Secrets of A Modern Painter: December 2010
Secrets of A Modern Painter: December 2010

Remembering Your Life - Painting from Memory Part 2

 
When I talk about painting from memory, it is not only about remembering the subject, it is about remembering
your entire life.

Your mind is much more powerful than the sum of your knowledge and your techniques.

One of the problems with pursuing a discipline as specific as painting is the tendency to become myopic in our struggle to master our materials and become fluent with technique. Try to trust that you know enough for the moment and paint fast; let your mind drift where it may through your own life, memory, and present state - like meditation, 
don't focus on any one thought, 
just recognize the thought - and let it go. 

If you were a writer, would you think about how to write when writing? Your mind would be scanning for possibilities to bring memories to the present; your current reality and dreams would merge with memory 
to invent a plausible narrative
in which to hinge your ideas. 

Connecting with people means taking chances. 
Don't mistake refinement for quality.

You will not only call the subject from memory; you will call the memory of your whole life. It is not only one face or one field, one flower or one room; it is every voice you can remember, every path you have walked, all the flowers you have held and all the people you have known.

Strive to be yourself. This is the hardest thing to do. Whatever specific techniques or methods you have learned, don't think about them while you are painting.  

You must find your way back by drawing water from your own well, reliving your memories and feeling yourself experience the passing of time.

Once in touch with the flood of emotion, paint.

Remembering Your Life is Part 2 of the Series Painting From Memory.
The Series began with Painting from Memory
and continues with
4 Steps to The Still-Life, Painting from Memory Pt. 3 

Learn to develop your unique and authentic voice...
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Painting and Sex Part 2 Foreplay

Some painters like to start their session with a perfectly clean palette, then mix all their colors before laying brush to canvas. They come at their art with their color wheel in hand as if it's a foregone conclusion how the harmonies will align.  

They are afraid of getting a little of one hue into another, afraid of making their painting a little 'dirty.'

Some artists approach their work with a plan; they've taken the time to consider the upcoming piece enough to even draw up a few thumbnails, or a more complete sketch. And still, there are those artists that come to a new painting having already made a complete- albeit smaller version - of the artwork.

As with a partner, the way you approach your painting can have just as much, or more significance, than the act itself.

If you're going to climb a mountain or build a house, a plan is absolutely necessary; but how you plan for the creation of a work of art has more to do with being open and in the flow of time.

Are you just going to go through the motions, copying some idea you have had before of how it is supposed to be? Or are you going to give yourself to the moment and allow the freedom of creation to overcome you?

Strive to be in touch with who you are 
and paint that way.

 
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Painting The Dominant Theme - Painting As Music Part 1


Use the elements of music to add power and continuity to your paintings.




Try to have every aspect of your painting 
relate somehow to your theme.

As a composer, you're not going to give each instrument equal parts and they're not going to play all at once. You're neither going to give harmony and melody equal weight, nor will the whole piece be the same volume. Of course, there are many other variables, but the idea is to limit the variables as necessary to say what you need to say.

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." 
Hans Hofmann

And though your work may vacillate between emotions, the original melodic thrust, the motive, will begin the work and be returned to at the end.

What is the Dominant Theme in your painting?

For me, no matter what the subject is, the dominant theme is often transition and light. 
I want my paintings to be like memories.

What is the most significant element?
It could be shape, color, line, value, or another design component.

How do the supporting elements affect the dominant theme?

Your painting can be about many things, yes, but to make sense of complex ideas, harmonies and variations, consider allowing one aspect to clearly dominate.

In a typical classical piece of music, a motive is stated - a melody, or a fragment of a melody that represents the theme- and that phrase is repeated and varied throughout the piece.
It may start on a piano, flute, violin, trumpet, or any other instrument and be passed along to others. It may expand or contract, fall or rise in pitch, and modulate otherwise in countless ways,
but that initial motive is ever-present, always referenced and returned to throughout the work.

First of all, ask yourself why you are including everything; what is your painting about?  Maybe you should isolate one aspect of the scene and only paint that, subordinating all else to minor roles, or eliminating them entirely. 

For this example, let's have the light on the yellow fields be the main subject (Contemplation of the transition from fall to winter be the theme) and have the trees and mountains receding in the distance.

Each subordinate subject begins to project onto the picture plane its own identity and ask to be given space to grow and maybe be the overall theme. But, the fields are the dominant subject- so you must push back against the trees and keep them in their place for fear that the struggle will end in a 50/50 split - a truce- in art, the worst of all outcomes.

Every aspect of your painting, whether it be a sharp line, a particular color, or one of your subordinate subjects and shapes, 'will have a tendency' to call attention to itself and take over the artwork if it is allowed. The struggle of forces that is left in the work as the dominant aspects (shape, color, line, etc...) reassert themselves, is what will give your painting breath and life.

