Thursday, June 07, 2012

Thinking About The Third Thing

Katherine Kean, drawing, raindrops, graphite
Raindrop Pattern sketch  ©2012 Katherine Kean
graphite on paper 8 x10"

My studio time is scheduled in fits and starts, sandwiched between the many tasks that I deferred over the past few months and the lure of the garden and getting late season planting in. The sketch above is a preliminary drawing to explore raindrop patterns for a new painting.

I recently came across this quote - actually a non rhyming poem - by author D. H. Lawrence:

Water is H2O, hydrogen two parts, oxygen one, but there is also a third thing, that makes it water and nobody knows what it is. The atom locks up two energies but it is a third thing present which makes it an atom.


In this painting, I think the "third thing" will live somewhere in between the foreground raindrops and the wet, blurry background of the street. It'll be whatever you, the viewer, interprets it to be.


I love wondering about the mystery of the third thing, don't you?

8 comments:

Kathryn Hansen said...

i love the sketch!! will be fun to see the painting from it!!

Katherine Kean said...

Thanks Kathryn - I'm going to enjoy that too. :)

Lynne E. Windsor said...

Hi Katherine, really nice and makes me think of Vija Celmins... don't you agree? I should send you my essay... she talks about crawling over her drawing.. I think yours is similar. I went for a run the other morning and it had been raining raining raining and as per usual I think about my work when running and I had decided to include drops of water (as seen on the blades of grass)in my etchings when I get back to it, so it's lovely to see this drawing. Working on a workshop for next year... will keep you posted. x

Katherine Kean said...

Hi Lynne, thank you. I'd love to read your Vija Celmins essay. Yes please send it if you can. Will look forward to your etchings with water drops and a workshop too. Yay! x

Jean Spitzer said...

I like the title. Your sketch is beautiful.

Katherine Kean said...

Thanks Jean. I like "The Third Thing" too.

Shanna said...

Your thought process is fascinating and I really like this drawing!

Katherine Kean said...

Thanks Shanna!

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