studies

From the time that I first began to look at art books as a seventh grader during my free periods, I have been captivated with unfinished studies. Albrecht Dürer's carefully detailed pencil drawing of a rabbit, Michelangelo's work in preparation for the Libyan Sybil on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Andrew Wyeth's tonal studies of the weatherbeaten Olsen house. The completed masterpieces so often felt static and staged, too resolved. The studies, filled with wandering lines and patches of concentrated detail as the artist strived to understand his subject, to discover what excited his mind and his eye, are so raw and much more immediate and authentic to me.

I don't mean to minimize the skill, patience, and discipline required to paint a more finished work. As an artist not to be compared to such masters as these, I bow to their incomparable achievements. But where I feel most connected to them is through the early studies, those intimate glimpses into the artist's process. And it is where I am happiest.

talbert and lindner, 2B graphite pencil