Doubt is our passion, #2

14 June 2022

Doubt is our passion, #2

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 10 June 2022, oil on canvas board, 30 X 25 cm

“What we need more of is slow art: art that holds time as a vase holds water: art that grows out of modes of perception and making, whose skill and doggedness make you think and feel; art that isn’t merely sensational, that doesn’t get its message across in ten seconds, that isn’t falsely iconic, that hooks onto something deep-running in our natures. In a word, art that is the very opposite of mass media.”

I believe this was lifted from a talk which the art critic Robert Hughes gave at the Annual Dinner of the Royal Academy of Arts in London years ago. I came across it somewhere online and I liked it. I love the idea of ‘slow art’, even though I work quickly at the speed of light. Of course, he’s not referring to the speed of the execution but of an art work, once completed, might already be a thousand years old.

It especially fascinated me because he made reference to the ‘skill and doggedness’ that makes one ‘think and feel’. Without saying it, he is really speaking of craft, something that comes up often in these page because a possession of craft is the vehicle from which I believe, all creativity is born. It’s the vessel that holds ideas and feelings, and it shows up everywhere from the lute maker's workshop onto the potter’s wheel. Generically speaking, it’s the undercurrent of how we all share our skills and intelligence. Is it not also true that for any creative act, the quality and vision, always proceed from one’s command of their craft?

From my diary the other night: 

“Cold evening! Ouch, I made a fire with what little wood I had cut in the afternoon. Three studies last night, a lovely bloom swayed in slow motion that expanded ribbons of warm yellow and pink into an arc before turning into a mass of violets. The waxing moon eventually brought it all to a sudden halt..... I am nonetheless into some wilder colour harmonies; more pure colour pigments and when I can; flatter drawings.”

So this painting from the other night was the last, and though it’s interesting it’s so abstract that I cannot seem to get a handle on whether or not it holds up for me. Does it manifest craft as I preach? Maybe, or maybe not, of course the painter always hopes so, but only time will tell. Sometimes, one’s fresh picture, like a loaf of bread and right out of the oven, isn’t so easily digested. I’ll let it sit for a time. Although the session was short and sweet, I like the colours of this after-burn that was prolonged only by the generosity of an artist’s licence.