The slave to beauty artistic attitude developed in the void of this rather sterile social/political situation. Oops, I wrote a rather judgmental word here. My wish is to write clearly without any reactionary digressions. When we begin looking at stuff like this clarity must be maintained. Understanding can only come when we suspend judgements and wipe the words from our eyes so to speak. That said, we have to ask why it is that mankind has found it so difficult to peacefully co-exist with each other. Social history in this area is not a pretty picture.

The relationships we can observe in recorded history between ideologies, social groups, religions, prominent philosophical thought, and the creative individual becomes pertinent when clearly considered. In saying “creative individual”, let us remember that we did not have anything approaching what we know to day as art until a mere couple of hundred years ago. We need some understanding of what we have on record (the text) and what had preceded it (social history, i.e., the context) which will be pursued in subsequent articles. Hopefully this can be done in a straightforward fashion. Simple but not easy!

Published in french as Rapport entre le social et la peinture à l’huile

There are some ideas that we just need to get our mental teeth into and chew just like a dog does on a bone with a great deal of patience and diligence. At the end of the day no other way will be found when it comes to these subtle issues. There is no free lunch. Patience, persistence and so until the bigger piece begin to click into place.

I heard some interesting monologue on a movie the other day. It was a speech about success and competition. The character was saying that there is something about competition that is ferocious and carnal. He then made his principle point; the importance of finding the balance between human intelligence and animal diligence. Bingo. In the author’s view finding the balance was the key. Defining the term was also important. Absolutely nothing was said about understanding the relationship between our intellect and our passionate self.

We see clearly when we get the relationship in correct perspective. A painter does not paint things. The painter paints relationships, even if he is a non-representational painter. There is no other way short of following someone else with their formula. And, as Picasso pointed out, if we plagiarise ourselves that is the worse form of plagiarism.

The idea of elegance that Galileo spoke of, as I understand it, was a quality arrived as a consequence of understanding the relationship between the natural world and our experience of it. Order and simplicity are found there. The understanding of painting or any area of creativity is closely connected to all this.

Enjoy chewing on big ideas before you “twitter” it all away.

Published in french as Élégance

What are the effects of the painter’s desires? What about the motivations leading to the perceptions and execution of a particular work. At what point do conviction and a sense of purpose come into play?

In asking these sorts of questions we come to realize that we cannot separate the painter from life. The life of the painters, their thinking and ideas, what they eat for breakfast and so on come first. Technique and style we find to be of only secondary concern.

A painter arrives at the moment of making a brushstroke as a consequence of living. The past that constitutes that life invokes itself in the stroke. If the painter is of one piece each of these brushstrokes contribute to a painting that speaks to us as a complete statement. That is to say we have then something felt and seen as a unified whole.

It feels strange to write these words. Is it not self-evident, these things? Well, no. They are routinely overlooked and misunderstood even as they appear to have been questioned in depth.

The obvious is not understood simply as the context for a relationship with our lives. To the question: Why question life? Ray Bradbury in the “Martian Chronicles” writes “Life is its own answer.”. In other words I am suggesting that we habitually confuse the content with the container. When it comes to creativity this seemingly subtle distinction is profoundly important.

How the idea arrives in the mind of the painter is complex. That the idea is prior to technique should, however, be to the sensitive observer evident. In contemporary work hanging on museum walls we can see an obsessive concern with technique, materials and style.

The painter concerned with digging below the surface of things suggests dimensions beyond the mundane three. This, I am strongly suggesting, is the path to deeper meaning. The painter invents the necessary techniques as needed in this pursuit. This involves decisions made instantaneously during fleeting moments. This is neither a technique of working nor an acquired style. It is nothing less than the creation of technique at the instant it is needed.

Now this is not a haphazard thing easily contrived. This creation of technique is the result of a person deeply involved in the process and the organic order involved. When we get right down to the nitty-gritty of what art is we find it to be an unwavering devotion to the understanding of this order. By studying the relationships, relative values and fundamental order in the world around us we get in step with organic law. However difficult this is, it is the only path by which one arrives to a refined level of taste and judgement. Engaging the process for the sake of doing things well is a price we enjoy paying. The reward is a deep appreciation for simplicity and order as well as good health. Many painters have lived a long and fruitful life in the pursuit of art. Much of their best work was done late in life. Life and art ARE intimately connected when we deeply desire one we end up getting both. Kind of funny how simple this is; Simple, but not easy!

I am not sure when I first read Robert Henri’s “The Art Spirit”: it must be something like 40 years ago. This extraordinary human being and artist moved back and forth several times between Paris and New York at the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th centuries. The book is a compilation of notes and letters to his art classes at the Art Students League. He was a remarkable teacher and this is truly a remarkable book. Highly recommended! I am indebted to this apostle of Art for my direction in life and many of the ideas expressed here.

