Page 200 - sarah-simblet_sketch-book-for-the-artist

EARTH AND THE ELEMENTS200

Storms

STORMS CAN BE SEEN and drawn in two ways: first, as night-soaked heart. He brings us to stare into a place
a subject and second, as a gestural storm on the paper. that no sane human would enter. Opposite, Leonardos
The very nature of both is turmoil and an interweaving Cloudburst of Material Possessions is o n e of his m o s t
of elements, inks, marks, water, and tossed objects— enigmatic and mysterious works. It looks so contemporary,
a perfect subject in which artists can forget themselves, grab as if drawn just this year. Domestic objects we can own
their brush, ink, or charcoal, and swim into the page. and name fall from the clouds, lines of rain escorting them
to bounce and clatter. An update on biblical showers of
The menacing darkness of Hugo's storm below is so fish and frogs, this is a bombardment from our homes.
convincing, it is difficult to contemplate its brooding and

VICTOR HUGO Pen and brush Hugo drew first with pen and ink, composing Le Bateau-Vision mm)
French novelist and artist (see also p.28). In periods banks of waves and dense, active surfaces of water. Then, with a 1864
between writing, drawing was Hugo's principal means brush, he blanketed the drawing in darkness, leaving nothing but 71/2 x 1 0 in ( 1 9 2 x 2 5 5
of expression. His subjects include ruins, fantasy a glimpse of moonlight glistening on the froth below. Turner VICTOR HUGO
palaces, haunted shadows, and the sea studied (see p.198) admires the majesty of nature. By contrast, this
f r o m his h o m e in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. is a writer's narrative of terror.