Groping towards the light

Most people grope in the dark but my groping is done in the light, with my eyes and mind wide open. 

What I am looking for are new ways to suggest the beauty of the nude. My task is made all the more difficult through two self-imposed limitations: first, working large format in watercolour and second, capturing my subject in a matter of minutes. The only way that I can break through to new ground is by covering a lot of ground: hence, painting after painting. The adage holds true: if it was any easier everyone would do it, if it was any more difficult no one would!

The fact that an ever increasing number of followers throughout the world stay with me, year in, year out, at least means that my attempts are not boring them to death.

The paintings below are from yesterday’s sessions, the first in the morning with Tashani, the second in the afternoon with Annabelle.  

A Revolution in Human Beauty

The latest release from modelsociety.com carries these words by Lisa Everhart

All around the world a revolution is brewing, one born in the heart, carried forward by the longing of the human spirit in search of truth. The models, photographers and artists of Model Society are fueling this revolution of honoring the humanity of all people as intrinsically beautiful. Creative minds help us wake up from fear and prejudice as they compel us to look within and see ourselves in a new light. To the artist who dreams of a more beautiful world, there is no choice but to stand for what is right, good and unalienable.

We invite you to cast aside your fears and prejudices, opening your heart to the miraculous beauty of humanity. Reclaim your experience of human beauty. See yourself as a work of art, and join us in this revolution.

The vision of Model Society heralds a renaissance in the appreciation of the human figure.  True to the meaning and spirit of renaissance, it is a re-birth.  Centuries ago artists and sculptors paid homage to the beauty of the human form.

Today’s picture is of a relief on the balustrade round the Temple of Victory in Athens.  It dates from 408 BC and depicts one of the goddesses momentarily stooping to fasten a loosened sandal.  Although sadly mutilated, the figure that is revealed beneath gossamer drapery remains as sensual today as when it was conceived.   

Doing what comes naturally

If artists make love with the same restraint that the majority paint pictures, it must be a boring business. And theory doesn’t help. On the other hand, passion definitely does.

In the days when I painted landscapes, I waxed lyrical about the view. Now that I work with the figure I wax lyrical about the model. Just as I allow my watercolour washes the freedom to do what comes naturally, so must the model throw off all restraint. The formal pose offers nothing to get excited about. Gay abandonment is more inspiring than decorum. It’s the relaxed stretch that makes the picture and makes my day.

In today’s painting Ryta’s braids nicely went with the flow.

My Carnival Cow

Countless years ago, for the British Virgin Island Carnival, I made a cow. It was on the lines of the pantomime horse, with one person in front and one behind. The inventive streak was centered at the tail end. When the man in the rear pressed a plunger the tail lifted and my cow sprayed the onlookers. A full tube of yellow ochre water colour went towards that good cause.

My idea of carnival has matured since those days and I am now drawn towards the lovely rather than the lewd. If you consider that my love of the Rio Carnival contradicts that statement, so be it!

The first of today’s pictures is from this year’s Rio Carnival and the second from an island that will remain nameless. I leave you to judge which is the lovely and which is the lewd.

From following to anticipating

Art historians often refer to an artist as being a follower. More rarely, they refer to an artist as anticipating a future trend. I began by following the impressionists but perhaps historians will judge my more recent work as anticipating what may come after my time.

As a viewer I want to be seduced, not mentally challenged. I want to love an artist’s work rather than find it interesting. When falling in love intelligence doesn’t come into it, but seduction certainly does.

I am determined to seduce by subtle suggestion rather than dreary definition or by taxing your brain. To that end, today’s image is a detail from my painting of the reclining torso.

Having said that, I am more likely to be remembered, as the poet Robert Service (Songs of a Sourdough, etc.) considered would be his fate:

                I fancy my grave digger griping,

                As he gives my last lodging a pat.

                He wrote Dan McGrew,

                ‘Twas the best he could do.

                So I’ll go to my maker with that.

Architects, engineers and poets

I quote from Sir Herbert Read on the subject of the Renaissance:

Besides admiring great artistic inspiration, Renaissance society also held the ideal of the “universal” or “many-sided” man – skilled in every art, well read in the classics and an able scientist, engineer, courtier, soldier, etc.

