AWOL Muse
This website was built almost a year ago complete with a blogsite I chose to call Musings. I would imagine may of you must have been wondering when I was going to report for work. I can only tell you one thing for sure, and that is this. The longer you live the longer the learning curve becomes. The good news is I think I am finally up to speed, at least lets hope so.
After painting in the field and from life for 58 years I have reached a point in my life where, because of my health, painting outside has become very difficult. Setting up still lifes and working from models just as difficult, so I have been working more and more from memory. I am finding this most enjoyable and mind freeing. I find I am painting more of the essential and the poetic feeling and less of the literal. I am arranging and rearranging the composition, mood, and lighting to my own choosing.
Now of course I realize that nearly sixty years of painting has made this easier for me than it would have been otherwise, but I find myself wishing I had started doing this earlier at least part of the time. I believe our memories have a much better idea about what is art than our eyes do, plus our memories do not recall unnecessary detail. Having said all this do not stop painting from life and outdoors because this is where the memories come form to begin with.
Remember art is not a science project, when it comes to detail less is more.
Wm. F. Reese
I think that, after nearly 60 years, it is quite OK for you to be painting from memory. I bet your work is even more powerful because of it.
By the way, you don't know me, but I wrote Ann Templeton's book, THE ART OF ANN TEMPLETON. You were generous enough to let us use some of your paintings for it. Ann speaks very highly of you. Hope to meet you some day in person.
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Well I can only hope it is more powerful because of it, but I do know I feel more free to concentrate on the poetry and music of art and I feel less of just a reporter of facts. It is important to have the facts correct so as not to provide added distractions to the viewer. because as I said before painting is not a science project, because there are bigger fish to fry such as mood, rhythm, motion, and harmony to name only a few.
I often see young painters so enslaved to the subject before them that they forget why they are painting in the first place. So anything one can do to give them this freedom can only make what we do more like art. We may also find our memories are far more artistic than direct vision that has had no chance for editing.
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I'm so glad you verified something I've been doing lately, though my memory bucket is not as full as yours. I've been painting landscapes in the studio more in order to concentrate on composition... those suggestions you made one of the last times I saw you. I was so pleased when I went out to paint again and found that I could see the shapes more clearly and use them to construct better compositions. I think I'll continue to do both. I'm only 25 years behind you and gaining at my own pace!
Susan G.
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Susan
Yes I think this is a good idea for several reasons. As you stated it allows you to concentrate on all that makes a painting art. Composition, drawing, values, movement, and rhythm and not so much on merely copying what is before you. It also lays bare all the information you failed to gather while in the field. A bit like taking a test. I remember teachers telling me that the main benefit to be gained from a test was exposing what you had failed to learn. At the time I thought what a bunch of b.s., it sounded too much like what my parents said when they were handing out punishment. "This hurts me more than it does you." Fortunately I lived long enough to know the profoundity of both statements.
On the other hand I have seen very good painters paint so much from memory that some things become a bit of a cliche.
Your are also correct, you will definitely see more the next time you go out. Each new approach builds on the other plus it makes everything much more exciting.
Wm. F. Reese
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Bill,your comments on painting from memory struck me in the face.I am taking classes with Jeff Fennel for the first time and being taken on a new journey. Since I have always concentrated primarily on color, my values went down the tubes. In the class we paint almost in the dark,which at first, blew me away. It is forcing me to zero in on my values. I was astonished with the immediate improvement! Secondly, in regard to painting from memory, I have never done that either. Well, our next assignment is just that! He appears to be right on with what I hear you say here. I am very excited! P.S. I have one of your demo pieces from when you taught in Redding years ago. I paint with Susan Greaves, my dearest friend. She stirred me to this site. Happy painting, Geri
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Geri
I do remember you I also remember being dive bombed by hundreds of peacocks as they all flew out of the barn.
What your teacher has done in designing your exersize is to isolate a problem which was values in this case so that correct values would then be the only viable solution. Every lesson should be designed to single out a specific problem. Drawing the human figure from life in charcoal is designed to isolate first of all your drawing problems and secondly your value control. Painting white on white subject matter will isolate first of all your control of temperature, then drawing and then values. So make each painting a lesson.
A journey down paths less traveled is where all the good stuff is hidden.
Tell Susan hello.
Wm. F. Reese
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