1995, Couple, 9x12 inches, pencil on paper, by Kenney Mencher
FREE SHIPPING
Shipping takes 3–4 Weeks
This ships from Round Lake Beach, Illinois. A suburb outside of Chicago.
I use UPS and sometimes US Post.
This pencil drawing is part of my Fresh Finds project—where I’m opening up the archive and making older work available that’s been sitting untouched for decades. These drawings were formative to my practice, and instead of keeping them stored away, I wanted to offer them to collectors who’ve supported me or want to own a bit of that legacy. These are the pieces that helped shape the painter and printmaker I became.
I drew this in 1995. It's simply titled Couple. I was working a lot from film stills at the time, pausing the VCR and trying to capture that exact second when the body language and lighting said something without words. I don’t remember the specific movie this came from—so many of these moments blur together—but that’s part of what I liked about it. It’s familiar and distant at the same time.
It’s graphite on 9x12 inch sketchbook paper, and you can see the perforation edge where it was torn out. I decided to leave that in because I think it adds to the honesty of it—this wasn’t meant to be precious, just direct and observational. The drawing has that soft cinematic mood I was chasing back then, built from light and shadow more than detail.
Stylistically, this leans on realism but with a gestural approach. The figures are fully readable but simplified—especially the faces, which I left a little abstract to let the pose and lighting do the work. There’s a strong square format in the shading, like a screen or window framing the two characters, giving the image that filmic, voyeuristic feel.
I was thinking a lot about Edward Hopper, Lucian Freud, and the Bay Area Figurative artists like Elmer Bischoff and Diebenkorn. This kind of drawing laid the groundwork for my paintings and prints. The sense of stillness, the ambiguity of the moment, the emotional weight sitting just under the surface—all of that was already there, even in these smaller studies.
Details:
Title: Couple
Medium: Graphite pencil on paper
Size: 9 x 12 inches
Year: 1995
Sketchbook paper (with perforated edge visible)
Unframed
Excellent condition, stored flat
FREE SHIPPING
Shipping takes 3–4 Weeks
This ships from Round Lake Beach, Illinois. A suburb outside of Chicago.
I use UPS and sometimes US Post.
This pencil drawing is part of my Fresh Finds project—where I’m opening up the archive and making older work available that’s been sitting untouched for decades. These drawings were formative to my practice, and instead of keeping them stored away, I wanted to offer them to collectors who’ve supported me or want to own a bit of that legacy. These are the pieces that helped shape the painter and printmaker I became.
I drew this in 1995. It's simply titled Couple. I was working a lot from film stills at the time, pausing the VCR and trying to capture that exact second when the body language and lighting said something without words. I don’t remember the specific movie this came from—so many of these moments blur together—but that’s part of what I liked about it. It’s familiar and distant at the same time.
It’s graphite on 9x12 inch sketchbook paper, and you can see the perforation edge where it was torn out. I decided to leave that in because I think it adds to the honesty of it—this wasn’t meant to be precious, just direct and observational. The drawing has that soft cinematic mood I was chasing back then, built from light and shadow more than detail.
Stylistically, this leans on realism but with a gestural approach. The figures are fully readable but simplified—especially the faces, which I left a little abstract to let the pose and lighting do the work. There’s a strong square format in the shading, like a screen or window framing the two characters, giving the image that filmic, voyeuristic feel.
I was thinking a lot about Edward Hopper, Lucian Freud, and the Bay Area Figurative artists like Elmer Bischoff and Diebenkorn. This kind of drawing laid the groundwork for my paintings and prints. The sense of stillness, the ambiguity of the moment, the emotional weight sitting just under the surface—all of that was already there, even in these smaller studies.
Details:
Title: Couple
Medium: Graphite pencil on paper
Size: 9 x 12 inches
Year: 1995
Sketchbook paper (with perforated edge visible)
Unframed
Excellent condition, stored flat
FREE SHIPPING
Shipping takes 3–4 Weeks
This ships from Round Lake Beach, Illinois. A suburb outside of Chicago.
I use UPS and sometimes US Post.
This pencil drawing is part of my Fresh Finds project—where I’m opening up the archive and making older work available that’s been sitting untouched for decades. These drawings were formative to my practice, and instead of keeping them stored away, I wanted to offer them to collectors who’ve supported me or want to own a bit of that legacy. These are the pieces that helped shape the painter and printmaker I became.
I drew this in 1995. It's simply titled Couple. I was working a lot from film stills at the time, pausing the VCR and trying to capture that exact second when the body language and lighting said something without words. I don’t remember the specific movie this came from—so many of these moments blur together—but that’s part of what I liked about it. It’s familiar and distant at the same time.
It’s graphite on 9x12 inch sketchbook paper, and you can see the perforation edge where it was torn out. I decided to leave that in because I think it adds to the honesty of it—this wasn’t meant to be precious, just direct and observational. The drawing has that soft cinematic mood I was chasing back then, built from light and shadow more than detail.
Stylistically, this leans on realism but with a gestural approach. The figures are fully readable but simplified—especially the faces, which I left a little abstract to let the pose and lighting do the work. There’s a strong square format in the shading, like a screen or window framing the two characters, giving the image that filmic, voyeuristic feel.
I was thinking a lot about Edward Hopper, Lucian Freud, and the Bay Area Figurative artists like Elmer Bischoff and Diebenkorn. This kind of drawing laid the groundwork for my paintings and prints. The sense of stillness, the ambiguity of the moment, the emotional weight sitting just under the surface—all of that was already there, even in these smaller studies.
Details:
Title: Couple
Medium: Graphite pencil on paper
Size: 9 x 12 inches
Year: 1995
Sketchbook paper (with perforated edge visible)
Unframed
Excellent condition, stored flat
