So, Why Nudes?
To me, the subject matter that is at once the most beautiful, the most expressive and the most compelling is ourselves -- people – and although I have occasionally ventured into other areas, my primary interest for as long as I have been drawing has been the human figure, whether clothed or nude.
I have been asked more than once, “Why nudes?”. It's a legitimate question. After all, why not draw people the way we see them every day as they go about their business all around us – clothed?
To begin with, like most artists, I am interested in getting beyond the superficial to the essential reality of things. Clothing is an expression of who we are in our various roles in life, whether we're a lawyer, a cook or a hobo, but there is a more essential humanity common to us all, and artists for the past two and a half millennia have attempted to portray and express this humanity with the nude.
For me, no matter whether a nude is expressing sexuality, mortality, suffering or joy, there is an essential beauty that is – or should be -- common to all of them, and my hope is to give a sense of that beauty in my drawings and paintings.
Contributed by Bill Tomlinson
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Bill's works can be seen in the Side Street Gallery in Wellington, On. Please click here.
Lovely nudes, Bill.
ReplyDeleteI am always interested in what the nude form is saying ... body language. Elements like legs, arms and hips ... or the musculature, or lack of ... of bones showing under translucent skin or the 'padding' that rounds out the body. Things which you never really visualize when the body is clothed.
Having gone to your blog, it is nice to see that there are models of every size, sex and stature.