Injecting life into a still life

Still life by the 17th century Flemish painter Artus Claessens.

Still life by Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

The video that I am now working on is about injecting life into still life. But whether it be a still life, landscape or figure, encouraging the majority of artists that post on facebook forums to inject life into their paintings is like trying to resurrect the dead. It is slavishly copying from photographs that puts the nail in the coffin.

Working from life is a messy business and the result is not likely to win accolades to the tune of "how sweet". In my real life life-classes, erasing is forbidden. In my book Notes on the Nude I have this to say:

I only enforce one rule for those attending my life class: no erasers! In sketching, as in life, every moment counts, mistakes and all. There’s no turning the clock back. One of my mature students put it nicely when she told the class she had earned every line on her face. Hidden in a confusion of wrong lines is the right line. When I find it, I firm it up and the wrong lines remain to emphasise that I have figured it out. Sometimes I leave the viewer to determine which line is the right line. By these means I invite the viewer to have a say in the creative process. A multitude of lines gives testimony to the struggle one faces when working from the live model.  The model is alive, and the artist must somehow put the very breath of life down on paper.  Right lines and wrong lines all count: there’s no rubbing out.

A passion that never dies.

Click on the image to view.

My latest video traces work in progress on sculptures in my series Daughters of the Caribbean Sun. It is the story of a love affair began over fifty years ago when I was seduced by Enzo Plazzotta's sculpture Jamaican Girl and it continues to this day.

 

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty...

 In his book The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran has this to say about clothes:

And the weaver said, Speak to us of Clothes.

     And he answered:

     Your clothes conceal much of your beauty,

yet they hide not the unbeautiful.

     And though you seek in garments the

freedom of privacy you may find in them

a harness and a chain.

     Would that you could meet the sun

and the wind with more of your skin and less

of your raiment,

     For the breath of life is in the sunlight

and the hand of life is in the wind.

 

     Some of you say, “It is the north wind

who has woven the clothes we wear.”

     And I say, Ay, it was the north wind,

     But shame was his loom, and the soften-

ing of the sinews was his thread.

     And when his work was done he laughed

in the forest.

     Forget not that modesty is for a shield

against the eye of the unclean.

     And when the unclean shall be no more,

what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling

of the mind?

     And forget not that the earth delights to

feel your bare feet and the winds long to

play with your hair.

The quandary of depicting the nude.

Three years ago I opened my post tilted As a matter of Fact with the following health warning:

The images that follow have been recently banned by Social Media's Keeper's of Public Decency. 

The censor's message reads: This post was flagged because it contains adult content which violates our Community Guidelines. THIS DECISION CANNOT BE APPEALED. It appears that social media in general wants us to be more comfortable with war, violence and foul language than with innocent paintings of the nude.

I trust that Edouard Danton's paintings will not shock or offend followers of this blog. 

The video I am now working on delves into the issue of depicting the nude with reference to the live model. In all of the instructional videos that I've seen on working from the nude model, the camera acts as a fig leaf and discreetly masks what you should not see. And that's far removed from life. I feel compelled to do otherwise and risk censorship.

I take courage in the fact that my recent released video Working from Life has won praise from the cognoscenti.

My Father's Studio Edouard Danton (1848-1897)

 

The painter Edouard Danton (1848-1897) came from a family of sculptors and the paintings he made in his father's studio to my mind perfectly capture the matter of fact business of working from the nude model. I stress "to my mind" because one critic from the world of art academia - having I'm sure, never worked from the nude - considers his paintings mere titillation. 

In my book Notes on the Nude I delve deeper into the working relationship between artist and model. In particular the titillation of the provocatively dressed model as against the natural beauty of the undressed:

The human body is less sexually alluring nude than when it is dressed. If one of my regular models had posed in the fetching flimsy white dress she wore on arrival, I would have been lost beyond recall. But as soon as she took it off we were back to our matter of fact working relationship.

As with the model depicted in the painting, my models are likewise fascinated by the work in progress and at the end of a session I can sense my model's reluctance to exchange the freedom of the nude for the restrictions of being clothed.

Below are two more of Edouard Danton's masterly paintings. As a sculptor I can recognise every detail, from the tools on his workbench, to the temporary rail alongside the modelling stand, and the calm composure of the model.

Casting from Life

Coin d atelier

 

Artist and Model

This demonstration video supplements my book Notes on the Nude. I hope it encourage a new generation of artists to pursue the challenge of working from the nude model and inspire a new generation of models. In recent times artists have resorted to working from photographs, rather than from life. 

To quote from my book:

I cannot walk around a photograph of my subject, neither can I touch, feel, sense or talk to it.  It can be troublesome working outdoors; you get burnt by the sun, drenched by the rain, bitten by ants and easels get bowled over in the wind.  In the studio, models cannot be expected to retain the freshness of a pose for longer than a couple of minutes. Nevertheless, the rewards of working from life are worth the effort.  Between the torn up false starts, the exploratory lines and the dashed down runs of colour, there on paper, is a trace of the truth! 

You can view the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFBxxmBNsDU