Notes to Self

Objectives

Anything does not go in an abstract painting 

Accurate representational painting is not enough …
else any apple, not just Cezanne’s, would astonish Paris. 

The concept of abstract impressionism ("lies that tell a truth") is as old as music.

As children we learn to see structures without attending a single class. We learned by touch: what is round to the touch has continuously changing values; the parts of an object with a similar spatial orientation have similar values; the same object is smaller and softer-edged when further away.  Miraculously, the child takes it all in -- the visual correlations with structures in space -- without having a name for it!  

Visual artists learn to see again (or how we see) and then learn to apply the spatial visual correlations on a two dimensional surface.  For example, in a portrait the structure of a face can be suggested by applying similar values to parts of the face that exist on similar planes:  under the eyebrow, under the nose, under the lip. 

 

Representational or abstract, I consider the above to be core principles of nature and high-level art throughout history --  necessary to give a work its authenticity.  

The chosen symbols, the figure-ground, spatial, and color decisions made within the boundary of the work provide unlimited expressive potential -  akin to musical composition the previous note determines what the next note can be: the decision or execution can be off- or on-key.  

Similar to music, the painting is carried out over time - sometimes years, sometimes in hours. The time spent is not the measure of its success or failure.  It can take many years to learn to draw a figure with a few lines. 

Unlike music the viewer takes in the totality of a painting in one moment. 

Unlike music the transitions in a painting are not easily appreciated by persons who have not experienced making a painting. 

In music it's the relationships between notes that matter.  Each note in a composition by Bach is meaningless without  the note that came before and just after it.  Similarly, each color value in a painting by Cezanne denotes a spatial relationship (in front of, behind, ...) only as it relates to surrounding values.  

Expressionism:

Matisse wrote: “What I pursue above all is expression. Expression, for me, is in the whole disposition of my picture; the space occupied by bodies, the spaces around them, the proportions, all have a part in it. … I cannot distinguish between the feeling I have about life and the manner in which I interpret it.”

Expressionism is in the whole disposition of my picture; the space occupied by bodies, the spaces around them, the proportions, all have a part in it. …I cannot distinguish between the feeling I have about life and the manner in which I interpret it.”

- Adapted from The Great Masters of Modern Painting

Cohesion

A one-color value painting has cohesion - unity, but it can’t reflect reality, nature, or an experience worth conveying. Add a color … well then we have a relationship to deal with  – one color advancing, the other receding (by accident or by intention)?  ...One color similar to (in the family of) the other, or its complement – sharply different in value (dark to light)?  One form or color symbolizing day; the other night?  The cohesion problem is connected to creation myths – how one became two, and with that event the whole of nature came into being – including us humans with Adam and Eve and the need to find harmony within opposing tensions..

Failed experiments

Like most study drugs tested to treat diseases, most of my  paintings fail -- are destined for over-painting.  

Sometimes some parts of it are spared - contribute to the next composition within the same rectangle.  

The process for me is iterative. I sometimes feel for a time that I have something of merit, but I'm easily fooled.  The wet color changes when dry; doesn't convey the intended space ... or,  or.  

Notes on Earth

Color changes denote differences in space;
Space defines form; 
Form evolve into symbols:

   Cloud – the unlimited ability to change shape (here receding)
     Seed ... predetermined potential - if planted well and nurtured (receding less)
     Vessel, where we put what we love.

As in music the preceding notes dictate what the next note can be -
unless we don't mind being arbitrary - out of tune.
While the symbols can change infinitely there are limits ... based on what will "work."

• I prefer to start with a subject that is representational or symbols for same -- and to have it evolve into abstraction. 
  
  
•  Abstraction?  Simplifying the forms of nature  to create something new hopefully: authentic, cohesive, expressing what I feel about the subject. 
  
  
• No single word or musical note has meaning by itself. It's the relationships that matters - that can create value and emotion when combined to make a cohesive whole.
  
  
• The work is the sum of complementary or similar values, lines, colors ... defining the space; assembled into a whole that evokes, when successful, the overall structure of the subject that led to the desire to paint it - it's essential form.
  
  
• Fooling the eye, realism, requires discipline and skill, but where does one stop?  Also it is not fun to reproduce colors, and outlines, and shapes.  It will wear you down. Consider the plight of ambition for the musician whose goal is to create a realistic work, copying every sound exactly as heard.  
  
  
• Details are infinite, can overwhelm us - obscuring what moves us to paint and removing us from the aesthetic experience, which is see the essential forms in the avalanche of details.
  
  
• What moves us in the autumn display of colors is not just that they are different and vibrant but also that they reveal the larger structures and forms of the landscape - seen as if for the very first time. 
  
  
• Realistic art that "works" is abstract to some degree.
  What is put in and left out telling us what's important to the artist.
  
  
• For me there’s no difference between the best “abstract” and “realistic” art. Each is disciplined, and done with a.spatial awareness.  An abstract painting that "works" is not arbitrary.
  
