Replicating Kline..

I have been delving into the world of Franz Kline as part of research for my upcoming research paper. Being particularly interested in what he was trying to portray in his work, what he hoped his work would do, or how he felt during the process, I began to consider creating some paintings of my own. The idea is to replicate the style of Kline’s b&w expressionism, whilst trying to remain loose, and paint what I feel in that moment. I also thought about trying to visualise a particular subject in my mind, and allow my hand to articulate the emotional response on the canvas.

To begin with, I did some rough thumbnail sketches using a micron brush pen. I think the most interesting thing I found was firstly the way I had done exactly 3 straight lined and 3 curved - without considering it. I was literally drawing and scribbling how I felt in that moment giving myself 30 secs per square.

The six 30-second thumbnail drawings.

The second thing was how uncomfortable the more curved images made me feel - there feels an element of chaos, uncertainty, disorder. Whereas the ones with the boxes/squares and straight lines spoke to me in a more appealing way. I preferred the aesthetic and it gave me a sense of structure, certainty and order.

My intention is now to build on the ones that stood out more and create some final drawings before attempting a larger painting.