Secrets of A Modern Painter: January 2011
Secrets of A Modern Painter: January 2011

Are Your Paintings Open?

 
Paintings are like people, some are open and some are closed.

In any conversation, you are both your developed self and open to reflection and change.

Let your paintings be open to viewers for connection and conversation- give us a sense of the act of creation, of being and becoming, of growth; give us a sense of the power and drive that made you approach the empty canvas, a sense of the energy and emotion behind your actions. Leave traces of the struggle - trails to follow, paths to explore.

Let viewers complete your paintings with their imagination. 

Sometimes, details are necessary; most of the time they only seem necessary and are really not only a distraction but an impenetrable wall. You have to be clear about your intentions - some artists are out to prove they are skilled with drawing or color and not only draw attention to their work, but attention to the abilities that went into the work - this is different than effectively leaving traces of the act of creation.

I want my works to trigger memories, and to seem as if they are memories in and of themselves.

Always be aware of the abstract qualities of your subject and don't let inane little details creep into the work and crush the initial impact. It's like conversation, so little can be said to state a point - and more often than not, fewer words are appreciated by all.

Very little information is needed in a painting to trigger some kind of emotion and connection - viewers of course differ, but on the whole, we can experience something with a Pollock or a Rothko, a Frankenthaler or a Gorky, a Whistler or a Monet. 

Your completed work will be suspended in a state of completion - but must remain open for the viewer to have an experience, and the only way to do that is to understand your own preferences and how to sustain the balance of order and chaos to arrive at something intriguing. 

Stop earlier than you normally would and let the painting rest and develop on its own. The minds and imaginations of viewers will be triggered to see what may not be there, and by allowing people to 'complete' the work with their imaginations, a connection will be made. Unnecessary details would be a distraction - instead of the viewer being made to drift and dream, you keep them hyper-focused on specifics. Your mind while painting is very different from your mind when you return again to view.


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Lines Live and Die

Lines are born; lines live and lines die.

Lines are stumbling children learning to walk.
Lines are carrier pigeons.
Lines are heartbeats.
Lines are old boots.
Lines are slow days and vast fields.

Lines are floorboards 
and barn doors.
Lines are strong or weak: bold, or frustrated and broken.
Lines meander too and fro, lost without reason, wandering aimlessly through a middle ground or they are sure and focused, cultivating and discovering, learning- and following through on their promises.

Lines are deep roots, dendrites and lightning bolts.
Lines are skyscrapers and snakes.
Lines are torn pages and cracked walls.
Lines are young women and aged men, folded maps and crooked houses.
Lines are cats, stretching, and curling back up.

Lines are empty chairs.


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2 Ways To Improve Your Representational Painting


Learn to trust your vision, and discover the unique characteristics of paint.
 



1. Stop painting direct from photographs.

  Unless you are painting photo-realism, do not paint straight from photographs.  

Only refer to photographs to solve a problem if the real subject is not available as reference. 

Use your memory, don't fall into the trap of 'correctness', right perspective, color, scale, shape, etc... nothing is right or correct in art unless the artist deems it so - A quick look in any book cataloging the great paintings throughout history will remind you of how the individual artists vary in their perceptions of reality. As an artist, your goal is to see things your own way and to represent them after processed through your heart and mind. We haven't had photography as a tool for painting for very long; however, more and more painters now use it as their primary reference.

Our modern times are awash with ideas as to how things should be done and the vast majority of self-learners refer to the same 5 or ten books. Why do you think so much plein air painting looks like it could have been done by the same artist? Be unique, dig into your soul and your memories and share with us your own perspective and vision.

2. Use more paint.
 
In order to let the paint speak for itself, you have to use more paint- a lot more. Paint has sculptural characteristics, the texture can define as much as descriptive lines; let a single stroke be an entire hillside, a distant mountain, a road - put it down and look at it, you have to learn the qualities and feel of paint from painting - you have to discover the potential of the paint to carry meaning in and of itself.


 
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4 Steps to The Still-Life, Memory Part 3

 

Every moment you spend developing your memory is worth hours of painting. 

  

Memory is the key to filling your paintings with emotion and air. 
 
