Hello and Welcome

"The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel."  Piet Mondrian

Hello, and welcome to art·is·try. I'm going to use this forum to talk about two subjects that fascinate me: art history and the creative process. We'll learn about figures from art history and what made them tick. (I'll confess at the outset that my heart lies in post-Impressionism through Contemporary, where visual art is concerned.) We'll also discuss the course of artistic creativity and how artists from different disciplines approach their projects. How do they stay motivated? Where do they get ideas? How do they stay focused? I'll interview people who create on a daily basis, make their living that way, and those who use their creativity as an escape.

Let me tell you a little about myself. I have a bachelor of science degree in geology and a juris doctor. I made a living as a geologist and as a lawyer, in what I like to call my former life. Right now, I make money (to be distinguished from making a living, goodness knows) at two things I basically taught myself . . . painting and running a small business. The business I built from scratch, first by making candles with fragrances I invent myself, then expanding into several other areas I was curious about. Some worked, some didn't, and I'm still honing the business and its offerings.

I started painting in 1995. I took enough group lessons from a local artist to learn the basics, supplemented with a couple of college courses some years later, including art history, then started doing things my way and never looked back. I've tried all kinds of styles and media and have the most success, in terms of sales, with oil on canvas, mostly abstract landscapes. Abstraction is my first love, and I'm constantly pursuing different methods of expressing it on canvas.

I'm a trained singer and have trod the boards of many theaters over the years. So while the artists I'll be talking to will come mostly from the visual and performing arts, some writers and other interesting folks will contribute to the conversation.

My favorite artist is Henri Matisse, for his use of color and form. I'm not going to describe all the details of his life - you can find those for yourself. Born in 1869, he was initially labeled a Fauve (the literal translation of which is 'wild beast'), and the Fauves valued individual expression above all. In a rebellion against Impressionism perhaps, Fauvism sought to separate color from its usual, representational, purpose and allow it to stand on its own as an element of composition. (Here is a great synopsis of Fauvism.)

Matisse's ability to communicate form with single brushstrokes and that incredible saturated color never ceases to amaze me. My favorite painting of his is 'The Piano Lesson,' not to be confused with his later 'Music Lesson,' which I encountered live and in person at a Matisse/Picasso exhibition in Paris in 2002. (You can see an image of 'The Piano Lesson' here.) The canvas is larger than I expected, and it overwhelmed me a bit, though paintings reducing me to tears is not an unusual occurrence. 'The Piano Lesson' is quite abstract and demonstrates Matisse's relationship with Cubism. (Matisse and Picasso were friendly rivals and influenced each other's work, which was the focus of that 2002 Paris exhibition. Their friendship is depicted pretty humorously in the film 'Surviving Picasso' . . . good movie, if you haven't seen it. I mean, Anthony Hopkins, Natasha McElhone, Julianne Moore, Joan Plowright - what's not to love?)

When Matisse fell ill late in life and was bedridden, he began his famous cutouts. He painted paper with gouache, which is essentially opaque watercolor, then cut the paper into whimsical, abstract shapes . . . plants, animals and figures mostly. As the compositions grew in size, assistants would pin the shapes to the wall according to Matisse's instructions. The pieces were mounted on paper for framing and transport. Get your hands on a copy of Matisse's 'Jazz,' and you'll see the intricacy and profusion of color in some of his cutouts, plus you'll be treated to the artist's written thoughts.

Matisse died of cancer in 1954, at the age of 84. His artistic legacy can be seen in the work of the Abstract Expressionists, among others. He believed the creation of art to be work, not necessarily genius. It didn't just pour out of him. Any study of his reclining nudes, his odalisques, his sculptures, reveals a genesis and a progression. Certain elements show up in many different works, and in them you can see evidence of his statement, "I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things."

So Matisse knew art is about trying. I have a lot of respect for any artist who's not afraid to let his process show, as it were. The re-positioning of the elements of his cutout compositions is evident in numerous pinholes. He was not afraid to change a painting radically, even after it had been purchased. As noted in Gilles Neret's book on the artist, published in 1996, Matisse's Russian collector, Sergei Shchukin, bought a painting called 'Blue Dining Table' "from Matisse at the Salon d'Automne (in 1908), but instead received the same canvas entirely repainted in red. Matisse had completely changed the colour of the paintings because the blue harmony did not give him the contrast he sought with the springtime background visible through the window." Shchukin must not have been too unhappy with the change, as he continued to acquire Matisse's work, eventually owning at least 37 major pieces by the artist.

Speaking about his own process, Matisse said, "I like to model as much as I like to paint. I have no preference. If the quest is the same, when I am tired of one medium I return to the other - and 'to nourish myself,' I often make a copy in clay of an anatomical figure . . . I do so in order to express form, I often devote myself to sculpture, which makes it possible for me, instead of just confronting a flat surface, to move around the object and thus get to know it better . . . But I sculpt like a painter. I do not sculpt like a sculptor. What sculpture has to say is not what music has to say. These are all parallel paths, but they cannot be confused with one another . . .."

Okay. Before we close, we should probably define the term "creative process," so we know what is involved. It is generally accepted that there are four steps to the process: preparation, incubation, illumination, and implementation. Some authors add the step of evaluation between illumination and implementation. The only step not fairly self-explanatory, to my mind, is illumination, which is described, basically, as an epiphany on how to organize thoughts or efforts in making an idea a reality. As we've all experienced, illumination tends to occur when our attention is focused on something else entirely.

While I'll probably refer to these steps from time to time, and they will inform my conversations with creative people, I'm not going to use them as a checklist. I just wanted to give you a sense that there actually is a well-defined process to artistic creation.

I'll be as diligent as I can about providing sources, etc., but if you feel I've not been sufficiently thorough, let me know, and I'll remedy. If you want to discuss something more privately, feel free to email me at timmonsart@outlook.com.

Comments

  1. What a wonderful insight. Can't wait to read more.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. I'm looking forward to more research and the interviews I have planned.

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  2. What a treat for us, Valerie. I'm looking forward to it and thank you.

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