It’s a brand-new year & I have discovered a brand-new medium. Actually, it is a very old medium, but it’s brand-new to me! And the story of this “discovery” is such a classic example of how following my nose & trusting my instincts have rewarded me creatively over the years that it seems ready-made as the topic of my first blog of 2014. Here’s what happened:
During the holidays, I was watching a DVD lecture series on Northern European Renaissance art, one of the many stellar offerings from The Teaching Company, when the professor started discussing a lovely silverpoint drawing by Rogier van der Weyden. Although I had encountered silverpoint drawings before in museums, it occurred to me that I had only the vaguest of notions about this medium, so I pressed the “pause” button & headed for my dictionary of art terms & techniques. There I learned that silverpoint involves making marks with a pointed rod of silver on specially-treated paper or board. Rods of other types of metal – gold, copper, lead or platinum – will also make marks, but silver, in particular, has been favored because as it tarnishes, the pale gray lines become darker & the entire drawing takes on a unique character.
My initial curiosity about the nature of silverpoint was rapidly morphing into excitement about its expressive possibilities. My next thoughts were: Does anyone still work in silverpoint & where can I get my hands on the necessary materials to give it a try? A quick Internet search lead me to SilverPointWeb.com, a thoroughly-researched, easily-navigated compendium of everything imaginable about silverpoint. Here I learned that yes, there are definitely artists working in silverpoint today & that this was the place to purchase supplies. Needless to say, I wasted no time in placing an order.
While waiting for my tools to arrive, I prepared some sheets of watercolor paper with a product made by Golden called Silverpoint/Drawing Ground. Then my husband Tom used some of his silversmithing supplies to create a couple of styli for me so I could begin my first drawing tout de suite. The first mark I made was the thinnest, most delicate line I had ever been able to achieve with anything else! Nearly jumping up & down in pure joy, I knew at that moment that I was officially hooked.
Over the next few days, I completed my first drawing in silverpoint, adding some highlights & color with gouache at the end. It depicts a jaunty little mushroom that sprouted in the middle of our lawn last summer, probably over the roots of an old silver maple we ripped out a few years ago. Here it is:
silverpoint with gouache – 5 x 4.5″
As fascinating as silverpoint is as a medium, equally fascinating to me is the way in which this whole creative side trip unfolded. Earlier I characterized it as “following my nose,” by which I mean I encounter something (in this case, Rogier’s silverpoint drawing) which sparks a thought or question (“I really don’t know what silverpoint is”) that I then pursue… which leads to another thought, idea, or question (“Does anyone use it & where can I get it?”) that I also pursue… until I reach something that feels like a satisfactory conclusion or a place to pause. Which, of course, is not to say that all activity ceases at this point for if following my nose is horizontal movement, then the pausing serves to signal the start of vertical movement, a drilling deep & a plunging down in order to learn & practice, to experiment & play, to master & achieve.
So here we have a tidy little example of what Dr. Callahan explained to us in an earlier blog: I “discovered” silverpoint because I experienced seeing Rogier’s drawing as something I wanted to be able to do but about which I lacked all knowledge. This lack of knowledge provided the impetus for me to “follow my nose,” which ultimately led me to a whole new method of artistic expression.
More about silverpoint later…