Laments to a flea, a greenfly and a mosquito

Troublesome insects have been lamented by poets for centuries. Over four hundred years ago John Donne wrote his erotic love poem The Flea and more recently A P Herbert lamented The Greenfly. Poets from D H Lawrence down have attempted to wax lyrical about the mosquito but to no avail. 

Yesterday, one of those troublesome insects played havoc with my modelling session. As with A P Herbert's Greenfly I find it difficult to understand how God who made the beauty of the female form then conceived the bothersome mosquito. 

Greenfly, it's difficult to see
Why God, who made the rose, made thee. 

I give credit to my model for willingly working through mosquito bites and stifling temperatures in the 90's. I'm normally envious of my model's comfortable nakedness on sultry tropical afternoons. But with the ground to hot to stand on in bare feet and with the full force of the afternoon sun belting down on her, for the above sketch she sweated a bucket full...and another bucket full could have been wrung out of my shirt!

The painting is testimony to my brave model. Thank you Collean.

Too much green

Much of the action in Jean Rhys's literary masterpiece Wild Sargasso Sea is set on the Island of Dominica and not far from my studio. She describes the countryside as:

...too much...too much blue, too much purple, too much green.

As a painter I know the feeling, for these colours are the most difficult to depict. I prefer earth colours. It gets easier on days like today. We're now in the hurricane season and the first of this year's storms has brought torrential rain. I made the painting below from my studio window in a frustrated five minutes of not being able to do anything else. It's not the kind of scene that would induce tourists but better for me than too much green.

By this afternoon the sky had begun to brighten and the view looking down from the same window was returning to too much green after being flooded out with too much rain.

Technicalities

As I get very little in the way of feedback to my posts, I am unsure what my followers are after. Is it my paintings, sculptures or the technicalities of work in progress? 

Just in case it's the latter here is a picture of the first stage in taking a mold from my base relief. 

Fine casting plaster mixed to the consistency of cream is flicked over the clay figure. It is a technique that has remained unchanged since the time of Michelangelo. There is no other way; and believe it or not the plaster can pick up every finger print on the clay. Once this first layer has hardened a thicker coat of plaster is troweled on to strengthen the mold. 

This is the first stage of making a "waste mold". An apt term because if it goes wrong everything is lost!

I'll let you be the judge

Comments to my posts are few and far between. That's a pity because working in isolation on a small island in the Caribbean I get very little in the way of feedback. Below is my standing figure at today's close of play. Those who regularly follow my work know what I'm after. I am reluctant to go further - to add more would be less. But as I am too close to judge, I'll let you be the judge. 

While you're pondering on that, by way of a diversion, below is a painting that I made this afternoon of a stand of palms just outside my studio door. 

The  sculptor Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) claimed that he had earned more from painting flowers than what he had earned from his monumental sculptures. If I could have been content to continue painting palm fringed beaches, as I did forty years ago, I would very likely be a millionaire by now.

Lead me not into temptation

In the context of this post, the temptation being to overly work my clay sketch of the standing figure. Clay has similar accidental and suggestive qualities to water colour. It is best when put down in the heat of the moment and then left alone. Details distract and strangle the very life out of the subject. 

The above picture is a detail from the initial clay sketch of my life-size bathing figure from five years ago. Below are the same breasts in the final master plaster cast. More accurate but cold and less inviting. 

I am trying not to be led into temptation with my current work in progress. Here she is  as the last rays of the Caribbean sun embrace her at the end of the day.

Simply sensuous

The hundreds of paintings and the sculptures featured in my book Notes on the Nude for the most part depict the model twisting and turning. Even my reclining nudes are contorted in order to explore new visual dimensions. While this is all well and good for painting, I am beginning to learn that sculpture is best when simply sensuous. 

In my last post I alluded to the possibility of developing my sketch of Naomi's standing figure into a bas relief. That possibility has become a reality. Nothing fancy, just the innocent beauty of my model. My suggestion to Naomi was that she should stand relaxed with her arms by her side. Below is a preliminary sketch and the beginnings of the 1/3rd life-size sculpture.

Thwart with difficulties

As if attempting to capture the subtle nuances of the female nude in water colours is not enough, the very business of getting down to work can in itself be thwart with difficulties.

Tropical downpours earlier in the week meant cancelling a modelling session. Then, when the weather improved the model I had in mind couldn't make it but her best friend (who is also one of my models) offered to take her place. I prepared the studio well ahead of time, walked down to the river to bathe and mentally prepare myself for the challenge that lay ahead. 

