Mark Hartzheim
Series:
Action Drawing
Action Drawing
Movement and the element of chance both play a decisive role in my work. I begin by making a quick sketch, using both hands, in each one a different-colored piece of pastel chalk. My eyes are closed so that I have no cognitive control over the action taking place. In this way I can work impulsively without consciously influencing what is taking shape on the paper. After producing several "action sketches" in this fashion, I evaluate their potential, pick out the most promising and continue to draw. The raw material of the sketches forms a "visual provocateur" (Max Ernst) which provides the point of departure for the drawings. By taking up and elaborating on the expressive strokes they undergo a metamorphosis: barely visible traces become delineated and emphasized, others are toned down or erased, colors are intensified and differentiated, shapes and lines assert themselves and yet, despite the high degree of transformation, the dynamism of the the original action is still evoked.

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Everything Flows!, 2009
pastel, colored pencil on paper
70 cm x 100 cm

Fleeting Encounter, 2009
pastel, colored pencil on paper
70 cm x 100 cm

Picture Logic, 2009
pastel, colored pencil on paper
70 cm x 100 cm

Good Fortune, 2010
pastel, colored pencil on paper
73 cm x 102 cm

Fusion, 2010
pastel, colored pencil on paper
73 cm x 102 cm

Metamorphosis, 2010
pastel, colored pencil on paper
61,4 cm x 100 cm

Dragonfly Dreams, 2010
pastel, colored pencil on paper
73 cm x 102 cm

Godsend, 2011
pastel, colored pencil on paper
70,4 cm x 100 cm

Making Waves, 2011
pastel, colored pencil on paper
70,4 cm x 100 cm

From Within, 2014
pastel, colored pencil on paper
70 cm x 100 cm

Source, 2016
pastel on paper
50 cm x 70 cm


© 2023 Mark Hartzheim