Fragments of Rest
Drawing sold recently through Galerie Heike Arndt Berlin.
This drawing was made during a life-drawing session in Holborn, London, in 2023. Recently, it found a new home through Galerie Heike Arndt Berlin. Seeing it leave my studio made me think again about the quiet, unexpected life a drawing begins once it leaves the artist's hands.
Drawing the Quiet Moments
What has stayed with me about this piece is the atmosphere that emerged almost unexpectedly while I was drawing. The model's pose — folded inward, with the body curling gently into itself — immediately suggested both rest and vulnerability. It felt as though the figure was slowly disappearing into the surrounding fabrics and space.
I worked quickly and instinctively, allowing fragments, unfinished areas and overlapping lines to remain visible. I never wanted the drawing to feel overly resolved. Those broken edges and transparent layers are, for me, what keep an image alive. They preserve the energy of the moment — the concentration, the silence of the room, and the stillness of the model.
The soft blues, pale pinks and washed-out whites gradually created an atmosphere I had not consciously planned. The drawing slowly moved beyond observation and became something closer to memory. Even now, looking at it feels less like seeing an image than remembering an experience.
When a Drawing Begins a New Life
One of the things I find most fascinating about drawing is that so much emotional intensity can become contained within a single sheet of paper. Once finished, the work often disappears into storage, a collector's home or a gallery, carrying with it the atmosphere of the moment in which it was made.
Years may pass without seeing it again. Then, unexpectedly, the drawing reappears — not physically, but through the knowledge that it has connected with someone else.
Selling this piece recently reminded me of that quiet transformation. A drawing made during an ordinary afternoon in London now belongs to another life, another home and another story. Yet somehow, it still carries the same fragments of memory, atmosphere and emotion that first emerged in the studio.
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