At the end of the Silver exhibition at DFN gallery, New York, a silverpoint exhibition curated by New York Artists Equity Executive Directror Michel Gormely and DFN Projects Director, Lisa Lebofsky, there was a Zoom panel discussion on silverpoint. As an exhibitor, I was deeply interested in it, but since it took place at 2 a.m. in Europe, I listened later on You Tube.
The discussions seemed strangely familiar yet very different from my optic on silverpoint, this medium that has held me in its silvery thrall since the 1980s.
Talk about the diverse techniques of surface preparation and actual drawing in silver ranged from the erudite to the fascinated, to my amusement. This humble and oh so ancient drawing technique seems to have a special spell under which artists fall. Overall, the aspects of oxidation of silver rendering the medium a seemingly alive, evolving medium, as opposed to the noble, unchanging metals of gold, platinum, etc., were clearly an attraction. Discussions on the variety of surface preparations, to ensure that there is a smooth stable surface with sufficient tooth or rugosity to draw metal particles off the stylus (or silver spoon, bracelet or earring, gold ring or bracelet, copper wire or whatever) touched on the traditional – from true gesso to casein, white gouache, acrylic preparations, etc. But the rituals of surface preparation evidently entrance the panel discussion participants as much as I have found them alluring.
There is somehow, whilst preparing the drawing surface for silverpoint, a powerful connection back to those early artists in the late 13th, 14th and 15th centuries who adapted this medium from the monastery scribes by using silver instead of lead. One almost enters into another frame of mind, a disassociation with today’s hurly-burly world. You know that on that drawing surface, you are going to launch into vaguely conceived and yet unknown territory, for the drawing-to-come cannot be easily erased or changed. The dialogue between metal stylus and the surface becomes a bewitching conversation, I find – something alluded to in the talk on line.
One of the earliest silverpoints I did, back in early 1981, when travelling around the North American continent with my husband in a motorhome - Yukon Roses. (A photograph sent to me by its present owner)
The differences I felt between my approach to silverpoint and those mostly expressed by panel participants were those of our individual approaches to subject matter and presentation of forms of silverpoint as a drawing medium. Margaret Krug’s comments resonated with me, for she draws aspects of the natural world in exquisite delicacy and detail, clearly using a wide range of approaches in silverpoint to celebrate flowers and nature in general. The others were fascinating in their erudition and application, but I ended up feeling that my approach, experimenting a great deal and basing my work entirely on the natural world, was entirely another path to silverpoint/metalpoint drawing.
Another very early silverpoint and watercolour drawing I did, The Coming of spring (Southern Azaleas)
Another early silverpoint and silk drawing, Autumn Moon, drawn on the Georgia coast
Each of our individual life experiences leads us to a different artistic expression. My early life on a farm in Tanzania, working with flowers, trees, animals, shaped my love of working from real life as there is so much information that is otherwise easily lost. As I evolved as an artist, the other ever more urgent strand to my art-making has been to use my art to try to highlight the need for our care, stewardship, restoration and general reverence for our sorely beleaguered natural world. Oaks, live oaks and the coastal Georgia tidal-high ground interface, the exquisitely balanced cork oak ecosystem in Portugal and Spain, vineyards now under stress of climate change, olive groves of millennial trees – these are all sources of inspiration and concern for me as a silverpoint artist. Each of these subjects dictates to me what and how I draw – one almost becomes their medium.
Yet another very early silverpoint and copperpoint that I drew - Summer Weaving
Tabby Ruins at Chocolate, Sapelo Island - an early silverpoint drawing
Listening to the You Tube discussion made me go back through my drawings, those that are digital images as opposed to 35 mm slide (that dates one!!), and pull out some that brought back memories. It is instructive then to go to recent drawings, by comparison, and also to reflect on what I am now doing - a 2m x 2m silverpoint drawing of olive trees. I clearly have travelled a distance as an artist.
After to Wood Borers had Worked, silverpoint, Washi paper and acrylic on tinted ground. J. Cook, artist
Posidonia Stages, silverpont and Polychromos pencil. J. Cook, artist
Since so few people in Spain know about silverpoint drawing, it was indeed refreshing to listen to a panel discussion on my favourite drawing medium. Silverpoint does weave a spell over an increasing number of artists - what a delight!