Untitled 106

Colored pencil on wove paper.
Signed, numbered, dated "5.11.17", and annotated in pencil on the verso.
Monogrammed "JWCJ" in pencil.
The size indicated is of the actual composition.
The sheet overall measures 19 3/4 x 25 1/2 inches.
Image size: 16 1/2 x 22 5/8 inches.

John Cline’s drawings seem to echo his life.  He puts down the framework first and worries about filling the blanks in later.  Cline hails from Northern Alabama, where his family has been for many generations.  An undergrad at Auburn, who received his graduate degree in architecture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, Cline circuitously reached the Pacific Northwest, where he now lives.  A few years ago, his passion for drawing, which had strongly revealed itself while in Michigan, returned.  Cline now draws nearly every day.
The structure is laid out, sometimes clearly, sometimes not.  Compositional strength of a drawing is always apparent.  Sometimes the space between the lines or color fields dominates.  At other times and as is usually the case, lines, colors and grayscale are the main actors.
Cline’s work affords the viewer associations all their own.  Each drawing reveals itself to the individual, unencumbered by the intentions of the artist.  The work is meticulous, the inks and colors saturated.  And the eye wanders along tangents and fields, fully of its own volition.