HKU Period
This charcoal landscape dates from 1998, shortly after my studies at the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU). Drawing and working with charcoal were already an important part of my practice at that time.
Looking at the shapes and contrast of the image, I make a translation with my personal touch. I love letting the material speak and collaborating with my own strength and fluidity. With charcoal (in various forms), I can freely express what I see.
Leonoor Ruigrok
LOOKING AT Cézanne
The drawing developed from looking closely at the landscape compositions of Paul Cézanne. I followed the shapes and lines in his work, but translated them into my own rhythm, making my own choices about what to show and what to leave out. These were quick drawings, usually made within an hour. I made several of them. In 1998, this way of working really brought me somewhere. It gave me a new way of looking.
RETURNING TO IT
In 2025, I returned to this research and made another series, this time with a much rougher approach and less refinement. The work was different, but the research itself did not feel as necessary to me as it had in 1998. It did not open up a new way of looking in the same way, so I left it there. I find that interesting too. Returning to an earlier way of working does not necessarily mean it still has something to teach me.
Several drawings from this series have stayed with me. This is another one, made during the same period and from the same research.
The paper now
The paper has changed over the years. It has faded and aged, and that has become visible in the surface. There are shifts in tone, marks and irregularities that were not there when I made the drawing in 1998. I notice that I actually find the work more alive because of it. There is more happening in the paper itself now.