Study of Oulida 2015

Soey Milk made this drawing, Study of Oulida, in 1989. Looking at the image, I'm struck by how delicately the artist renders the figure. The softness of the pencil marks creates a subtle, almost dreamlike quality. You get a real sense of Milk's intimate engagement with the process. The texture is smooth, and the colour palette is restrained, which lends the piece a quiet intensity. The lines are so fine, you can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page. Check out the way she uses the colours in the ropes, it's almost as if she's using pastels, and it works so well with the muted shading of the figure. There's a real push and pull between the flatness of the surface and the illusion of depth. Milk reminds me of Egon Schiele in the way they both use the human form to explore psychological states. Like Schiele, Milk is interested in ambiguity, in leaving room for interpretation rather than offering easy answers.