Published in french as Désir du peintre

The rule that there are no rules is the appeal of what some understand as the Zen approach: the anytime anything goes ethic, or non-ethic as it were. We get into difficulty, it seems to me as painters by applying this “beat? philosophy (i.e. this is not classic Zen) in a rigid manner. Properly understood the Zen perspective gives the latitude to “think? in terms of right and wrong in a limited domain such as painting; This, even though the world at large is seen to be beyond right and wrong when it is not put into a frame. But without some form of intellectualizing each painting’s outcome is as precarious as a throw of the dice.

“The superior man understands what is right, the inferior man understands what sells.? (Confucius)

In the changing conditions of today, there are certainly no silver bullets. Things have been difficult for painters for some time and will continue for the foreseeable future. All is not doom and gloom however. Think back to the adverse conditions which the impressionists faced: having to flee France for safety, the destruction of paintings, extreme financial conditions and so on.

Galleries in France seem to be threatened by the internet. I have not had this expressed directly by gallery owners. It is simply an observation of their reactions when I bang up the subject. As difficult survival has been for most of them recently this reaction is easy enough to understand.

I hold out hope that I’ll find that one gallery that I want to associate with. I believe it is best to work only with a single gallery. Also, it is important that the relationship is a good fit. It will not work otherwise.

Published in french as Règles pour les peintres

With the explosion of visual images over the last one hundred and fifty years it is as if our brains moved from the cortex to the receptors in our eyes. Like it or not the holographic reality that we live in is created visually. From cradle to grave we are nurtured in a way so seductive we gladly give our all to it. Long live the zietgeist!

I can remember clearly as a young boy the time and place this state of affairs became evident to me. This occurred in a very personal and intimate way. It changed my life and I have not been the same since. I was 4 months past my 13th birthday. Certain areas in Provence around Mount Ventoux trigger the emotions associated with this understanding. It is a very comfortable mental place for me. As I get a better grasp of its meaning I become even more comfortable. And so it goes.

My apologies for the rather ecliptic manner of expressing these thoughts; it is unfortunate that in this area our limitations in verbal expression become most acute. Visually I’m slowly approaching these feelings, very slowly. Expressing this in terms of paint will no doubt involve much work and certainly some grace from the powers that be. Please wish me well.

Each year in March, my wife Françoise and I head south. The last three years we went to Picasso country on the Midi. Going and coming there we would stop for a couple of days close to the Mount Ventoux. This year we spent 3 weeks there. Even though the weather could have been more cooperative I came back with a lot small paintings, sketches and photographs which will help me develop some themes I have begun working on. I have found that for me it takes a long time before I do a good work motivated by a particular area. (It is just like that for me, but this is a subject for another time.) In the coming weeks I’ll share some of the paintings. The one shown here is quite small. I have found that if you are going to stretch your creativity one of the best way to do it is to work either much smaller or larger than your normal “comfortable? sizes. It forces you to both look and work differently. For me it is all about finding that fine edge between reflection and experience. As we better understand the relationship between things we understand that our painting has little to do with these things. It is about relationships.

Published in french as Peintures de Provence

"Untitled", Golden Open acrylic on acid free mat board, 30cm x 24cm, 2009

"Untitled", Golden Open acrylic on acid-free mat board, 22cm x 16cm, 2009

"Untitled", oil on canvas, 27cm x 22cm, 2008

"Untitled", oil on canvas, 27cm x 22cm, 2008

Due to an interruption in my painting (house repairs) I’ve had plenty of time for reflection. Past posts, have, I believe, dealt adequately with the question of artistic integrity in a negative sense. Like all meta-physical questions it is answered in terms of what it is not. To state a response in positive terms obliges recourse to the story of history. There are times when I skirt this issue by saying that my painting is a personally modified impressionism. Like all ism’s this phrase in analysis says absolutely nothing. It is gobly gook like much written and said about art.

Between what Baudelaire termed stenography and abstract painting we find a huge grey area most of which is considered a no-man’s land. It has been little explored since it is considered uninhabitable. The primary reason for this sorry state of affairs is twofold. The first has to do with our Judaic-Christian antipathy between matters of spirit and the domain of nature. Secondly, this no-man’s land does not fit neatly into a little box. How do you explain something that is neither Classical nor Romantic but is somehow both? We have here a way of thinking about art that is not simply different and new for the sake of being different and new. It seems to me that for the last 150 years we have had artists who refuse to fit these familiar molds. They are like a few Indians circling the wagons. They just do not stay put.

Often I have trouble understanding the impulse for a particular painting. Since what I am in general painting is neither an image nor an idea but more an intuitive impulse or feeling it is not an analytic process. It is a sideways movement of distillation which takes place outside time and effort for the “spontaneous” resolution: a fortuitous accident occurs.

