When viewing Edward's artwork in this manor it is very easy to observe the changes that distance has on your perception of a painting, and how subject matter can often overwhelm the experience of looking at art. I also used this process to demonstrate how to drawing the big shapes first, to lay out your composition, and work slowly up to the details.
The next meeting will be the last for me to lead and the very last meeting of the Sketching in the Galleries program. I think the DMA is making a mistake by canceling this program, but I don't run the museum, I just like to draw...
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