When line becomes emotion

I own this work, Ecstasy by Janet Beckhouse.

Janet passed away too early. But in a short time on earth, what an impact she made.

There was a retrospective exhibition of her work with Skepsi Gallery in 2022 and Ecstasy hadn’t sold yet. I knew I wanted to have something Janet had created with her head, hands and heart in my life.

If this is your first time encountering the work of this extraordinary artist, buckle up and prepare to be astounded.

In my last email I discussed a work I'd seen at the National Gallery of Australia - a painting by Grace Cossington-Smith - and marvelled at the quality of line in the painting and her ability to take a ubiquitous subject (the sea) and make it her own. You can read about it here.

Similarly, there is so much to learn from Janet's work in terms of line in three-dimensional form and the ability of line to convey emotion.

A thesis could be written on this one, work alone. But for the sake of this email - and your attention span - let's focus in on the tendrils growing from the face.

They are simultaneously line, form, surface, and movement.

They appear to be growing in real time, outwards from the face. Does it look like that to you?

They intertwine and overlap, creating an entanglement of three-dimensional lines. They have dark diagonal markings, adding to the sense of motion, and there's a sheen to the surface, catching the light, giving them a moist, slippery feel.

The effect?

I am transfixed. I am unsettled.

There's beauty and there's danger.

There's a sense of being engulfed, and there's also sensuality.

It's haunting and hypnotic.

All of this in some coils of clay…

You may not want to create sensual, dangerous, unsettling, and haunting work. Probably not many of you do.

But you do want your work to evoke something. And your work contains lines.

It may be calmness, intimacy, playfulness, tenderness, grief, intensity. What is it for you?

How can we bring this into our own work?

Some questions to ponder, whether your lines are 2D or 3D:

How does your line start?

How does your line end?

What journey does it go on in between these two points?

How does the placement of your line convey your emotion?

How does the surface of your line convey your emotion?

How could you accumulate lines to create your emotion?

Or strip it right back?

There are not many places online where you can see and hear Janet discussing her work. This is one of them.
 

Amy x