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There's a J.S. Sargent exhibit touring museums right now, and I was lucky enough to get over to St. Louis to see it. The focus of the exhibit is his drawings and landscape sketches in watercolor, so I was a little dissappointed that I didn't get to see any of his beautiful portraits.
As I was walking through the hallways lined with his drawings, I was really stunned. He could draw a very life like portrait with less than 10 lines. One of the subjects he repeatedly drew was a flamenco dancer, and the expression of her movement with extremely economic line was incredible. I loved looking at and studying these drawings. The feeling I had when viewing these works is partly why I'm giving up pursuit of a career in research to attend an atelier after I finish my current studies. For some reason, I find it absolutely enthralling.
I know that many terrffic artists don't know how to draw well, and I wish them nothing but success. For myself, though, I couldn't imagine an artistic career that didn't include this beautiful skill.
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