What happens when the mountains start to dominate the fields, and the theme begins to change?  The fields must push back, the sky takes over, and what is left of the mountains is only a fragment of a memory, disappearing into the air like a dream.

In my new cityscape painting video, you can see how I constantly move up and down and back and forth across the canvas, putting the ideas of theme, harmony, and melody before subject.
Click here to view the New Painting Video
Empire VII  

Painting the Dominant Theme is Part 1 of the Series Painting As Music.
The Series began with Painting as Music - An Introduction




 
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Painting and Sex - The Climax


Great painting, like great sex, writing and music has rhythms and waves, both small and large leading eventually - one hopes - to a climax.

 

No matter how you break it down, great sex and great art is made up of forces uniting in both opposition and harmony, at once working together and struggling alone, to reach a transcendent and cathartic climactic experience.

Like a great melody rising and falling, expanding and contracting until finally reaching its crest, do your paintings strive toward one ultimate moment of clarity?

Do your paintings have a climax?


When viewing a painting, I look to see if the artist has gotten to the soul of the subject and transcribed it on the canvas using their own language.

Has the painter stated a main overall theme and carried through the subordinate colors and structures, mapped out their ideas to be followed, improvised upon, and ultimately resolved?

Has the painter introduced sufficient counterpoint - antagonistic forces - to challenge the outcome, or has our hero simply had to knock on the door to be allowed to enter?

Am I to experience a sense of struggle, a primal challenge that will ignite in me a sense of passion for creation, the subject, or the paint itself?

By allowing myself to engage with this painting- will I experience a catharsis, a change or alteration in my understanding of the human condition?

I want my best work to be sublime and to leave my viewers with a lasting feeling
of being affected by the painting.
When my painting is complete, I want everything but the painting to be irrelevant; neither the title, the description, nor I as the artist should matter, only the finished work.

Read the next in this series: Painting and Sex Part 2 Foreplay

 
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Painting as Music - An Introduction

 
A New Blog Series:
Painting, Music, and the Power of Art

To improve your paintings, I want you start thinking more like a composer of music.


Everything is music.  

Painting is definitely a form of music, as music is a form of painting. As you explore the fundamentals of visual art, design, and painting, consider the parallels of music composition to expand your mind.

As a visual artist, you will always be referring to the basic concepts of design: shape, value, line & color. In addition, as you consider movement in your painting, you will think about balance & rhythm, among other things.

Now, let us begin to understand the relationship of music to painting and how you can immediately apply these ideas.

When I would begin improvising a new piece, and now as I begin a painting, I always consider my main theme to establish a tonality.

Always ask yourself- what does your painting mean?  
What is your main theme?
If you don't know at first, if you like to start with an empty mind or allow the ideas to change along the way that's great, these concepts will still help as you move forward;
but for now let's consider something straight forward and play with an idea.

Instead of painting the vase of flowers you have on your counter because they are beautiful, or you like the way the morning light is playing on them, stop and consider the idea of painting flowers. Flowers have been painted a million times before, what will your painting say that will be powerful and memorable?

Based on the ideas at hand, flowers in a vase and morning light, consider first the available themes, the tonality, the instrumentation. Flowers are full of life, color and beauty and the morning light is the first light of day, all signs of life and birth. Let's go with this idea for a moment: You're not going to create a painting of a vase of flowers - you're going to create a painting about birth, about creation.
But don't make it all beautiful, it would be too easy - consider aging flowers as a counterpoint. 

As in music, create and suspend tension.

What instrument will be playing the opening phrase? 
 Is it a piano? A flute? A violin?
How fast and bold will the melody line be, and how large will be the distance in intervals between the notes? Every aspect of your painting will refer back to your main theme - 1,000 people could represent the concept of birth in their own unique way-
How will you?

Think of your painting not as a still image,  
but as a series of events unfolding on the canvas.

However, while music needs time to unfold, a painting can be viewed in an instant.

Let's go for the dramatic without going over the top: forget about what's right in front of you,
it's just a jumping off point for your imagination.
You will use what's available as reference. 
You have seen in your lifetime almost every way light can be represented, learn to paint from memory and call upon all that's locked in your mind to compose your works.


Continue reading the Series "Painting As Music" with Part 1  
Painting the Dominant Theme




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Painting Infinity and Symbolism


I want my paintings not so much to define what I see and what you should see; 
I want them to trigger your imagination, remind you of your own paths and questions. 

I am after the images that make you remember you're human, the images that connect with the universal consciousness that makes us all relate to metaphor and symbol.

Every aspect of your painting, every mark, every line and color has the potential to rise up and breathe, to become a symbol in and of itself.

I don't seek to paint things as they look; I seek to paint them as they are, how they feel.
I can appreciate plein air paintings - I love light, but my goal is not so much to capture a specific moment in time, rather it is to suspend time, to allow the mind to drift and explore.

Each viewer should be given an opening to engage with the work, to meditate on possibilities.

