Soccer and Statements

What with cleaning up and putting away from DoorsOpen, getting out to paint outdoors and having our last sessions on Fridays before the summer - when kids' classes take over the art centre- I haven't photographed the new model drawings. This one was done a couple of months ago and, while it is on my Pinterest Life Drawing folder, I hadn't used it for a blog. It seems appropriate now with the World Soccer Cup going on- so here it is. We had Darwin wearing a soccer uniform for a long pose on a Wednesday night. So that was bit of fun. I tried using vine charcoal to fill in the black pastel more - and it worked.  I also cleaned up some pastels and tools with shaking them in cornstarch - again, a hint that does work. I try to keep the pastels as clean as possible so as to keep the colours fresh. I felt the drawing turned out reasonably well and the light source - an indoor lamp- even was at a good angle to suggest the outdoors.
-Another project is to re-write my biography to bring it up to date and also write an artist's statement. For one upcoming exhibition, I need a one-pager that essentially combines the two. Like a lot of artists, I find it a challenge to get the words right. I often think of the statement by Jean Cocteau-"An artist cannot speak about his work any more than a plant can discuss horticulture". Nowadays, I think they must teach statement-writing at art school because some art is accompanied by a lot of words -or, as Hilton Kramer put it, "The more minimal the art, the more maximum the explanation". Robert Genn states,"there are people out there who think that heavyweight words are most in need for lightweight work."Pablo Picasso's comment was, "Those trying to explain pictures are as a rule completely mistaken. "..... and yet, something has to be produced....