Don DahlkeVisions on Paper

Drawing is a basic skill for all artists, whether Abstract Expressionist or realist. It is a skill that lends itself to capturing shape and movement through visual expression.

In my own practice, drawing serves several purposes: developing a concept, breaking through a mental block, or opening a path toward something unexpected. When developing a concept, it gives me the freedom to revisit familiar territory and see it in a new way. When working through a mental block, I start with small sketches — whatever surfaces first, then the next thought, and the next. By the end, the page is covered in a sprawl of images, some connected, some not. The goal is to push past the block and either continue an existing project or move in a new direction. It doesn’t always work, but it reliably clears my head of the ideas and half-formed thoughts competing for attention, and brings me back to whatever I was working on before the block took hold.

In the earlier phase of my career I worked as a watercolorist, using both transparent and gouache watercolors. I generally preferred gouache for its controllability, but over time moved toward transparent watercolor as I gained a better understanding of its fluidity. With either medium, I always began with a drawing of the intended image before applying any paint. This gave me a map to work from — a sense of assurance that the image had structure and stability. It allowed me to approach each piece with confidence and minimize the risk of error, which matters greatly in watercolor, where mistakes are rarely correctable.