Picasso’s Birds ~ Simply capturing the essence!

While taking drawing classes at the University of Maryland, I had an art teacher introduce the class to gestural drawings. We drew from live nude and clothed models, drawing the human figure, producing fast sketches ranging from a minute or two, to 15 minute drawings.

The goal was to capture the essence of the person, his/her position, and to do it quickly. Done repetitively, it helps the artist become very familiar with his/her subject, and therefore, hopefully, the foundation of their future work becomes stronger.

My interest in Avian Art had me searching the Internet for famous artists who painted birds, but were not necessarily known for their bird paintings. I stumbled upon some beautiful, simple line/gestural drawings of birds by Picasso that I thought I’d share with all of you.

Picasso loved white doves ever since childhood, when his father used to paint them. He actually named his daughter Paloma, the Spanish word for Dove.

His Dove of Peace line drawing, 1949, became a worldwide symbol for peace and the anti-war movement. Here is that drawing along with a collection of bird drawings by Picasso that I found charmingly simple, yet he managed to capture the essence of the bird exquisitely.