Fruit Dish c. 1937

Here we see a simple pencil drawing of a fruit dish by Hugh Clarke. It's hard to tell what Clarke was thinking but it looks like a straightforward observational drawing. The tonal shading makes the dish appear translucent, as if it's made of glass, while the spare outline of the bowl from above could be a study for another drawing, or perhaps even a guide for a craftsperson to follow. I wonder about the relationship between drawing and craft. As a painter, drawing is an integral part of my process. It helps me translate what I see into marks on a surface, but unlike Clarke, I don't think of my drawings as instructions for how to make something. My drawings are just another way of thinking! This drawing feels different from a painting, but in some ways, it has a similar feeling to the work of Giorgio Morandi, who made so many paintings of bowls. In the end, all artists learn from each other. We’re all in this conversation together!