2 September 2021
Anyone got a light?
Although they’re all immortalised in museums, galleries, and apartments, plus a few lucky homes around the world, Turner, Monet and Bonnard, are all long gone under the garden grass. And yet they rise up for me like ghosts in a Shakespeare play indicating viable paths for me and my imagination. I know the road ahead is narrow but I am always hoping for a light at the end of the it, and unfortunately for me, unlike actors in a theatre collective, the painter must make the trip solo.
But why do I mention these artists and not others? I think it’s because they whisper in my ear after all these years since I began as an art student. Their work, still so alive, shows me all of what they achieved in their time so long ago. But more importantly, they show their maps to me too, where they went and what they did, maybe even an itinerary to where I might still travel in what time is left for me here on earth. In the sphere of Painting History, no matter how recent or how far back in time, there are some artists who seem to have more to give me than others. Unlike so many painters whose works hang on walls from the Louvre in Paris to the National Gallery in London, their work, like large windows, are clear enough to convey the secrets of Painting to anyone who is patient enough to to investigate their respective oeuvres without prejudice. Cumulatively, they are the search engine of any window when it comes to Painting.
There are other painters, on the other hand, whose windows are smaller and smudged, such that even if one wanted to see through them it would be difficult. For me, I’ve found few other artists who have fused a luminosity of colour with the simplicity of form through drawing. This is just my thing, others will naturally look for other painters, others things they want to learn. So, like a moth drawn to light, my own path was formed by these masters of the craft And anyway, aren’t all painters looking for their own light?
Though it can seem impossible to find relevance in today’s vast Painting world I do believe it’s possible to forge our own map through this chaotic state. Personally, instead of looking around at what others are doing in this gigantic Art Tent, for better of worse, I seem to be looking invariably backwards to these fellows for guidance. They are still the tallest lighthouses on the horizon as far as I can see. I could have added many others but I wanted to keep it simple. None of us should have too many teachers when it comes to the craft of Painting. Too many cooks make messy pictures but just a few great cooks will feed us for a lifetime.
This study came quickly, it was the second of three. The other two didn’t seem to have that ‘punch’ I like, that nudges the image into motion, something that can keep a viewer’s eyes continually interested. My critique of it is that it still feels a little too 19th century for me. But hey! On any given day I cannot dictate how a session is going to begin or finish. It’s really up to the sky and the sea, but also the Muses too.
Does my painting stand up today on its own or does it throw me back to earlier era? Overall, am I going forward or backward?
I think what is important for me is whether or not a picture works irregardless of an era, but naturally, I wish to be moving ahead over the long haul. Like the stock market, despite its dips and dews, it invariably increases in value. Maybe it’s like going out with a lover today but who still makes you think of another from your past. With or without regret, both loves are still worthy, and your memory of them both will only increase.
Yesterday, on my phone, I saw a small kinetic toy advertised on Instagram, the kind that’s knocked off in a tiny factory somewhere in Asia. Made of wood and thin steel rods that are bent to fashion a tiny ramp that repeatadly hurles a small metal ball back up into the wooden basin on top. The ball drops back down the through the small hole and into the curved steel ramp below it with enough force that gravity throws the ball back up onto the wooden bowl above, only to repeat the process over and over again. Nice! Isn’t that what happens in front of a good painting, or perfect love affaire?
So I was thinking of that cheap little gizmo while looking at this study, and I only hope for it also have enough kinetic visual tension to keep a viewer’s eyes in motion? In museums around the globe I know so many really great paintings that do that with ease. Whether it works today or not, there is always still tomorrow for me to try again.
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