Conch Shell
When I choose a subject I look for two things, first it must
present a set of visual challenges and second I must have some connection to it.
It must “say” something to me, that can be either a pure aesthetic
experience or a emotional link. This is where the concept of any painting
starts, no matter how elaborate the idea or simple the subject matter may be,
without these two essentials you can not communicate anything beyond the
literal.
However, as I work I pay little attention to the subject matter, I
concentrate on the abstract pictorial qualities that make up an image, this is
what intrigues and excites me when I paint; that painters zone, to transcend the subject through a honest emotional response to those abstract qualities of shapes, colors, values, light, space, and attempt to translate that into some poetic image.
Thinking of it in this way - you realize the subject chooses
the artist.
We have had a gutful of fast art and food.
What we need more of is slow art: art that holds time as a
vase holds water: art that grows out of
modes of perception and making whose skill and doggedness make you think and feel; art that isn’t merely sensational
that doesn’t get its message across in 10 seconds, that isn’t falsely iconic,
that hooks onto something deep-running in our natures.
Art Critic and Historian - 1938 - 2012
From a speech given at the London
Royal Academy
Link to article and video about Robert Hughes
Conch Shell, oil on panel, 5"x 7"
Retrieved from the beach of Cancun, Mexico.
Available in Gallery
Explore - Question - Learn - Enjoy, Jim
That's lovely, Jim. Yesterday I was just re-reading one of your wonderful posts over on wetcanvas. Thank you, just absolutely thank you, for sharing :) Karen
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the shell painting is not just about my desire to be somewhere warmer.
DeleteThanks Karen, you are very much appreciated.
:)
This conch is beautiful, and I like what you say about choosing a subject.
ReplyDeleteI agree too, with Robert Hughes, about fast art, like fast food. After a while, we are fed up, and want to come back to beautiful and simple things.
It is always interesting that beauty and simplicity seem to be harmonious, that they will and do continue to resurface in art.
DeleteAs poetically stated -
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all.”
John Keats
Thank you for your thoughts.
Jim
Hello Jim. I finally got around to getting the more active blogs that I want to follow onto my page. Now I can see when there are new posts. So I will be visiting more regularly now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for following Kevin, I have enjoyed/followed your site and appreciate the work you share. Good to exchange with you.
DeleteI love this post. You put in words something I have sensed in choosing a subject, but could not have verbalized. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteNo problem, minnemie, TY for the comment.
Delete