  
• My objective is to apply what I continue to learn from observing nature and to let the evolving context of the work dictate what is needed next.  
  
  
• A painting evolves in stages -- sometimes the beginning is exploratory, somewhat arbitrary until the concept comes into focus.  Then it's best that I "put nothing extra into it until I feel it."

• The proportion of the workspace is integral to the forms created within it --
  It sets up what can "work" within the pictorial space, including the sense of scale.
  Even a painting that's physically small can convey a satisfying depth of scale.
  
  
• Placeholder: color pairing reminder:
  ocher and pink
  Gray-purples,  Gray-greens 
  
  
• Note to self: the content of the palette is integral to the success of the painting.


• The history of art in Western civilization -- much of it was funded by the church and royalty -- devoted to the symbols, the agendas, the narratives of the power elite. 
  
  Despite this, the artists attended to the abstract elements within the commissioned works -- to communicate a reverence for nature -- the forms and spatial relationships  -- the composition -- the universal - the abstract! 
  
  
• Fine art or illustration?   There can be overlap, but in general the latter if focused on rendering the appearance and surface accuracy, the former on creating a cohesive structure with  line, and color relationships - this in relation to that: a composition.
  
  
• Oppose the piecemeal.
  The composition that "works" usually arises by simplifying the primary idea within the totality of the picture plane.
  
  
• Cohesive unity by interlocking color: such as the green form modulated with reds
   coexisting with the red form modulated with greens.
  
  
• Depth of color is more challenging to achieve with water-based pigments. But I've decided to explore the potential of it as best I can.  Such as to moisten the entire field with medium then to add the base color then while wet add the complementary values to denote space and form.
  
  

• 

  "Ash Tree - Survivor"

• Ash tree - survival (above). Vanishing point illusions of deep space has been well explored in the Renaissance.  I rarely apply that formula. My preference is to modulate space to a limited depth - like relief carvings. 
  
  
• Painting as metaphor for how nature creates - forms growing within a space -- out of the potential for the pigments and materials at hand.

• My model for what is a painting that "works." The goal is music, not photography.
  
  
• If musical compositions were focused on realism, we'd run from the concert with our hands to our ears.
  
  
• Motif with endless possibilities: between the branches. 
  
  
• Painting as stained glass: from a focal point, black or white lines build a structure like the branches of trees - between which we see bits of sky, mountains, hills, grasslands, lakes, rocky ground - each at a different depth defined by color values. 

• Focal point, the starting place for the forms outside of it, surrounding it, emerging from it, relate to it spatially. The reference point gives authenticity to the structure and eventually to the totality - the composition.

• Grays and Tints of white are important, indeed vital, complements of intense color.

• The best realistic paintings attend to the abstract relationships within it.

• The painting (the context) dictates what comes next, or what is effaced.

• There's a fine line between a good and bad painting. When the line is crossed, you gain the freedom to destroy -- for the purpose of making something new and hopefully authentic.

• Cohesiveness in a painting can be gained only when you are willing to sacrifice what it has become -- restating the overall structure that inspired your desire to paint it.

• The genre does not dictate the success or failure of a work of art. 
  
  
• Photo realism requires discipline, but it is less interesting to me because it tethers to copying the appearance of things. 
  
  
• Realism. The process of color matching and copying is burdensome; can wear you down. Painting should be joyful; but not arbitrary. Each decision in tune -- based on the preceding "notes" -- the context.  The process is not to seek but to find.

• To find and show the essential form in the avalanche  of details in the real world.

Cezanne abstraction: simplifying, with focus on color/spatial
 relationships and exploration of qualities of the paint

• Should artists attempt to explain the private experience and intent of making art? 
  
  
• The always present structures of the autumn landscape are amplified by the choreographed upheavals of Fall.
  
  
• The autumnal transformations of trees -- greens to oranges, to reds, to violets -- induces wonder in the general public.  Giving hope to the visual artist.  The transformation amplifies the preexisting underlying forms -- the reality becomes easier to see because it it short lived.
  
  
• Color becomes  authentic when it denotes where a form changes and its orientation and place in the overall spacial structure. 
  
  
•  By combining red, blue, yellow, white ,,, the artist can mix any color. 
  Since the proportions of these pigments are infinite, color choices within a painting cannot be carried out by formula. However the desired color can be effectively mixed or adjusted on the painting itself. 
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• For the best working realistic or abstract works -- forms with similar spacial orientations will often have similar values and colors. This is what unifies the work -- gives it its structural reality. 
  
  
•  Wood carver: space is integral to form. 
  
  
• The painter's task is to develop a vocabulary for spatial relationships with color values. She can leave depicting the accuracy of surface appearance to illustrators and cameras.
  
  
• The art of painting from life: revealing the larger forms and spatial realities.
  
  
• Significant form is hidden from the eye and mind by details and the names of things.  
  
  
• An arm, a mountain, the ear of a rabbit ... all have in common universal geometric forms -- the sphere, the cube, the cone (Cezanne).