Week #15, Winsor Wirebound Sketch Book II

Dusti Bongé, Winsor Wirebound Sketch Book, p.2, c. 1980, pastel on paper, 8 ¾” x 6”.

Our second study from Dusti Bongé’s 1980 Winsor Wirebound Sketch Book offers a marked contrast to last week’s sketch. Instead of the latter’s vibrant colors, explosive energy, and loose gestural marks we here have a darkly hued, structured arrangement, and a more measured application of the medium.

The color choice goes to show that Dusti truly did appreciate all colors. Not many artists would choose to create a work all in browns. Some noted exceptions are a few well-known characters from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century such as Rembrandt, van Dyck, de la Tour, and Carrière. Van Dyck even has a color “Van Dyck Brown” (originally known as Cassel Earth) named after him. In these examples, and even in more contemporary ones, the hue is used mostly in figurative painting, to convey earthiness or to achieve chiaroscuro.

In Dusti’s case none of this is going on. Instead, not intimidated by the potentially predictable color preferences of others, she proceeds to create an abstract work with black, brown, tan, and white.  A few sienna accents bring life to this somber palette.

The composition itself is completely geometric. A large brown rectangle sits just above and to the right of center of the sheet. It is pierced by a white hole, which in turn also sits above and to the right of the rectangle’s center. This oculus, which draws you in, has a partial outer ring of sienna which further accentuates the right-upward angular rise of the whole. This way Dusti sets up a sense of movement within the rigid structure.

Below the rectangle is a horizontal band of mostly tan marks accentuated with a few sienna ones. Surrounding the remaining three sides are a layer of wide vertical bands of tan, black, white, and sienna on the left, and narrow bands of black along the top and right. And finally, Dusti creates a textured quality by applying a sgraffito pattern of tights horizontal and vertical hatch marks to the solid brown pastel of the rectangle.