An outline of the female image 1975

Havrylenko made this spare drawing of a woman, and I am seeing it now. It's just a light outline, barely there. It's as if he's conjuring her face from thin air. I love how minimal it is. He's left so much unsaid, trusting the viewer to fill in the gaps. I’m thinking about what he was thinking when he made this; what he might have been feeling? Was he in love, or just trying to capture a likeness, or was this some kind of automatic drawing? Was he trying to channel her spirit? There is something generous about the drawing. It feels so vulnerable, and the image is unfinished, open for suggestion. It's a reminder that paintings are never really finished, they’re always in process, shifting and changing as we look at them. And that’s kind of beautiful, right?