Day 36 – As Above

Spent the weekend reading Paul Klee again and was taken with the idea that if you are going to engage in abstraction, you have an opportunity to explore the idea of drawing not only what can be seen, but what is hidden.

By thinking about this, you can bring in what Klee regards as the formula for harmony – having elements of, in his words, good and evil: both require each other in order to achieve balance. It is no good to stop with pure visual balance in a composition, and representing only what any person on the street can see with their own eyes.

Yesterday’s drawing fooled around with the idea of above and below, revealing the roots of trees and the foundations of building. But buildings have “roots” in a way of their own, with our mains water, gas and waste. We are all networked underground, but look above ground like we are in our fortresses.

I had also been thinking about radial compositions, which is something I’ve never explored before since I always think it looks a bit boring and obvious. Today’s picture is probably boring and obvious too, but once I make the first picture, then I can start to go somewhere, so there we are really.