Sandpaper drawings
wev
(these are in the folk art catagory, so each is unique).
Ah, so that's what seperates folk from all the other forms of artwork: each
one is unique. If I had known that before, I wouldn't have bought that
Walter Crane watercolour.
wev
JHMCCALL
find good reference materials on popularity, subject matter, or regional
differences. I've seen listing in auction catalogs for items, which at least
shows me some examples. Anybody know of any books/articles? I'm not looking for
value/appraisal here (these are in the folk art catagory, so each is unique).
Any leads will be helpful. Thanks.
Patricia V. Lehman
Please tell us about sandpaper drawings -- are they on sandpaper, or do
they have a grainy texture from sandpaper under the paper?
Tish
JHMCCALL
>Ah, so that's what seperates folk from all the other forms of artwork: each
one is unique. If I had known that before, I wouldn't have bought that Walter
Crane watercolour.>
Ok Ok, all art is unique! I retract the sweeping generality...
Actually, these things, like any other drawing, are all over the place in terms
of "skill" of execution and quality of materials, from the crude and "naive"
to the sophisticated. Most of those I've seen have been "naive," but these have
a lot of character.
What are they?
As far as I can determine (shaky here, which is why I posted the question)
"sandpaper" drawings were done in the US from the late 1830s or 1840s to
somewhere around 1870-1875. I don't know where they originated, or if they were
popular in Britain.
According to the dealers I spoken with, the "sandpaper" is generally a stiff
drawing board on which the artists would brush on a glue (rabbit's hide glue is
what I was told.). Next marble dust (from local carvers I guess) was blown
across the surface to give it a roughness and sparkle. The artist would then
draw using pencil pastels etc, pencil/charcoal being more common as far as I
can tell. The finished product would glitter, catching the yellow candlelight.
This was the quality that made them popular.
A few of the pictures I've seen seem to show that the "sand" was occasionally
applied unevenly, to give areas of the picture more emphasis. I've notice this
on seascapes, or lakes and river.
Most of the one's I've seen have been fairly small, about 10-12" x 15-18". I
have seen one large pastel that was about 20" x 30".
And that exhaust what little I know about the things...
zi...@interport.net
One more thing. Sometimes later in the century, photographic images
were enlarged on large sheets which were then sandapapers [had the san
applied, and were then pasteled and worked up with charcoal as well.
So an image which looks very skillful at first, canturn out to be a
photograph with a few touches. Some of thephotographic ones areworth
buying and some are a problem.
GL
Zita