While I cannot claim to be courtier or soldier, I can add most other attributes. But in these days of specialization, my many sided endeavors are usually met with a rather derogatory: Jack of All Trades.

Without painters, sculptors and artisans, our architectural heritage would be sadly deficient. And without my engineering expertise many mechanical devices here in Dominica would be at a standstill. 

On a painterly note, my last session with Annabelle broke the mold of the last painting being the best.  I am equally pleased with the second painting shown below. Annabelle’s zany hair-do gave me an excuse for extra scribbles.

Improvisation

On the subject of improvisation, the painter Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) had this to say:

“…nature has been transformed by the richness of the artist’s instincts.  Improvisation plays an important part: the work of art is allowed, like a doodle, to follow its own evolution, subconsciously guided by the artist rather than consciously controlled.” 

How true that statement applies to freedom of water colour, and all the more so when the subject is the endless variations of the nude. When working from life, two forces come into play, the painter and the model, and they thrive off each other. Then the miracle of evolution happens, as it did in this afternoon’s session with Annabelle. 

Above is a 20” x 16” twenty minute painting from the session and below is a detail.  

Boys on the Beach

Today’s sketch dates from 1989, the year that the figurative began to be the main theme of my work.  Islanders relaxing on the beach gave me the practice I needed in capturing the fleeting figure in a matter of seconds.  Scores of these sketches laid the foundation for future work. 

I am more likely to part with a painting than with a sketch.  As English landscape painter John Constable (1776-1837) said, I don't mind parting with the corn, but not with the field in which it was raised.

But there are exceptions.  And one such exception happened a few days ago when a wonderful Canadian couple, Helen and Peter Bunn, visited my studio.  I am proud to say that my sketch Boys on the Beach is now part of their collection.

Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage Mrs. Worthington

If Noel Coward were to give advice to a present day Mrs. Worthington it could well be, don’t send your daughter off on an arts degree course.  As much as I encourage talented students to pursue art, a Master’s Degree does not necessarily related to artistic ability. The only art paper qualification of real worth, is that upon which there is a good drawing. 

The painting below outshines the work of many of those that have an MA in art. It was painted by my daughter Tania when she was three years old. Regardless of fatherly pride, I nevertheless took Noel Coward’s advice and she’s now doing very well in sales and marketing. 

Incidentally, another of my daughters is a chartered accountant. Goodness only knows how I of all people brought chartered accountants and marketing executives into the world.  Where did I go wrong!

While you muse on that one, enjoy Tania’s painting to the stains of Noel Coward at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt7FvKkgl7o   

Freedom vs. constraint

If the medium of water colour could speak, it would surely say: for God’s sake, set me free! By its very nature water colour defies control.  A thunderous wash has a mind of its own and invariably runs run amok. This attribute attests to the saying, that a water colour can’t go right until it has gone wrong. Why then, do the vast majority of painters do their utmost to restrain the medium’s most valuable asset? Moreover, why do they paint from sterile photographic references, rather than life itself?

To illustrate the virtue of freedom, I have taken a detail from a painting I made over twenty years ago of the pregnant nude. My wife Denise was the model and the verse is from my poem The Colour Black.

                Bold washes from her shoulders run

                To trace the curve of her spine,

                Elsewhere they accumulate

                To hide a forested secret that’s mine.

Modelling isn’t easy

I am forever searching for a model that is not a model and a pose that is not a pose. It is easier to find the regular concept of beauty than it is to find the everyday figure that I need for my work. Equally, it is difficult to get everyday figures to be themselves. It can take weeks before the two of us, artist and model, are able to sing from the same hymn sheet. Modelling for the kind of beauty that I want to portray isn’t easy! Mind you, the end result is worth all the failures along the way.

True to form, this was the last of three paintings that I made of Tashani yesterday and hurriedly thrown down in the last 15 minutes of the session.

Last but not least

I seem to be making a habit of making the final painting of a session the best. It is in the last few minutes that both model and artist put aside restraints and take a chance.  My model inspires and miraculously lines and washes fall into place. Thank you Ryta for making the session exceptional. 

Once again the computer screen reduces a 16" x 20" water colour to the size of a postcard and so much is lost.  Hence the detail below...and even that is small in comparison to the original. Rather than a reduced image, it is more effective to enlarge to the size of a cinema screen.  Then one discovers paintings with paintings.