But on my return to the studio I caught a whiff of something that didn't smell right. Thirty minutes before the start of the session, the whiff became the stench. Opening all the doors and shutters only made matters worse. Whatever had died was somewhere in thick undergrowth outside. 

It was too late to cancel the session as my model was already on her way. Actually two models were on their way for the one that couldn't make it finally could. As best friends, Collean and Naomi are inseparable. As there was no way we could work in those conditions we frantically began relocating all that I need for painting to the studio I use for sculpture. 

For my mind to be free and to work at the speed of light, I need everything around me to be in its place. Now everything was in disarray. The painting below is as muddled and stressed out as I was. 

This lightening sketch of the standing figure is closure to the mark.

It was that sketch led me to consider a sculpture rather than painting. I straightaway put down my paints brushes and began taken the key measurements, not for a sculpture in the round but for a bas relief. The relief shown below was destroyed by the hurricane that devastated Dominica two years ago. Perhaps I can now replace it with a new piece of work. If so, the difficulties that frustrated my painting session will not have been in vain.

Naomi more than earned her fee for modelling under such circumstances and Collean was happy with a bag of sawdust for her hamster. If only I could pay all my models in sawdust I could afford to keep them working seven days a week! 

But this post doesn't end there. While I was taking Naomi's key measurements I noticed Collean was intent on scribbling something down on one of my work tables. I know that poetry is one of her passions and after she left curiosity got the better of me. I can only make out the odd word here and there. But therein lies its attraction. Poetry like art should not reveal all of its secrets at a first glance. 

The Sad State of the Art

Photography is an art form in its own right but alas, when it comes to the nude, the censorious Facebook does not recognise it as such and even the painted nude is frowned upon. This sad state of the affairs was brought home to me when browsing through images on the "Face Book Art Gallery" (sic).

A follower of that site had posted a female nude, in all its innocence, by the masterful Ukrainian photographer David Dubnitsky. How sad that the nipple is considered obscene and hence obliterated. In doing so the missionary zeal of the censors has defaced a beautiful work of art - and moreover, attracted attention to the very thing it attempts to conceal.

In earlier times painters were adept at giving a tantalising glimpse of the nude in the most innocent of subjects. In Ruben’s painting Christ and the Penitent Sinners Mary Magdalene’s left hand demurely covers her right breast. However, her fore and middle fingers are parted to reveal the delicate beauty of the nipple.

Below is another of  David Dubnitsky's photographs...this time uncensored.

Tain't what you do, it's the way that you do it

The title of today's post is taken from a 1939 composition by jazz musicians Sy Oliver and Trummy Young. The verse that reads: "You can try hard, it don't mean a thing...take it easy, greasy, then your jive will swing" could well apply to painting in watercolour. In other words, it's not what you put in but what you leave out that matters.

In my book Notes on the Nude I have this to say about leaving out.

When asked what I first look for in a model, without hesitation I can answer, it is the face that attracts my attention. This holds true even though in my paintings the face is secondary to the figure and sometimes it is not shown at all. Nevertheless, the spirit of my muse is personified in her fleeting glance. Here lie her subtle moods and changes.

The above picture is a detail from a painting I made of Naomi and which was featured in my last post. Had I have left out more face there wouldn't be any face at all. Nevertheless, what's there is enough to capture her likeness - and I might add, her fetching beauty and charm. To add more would be less.

Beyond the face it is the hands of a potential model that attracts my attention. They speak volumes. When painting I put the hand and arm down at a glance and leave others to interpret it as they see best. The secrete of a successful painting is not how much you can put in but how much you can leave out.

The detail below is taken from the second painting of Naomi that was featured in my last post.

Making love and making art

In my book Notes on the Nude I refer to the similarities between making love and making art. Passion and creativity are the key ingredients of both. If the task is belaboured you screw up. 

The artist's experience lies so unbelievably close to the sexual, to its pain and its pleasure, that the two phenomena are really just different forms of one and the same longing and bliss. (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Like true love, the creative endeavours of artist and model are thwarted with difficulties and success verges on impossibility. Inspiration is dependent on the united body and soul of both. Trying too hard induces failure more often than not trying at all. Our shared muse "laughs and flies when pressed and bidden".

You can add that both endevours demand one's full attention. After seventy-six years I thought that I could paint my model (Naomi) and tutor my model/aspiring art student (Collean) both at the same time. Well, to a degree I can, but not to the nth degree. And it takes the nth degree to pull off a successful painting when working from the live model at the speed of light and to give my student the attention she deserves.

Poor light and mosquitoes that were intent on eating Naomi alive, didn't help matters.

I failed on two attempts but came close on the painting above and the one below. Thank you Naomi and Collean. Without my models my work would not exist. I can't get passionate about a photograph. And while I am still in this world I remain committed to enthuse the next generation of artists.

