Between July 2020 and June 2022, Gerard Bellaart filled 11 spiral-bound, 80-page sketchbooks with charcoal drawings. Each sketchbook measured 12.6 x 9.45 inches (32 x 24 cm.). Some sketches were preparatory for larger drawings and some were studies for paintings. But most were for the sake of sketching itself. Of the nearly 1,000 drawings, he selected more than 100 for this chapbook. Below are images of a baker’s dozen. To get a truer sense of their subtleties, click each image to enlarge it and click again. ‘Noirs’ begins with this epigraph:
Never had I more Excited, passionate, fantastical Imagination, nor an eye That more expected the impossible . . . Joseph Joubert
The published edition of Noirs is available here.
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