To push on with passion

Today’s title is taken from one of Vincent Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo and it can stand as my New Year’s resolution.

Once again I have to thank my models for their part in the creative process. The Christmas messages that they sent me spoke touchingly of their commitment and belief in my work.  I can add to that a five word message from a model in the States that reads: I just love your work!

I’ll open the New Year with the painting that earned the above response.  It dates from 2010 and the model is my wife Denise.

Every child is an artist

Picasso claimed that it took him four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.  He also maintained:  Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. 

Last year the Achievement Learning Centre, a school for children who learn differently, asked me to paint a mural along their school wall.  Regardless of my reservations about community murals (see my diary page for 17^th October 2015) I was willing to help.  However, emergencies meant that, for my part, the project had to be postponed. 

Me stepping aside was the best thing that ever happened, because a few weeks ago the children themselves created the mural.  And let me tell you, it is a hundred times better than anything I could have done!  Red Mango Studios deserve credit for their role in directing the project.

Here are just two of 14 paintings that make up the mural.  

I

Incidentally, Shallah is the six year old daughter of my model Jessica.  Whereas I am dyslexic, Shallah is autistic.  Hence, we both have similar abilities!

Well done children, I’m proud of you…and I’m sure that Picasso would have been equally impressed.

From the Canals to the Caribbean

The sketch of the canal barge dates from 1968, the year that I declared myself as an artist on the pavements of France and Belgium.  The water colour dates from 1975, my first year of painting in the Caribbean.

In those early days I was out to prove that I could draw.  By the time the Caribbean came into my life and I was painting with a passion.

Shopping list

When painting I pick up the nearest sheet of paper to hand and the same goes for my shopping lists. 

Today’s list of things to do before Christmas is scribbled on a scrap of all-rag water colour paper.  It’s not much to write home about, except that between engineering at the top and groceries at the bottom, there’s a reminder to e-mail models.

The e-mails are to thank them for their dedicated support over the last twelve months.  Without them I would have had to put up the studio shutters and call it a day.  Over the last few months calls for my work as an engineer has meant cancelling one session after another.   But regardless, my muses are always there in readiness to share the triumphs and tribulations of capturing the beauty of the human form. 

As my regular readers are aware, it often takes me months to evaluate a painting.  This is why I resist discarding what I at first consider to be a failure.  This painting of Tashani is a case in point.  Three months ago I cast it aside but now I can see where it came close to succeeding: in particular, with the hands and the curve at the base of the spine. 

Capturing what the camera can’t

My brother is the keeper of the Burnett family photographic achieves and he occasionally features excerpts on his blog http://newsfromnowhere1948.blogspot.com.  It is there that I catch glimpses of myself from earlier years.  This photograph dates from the 1970’s and for once I’m behind a camera rather than behind an easel.  The occasion that dragged me back to England was my brother’s wedding.  Incidentally, my brother is a fine photographer in his own right, as you'll see from his blog.

Soon afterwards I was back to painting the Caribbean.  In those days I could find my subject matter in town and village street scenes.  Today’s painting was made towards the end of that period and depicts the flamboyant “Purple Palace” a mock-Moorish building that dominates Road Town, the capital of the British Virgin Islands. 

The painting (actually a detail from the original) illustrates how the brush can capture what the camera can’t.  I regard photography as a distinctive art form.  What leaves me cold are paintings copied from photographs. 

Art and science

Once again painting and sculpture has to go on the back burner while engineering demands my time and attention.  But there are similarities.  Today’s sketch was made on a site visit in the heat of the mid-day sun to illustrate improvements that need to be made to the island’s main water supply line.  You will notice that my lines tell of my love for the mechanical as much as they reveal my love for the human figure. 

Likewise, Leonardo da Vinci’s engineering drawings show his affinity to art and science.

Elaborating on yesterday’s footnote

A small computer screen cannot do justice to large water colours.   The washes acquire a texture and colour graduation that is not evident in a small reproduction.   Today’s detail is taken from yesterday’s painting.  

Against all the odds

Today’s diary page comes to you against all the odds.  First my beloved Photoshop2 is no longer recognized by the latest Windows update.  My daughter tells me it’s out of date and the world has moved on to Photoshop whatever it is.  The cheek of it: I only purchased the program 14 years ago!  By that argument I’m out of date and everything I possess is out of date.  Hence, today’s picture comes to you by a roundabout route: from my camera to my son’s computer then back to my computer.

