For These Times
  • Home Page
  • Writings Past and Present
  • The Cohanan (dad)
  • Relating Upwards
  • Picture Archive
  • Video Links
  • About This Site
  • Materials
  • Contact

Development and resolution

1/12/2015

0 Comments

 
262.  Past

Principles

Art


Development and resolution
(Notes on various artistic problems and reminder of purpose)

I was thinking about the younger artist Jacob Collins, who has pulled from various influences and emerged with impressive paintings, employing chiaroscuro painting as seen in the works of Caravaggio and Rembrandt. I looked upon my own ties with this kind of painting. For a time I had fallen under the influence of one teacher's passion for this vein of painting. Although I respected and admired the tradition, it really wasn’t inherently part of my roots. This instructor’s own mastery of it was limited. In painting in a traditional manner one needs to master all aspects of a system, a language of seeing and applying. He had not. Jacob Collins was able to put together a language that looked like the old masters in appearance, but was not quite the same thing. What he did still is an accomplishment.

Perhaps if it had been presented early enough, and comprehensively enough, I could have absorbed it. But it wasn’t and it was not my natural inclination. I was more linear, which is an earlier stage of artistic evolution. I looked for the outline of a subject and rendered the interior forms using lines that followed these forms. At least this was where I think my abilities lie. Training in this was nonexistent. What I needed was a sympathetic environment to at least evolve in this manner if there was no knowledgeable teacher available. From history Durer and Holbein would be examples at the highest level. There is a 20th century Dutch artist Jopie Huisman who appears to have evolved internally while learning from outside influences. He's linear, draws around form, and fills in the outlines. Colors are simple. This way of drawing and painting was doable for me. He does not use massing (forms emerging from one neutral tone) or impressionism (observing shapes of values and color). Instead line remains important. He really cannot handle the full figure or the nude. It's a little primitive, but at least can be done and is not out of reach. Others shoot for the sky but fall short. He stays within his parameters and does well within them.

One teacher I had, Richard Lack, taught me to see impressionistically. It harmed me because it went against my instincts. I had to leave. It forced me to become eye dependent upon everything I saw. One copied the appearance of an object without necessarily understanding its structure. Everything was just a color value. The cure from this thin tradition is to be conscious of going around the form and to understand the anatomy of the form as best one can. Through this knowledge one becomes less dependent upon what one sees. I don’t expect miracles, but I am conscious of it and absorb what I can learn and already know. The hope is through some kind of artistic osmosis my work will move in this direction without being overpowered.

And again I restate my purpose at this point, which is to use the art to raise thoughtfulness in a larger direction and not get caught up wrestling with various artistic ways of thinking. They are interesting and useful, but are the means, not the end.







0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Steven B. Nussdorf records his lifelong search to find meaning outside of the normal channels.  He  uses writing, poetry, and drawing to document this effort.

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013


    All
    Age Aging
    Aging
    Appeals
    Approach To Writing
    Art
    Belief
    Belief And Doubt
    Change
    Community
    Contradiction
    Culmination
    Dad
    Dad's Passing
    Death
    Dreams
    Economics
    Entropy
    Environment
    Family
    Florida
    Friends And Acquaintances
    God
    Golden Mean
    Health
    Help
    Intro
    Lamentations
    Law Of Reconciliation
    Leading
    Learning
    Life
    Living
    Man/woman
    Meditation
    Memory
    Metaphysics
    Mom
    Nature
    New York
    Observations
    Parents
    Patterns
    Personal
    Philosophy
    Play
    Prayer
    Premise
    Principles
    Prophecy
    Prupose
    Psychology
    Purity
    Reaching Out
    Realms
    Reason
    Reconciliation Law
    Relating
    Religion
    Right And Wrong
    Ritual
    Spirit
    Spiritual Living
    Stands
    Statement
    Systems
    Takes
    Talmud
    The
    Theology
    Theory Of Compensation
    Thinking
    Truth
    Understanding
    Universe
    Vectors And Forces
    Vignettes
    Voids
    Who For
    Wisdom
    Word
    Work

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.