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| Before actually starting
a painting, J.D. nearly always made a more or less rough sketch,
in colour or a gouache. He did so from the time he was influenced
by Sérusier. In his purist
period, he used the Golden Section and made more searching studies
on paper before getting down to canvas. The margins of the drawings
were covered with ratios. In addition to the paintings, he also
did a great number of works on paper: collages, gouaches, inks, pastels,
"rubbed out " charcoal drawings. Towards the middle of the 50s, when he returned to more spontaneity, he utterly gave up preparatory drawings without for all that stopping drawing. To him, the necessity to tell something should always originate a painting. J.D. expressed it directly on the linen not sized, just stretched. He made a rough sketch with charcoal, then coated the surface with some glue and drew again, the drawing showing through in the end. As a result of the 3 or 4 layers on the canvas, the outline became more distinct. At every stage, J.D. would go deeper into the search. When he believed that it was good enough, he used chalk and charcoal to hatch the different values. He usually took a photograph for his log-book. After the last layer of " mayonnaise " (see § Tempera), he coloured the canvas with brushes and palette knives. |
J.D. might work
on ten paintings at the same time since he would deliberately interrupt
his work with practical tasks that he insisted on carrying out himself:
for instance, he would have the canvas drawn taut on a well-sized
stretcher, prepare the coating, the tempera and grind the colours
in powder very carefully... During the endless development, which
might last a few days, even a few weeks, J.D. " imagined "
the colour which seemed to be essential, its potential and its very
necessity naturally coming out from the drawing. Very seldom,
but it also happened, the desire for colour originated a painting.
Should it be the case, the graphic element generally emphasizing the
gesture would be revealed subsequently. In the 60s, when he was in Munich, he had to paint on small or medium-size sheets of paper. For the same practical reasons, in 1967, while he was compelled to stay in the hospital, he drew again with a fountain pen and filled a few small sketchbooks with slightly hatched drawings. |
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