COMMENT #1 – On Content
Rob wrote regarding focal point and interest in a discuss sparked by my two landscape sketches previously posted:
The problem with most paintings is that they are a fait accompli, a completely contained universe that allows few questions and even less discovery. The artist presents everything with few mysteries and expects the viewers to be like good little children at table, and eat everything set before them (meanwhile ruining the experience by grumbling about being not appreciated for slaving over a hot easel all day).
(The following alludes to a suggestion of what to add to paintings to create more interest...an alligator hiding in the water for example.)
What the hiding alligator would do is give the viewer something to discover on their own. It would never be mentioned in the title. Once they discover it, they'll call everyone over and will be so delighted that they'll speak about it outside of the gallery..."you've just got to see that picture of Elegiac Park...tell me what you see." That's intriguing stuff and that brings in people to see it.
I once had a studio on the roof of the Bradford Hotel in Boston. It was previously the kitchen, all tiled and with twenty-four foot skylight ceilings. It was a great place to grow plants...some of which became the size of trees. I made a series of snipers painted on Foamcor®, cut them out and positioned them in "the jungle." It was a never-ending source of delight to visitors to suddenly see some grinning Japanese soldier in a tree, taking a bead on them. They'd act as if getting shot or have running gun battles with the cardboard cut-outs, that's how easily people can become involved and become unleashed.
There was a real lesson there and that lesson is...hide the alligator. In other words, put something in the painting that delights and surprises. Just going out and painting what's there is no different, in intent, than snapping a photo. And you don't want to end up over at ARC, do you?
COMMENT #2 – On method.
There were several other artists who were commenting but I’m only posting Rob’s advice for brevity’s sake. DHT member suggested that I get 25 or 30 hardboard panels and paint on and move on until I start getting the feel for an approach.
Rob wrote responding this suggestion: That's good advice for Patti (David) now that she's at this critical stage.
Patti, make life easy and just concentrate on painting. Call up Max at 706-227-4427 or go to www.realgesso.com and have him bundle up a bunch of panels. If you haven't worked on real rabbitskin glue gesso, you're in for a treat, but his oil primed linen panels are delightful. Ask him to toss in an ABS panel too. ABS is an ultra permanent plastic sheet they mount to hardboard and, for my money, it may feel better than gesso (of course real gesso feels soooo much better than acrylic primer.
One of the things I learned a while ago was to buy supports in quantity. In that way I know there's one waiting for when the mood strikes and i don't end up painting on junk and regretting it later.
I wrote back this: Good grief, Rob...what critical stage???? I'm just stuck. Seems like I'll never become productive.
Rob is answering both Phyllis and me, making a point of where both of us are as artists. Phyllis was taking from a local artist that Rob and others thought not to be very good but obviously Phyllis admired this artist's work. Phyllis is a better artist...he is saying.
Obviously, we are looking at the same pictures with very different eyes.
In preparation for Burns Night and haggis eating, I was compelled to remember and recite various of the bard's poems and this one bears on the discussion. Rrrr rrrrr rrrr (that's me gettin' my proper burr sounding like a lawnmower....) “Oh wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel's as others see us! It wad monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion”
Basically, the eternal truth that Burns touches upon is that we don't have a clear vision of who we are and what we can do.
Perhaps you have not really looked at the most recent pastels you have done (Phyllis). The compositions (you did) of both the clouds through the trees and the path are vastly beyond what (the artists you admire) McCombs is showing in her works. Her compositions are weak to the point of being nonexistent and the biggest failing is the picture lack "bones." That is to say, even in a landscape there should be a feeling of structure and weight, just as when painting a figure. I'm sure you've seen paintings of people where they look almost like inflated skins...no bones are evident. That's because the artist failed to observe past the surface. There's no weight, no underlying structure. (However) That is clearly the case with McCombs. If she concentrated on the rudiments of painting and drawing with the same degree of attention and energy she puts into making evocative titles, her pictures would be better. But they are clearly nowhere near the depth and solidity you have been showing in your recent work.
To be quite blunt, I think this recent advance has left you somewhat frightened. You're not holding onto the old tricks that always worked and you've let go to take some chances (this goes for you too, Patti). This has left the two of you searching for something to hold onto. In Patti's case it's the mistake of trying to rework pictures which are fine as they are. In your case it's clinging to what you perceive as a known quantity...a workshop teacher.
You're both wrong in the way you're going about dealing with this insecure feeling and (this is most important) you're both absolutely dead right in what you did that got you to this scary place. You've been so busy climbing to this summit that you don't know what to do now that you've got there...and worse, you're getting vertigo and feel the need to hold onto something.
Don't worry. The feeling will pass. In your place I'd save the workshop money and go out and get an expensive pair of shoes instead. It will be better spent...and good shoes make you feel confident, don't they?
I don't know what they've been putting in the water on Oklahoma but whatever it is, bottle it up and send some to the rest of us. Please...the both of you...trust what it is that is bringing you to this point. Do not lose it with overthinking it. Trust yourselves and learn to live with being scared at these new successes. I think they'll be coming more frequently.
About Rob Howard.... a successful professional illustrator and portraitist residing North of Boston in the little town of Haverville, at the age of 71 provides his great intellect, sarcasm and wit and insight to the professional artists subscribing to the Cennini Forum. ( If you want professional guidance as an artist, you should look into joining the forum.)
Rob, a typical master of the arts and pro, delivers straight from the hip no BS critiques that are truly constructive and often pulling no punches, are invaluable to my own growth and therefore I have come to rely Cennini for straight answers to my art quarries on over the past four years. He has never let me down.
Rob simply knows what he is talking about especially in the knowledge of materials and techniques, composition, and aesthetics. A man who has acquired exquisite taste.
We have not always agreed about Christianity and have had a fist fight or two but I have grown to appreciate the value of his artistic direction in art and I think our battles were those out of friendship and concern, at least I hope he views it that way. I'm sure he has never had a Christian challenge him and his catholic faith. (That is another story.)
In four years...I'm feeling maybe I'm getting somewhere. There are other excellent comments but for brevity sake, I'll end this post.
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