Like a person, each of your paintings has an identity, a presence.
Don't start with your subject's parameters, start with infinity.
You can find infinity in a stone or a mountain side; don't just see your subject for its simple visual effect, see it for its timeless symbolism.

Don't just try to paint subjects; paint space and time.
I create space for the eyes to travel and for the mind to wander.
Then I loosely define the time it takes to move within those boundaries.


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Painting From Memory

As a painter, memory is by far your most powerful tool.

In order to quickly gain confidence and develop your own painting style you should primarily paint from memory.

You should learn to create a vision in your mind and play with the ideas - move things around, change the light - without having to sketch it out.

When you paint from memory alone, the images are more fully processed through your self.

Practice bringing to clarity a powerful memory from different depths of your past. Study your subject, memorize it, then paint it apart from the available image.

3 Ways to Memorize A Subject For Painting
  • Snap you eyes like a camera's shutter and let the image remain undisturbed in your thoughts.
  • Squint and quickly pinpoint the main ideas, shapes, and path of light.
  • Study the details you'll need to remember to be faithful to your vision and language - depending on how abstract, representational or real your painting will be.
This will be difficult if you haven't tried it before; you may not get at exactly what you wanted,
but don't correct it right away, see the questions you've asked and set it aside.

Then go back into nature, or back to your subject and seek your answers.

Continue to Painting From Memory, Part 2
 
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When Painting Speak Your Own Language


What do your brushstrokes mean?
 Does each color note stand for something on its own, each line and mark symbolize and connect?


"Read your painting. What does it say?"
 
Unlike a classical composition or a poem, a painting can withstand extra marks that aren't entirely necessary, the medium allows it, as does jazz improvisation, but slowing down and connecting with each mark will improve your paintings immeasurably.

Know what your colors, lines, and marks mean and relate each aspect to another, control repetition and variation and develop your own language. 
 
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Paint Fast - You're Being Chased

 
In order for your art to connect to people, you need to feel what you are doing, not think it.
This is an exercise in trusting your experience.


Think of how you could run through open woods at full speed, making hundreds of calculations per second to keep from slipping - if you were being chased by a wild animal.

There's time for thinking and there's time for painting. Separate the two.

Now paint fast, like you're being chased, not something abstract or crazy, but some subject you have tackled before.

Don't lose control and start throwing paint around or spilling things; 
don't trip into the bushes.

Don't question, don't hesitate- propel yourself forward gaining momentum.
You want to paint so fast you stop thinking.

Painting the Dominant Theme-Painting As Music Pt. 1

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How To View Your Paintings

How Do You See Your Own Paintings?

In a minute, hang one of the paintings you are working on in your studio or somewhere else in your home and leave the room.


1. First, imagine the painting is not yours and you have no idea who the artist is.
I want you to distract yourself with something else, something impersonal, until you are not thinking about art or painting.
Then, walk past an open door where you can see your painting through it, straight on or otherwise, but don't stop, just glance.
Now continue on, get some coffee or flip through a book. Let the back of your mind collect its thoughts on the painting you just glanced at.
Don't analyze it, just feel it. Did it make you want to look again? How did it make you feel? Did you see all you needed with that glance?
Now, walk back again, glance and then (remember, you aren't the artist) pretend to be interested enough to get closer.
Gradually approach the work until you are standing in front of it. If you start to think it is yours, close your eyes for a while until you can see it outside of yourself.

2. Second, imagine the painting is yours, only now you are someone else viewing it.
Become that person and see your work from their perspective the same way, walking by with a glance, then getting closer. Imagine any number of other people, different ages and backgrounds, and try to see your work as they would.

3. Third: This last exercise can be the most telling. Pick someone you know who doesn't paint. Maybe they want to but never have.
Then pretend the painting is theirs and see yourself walk into their house and they say, "Hey I just painted this, what do you think?"

Continuing this way will help you to see your work outside of yourself, living on its own, with no texts or explanation. Imagine it was painted by other people of all ages and walks of life. Imagine it in a museum between two paintings you look up to. 

Learn to develop your unique and authentic voice...
Read more about
Secrets of Powerful Painting, Book I

Acrylic Painting Cityscape Video


Timelapse Acrylic Cityscape Painting

I have been away from this blog for a long time, trying to find a way to bring my thoughts together in a more cohesive way. As well as painting in oil, I have been using acrylic and developing my acrylic painting techniques; I have also started developing a series of acrylic painting lessons and tutorials.
Recently I began a new painting video series at www.OpenStudioPainting.blogspot.com  This is one of the first - a  timelapse acrylic painting video of the first week of work on a 30 x 40 cityscape painting from my "Empire" series.
I will be posting more ideas, techniques and videos here at www.SecretsofAModernPainter.blogspot.com and
videos- including more in-depth lessons and tutorials at OpenStudioPainting.
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