June 26, 2008

Athena

The Athena building in Sophia Antipolis ... I struggled quite a bit with this view, couldn't get anything satisfying on paper for several days - probably due to the complex geometrical forms being interrupted by the trees, but that's just what is so interesting in this place.
This solution here works fine for me, and I think it's because I rather 'painted' with a long arm, instead of drawing meticulously with the hand directly on the paper as I tried the other days.
I also set the contours of the building only once the large forms were already there, this method often seems to work better than the other way round.

29 x 21 cm

6 comments:

Suzanne McDermott said...

These are really interesting, Werner. I like the way you're framing the buildings or including the buildings in the landscape. I've been thinking about this issue for a while. I used to draw and paint buildings with landscape as a second thought (hate to admit that). Now I'm thinking of adding parts of buildings to my landscapes. It's inspiring to see this work of yours!

Werner said...

Thank you Suzanne.
Maybe the fact that I work in black and white also makes it a bit easier to 'mix' landscape with buildings?

Sheila Vaughan said...

Makes me think of Dufy - that little tree on the right hand side, so important to the whole composition. I think these drawings are wonderful Werner.

Werner said...

The comparison with Dufy is interesting - he worked in this region as well, so our ways of working may just be inspired by the same mediterranean light...
Thanks a lot Sheila.

Anonymous said...

Pour continuer dans les comparaisons, ce dessin, par sa composition, me rappelle un tableau de Peter Doig vu à Carré d'Art il y a qq années. Il s'agit de la Cité Radieuse du Corbusier vue à travers les arbres.

Werner said...

Merci Corine, cette comparaison me flatte beaucoup - en tant que fan de Peter Doig (cf. mon commentaire dans ce billet de lunettesrouges à ce sujet)!