Stefan Barton Bio:

Stefan Barton - statement 

 

Why the figure? 

After and during much abstracting, distorting, and inventing in my artwork, I resolved a few years ago to explore the depiction of the human form and _expression through life drawing. I also pursued this in order to practice my skills and to follow a guidance which comes down from the history of human awareness and of artistic endeavor. In the midst of this quest, I experienced three motivations to continue this challenge. 

First of all, drawing the figure is a practice in accuracy, in translating the three-dimensional into the two-dimensional capturing and laying out the pose, energy, and weight of the body and the ego, mood, and vitality of the person. 

Secondly, figure drawing is perhaps the most direct occupation with the human condition an artist can approach. There is, of course, the possibility of identification with the subject of the drawing: A living body with personality, a condition, a center of a personal universe. The model emits a sight which I receive with my eyes. Through my hand and my utensils I try to reproduce this onto the paper, and I find it, in that moment, almost certain that the model should feel the pencil or charcoal following his or her lines and shapes. This interaction between artist and model is impersonal but very intimate.  

Finally, there is the element of beauty. There is a quality to the human body that we recognize as attractiveness. Unlike the beauty of a landscape or a still life, the appeal of the human form, its impression on us is by evolutionary design. And we can communicate and share our experience of this beauty with others by visual means.