The Newest in Petimenti

As an artist struggles to develop a drawing which he or she wants to be “right”, a record is left of the drawing’s visual history: it’s changes, adjustments, corrections, layers, reassessments, addtions, subtractions¾it’s overall evolution. In a broader sense, pentimento is the name for this record, or history, which is found in its archeaological layers. More precisely, pentimento refers to the emergences of certain strokes or images from previous LAYERS, WHICH were subsequently altered in a layer of paint.

In this assignment with the figure, your task is to move away from direct representation as a starting point and toward an alternate response to the figure and its surroundings or context¾structural, emotional, psychological, narrative, conceptual, formal. You must build a drawing that will reveal its own history, in the sense that a series of marks and layers will be responsive with one another, as opposed to completely canceling each other out. Undoubtedly, working this way will track the evolution of your ideas, thought process, and decisions.

Work both additively and subtractively on a large format piece of paper or board, approximately 30-35 in. x 45-50 in. Use color if you like, and use any combination of media that will work to support your intent or objective in the drawing. You may consider gessoing your drawing surface first.

Allow yourself to be physical, vigorous and tough with the surface when the drawing requires it, and gentle, attentive and meticulous when necessary as well. Be flexible and responsive as the drawing progresses…Listen to it, make decisions according to what it’s saying to you. Allow this work to remain open and organic for as long as possible. Let the process be a visually evident and celebrated part of the drawing.

pen-ti-men-to [pen-tuh-men-toh]

–noun, plural –ti,

(1) The presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over.

(2) An underlying image in a painting, as an earlier painting, part of a painting, or original draft, that shows through, usually when the top layer of paint has become transparent with age.

/-ti/

From Italian- pentirsi- "to repent"

In art, the reappearance in an oil painting of original elements of drawing or painting that the artist tried to obliterate by over-painting. If the covering pigment becomes transparent, as may happen over the years, the ghostly remains of earlier marks may show through. Pentimenti most commonly occur due to slight re-positioning by the artist of the outlines of figures or of their clothing. Many signs of such "repentances," or pentimenti, are found among the thinly painted Dutch panels of the 17th century.