These are not exercises to rush through. With this first 5 minute exercise, you are not going to try to do anything, don't try to memorize the subject, just look at it with no distractions.

1. Take a single object, maybe a flower, a teacup, or an old book and just look at it for a minute, move around it, seeing it at varying heights and angles. Pick it up, hold it, feel its weight and texture, see it in different light.

Now close your eyes and just feel it, moving it around in your hands , lift it up and down -looking at it with closed eyes- as you did before with your eyes open. Now, every hour or every other hour throughout the day, no matter where you are or what you are doing, close your eyes for a minute and re-imagine the object, feel it, see it as clearly as you can in your mind.

2. Begin to place the object on a table in your mind surrounded by other things - let objects come and go, move them around, not to try to design a still life, only to play with your memories. 

Meditative exercises like this will allow you deeper access to your imagination and free you from the imposed boundaries you have created.

3. Close your eyes again in a moment and try to envision something you see every day - your kitchen table, the counter, a coffee table, your nightstand - try to see it clearly in your mind. Books, keys, receipts, shopping lists, pens and notes, rings, coins; try to see changes as the days have passed, like someone made a time lapse movie of the surface.

4. Now, I want you to imagine a table you might use for a still life painting and in your mind the table is empty.  Next, place on the table 3 pears, a book, a pair of eye glasses and a vase of flowers. I guarantee two people reading this will not see the same thing - your vision is your own. Now, it is dark, the table is still there with the objects, but they remain hidden. I want you to imagine the first light of day - to reveal the objects slowly and remain with this vision as the light slowly envelops them and changes - as the day passes through to dusk and back into darkness.

Once you feel comfortable with this, begin to see the table again in the best chosen light to express your intention and feelings and rearrange the objects, removing some and adding others or coming up with an entirely different set-up.

Now to apply the memory exercise to painting.

First, create a still-life in your mind and paint the memory without the objects set up, 
only referring to them in another room 
when you need to.

Second, set the still-life up as you had imagined and paint it while looking at it.


 
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You Are The Master

 
Realize that, at this moment, you are your master.

What you know is more than enough to create a powerful work of art.



Speak as you will, be yourself, accept and focus on your strengths.

Take a moment before you begin to paint, and brush in hand, standing before the canvas, close your eyes and try to remember the first time you ever painted.
Now keep going through the months and years, try to think about the act of painting, not the finished works.

Let yourself come up through the memories of painting without hesitation or judgment; allow your mind to find the paths you have followed, the possibilities explored.

Let your mind begin play with the passing images for 5 or 10 minutes, or even an hour if you have the time. Keep your brush in hand, allow yourself to get tired and start dreaming.

When you approach the work, know that when all is said and done, this work will exist by itself, silent and alone. Beyond its subject, beyond title, description, techniques, materials, your
painting will be a symbol, a metaphor of some facet of existence, representing somehow the artist, the collector, and the viewer.  

Each of your paintings has the potential to be a universal symbol of life.


 
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3 Keys to Powerful Landscape Painting

 
  When considering how to paint a sky, we all
think of light, color, and air.



1. Sometimes, because we are painting on a flat surface, we neglect the curvature of the Earth and almost forget that we are painting the inside of a sphere.
 
You think of foreground, middle ground, and background, but this subtle shift in perception will change everything. Imagine as you are painting that you are moving your brush on the inside curve of the sphere - as if the flat wall of the canvas was a hard outer edge of the planet.

Experiment - if you haven't experienced this feeling- take a large bowl and a brush and paint an imaginary sky on the inside edge so you can get the feeling of what I mean. Move the brush against the bowl, then within the space of the half- sphere. If you can capture the idea of air and light filling the sphere and make your clouds float within it, your skies will improve immeasurably.

2. Don't paint elements of nature - paint the forces of nature in action. To me a landscape is a collection of events in space-time, revealed by light, interconnected through their suspension in air or bound by gravity to the Earth.

3. Create a sense of passage through one or more areas of the painting. We want not only for the eyes to travel, we want our viewers to experience being there, or relive their own memory of a similar place. 

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


 
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