DON’T MISS

FOR many artists, having people rifling through their sketchbooks is akin to reading a diary or a journal. Intimate and fresh, drawing is a way of thinking out knotty forms, structures and problems.

Notes and studies become a library of information for future paintings. In a high-tech, digital world saturated by imagery, there are many artists for whom traditional drawing and sketching remains a vital discipline and part of their creative process.

Cyril Gerber’s Drawing Show

2021, currently online for all to enjoy, includes drawings and sketches by a host of well-known names. Artists whose work is on show include; John Bellany, James Cowie, Colquhoun & MacBryde, Joan Eardley, the Scottish Colourists, Terry Frost, Peter Lanyon, William McCance, Margot Sandeman, Lara Scouller, Tom H. Shanks, Keith Vaughan and more.

There are around 60 drawings to savour. It’s fascinating to note contrasts between artists like Joan Eardley, with her loose, intensely observed market scene in ink and pastel and her Hospitalfield tutor, James Cowie, above, with his controlled, yet half-finished watercolour still-life. Terry Frost is known for his bright, saturated abstract paintings yet here we see a different Frost sketching a harbour scene with nothing but a plain old pencil. In Keith Vaughan’s Two Standing Figures in ink, there are marks which tell a story of an artist trying to resolve the puzzle of perspective and form. A surprisingly soft Peter Howson pastel drawing of a naked woman looks caught out in time while with a few deft lines, William McCance deftly magics up a snoozing cat.

Gorgeous soft lines from Helen

Fay and Lara Scouller portray the animal kingdom in their own unique way; Fay via the discipline of etching and Scouller in pastel. A treat for those who love the free and easy nature of masters in the art of mark making.

The Drawing Show 2021, Cyril Gerber Fine Art, gerberfineart.co. uk/2014/the-drawing-show-2021-2/