Saturday, October 2, 2010

Explorations


September trudged by and became this blog's first (and hopefully last) silent month. Blogs, as you know, should not be silent. Blogs should be boisterous.

So here I am - boisterous.

Although my September brain couldn't seem to wrap around blogging, I never stopped breathing or sketching or painting - this body's essential functions. See, for example, my contribution at my joint blog with Raena, 2'nFro, if you haven't been there already.

I was attracted to the above still life because of the challenge of the transparent and white objects. Most of the objects were painted on site, but since I didn't have time to finish I snapped a quick photo and completed it last week. Lucky for me, this week's Everyday Matters challenge is "Something Made of Glass".

This is how it went down. I was visiting family in Central Florida. At my brother's lively home, my nephew Jake and I planted ourselves in the kitchen. He set up a tomato to paint with his watercolors, and I put this complicated arrangement before me. In 10 minutes - poof - Jake was gone, painting done, and onto his computer, and I was still absorbed in the process of drawing the arrangement. During the ensuing hour or so, my brother Neil, my beautiful nieces Emma and Ashley, and my sister-in-law Denise all swirled around and about me, visiting, talking, eating, and occupying themselves in a flurry of other activities. Delightful.

About halfway through this little watercolor, there was a drip of purple stain in what was meant to be part of the uneventful background. It could not be removed, and I just kept painting. I'd worry about it later. There are no mistakes - only occurrences I can use. Concealing that stain ultimately resulted in the three frames outlining the still life, which makes the piece more interesting, I think.

As you know from the last post, I read the book "O'Keefe" by Britta Benke. I was struck by how she would create near-abstracts from reality. Georgia O'Keefe's magnification of familiar objects had made them almost abstract. I had never looked at her paintings in that way before. One sketch I did in my moleskine under the influence of her book, is this one. It is hardly abstract, but a closer perspective on the tree than I might have done otherwise:



In 1916 O'Keefe was told about a book just translated into English, and she was still referring back to the same book at age 97. So I just had to purchase it , and I found it on Amazon for 98 cents (yes, you read right). It is "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" by Wassily Kandinsky. I am not sure that I would recommend it. It is a lofty, egotistical, rambling, opinionated historical manifesto at the birth of abstractionism. Kandinsky discusses the "inner need" which I can relate to (as a "hunger", more like). Towards the end of the book, he said:

"The artist has a triple responsibility to the non-artists: (1) He must repay the talent which he has; (2) his deeds, feelings, and thoughts, as those of every man, create a spiritual atmosphere which is either pure or poisonous. (3) These deeds and thoughts are materials for his creations, which themselves exercise influence on the spiritual atmosphere. The artist is not only a king, as Peladan says, because he has great power, but also because he has great duties.

If the artist be priest of beauty, nevertheless this beauty is to be sought only according to the principle of the inner need, and can be measured only according to the size and intensity of that need.

THAT IS BEAUTIFUL WHICH IS PRODUCED BY THE INNER NEED, WHICH SPRINGS FROM THE SOUL."

Observing O'Keefe's works with some better understanding from the reading of this book did something to my head. I had taken the following photo for Shadow Shot Sunday:

I was attracted to the shapes and fields of color and felt compelled to paint it in my moleskine, the idea of abstract from reality and simplification floating around my mind. Nevertheless, at this point in my development I am a representational artist and couldn't resist molding the tree and adding texture.



My MVC ("Most Valuable Critic") had a visceral reaction to this one. She said it looked like it contained blobs, mistakes. That I could do better. In truth, I didn't want the words "Lab Tests" (I mean, who would?), and did exactly what I intended to do. My MVC is right, of course, it doesn't work. But experiments and explorations don't have to work. They can even be ugly.

I have spent the better part of September and into October reading a wonderful book that had been recommended and reviewed by Katherine Cartwright (my art philosophy guru), at her blog. It is "The Art Spirit" by what I imagine to be the most wonderful teacher of painters ever, Robert Henri. He is the opposite of Kandinsky in philosophy, but there are similarities too, and we can learn from both. He says:

"An artist's warehouse, full of experience, is not a store of successful phrases ready for use, but is a store of raw material. The successful phrases are there, but they have been broken down to be made over into new form. Those who have the will to create do not care to use old phrases. There is a great pleasure in the effort to invent the exact thing which is needed. Use it. Break it down. Begin again."

And off we go!

33 comments:

  1. The still life and the more I look at your abstraction the more it works.

    I like your expression "There are no mistakes - only occurrences I can use" and may steal it. I usually use the errors being learning opportunities phrase.

    I must confess to skipping the middle of this post as I abhor Kandinsky having seen an exhibition of his back when I was a student. Sorry.

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  2. So happy to see you back, Dan ! I love your watercolour and also the expression "travelingsuep" quoted : "There are no mistakes..."I'll try and remember it when the inner critique is too noisy !!!

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  3. Great post and wonderful work as always. I like your still life and especially that tree. I also like the abstraction and think it is an idea you could push further. I had to read the Kandinsky book in college, yet don't remember much from it. I still have the Robert Henri book and revisit it from time to time.

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  4. Hi, Dan! Here's to boisterousness, and to your wonderful musings! Your watercolors are beautiful!!

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  5. I'm with you on the essential body functions, breathing, sketching and painting! I like the loose/transparent quality to the still life, the background turned out to be perfect in the end.

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  6. I must strongly disagree with both you and your MVC. Your abstract is perfect. It would be cool to crop it for different views. It's a total keeper.
    Your still life is also perfect. Sounds like you had a blast working on it!
    Nice post Dan. Good to see you back. Blogs are better when they are boisterous, BUT- it's definitely OK to have the down time too.

