Two Sisters

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This drawing is of two sisters. In the drawings that I post you can almost never find any expressionism. I am really a very classical artist, and I have a tendency to avoid emotion. I am not talking here about the subject of the drawing, I am talking about the means employed to create the drawing, and in this instance the drawing is highly expressionistic because the character, style, and density of the individual strokes of the pencil have a tendency to exert there identity irrespective of the forms being described. It is easy to spot when a drawing is becoming expressionistic, you begin to see the left handedness, or right handedness of the artist showing up in the marks of the drawing, because the process of drawing is speeded up and there doesn’t seem to be time for the slow development of form by carefully controlled strokes.

These two sisters love each other very much, you can tell that at a glance. They don’t live in the same state so sometimes they don’t speak to each other for a long period of time. Then one will call the other at the same moment that the other is calling the first, and they both will get a busy signal. When this happens they are never surprised.

They like to go shopping for shoes together. In the shoe store one will goad the other into trying on the most idiotic shoes imaginable, this they do with straight, serious faces, saving up their laughter for later.

In my drawing the sister on the right is speaking, and the sister on the left tilts her head to listen, she doesn’t have to tilt her head, she is not hard of hearing, it is just on of those affectionate gestures that they have.

The sister on the right is saying, “Our cars are rusty, we have no money, but at least we’re beautiful and intelligent, and after all you can’t have everything.”

This drawing measures 6.5” x 6.5”. It is drawn on cold press watercolor paper with a soft graphite pencil. It is signed across the bottom in the border Richard Britell September 9, 2001.