LOOSE

 

As I've written in the past, I'm a big fan of loose drawing, especially by artists who've already mastered tight, sophisticated drawing and returned to looseness on the other side.  It was true of Rodin.  It was true of Bernie Fuchs.  It was true of Austin Briggs.  And it's true of Tom Fluharty.

As Walt Whitman said, "I am for those who believe in loose delights." I found many of them in Fluharty's new book, appropriately entitled Loose.

The book contains hundreds of quick sketches of a wide variety of subjects, mostly sketchbook musings.

Even more than his drawing abilities, I'm impressed that Fluharty got close enough to draw these bikers in the Atlanta airport without getting the crap beat out of him.

I enjoy naive and primitive drawing, but there's something special about the loose, formative drawings of someone who has paid the dues to master technical drawings skills but is able to put those skills aside when a return to freedom and looseness is called for.  Knowledgeable freedom has a different look to it.

As T.S. Eliot wrote, "We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."