Likewise, the painting pictured was created against all the odds.  For the last couple of months my work as an engineer has taken every moment of my time.  Leonardo da Vinci had the same problem.  In his later years he lamented that his work as an engineer left no time for painting and sculpting.

It was one of my models that gave me the push I needed.  When we began this afternoon’s session my mind was focused on the design of a complicated piece of machinery rather than the beauty of the human form.  I struggled with my first two attempts and then, miraculously, the third painting happened.  Thank you Ryta for your encouragement.

The original measures 24" x 16" and the small image has not the necessary impact. 

Home, boys home…

In my sailing days a song made famous by the Dubliners was one of my favourites when uncomfortably holed up in a foreign port.  

And it’s home, boys home

Home I’d like to be, home for a while in my own country

On my occasional visits “home” I was able to see my native Yorkshire with a renewed vision.  Whereas the tropics gave my paintings vibrancy; the mists on the moors gave them subtlety.  Today’s painting dates from 1993.

What next

By its very nature creativity is different to what has gone before. Repeating the same picture over and over again is anything but creative. Variations on a theme are all well and good but eventually the theme itself becomes exhausted. Hence, after a successful run of one thing, I eventually have to ask myself: what next. 

A pictorial image is the world’s most universal language. Currently these diary pages are accessed in over 40 countries, the most recent follower being from Myanmar (formally Burma). But language is most effective when you have something to say. And this brings me back to: what next do I say and what next can I get passionate about. If I cannot get passionate about my work I cannot expect to seduce you, the viewer. 

It is the same with these diary pages. If I have nothing new to say I get bored and the reader gets bored.

While seeking an answer to this enigma, I will use the forthcoming diary pages to review the subjects that have excited me in the past. But before turning the clock back fifty years, let’s take a look at the painting that began my present series of the nude almost two years ago.  The model is Jessica and the painting was made on her first modelling session.

In the beginning

My on-line diary pages began seventeen years ago from my studio in England.  In those days digital cameras were in their infancy and blogs a thing of the future.  Every night my brother burned the midnight oil and set up the pages as a website.  On re-locating my studio to Dominica the website became redundant and many of the early diary pages have been lost forever. 

However, a few survive on CD and what follows is my diary page with picture for the 19^th of November 1999.

Up until today anyone visiting the studio had to rattle the letterbox to gain admission.  It was the only sound that penetrated the building.  Regular letterbox rattlers will be relieved to learn that scores of visits from potential models over the last few days has finally driven me to fitting a proper door bell. 

Between those visits (and fitting the doorbell) I have been building up the wax mould of the maquette for the dancing girls.  On a cold day just the smell of molten wax helps to warm me up.  Sitting as close as I dare to a portable gas fire does the rest. 

At about the time I began my diary I exhibited a collection of 25 paintings and drawings that followed my wife through the pregnancies of our daughters.  My series of the pregnant nude may have been the first of its kind.

Me of all people!

In a recent Dominica on-line press debate  in which I tried to differentiate between pornography and the beauty and profundity of the nude, I have been chastised for denouncing the nude, period.  (http://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/culture/winners-of-the-independence-celebrations-art-competition-announced/)

For once I’ll resort to the expression LOL.  Me of all people!

Have we really reached the level where people can no longer differentiate between the two?  Regardless, I will go my own sweet way and continue to passionately extol the beauty and innocence of the nude and denounce any attempt to demote it to mere pornographic lust. 

Somerset Maugham in his book The Razor’s Edge had this to say about passion.

…passion is so overwhelming that beside it even lust and hunger are trifling…no wine is so intoxicating, no love so shattering, no vice so compelling…

This afternoon, for Suzanne, a visiting artist from Brazil, I have passionate pursued the beauty and profundity of the nude by way of demonstrating my method of painting the nude.  The session would have been impossible without the support of my inspirational model Annabelle.  I also thank Suzanne for enabling the session.  Below is the last painting in a series of three.

The drama of darks

In my first notes for art students post I waxed lyrical on the virtues of my first love: charcoal and newsprint. 

Traditional charcoal has given birth to numerous similar materials that give the same effect.  One of which was made by Faber Castell.  I purchased my supply years ago and like many materials that I’ve become accustomed to it is no longer available; at least not in its original stick form.  In those days it came in various shades, from black to light sepia.