My initial despondency that followed yesterday's session was dispelled when I was shopping in town this morning. Two of my followers begged me not to give up...your passion and paintings make life so much more worth living.

Going back to go forward

If Michelangelo and scores of Renaissance painters and sculptors from the past were to visit my workshops and studio, here on a small island in the Caribbean, they would find that my materials and techniques have changed very little since their time. Because my nearest art shop is thousands of miles away I make many of my own materials - just as artists did centuries ago.

Today's picture is of a sketch made on pastel paper of my own making. It has taken no end of trail batches to find the colour and texture best suited to my requirements. Toulouse Lautrec  and other artists from his period found that brown wrapping paper or cardboard suited their needs. This led me to experiment with pulping heavy duty brown paper bags and adding them to my paper making mix. 

Now that I have succeeded in getting the paper to my liking I need to begin making my own pastels in colours that reflect the skin tones of my models and to a degree of hardness that suits my technique.

Incidentally, many of Toulouse Lautrec's oil sketches were painted on cardboard, as shown below.

Working from Life

It's not often you find me in the picture, and even rarer to find me and my model in the same picture. At least it gives you an idea of our working arrangement. 

My model is seated on a large revolving turntable with a neutral canvas backdrop. I keep my materials to the bare minimum: no more than a dozen tubes of colour, a No.12 sable brush and a 20" x 16" sheet of paper. A heavy duty photographer's tripod serves as my easel and allows the drawing board to be tilted in all directions - just as the turntable allows me to turn my model in all directions.  

I don't have the time or inclination to stretch my paper beforehand. I work rapidly and leave my washes to take care of themselves. Seldom do more than twenty minutes pass from start to finish of a painting and all the better if I can catch my subject in ten!

You can learn more about my painting techniques in the serialization of my book Notes on the Nude.

Painting, poetry and prose

Many artists claim that words are superfluous and that their paintings say it all. Perhaps for some it is so. However, in my attempt to portray the sensuous beauty of the nude I often resort to adding poetry and prose. 

Some years ago one of my models expressed the relationship of all three in a poem that began:  

When the painter and the poet combine,
Each searching for that illusive line,
That only a true lover can define,
Tis then they find their hearts entwine.

I might add that a similar synergy exists between painter and model. It is one that I was conscious of today as I worked on the following three paintings of Collean. 

Thank you Collean. You were inspirational!

Tuning Up

Just as musicians tune up their instruments before a performance and athletes limber up before a race, as a watercolourist I put down trial lines and throw down washes of colour on a scrap of paper before beginning the real thing - as you can see in the above picture. These initial preparations are all the more necessary when I've spent over a year writing rather than painting. 

This week Naomi and Collean came to my studio together, just as they did when they first modelled for me over five years ago. If you go to page 41 in the serialization of my book Notes on the Nude you will see across the bottom of the page an early painting of Naomi. Collean's first painting will be featured later in my book. The one I did of her this week is shown below.

The intervening five years have seen the blossoming of Collean. She is no longer the shy and reserved young lady that I first knew but a charming and confident model with considerable potential. She has an interest and talent for art and I invited her to watch me as I worked on my painting of Naomi. 

I am sometimes at my best when demonstrating my technique and this painting is a case in point. Collean followed my every line and brush stroke with rapped attention. I often talk to myself when painting but it is better when there is someone looking over my shoulder and benefiting from what I am saying...

...Before I begin I'm looking for one line with which I can tie the figure together. I'm going for the line that runs along the left leg, outlines the sensuous contour of the pudendum and terminates with the rhythmic curves of the breasts . From this line I can then add the rest. I am keeping the initial drawing to the bare minimum and, working with a No 14 brush, allowing the colour washes freedom to fill out the form. First, we will find the lights in the skin tones and then work our way back towards the dark. One brush stroke suggests the left arm and hand. We are not counting fingers. Let's stop right there. We've said all that needs to be said. The viewer can add the rest...

The paintings measure 20" x 24" and from start to finish each one was completed in less than thirty minutes. Or more accurately I should say that each one took me over sixty years!

Breaking the ice

This week I finally got around to meeting a new influx of potential models. At the end of a preliminary studio visit they have the option to go away and think about it or do a brief trial session there and then. Most opt for the latter. The purpose of the fifteen minute trial session is not so much a finished painting but the breaking of ice both for myself and the aspiring model. Today's painting is of Lyann's introductory session. 

Two of my potential models - twin sisters - told my that their introductory session gave them confidence in themselves. A feeling that is shared by all of my models. To learn more about how I work with models go the the serialization of my book Notes on the Nude.

