Drawing From Art: Photography January 5, 2026

Art has always been part of how I see my world. From a young age, I visualized what I saw as form, line, color, light and shadow, and the other principles of art. I still use the lens of art to see everythingaround me. As a child, I learned lessons from numerous sources to create my visual world. The traditional techniques that many artists used to depict their subjects were much in evidence during my formative days. My Father subscribed to The Saturday Evening Post and its pages offered many “illustrations” by great painters: NC Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, Mead Schaeffer, James Bingham, Sarah Stilwell-Webber and numerous artists, whose work greatly influenced me. Those were the earliest memories, along with the remarkable art of the Disney animators. The brilliant Disney film Fantasia was and still is one of my most important influencers.

Later photographers, such as John Bryson, Diane Arbus and Jerry Schatzberg joined the art of bring-a-story/article to life in magazines. Deeply affected by painting, I was now intrigued by the ways in which photographs could so easily contribute to my passion for visuals. Photography often had an immediacy that pulled me into the image, especially the light/shadow aspects of the work. I began studying light through my own Brownie-basic photography, eagerly waiting for my film to be developed by the “camera store” I frequented in Brooklyn. Then, I analyzed each deckle-edged black & white (I never shot color until much later) to see how light brought out form.

Aside from my readily available “home-classroom” of painting/photography studies, I had the good fortune to visit my Paternal Grandparents each weekend. Of course, I loved seeing my Grandparents, but the icing on the cake was that they lived streets away from the Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Each of these places, in its unique way, taught me to appreciate the traditional techniques of realism in art. At the time, the Brooklyn Museum was showing Sargent, Hopper, Winslow Homer and other representational artists from its permanent collection. I learned from these great masters, especially a love of watercolors. The park and gardens provided the natural wonders that inspires so much of art. Sketchbook or camera in hand, I drew plants, flowers and the backdrop of towering Brooklyn apartment buildings: architecture another passion.

Of course, during the 1950-60s art was changing and I was offered a new perspective, too. Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism and other new genres provided an opportunity to look at the world through many different artistic interpretations. I learned to focus on blocks of color, discordant line compositions and contorted forms. I appreciated the distraction from the traditional and tried my brush and camera’s lens to abstract subjects, but I always returned to traditional techniques. During the new art age of the mid 20^th Century, I continued to learn from the old masters, the Impressionists and such “modern artists” as Kandinsky, Dufy and Miro. The Impressionists schooled me in light and the modernists in line and form. And the Renaissance, before and after, in profound (for me) treatment of subject.

Currently, art holds many lessons and mysteries for me. I study different techniques; am always open to new approaches and continue to learn. Each chance to visualize a unique practice is a great detour of the journey I’ve pursued during my life. I truly believe that I can learn from many sources that come my way each day. From shifting shadows on my walls to studying the books about Velazquez my Granddaughter gifted me from a recent trip to the Prado, I delve into art to increase my skills and knowledge, always continuing the journey I set out upon as a child.

Here is an example of putting my art exploration into practice:

I have learned from Leonardo da Vinci often and well. The great master’s use of light, form, draftsmanship, brushstroke and composition schooled me on basic and complex art concepts. Fascinating are the notebooks, found in museums throughout the world. One particular drawing has always been in my mind: We all have favorites! It is a simple (well it IS by da Vinci), small notebook work, but since I first saw this drawing years ago, it has always greatly impacted my visualization of light. The work is da Vinci’s perception (one of many) of light. So, the story goes: one afternoon I was sitting in an ordinary café. The waiter placed a water glass on the tablecloth before me. As the light waned, shadowed lines appeared on the cloth……..da Vinci’s lines representing light. I shot several hundred photos of the light rays and shadows and was able to capture some of what da Vinci taught me. “Light emanates from a point of reference.” In his notebooks, da Vinci writes:

“Every body in light and shade fills the surrounding air with infinite images of itself,

and these [rays]…infused in the air, represent this body, all in all, and

all in each part…The equidistant…[form]of converging rays…gives to their object, angles of equal size. And, the eye will receive the thing from the object, as of equal size…composed of

radiating straight lines, which are caused by the boundaries of the surfaces of the body, in light and shade” A lesson well taught. A lesson learned.