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Thundering earth

Today was a first for me. I have often been moved to tears at a ballet, stirred by beauty. But today, it happened to me in an open field, watching horses at an eventing competition.

I arrived early to find myself a nice log to sit on and to do a pencil sketch, small and simple. It was well over an hour before I realised that I had to leave, so engrossed had I become.

Young children (mostly girls), massive horses, their legs encased in canvas pads, thundering first from behind, passed me on the left, then turning and coming back over a grassy mound, charged past my right.

The horses were as expressive as their riders. Some nervous, others exultant, their sheer joy in the activity was obvious.

"Horses love to run, love to jump, and love people."

Heading back towards the brook and the road, I crossed a forest lane when another horse came pounding by, wild with joy under the low branches. I stood back, shouting encouragement and stirring him up even more, then silence. Looking through the trees at the encampment, some 60 or more horses milling about, waiting their turn, young riders in complete union with their mounts, adults in perfect support of every child and every horse, I was overcome by such a sense of perfection that tears came to my eyes.

Here is how I believe it happens. When we see something beautiful, it pleases us; but when we see something beyond beauty, it tears us apart, makes us desperate for the massive perfection of the universe, and we feel the need to wail for the beauty which we cannot hold.

God, to paint like that! it is courage that stirs us so, and passion.

Venice sketchbook

The note reads:

Sunday. After dinner with Rosa and Matteo, the two of them took me for a night trip in Matteo's gondola, the oldest working gondola in the world (1949). The peace, the beauty, the sheer age of Venice, and to be rowed by two friends, masters of their craft, was to be, for one short hour or two, the king of this world.

Left page: Push

Drawn in darkness, by the lights of palazzi and passing boats.

Right page: Pause

Like the beat of the heart, says Matteo. As relaxed as walking.

Light

One of the joys of art is that once in a while we come across some forgotten painting done many years ago, and when we see it, our first thought is that it is see the work of some unknown artist, but one who does exactly the kind of work that we might have done.

In my garage, among my old teaching notes, I came across a pastel painting, long forgotten, gathering dust, its edges damaged and crumpled. I have no recollection of doing it, but it struck me with an uncommon luminosity.

This painting was done strictly according to the principle of lightshapes. It is a funny paradox that when we see with intensity, we observe nothing but light. As disturbing as photorealism (imitating photography) and photopainting (copying photographs) is, visual observation is identical to the working of a camera, and when we teach ourselves to see, we need to see as the camera does, nothing but light.

Light is the the visual input, it is all of vision. Mood, atmosphere, chiaroscuro, character, all are revealed by and as light. Art is nature seen through a temperament, somebody has said, and as we paint, we create an image which once again can only be known as light. As music is nothing but sound, painting is nothing but light. The direct experience of a painting with all its emotional impact, is a purely visual one. Texture, contrast, colour harmony, light/dark pattern, mystery and clarity, luminosity and obscurity, passion, all are direct visceral responses to the artist's orchestration of light.

All the rest is interpretation. Any message or theory or movement in art is verbal baggage. In and of itself, the painting can say nothing but "this I love".

A natural way to good proportions

The first method:
Lump of clay.

The lump of clay method looks at the subject in terms of two dimensional shape. Each step is drawn in a single unbroken line closing in on itself to enclose a shape, which is then restated and refined.

1. Lump of clay:
A 10 second gesture study.

The most natural and therefore the most artistically satisfying method of establishing accurate proportions is simply to do a swift outline sketch concentrating on the simplicity of the silhouette, and the elusive capture of gesture. Great artists who delight in the human or animal form, have always favoured this method.

2. Sculpting:
A 20 second restatement of the shape.

Carefully but smoothly float a more accurate line around the profile of the figure, studying the larger shapes in pure silhouette. This second line is superimposed on the first one.

3. Refining:
A one or two minute refining of the silhouette.

Focusing on the fine detail, such as curls of hair and anatomical accuracy, still only of the silhouette, do a languid study of the entire form, in one unbroken line. Avoid any inner details as they destroy the integrity of the shape, and the method relies on our ability to recognise shapes.

The clay method is intuitive and artistically satisfying, but it depends hugely on the raw talent and ability of the artist, suitable mostly for "natural" draughtsmen.

Website: http://artistvision.org

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Contemplation

In working on a given subject, we spend a lot of time on it, and devote a lot of caring attention to it. The subject is that which brings about the painting, not the artist. When we work with a flower as our subject, it is the flower that we celebrate. And when we paint a model, it is the model we should attend to, and not the painting.