This week brought a press release from the Christian Union Churches of Dominica expressing concern about what they perceive to be increasing public nudity. I responded as follows:

In many so-called primitive societies, the sexual experience is expressed - and released - in drama and dance. Conversely; indoctrination, taboos, prohibition and censorship focus on the sexual component of sexuality and the guilt implied can have deplorable social consequences. From an early age we are taught that the nude body is a shameful thing, whereas in fact it is the most natural and beautiful thing in the world.

I believe that the creative arts can serve as a moderator and liberator on these issues, just as they did in earlier times.

Alas, my comment didn't go down too well, with most readers in disagreement. 

Sea Grapes and Butterflies

Whether it be a sketch, a painting or a piece of sculpture, each begin as a love affair. I have to feel passionately about the subject. 

The above image is a page from a sketch book of thirty years ago. I remember well wandering over Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands, searching for grand subjects for a commission of paintings for the American billionaire Richard DeVos. The grand subject evaded me, but in its place I jotted down the romance of sea grapes and butterflies that I stumbled upon. 

The sketch below follows a similar theme: the painting never materialised, but the sketch says it all. As with making love, a painting cannot be made to order. Nor can it be made to a precise rule. Better the seeming disorder of a sketch than the boredom of a laboured painting. I have more to say on this theme in my book Notes on the Nude.  

Five hundred years ago the poet Robert Herrick (1591-1764) expressed the same in his poem Delight in Disorder. 
  

          A winning wave, deserving note, 

          In the tempestuous petticoat... 

          Do more bewitch me, than when art 

          Is too precise in every part.

    And on the subject of butterflies, I give you a choice between two classic versions of Poor Butterfly. Sarah Vaughan from sixty years ago and Cecile McLorin Salvant of today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M_fun2wy7g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ_F_potBug&list=RDAZ_F_potBug&start_radio=1&t=106

The Rainbow

I am presently re-reading what I consider to be one of the most beautiful books in the English language: The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence.

But regardless of what I consider to be the book's beauty and innocence; two months after its publication in 1915, copies were seized and suppressed under the 1857 Obscene Publications Act. Prosecutor Herbert Muskett declared that “although there might not be an obscene word to be found in the book, it was in fact a mass of obscenity of thought, idea, and action”.

Lawrence wasn't present at the trial; he wasn't even told it was taking place. He later heard about it through newspaper reports. Over one thousand copies of The Rainbow were burned by court order outside the Royal Exchange.

I quote from Herbert Reads essay The Problem with Pornography. 

"...The effect on Lawrence was disastrous...He felt as if the very springs of creation had been blocked by ignorant but powerful forces...How could he go on writing with this threat of suppression continually before him...Such an inhibition cannot be tolerated by any creative artist." 

But as followers of the serialization of my book Notes on the Nude will gather, nothing has changed!

My original Penguin copy of The Rainbow got lost and I replaced it with a recent re-print (Lawrence's copyright is now in the public domain). But the publishers of the re-print are taking no chances on being blocked by the censors. Hence the cautious and irrelevant front cover illustration.

I could do with a bath

In this week's serialization of my book Notes on the Nude I makes reference to how I take measurements for a sculpture and in particular chalk marks, both on the modelling stand and on the model.

The most reliable measurements of the figure are taken bone to bone. But when flesh comes between, as in the case of Dave, my rotund model for the lock-keeper pictured below, I resort to chalk marks to remind me of my datum. At the end of a week's modelling Dave asked me if I'd be needing the chalks marks on his torso for the following week. His question had me puzzled until I realized that he hadn't washed the chalk marks off from one session to the next. As he said, "I could do with a bath!". 

Alice, who modeled for one of my early sculptures in the series Daughters of the Caribbean Sun misunderstood when I told her to stay still I'm going to chalk you. She thought I had said choke and ran from the studio naked!

Jessica, who modeled for my bathing figure was so slim and her skin so transparent that chalk marks were unnecessary. I could see every bone in her body. 

When chalking the line that delineates Verlena's spine she suddenly yelled "STOP"...you're tickling!

These are the precious memories of incidents and intimacies that are shared between model and artist while working together to capture the sensuous beauty of the human form. 

In the image below you have chalk marks accenting the model's spine, her position on the modelling stand and the scores of measurements that are necessary to convincingly portray the figure.

When they were young

Following on from my last post that featured my daughter Trina, here are two early sculptures of my daughter Tania at age five and my son Tristan at eight months.

Tania is about to make me a grandfather in a few week's time and Tristan has just completed high school. 

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