Ερμαφρόδιος Hermaphrodite, one of a series of drawings using various media, - this one in watercolour with the figure drawn with a graphite stick, - taken from a sketchbook image I made when last in Larnaca. The original statue has the left leg broken off at the calf. In the sketchbook version I added the missing component but in the series of finished works I decided otherwise. I am coming to realise that part of the aesthetic to modern 21st century eyes is this ancient statuary in its incomplete state. It makes us appreciate what remains and in that way make a link with artists of the past.
Some of the series here on my studio walls.

Matthaias Grünewald made this drawing of a crucifixion some twelve years before his famous Isenheim Altarpiece which can be seen at the Musee Unterlinden in Kolmar. This drawing is a study for another altarpiece for a church in Germany. This drawing can be found in the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, Germany. It is on paper 32 x 53 cm.

Grünewald's crucifixions marked a turning point in Christian art. Up to this time the crucified figure of Christ was portrayed as standing on the cross as if He could get down from it at any time. The brutality of being crucified was never really emphasised. He was depicted on the "Throne of the Cross." But Grünewald pulled no punches. He showed such a death for what it was, - painful. Not only was the posture of the corpora more contorted but the cross was crudely fashioned. It may well have been nearer to what actually was used. In some of the crucifixion paintings I've seen you'd think the Roman soldiers had had the cross specially made at Waring and Gillows, the famous Lancaster furniture makers!

Even for non- Christians, the Crucifixion makes an interesting and strong subject; the outstretched limbs make an ideal for anatomical illustration and the cross shape makes a strong impact on the psyche. The cross has featured in art for millenia. There are pre-Minoan examples of cruciform statuary which can very easily be mistaken for something made two thousand years later.

This is part of an ongoing intermittent project which I return to from time to time as a rest from my regular "bread and butter" Sea Pictures. I started exploring the Hellenic female figure in Cyprus and has now emerged as something of a recurring theme. It makes a change I suppose from the Enigma series which has been an obsession of mine for quite a few years.

We discussed obsession the other day during our lunch break at the studios and concluded obsession is probably the main driving force behind art. We do the same thing over and over but each time vary the interpretation and perhaps the medium used. I have discussed this at some length on my other site which you can see here.

All the drawings have been made on A3 size cartridge paper cut into strips about 10 cm wide. This interpretation shown here is a pen and wash effort, the line drawn with a 0.5 mm Rotring pen.

Mantegna's "Dead Christ" is, in my opinion a turning point drawing in the development of Reanaissance art. Mategna was a most draughtsmanly painter. This work is done in tempera on canvas and was completed around 1490. It measures 46 x 81 cm so is roughly A1 size. In the years when I was a life model at the art faculty in UCLAN in Preston there would always be a time when I did this pose. It was a favourite for it gives a classic lesson in foreshortening.

It was one of the more relaxing poses in a life class. The pose usually lasted all day, I don't suppose I would have been a "dead" figure but if I'm honest, I will have certainly been a sleeping one!

Drawing the foreshortened figure from life is a good exercise, it forces you to abandon preconceptions about what the human form looks like. You have to draw what you see, not what you think you ought to be seeing.