Approximating biomorphs.

Here comes Lesson 7 in the continuing series How to draw/paint like Paul Klee. Click the "Paul Klee" tag for more lessons and more of an explanation. Here's the transcription from the next page of that notebook I wrote at an exhibition in London in 2002:

• "Vegetable — Physiognomic" — Plants superimposed on a face.

• "Strange Plants"

• using a single line lazy eight movement, make a tree in the center w/ suitable background. Paint in yellow & green. Background is horizon line only & dark blue sky grading to light blue green at horizon. Dappled ground.

 It's frustrating that the most elaborate description is the one without a title, but I found what I'm sure is that tree:



"Fig Tree" is the title of that 1929 watercolor. As for "Vegetable-Physiognomic" (1921) and "Strange Plants" (1921), these were easy to find, and I've opted to brighten and sharpen these images a bit:




Back to the notebook (the scan of which appears at the bottom of the post):

• Approximate Man = biomorph shapes w/ a face somewhere

• Write a phrase in strange letters suspended in space. Nearby a face, also suspended.

"Approximate Man" isn't in quotes, but that looks like a title. Yes, here's  "The Approximate Man":



That fits the description, no? On seeing this now, I'm willing to say there are 2 faces.

The next description is without a title. Strange letters, eh? With a face? It must be this:



I believe the phrase "sichtbar machen" translates to "make visible." Mysterious!

Finally, here's the notebook page. I hope you've learned something here about whether you care about drawing/painting like Paul Klee. If you do or think you might, I recommend using the written description and making your own artwork, which could be quite different from the work that I reduced to a short text a dozen years ago.