A drawing masterclass on negative space from Maggi Hambling

Clare
Oct 30, 2024
2 min read

I’ve been doing some drawing work recently using negative space – the shapes around and between the subject of an image. I thought it would be useful to share the notes of a short talk I gave at Leith School of Art about Maggi Hambling’s drawing - Rosie. (I’m taking an advanced drawing course at the school led by Jane Couroussopoulos). It’s only one day per week but it really challenges us to rethink our practice.

Back to Rosie. I would argue that this is one of Hambling’s greatest drawings. Here’s why.

Meet Rosie

Portrait of Rosie the rhino, indian ink on A2 paper

Maggi Hambling called this drawing her first portrait, so you can think of this as a seminal work. If you have seen any subsequent portraits, you’ll no doubt have noticed that they all have her signature aesthetic style – so eloquently rendered in this image. As seen in the artist’s drawing of Rosie (above) - this includes energetic and expressionistic mark making.

Another really good example of this - and one of my favourite portraits of all time - is Hambling’s oil painting of Dorothy Hodgkin. In this work made in the mid-1980s you can see the same signature mark making which she has crystallised within her drawing of Rosie.

Hambling has had an impressive decades-long career as an artist and her reputation precedes her. She is unflinching, always uncompromisingly strives to get to the truth or essence of her subjects, and more often than not her works are full of life and energy.

Hambling's muse

Rosie the stuffed rhino still lives in Ipswich museum. This photograph was taken of her in the early 1960s. She was at that time positioned in the main hall of the museum so she would have had quite a presence there.

The way Hambling responds to the subject in her drawing is electric, energetic and full of life. She executes a masterful technique which is close to Eastern calligraphy. The empty space where there are no marks made by the artist is as articulate as the parts of the image that she has placed her marks. This is very difficult to master. So, although this drawing has all the hallmarks of having been done very quickly – it has been executed in an extremely skilled way.

Hambling said that she believes that art lives in a place somewhere in-between life and death, and you definitely get a sense of that here. It’s as if she resurrects the stuffed rhino and breathes life back into it. It feels as if Rosie is about to charge out off the page.

The drawing is also very sculptural - she solidifies the image. This is very impressive when you consider how much negative space there is in-between her mark making. She said: “If you ever feel like you know how to draw there is not much point in doing it, because each time it’s different, each time it’s new.”

That’s plenty to think about for now.