Isabel Bishop Early Sketchbook c. 1928 - 1936

Isabel Bishop made this early sketchbook drawing with pen on paper. Look at those lines, so delicate! I can just imagine Isabel Bishop in her studio, maybe in the early morning light, quickly sketching the scene in front of her. What was she thinking as she moved the pen across the paper? Was she trying to capture the essence of a fleeting moment, or working out ideas for a larger composition? The marks are so tentative, full of searching and discovery. They remind me of the drawings of Manet or Degas, capturing everyday life. She's part of a lineage of artists, all trying to figure things out, learning from each other across time. That looping line there, it's so expressive! It seems to suggest a feeling, an intention. We, as artists, engage in this ongoing dialogue across time, each of us building upon the work of those who came before. And what's so great about painting is that it’s all about the ambiguous and uncertain.