Book45

SketchBooks Cover of sketchbook 45: a small oil painting glued to the black cloth board — two extracted molar teeth painted thickly in ivory against a deep teal ground

Mars Black
13 November 2012 - 5 March 2013


Sketchbook 45 opening: a grisaille gouache self-portrait, eyes glancing sideways under a dark fringe, facing a black brushstroke and the inscription '45, Mars Black, 13 Nov 2012' Sketchbook 45 spread: a close brown-toned gouache portrait of a woman's face, facing a red ink-and-wash figure curled inside an egg-like ring with notes on love, fragments and ruins in technological art Sketchbook 45 spread: graphite portraits of dying flowers — a drooping daisy over collapsed petals at left, a closed rose bending on its stem beside a tulip at right Sketchbook 45 spread: graphite still life of a clementine with a dried curling leaf on its stem, and a separate leafy twig floating on the facing page Sketchbook 45 spread from the Vrije Academie Wednesday-evening session: graphite studies of legs — a pair bent at the knee in profile, and a standing pair from mid-torso down Sketchbook 45: a white rose in graphite against a dark hatched ground, its stem crossing two curled leaves — dated notes opposite mention Bientôt l'été and Anne Carson Sketchbook 45 spread: graphite anatomy studies — a foot and lower leg, a hand resting on a shaded knee, and a seated nude's knees with a fist hanging over one of them Sketchbook 45 spread: graphite life studies of a seated male nude torso with crossed legs at left, and a slumped figure with an arm swung out along a dark bolster at right Sketchbook 45 spread dated 2013: Martha's head bent over drawing at left in graphite; at center her wavy hair drawn entirely in red pencil; a fainter study with red handprint at right Sketchbook 45: tonal pencil drawing of the back of Martha's head, loose blonde hair falling over an embroidered blouse against a dark shaded ground Sketchbook 45 spread: pencil drawings of Martha from above — stockinged legs crossed at left; at right her long hair falling over a white blouse and dark skirt as she sits curled Sketchbook 45 spread: pencil copy of a church sculpture — a bearded God the Father flying with billowing drapery, arm outstretched — beside studies of trousered legs kneeling on a cushion Sketchbook 45 spread: ballpoint analysis of Michelangelo's Battle of the Centaurs relief — figures blocked into boxy volumes at left, the writhing knot of bodies drawn organically at right Sketchbook 45 spread: sanguine and watercolor study after a baroque abduction scene — bare legs kicking free of red drapery at left, the rest of the group in faint red outline at right