I’ve never hesitated to show work in progress or work that I am not sure is of “presentable” quality. Is that an integrity problem? Perhaps! It may in fact be more honest to be transparent as to our methods of work and searching. Certainly it is of more value to those who are also involved in the process. We are all eternally students.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify! How many times do we need to relearn this lesson? The sketch for these paintings was done in 2005 close to Carpentras. I have since done the latest two paintings recently in Golden Open Acrylic. The following two were painted about a year ago in oil. I do not consider these to be finished paintings. They are quick sketches.

Published in french as Un impressionnisme personnalisé

As promised, here is a photograph of the painting from last week after I did more work on it. I’m still not terribly pleased with the result. Sometimes it’s like that. It depends on what I have for breakfast.

In thinking about the difficulty with this painting I realized I changed part of my process. The painting was started using a large bristle brush. This brush brought more water into the Golden Open. It seems the Golden Open is quite sensitive to an addition of water. If you were attempting to work in a watercolor technique I’m not sure how well it would work. In any case, my preferred method is to work direct and fast even if I have more than a single painting session.

Published in french as Une autre peinture

The last couple of days I’ve been preparing for a trip to Provence. Every year in February or March we head for Provence and the côte d’Azur, weather permitting. As soon as we get a break in the weather we are gone.

My latest project involved an old Lefranc-Bourgeois table-top box easel I’ve been moving around the world for close to 30 years. Several years ago I adapted it to fit on a camera tripod. The one you see is relatively light weight and extends so that the canvas (size 8 to 20) is at eye level. The box itself weighs nothing compared to my French easel (a free-standing box with attached folding wooden legs) and holds more stuff. I’ve reworked the easel part so that it works flawlessly. The tripod has a quick release which is attached to the bottom of the box. It takes me about 20 seconds to set-up and be ready to paint. In short, it is a very fine box. I love it.

Published in french as L’art d’aimer ses outils

The last 2 days have been spent for the most part working on images in Adobe photoshop (and Adobe Lightroom). Over the years in the photographing of paintings I’ve had my best results photographing in direct sunlight. For me, simple is best. In the past, I’ve been the proud owner of sophisticated electronic umbrella lighting. And if you like to play with “stuff” this way this may be your cup of tea. The drawback, however, when we depend on sunlight is that for a good part of the year, it does not cooperate. As well of course, the sunlight changes of quality.(temperature) throughout the day and then it gets dark. Not to speak of rain and wind. Often conditions are not correct at the time we are ready to photograph a painting.

Enter photoshop. The ease of digital photograph includes the complexity of photoshop. In order to correctly render colors there is a fairly steep (for most people) learning curve to learning photo processing with photoshop.

Most painters, me included, have some difficulty with highly technical stuff of this sort. But the freedom to photograph and quickly post your work on a web site makes all of the effort a small price in my estimation.

The small painting above was done after the struggling with the larger one on canvas the day before I struggled also with this one as well.

Published in french as Photographier la peinture

As I’ve indicated in recent articles about Golden Open Acrylic, my struggle with learning acrylic has gone on for some time. About 10 years ago I decided to dedicate one year to acrylic. For one year I would paint only in acrylic. Well, this program lasted for about 2 months as I recall. A lot was learned but it was not sufficient for me to become comfortable with acrylic. The word comfortable is used here in a special sense. For me there is always the element of struggle in painting. Look at it this way, if it was easy everyone will be doing it! I think that I may struggle more than most with the material.

The task of learning Golden Open would be easier if we stopped thinking of it as an acrylic (even though it is). Acrylic has in recent year become quite versatile within limits. With additives to retard the drying speed you could paint large paintings on canvas. However it was impossible to duplicate many of oil painting’s techniques because acrylic always dried so fast. Hard edges were a problem when watercolour techniques were attempted. A layered technique was possible but a direct spontaneous method of painting, as in watercolour, was not an option.

With Golden Open, oil painting techniques can be duplicated. The advantage being that you do not need to wait long periods for the oil paint to set-up. This is the primary thing that makes it so ideal as a medium for plein-air painting. A large part of the task is getting a clear idea of how you want your painting to look. In my limited past experience of teaching people how to paint I’ve found that most were so focused on short term results that they are very much “up tight”. And, here I am saying that it is important that you have a clear idea of what you want to do. More anxiety? I hope not. I hope that you can relax and enjoy the process of learning. If we continue to struggle that is okay as well. It is all part of the process. I wrote an article about learning watercolor that may be of help.

The painting above was for me on the struggle side of the equation. I took a long break after putting down the first layer. Too long, I signed it but I do not believe it is finished. I will let it do some drying and then see what I can do with it. I will re-photograph it and re-post it.

Published in french as Apprendre à peindre avec l’acrilique Golden Open