Soul of the Sitter
Recently I studied the art of 17th century master artist Rembrandt van Rijn. Rembrandt’s overriding artistic concern was with expressing the human spirit.
His art expresses the inward emotion of his sitters. The more I work with charcoal the more I find myself searching for the “soul of the sitter” and the more I embrace the use of light to convey a message. I study the artist Rembrandt to “see” what he wants me to see. He does this by directing my vision to the light. In this drawing of Russ Pyle I direct the viewer to his face and hands with light. Rembrandt’s,“Portrait of a Scholar” 1631, (The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia) shows clearly Rembrandt’s mastery of light.
As an artist studying other artists, my hope is that I express the human spirit and that my art has “Something to Say!”