The underpinnings can tell us so much more….

There’s something about seeing how an artist works, why he chooses a particular line, and when he decides that’s enough. I love watching them create, or even catching signs of their intentions by what’s left for us to see. Sometimes I try to peel back the layers, and occasionally, they do it for me.

Check out the Lautrec piece above. That mid-section never needed to be painted. Those scratchy marks — all sketchy and loose — make the painting even better. They kind of let the viewer know how the artist saw his subject, and let us in on that very personal view. I like that his art seems to sit there for a moment in time, in its raw form, letting us finish the strokes or the color that he never added.

I felt the same way at the recent Italian Chalk Festival in Santa Barbara this week, when artists from all over the globe began their works in pastel on the hot mission pavement. They were all given two days to complete their 4 x 8 squares, but I couldn’t help but hope they would never finish.