Today’s picture dates back to 1994.  It is the drama of the dark passages that enliven the sketch.  They fall from the model’s shoulders and reach down her spine, capturing her ribbon and embracing her right hand along the way.

Notes for Art Students

Notes for Art Students began life three years ago as a supplement for CXC students attending art classes at my studio. Recently, all Dominican secondary and college students have been given tablets for access to the internet. Following this initiative I have re-launched the site in the hope that it will encourage a wider interest in the Visual Arts. It can be found at: notesforartstudents.blogspot.com

      

At the moment art is an unknown quantity for many students. This year, out of 1,800 Dominica State College Students, only 6 expressed an interest in studying art. Anywhere else in the world they would have been queuing up around the block! 

Over the years a number of my followers have become artists in their own right and I look forward to enabling Dominican students to achieve similar success.

Writings on the wall

Community murals seldom turn me on, whereas graffiti often does.  It comes back to my love of passion and spontaneity: my fondness for the sketch as against the finished painting. 

Recently a friend in Jamaica sent me some images of a mural by Taj Francis from a project titled Paint Jamaica https://www.facebook.com/paintjamaica.  The image below shows his mural as a work in progress, set against existing graffiti writings on the wall.

The finished mural is a remarkable piece of work.  But you know what…it is the image of the work in progress that really turns me on!  

Contrasts

Above is the painting that I promised on my last diary page.  It is my impression of the storm that devastated Dominica six weeks ago.  The painting measures 30” x 20”.   It will be sold in aid of the Relief Fund.

It was difficult to keep the memory of the storm alive while painting, for right outside my studio door was the contrasting view shown below.

Notes to myself

I paint from life, whether it be the model or the sea crashing against a cliff face.  However, there are times when fighting for life, there is no time to pull out a sketch book.  A case in point is the day when Tropical Storm Erika devastated Dominica.  I then have to resort to memory and to get that memory indelibly down on paper I make notes to myself.

The above sketch measures only a few inches, but that scrap of paper records the moment when all hell broke loose.  With the help of survivors, I have since re-lived that day and developed the sketch into a painting.  I will post the full painting on next week’s diary page. In the meantime, the detail below corresponds to the scribbled lines in the bottom left hand corner of the sketch. 

From all angles

First and foremost a maquette allows the sculptor to judge his vision, three dimensionally and from all angles.  Secondly, it serves to give those who may one day commission the work and the public at large, an idea of what the sculptor has in mind. 

Today’s pictures show the completed maquette that was the subject of my last post.  And now, rather than glaring white plaster, the maquette has been patinated to give the appearance of bronze. 

The final life size figures are intended to be seen from all angles.  Thus, I have tried to created interest from all angles.  It should be remembered that the maquette is not meant to show detail but rather an impression of how the grouping will work out in reality.  My first reaction is that the girl clutching her father’s leg needs to be a little larger and perhaps the boy also.  I was undecided whether to show the mother breast feeding or holding her baby on her hips, as shown.  I am still undecided!   

For the maquette I make do with which ever models are at hand - in this case my own family.  For the final sculpture my models will be chosen from families who suffered from the storm.  At that stage the models add their own interpretation to the theme.

A reminder that the sculpture is intended to commemorate the devastation wrought on Dominica by Tropical Storm Erika.  The figures depict a family walking away from the past and into the future, the grandmother reluctant to leave but the son urging the family forward.

I welcome your feedback.

In the beginning

If you look back to my entry for the 4^th of September, you will see a preliminary sketch that I made twenty years ago.  My drawing represented the first attempt to put down on paper an idea that was running around in my mind.  Now, after all those years, I need to transform the two dimensional sketch into a three dimensional piece of sculpture.  Therein lays the challenge! 

The first step is to make a 1/10th scale model (in sculptural terms known as the maquette) of what will eventually be a group of life-size figures. 

I build up my maquettes I directly in plaster.  And if there’s one material more difficult to handle than water colour, it surely has to be wet plaster.  I can only apply small amounts at a time as the mix is only workable for a few minutes.  Fortunately, I am not after detail (you know me!) but just an impression of how the grouping will work out in reality. 

Today’s pictures show the work in progress.