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  7. Hi Dan, I've been missing your blog postings! And you paintings. I like these three paintings. I think you make a good point about experimentation and I like that you didn't add the letters "lab test". It's interesting.

    Did you get through Kandinsky? I like his paintings, but every time I tried to get through his book, I just couldn't. I'd read for awhile and wonder what the heck I just read. I may yet try it again.

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  8. nice work changing that photo of shadows into a watercolour - love the colours and textures..

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  10. Your glass painting is a very peaceful...it is painted with a sureness. I like it. This is a great post all around. Will it serve as your October post? lol j/k. Seriously, lots of things to think about here--I am a huge Georgia O'Keeffe admirer. Did you see that recent film about her? It was surprisingly good (despite being on Hallmark channel). I also love Robert Henri. My friends and I go to Seattle every few months to stand in front of one of his paintings in a dumstruck type manner. His work was remarkable. I like what you wrote about how you felt about your best critic. You are a confident artist...that really comes across.

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  11. Nice sketches there Dan! Glass isn't an easy subject to draw and you nailed them! =) I like how you did the background too, very stylized and very elegant. The shadow painting, great observation, and that tree painting, you're right... if you free your mind, you could definitely see that it's an abstract.
    It's nice to have you active in blog world again, and thanks for all your comments Dan. I am glad you got the card too ^^

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  12. I like the impressionistic style of your still life of glass - very nice!

    I agree absolutely that we must be free to do things which don't work, other wise how can we develop? And doesn't that apply to every area of life? anyway, my own creed is this: If I'm not making mistakes, I'm not stretching far enough.

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  13. I love the abstract. That you could "see" this in the photo means you've got the most important part--the eye. The Art Spirit is one of my favorite books--every page has something underlined, and lots of corners are turned down.

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  14. Hi Dan, I hear you about September (it was not a good month for me either)... Love the first painting and the one of the shadow shot, both very different yet the same, soft and relaxing, with wonderful hints of colour. You did a great job on the glass, I find is such a tricky subject to paint, so I think I have to give this challenge a try (have a truck load of challenges to catch up too : )
    Cheers & Heres to October!!!

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  15. A great and thought-provoking post Dan, and these are all beautiful paintings. I particularly love your abstract. Essentially when you are painting should you not look at the whole, and rather look at 'this is a dark shadow shape' and 'this is a lighter shadow shape', and so on? By it's very nature, I think painting is abstracted, even if the result isn't. Does that make sense to you?

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  16. Great work! It really is hard to blog with actual life going on all around us. I'm trying to do better! Yeah for boisterous!

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  17. Good to see you back, Dan. Loved what you wrote.

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  18. Well drat, the glass piece did not show up on my computer. However, I really like the abstract. Thanks also, for the link. I enjoyed your guru's thoughts.

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  19. Are you going to send this painting along to Raena? Perhaps she can bring something else to the view. I just discovered your other blog, the one you share with Raena--delightful!



    SSS: Candy Bag

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  20. Welcome back! The still life is great!

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  21. Lovely glass drawings, very harmonic colours! And I love the idea of experimenting with abstracts from reality - I am trying somthing similar as homework from a class I take, and I must admit it is more difficult than one might imagine...

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  22. Thoughtful, thought-provoking words and ideas, Dan. Your glass painting is a definite success, and I too love your "there are no mistakes...." belief and will try hard to remember it. Thank you, and welcome back! nancy

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  23. Hi Dan - thanks for the nod. Your post has a lot of meat in it, and you've touched on many points that I often contemplate. BTW - I really like your work, and the first painting posted is terrific!! It's neat to read your thoughts as you mature as an artist. The progression is delightful and inspiring!

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  24. Well you came back with a bang - this is a great post. I think we all understand what it's like to be burned out on blogging for a while - I've slowed down a lot these past few months. Nice to see you back, and thanks for the links.

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  25. I think I have to agree with Casey--you came back with a bang! I love the glass painting; the colors are amazing in it! And I love the way you covered the purple because the frames add so much to the whole. Your other experimental pieces work nicely too, especially the Lab Tests one. Funny, when I first saw the photo, I thought it looked like an oil painting.

    Here's to hoping October is more boisterous for both our blogs!!

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  26. Thanks for sharing your boisterosity. I love the tranquil close up of the tree stump. Its tranquil despite your being full of beans just now. Inspiring as always.

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  27. I know exactly how you feel - time flies by and POOF! a month has gone by and the blog has suffered. Glad to hear you've been creating art during that time though. Sounds like you've been doing a lot of soul searching artistically, and growing as an artist. Even though we missed you, it appears to be time well spent on your part.

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  28. I love the top drawing of the jars and the paint quality. I also love Georgia O'Keefes work but had forgotten about it, I like your work that resulted from this and your photo. I also enjoyed the links to other blogs, thankyou and I will continue to follow this blog as you have a lot to say and show.

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  29. Lovely work getting the character of the transparency of glass... and I am taken by the representational piece from the building sign - I'm always intrigued by the play of color, light and shadow in architecture.. this works well! Enjoy the week ahead ~ Deb

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  30. Thanks all so much - it's been such a crazy time, busy, challenging, etc, and I was remiss in not responding to so many wonderful comments. I read them though as you posted them, and thought about them - your comments mean so much to me. I am very grateful. And Maundering Mutterer - I still don't know why I am full of beans! :)

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