Marja-Leena Rathje
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HeadStudy.jpg

Head Study - drypoint, image size 11 x 8.5 cm.

Recently I was going through the very few prints that I still have from my long-ago art school days. This small drypoint is one of them. I remember how fascinated I was in observing heads from an odd perspective, the heads as if slung back, or viewed from a child's eye level.


Marja-Leena | 18/11/2006 | 8 comments
themes: Being an Artist, Older Works, Printworks


8 comments

"From a child's eye level" is what I immediately thought of. I remember how fascinated I was with adult nostrils — amazed at their size, shapes, shadows, and hairs!! Makes me laugh to think of it now. Thanks for sharing this wonderful old drypoint.

Yup, MB! Thanks for connecting!

I immediately thought that this image was from the Veils series until I read the text.

Omega, how interesting! Now that you make me think of it, I guess there's some similarity to this one. My drawing style is still much like this at times.

It's always so interesting to find an old creation. It takes us back to who we were when we made it, how we've changed, and how we've remained the same.

Patry - yes, that's so true! Even some of the bad stuff just shows how one has improved. And that goes for writing too, doesn't it?

Delicious shadow, Marja-Leena, this is lovely.

Your angle echoes a rather painful experience we have just had; a 9 year old boy, given his Dad's camera at G's birthday party, wandered around taking (rather clever) close-up portraits of us and our friends. The young ones were fine, but for anyone over 60 the results are terrifying; jowls, bags, turkey necks, whiskers, monstrous nostrils, all exaggerated by being taken from underneath. Having got over the pain of my own image, I realise two things - children might, understandably, not want to kiss an elderly adult and I could probably make good money using the shots as blackmail material..

Anna, thank you! That's quite a story, gad! I'd be horrified too. Now you be good, don't be tempted by those photos, you hear.