Artist in progress...

And so are these paintings!

Friday, March 31, 2023

The topic this week is something I think about constantly. I consider it to be as important to my own growth as improving my drawing and observational skills. It’s a topic that is way more interesting and full of conversation than I can cover in one newsletter. But here’s a touch of it.

You should have also received the ‘free’ newsletter that goes out to all paid and free subscriptions.

Coming to you from Tybee Island, GA.

This is a progression shot of a 30x40 acrylic that is on my easel right now. I have three going right now. These two and one more at the bottom of the page.

Another progression shot of a 24”x48” acrylic on canvas.

There are so many things to love about being a painter, about being a creative individual. I’m sure that all of you can come up with a list of those things, your being a painter, sculptor, writer, musician, poet… that cause you to feel fortunate and grateful that you are. My list is long and getting longer.

Today I’ve picked one, among the many reasons, that I’m thankful for a life as a painter. It has to do with why I get up every day, anxious to pick up a painting tool of some kind. There is no such thing as not having enough to do, as an overview of the life of being an artist. It’s hard to imagine that anyone who has found themselves in this world of the Arts would ever know what being ‘bored’ feels like. The arts provides an ongoing challenge, whether it’s the attempt to master your medium(s), to find a deeper meaning to your art and how your art and life intersect each other, or to simply see the poetry in life.

I’m trying to find more poetry in my work, looking to paint more suggestion than the facts of the moment. If I were to mention a goal, this is one of them. To paint the reality of the of an idea and subject by looking more closely at the poetry within it, than by rendering the physical reality of the subject. Keeping the flow of thought of an idea is extremely challenging for me. The distractions and the time it takes to craft the painting, like drying stages if needed, finds my mind wandering on to another idea, or something else related or not. One reason I am painting with acrylic now is that I find that I can get to and realize an image a lot faster because of the quick drying nature of the paint. I can react to an idea more efficiently than I can with the slower dry time of oil paints. Glazing, painting over, adding texture with mediums or gels, are all tools that acrylics allow me to work quickly with as I move towards realizing my initial concept or idea.

In the definition below, I added (art) because I believe that aesthetics and poetry are two corner stones of painting that are essential to my own artistic path. Those are the two qualities, goals if you will, that are my carrot on the stick. I keep reaching for them, never wholly satisfied that I’ve reached either one.

poetry, literature (art) that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.

aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste. It is closely related to the philosophy of art, which is concerned with the nature of art and the concepts in terms of which individual works of art are interpreted and evaluated.

A representational rendering of something is a showcase for a set of mechanical skills, come by either a natural gift, or gained by hard work, or both. Having a good sense of aesthetics will help a painter hone the skills that are needed to render and move towards poetry. Poetry is moving beyond those capabilities and into another realm where the vision of the artist overrides the mechanicals, and ventures off to say more than just the obvious. This is what keeps me from becoming bored, the never ending quest to find poetry in my painting. John F. Carlson has stated this so well…

“Too much reality in a picture is always a disappointment to the imaginative soul. We love suggestion and not hard facts. A picture should be music in form and color, with the subject matter the vehicle. We must not imitate the externals of nature with so much fidelity that the picture fails to evoke that wonderful teasing recurrence of emotion that marks the contemplation of a work of art. “ - John F. Carlson ‘Guide to Landscape Painting’

Honest confession… Short version…it’s very hard for me to get away from ‘rendering’. I started out wanting to paint and draw birds and animals, with the utmost natural fidelity, to show the love that I have for them. My earliest childhood scribblings were on top of the illustrations of birds and animals that were in my dad’s Peterson’s Field Guide to North American Birds, and other animal picture books. I spent a lot of time refreshing those illustrations with Crayola Crayons! That’s why I say that Crayolas Set Me Free and put me on course for a life as an artist. Even though I studied other things, like ornithology, I spent many, many years trying to become “better” at rendering birds in real life situations, adorning my work with ornithologically, and biologically, accurate flora and fauna, all seasonally portrayed in the correct plumage for the birds, with the correct weeds and seeds surrounding them. It was all mechanical, just right. After about 25 years of thinking that type of work is what I would always do, I grew very tired of it. Not tired of birds, but of being so myopic in my work, of that larger picture was more interesting to me. Today I’m so much more of an excited painter than I was back some 25 or so years ago. I discovered the mystery and the poetry of painting in my life by being outside, standing amidst all of Mother Nature’s glory, trying to understand how to slap paint onto a canvas board to say something valid about it all. That’s still my challenge, it’s what keeps me rocking and rolling through it all. Because of this, I don’t sit still too long, don’t have any one set way of doing things, particularly when it comes to just using one medium, one way. I’m all over the board, switching between acrylic, gouache, oil, some watercolor… it’s never ending… thankfully! I don’t know where this will lead me in the end. That’s the point, keep on engaging the new, keep on seeing what else might be a more interesting way to proceed. Ready for failure, but also ready for the excitement that each new day has in store for me.

Another quote, “The path to authenticity must include its own negation -- the inauthentic, the lie. The way to truth is to shed false sophistication, the badge of intelligence, and the need to please, and even then most of what we do lacks heart and authenticity.” - Enrique Martinez Celaya

Thanks for reading and for subscribing to my newsletter.

This is a 24x18 acrylic on canvas, in progress. So far, I’m enjoying what’s going on. I hope to take time to let these sit while I consider them quietly.

I jumped the acrylic ship the other day and painted this oil. It’s a 20x30, “Always Changing”. The frame has been made so it will be heading to Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA soon for the show ‘Beyond Bohemia’.