The Sight & Insight Podcast

Episode 23: Elements of Nature

"Art not only imitates nature, but also completes its deficiencies." — Aristotle

Willard L. Metcalf, Flying Shadows, 1905, o/c, 26 x 29

Well, if we are already quoting Aristotle, you can tell we are going to be covering some pretty deep thoughts in this week's podcast on 'Elements of Nature!' 

Deep it may be, but the problems or, rather, the challenges of painting nature are not insurmountable. On a basic level, the artist just has to consider all the elements help, or hinder, their painting, and then go from there. And it is perfectly permissable to whip out your artistic licence and brandish it at anyone who dares to complain you moved a tree or moved a rock from one place to another because it composed better. 

A. T. Hibbard, Lingering Snow, 1917, ocb, 9 1/2 x 11 1/2, Vose Galleries, Boston

Artist A. T. Hibbard was noted for moving elements around to make a better composition. Nature, as beautiful as she is, is not constrained by the size of her canvas and, therefore, occasonally - to create a better a better design - it is necessary for an artist to adjust elements to look good within the parameters of their canvas.

"Nature is my springboard. From her I get my initial impetus. I have tried to relate the visible drama of mountains, trees, and bleached fields with the fantasy of wind blowing and changing colors and forms."  — Milton Avery

If you would like help designing your elements of nature, check out David and Connie's Sight & Insight 'October Skies' workshop, October 10-12, 2018, at davidpcurtis.com or lorwenpaintings.com.  If anyone can help, they can!

And finally, if you have enjoyed this podcast, please 'Follow' us, and then you'll never have to worry about missing an episode!

     

 

Episode 22: Practice, Practice, Practice

Greetings, art lovers; we're back!

      

"Learning the art of painting is not an easy task. It takes a great deal of intelligence, keen analysis, study and practice." — Edgar A. Payne

Practice, practice, practice. We’ve all heard this adage from parents, teachers and everyone else who wants to get in on the act. But how much practice do we have to put in before we get anywhere? And will we ever succeed, or will we be students all our lives, trying to put into practice what we’ve learned and get that one perfect picture, essay, novel or piece of music?

  

left: John Constable, Landscape with a Double Rainbow, 1812

right: John Constable, Rainstorm Over the Sea, c.1824-28

"There has never been a boy painter, nor can there be. The art requires a long apprenticeship, being mechanical, as well as intellectual." — John Constable

Of course, if you love painting, or writing, or researching history, then working at it doesn’t come across as hard work, or practice; it’s just an opportunity to do something we love and a learning opportunity that makes us better as we go along.

Lorwen C. Nagle Sketch at Brave Boat Harbor 

"Try to put well in practice what you already know; and in so doing, you will in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about. Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know."

— Rembrandt

 

David P. Curtis Sketch for Summertime and the Living is Easy

"Practice should always be based upon a sound knowledge of theory."

— Leonardo da Vinci

After an illness in 2016, David found himself struggling to get back into painting mode. "In order to motivate myself," he said, "I began painting a whole series of 12 x 16 canvas board sketches, trying to get a fresh look - alla prima - rather than feeling I had to get a perfect painting every time. It turned out to be enjoyable. It lifted the pressure of having to produce a finished canvas while I was still recuperating. Just practicing on 12 x 16's on a regular basis, really helped me get back into top gear."

So there we have it; pratice is a great tool, and can help take us to the next level, not just by improving our technique and skills, but also by taking the pressure off having to produce a masterpiece everytime we pick up a brush, or pen. Wasn’t it the great Italian painter Titian, who said on his deathbed, “I don't want to die now, … I am just beginning to learn to paint.” Which suggests the artist - or any creative individual - should always be a student; always learning, always challenging themselves to achieve something greater.

“I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true - hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it.” — Ray Bradbury

 

Episode 20: Psychology and Art

Join Connie, David and Judy as they consider the question of Psychology and Art. All three have enjoyed reading the works of Carl Jung (1875-1961) the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology, although Connie is, of course, the undisputed expert. For instance, why are certain paintings more thought provoking than others? Why are we fascinated by the enigmatic smile of Leonardo da Vinci’s "Mona Lisa?” Is it more to do with how the artist has expressed himself, or how the viewer reacts? Why do some paintings stay with us, in our memories, to be passed down through centuries, to be appreciated by generation anfter generation. Is it the work of the collective unconscious. Or are other influences at work? 

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503-06, oil on poplar panel, 30 x 21, Musee du Louvre, Paris

The subject of psychology and art came up during a conversation on how a psychological approach can help an artist paint a better painting; helping us through the roadblocks and obstructions that our own inner psyche throwsup to thwart us. “Getting off autopilot,’ is how Connie phrases it, and ‘Unleashing creative expression.” Mandalas are one way of expressing our inner feelings.

Chenrezig sand mandala created at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on the occasion of the Dalai Lama's visit in May 2008

Whether we are creating art, or appreciating art, or following other creative endeavors, it is important for us consider all aspects of the process. We may talk of the ‘psychology of building a landscape - including the smaller elements such as trees, rocks and grasses - but that does not mean we have to have a degree in psychoanalysis to be able to progress our work. However. we are all aware in some small way that we are influenced by the colors and textures in a painting, which arouse various feelings and emotions in both the painter and the viewer, including shadow thoughts and projection. As Jung points out, “Color expresses the main psychic functions of man [and woman].”

Ich sage euch: man muß noch Chaos in sich haben, um einen tanzenden Stern gebären zu können.

• I tell you: one must still have chaos within oneself, to give birth to a dancing star.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

 

Elihu Vedder, The Fates Gathering in the Stars, 1887, oc, 44.5 x 32.5, Art Institute of Chicago 

The idea of psychology and its influence on our art is not a new subject. One should not be afraid of expanding one's horizon's to encompass a broader range of ideas if it will add an extra dimension to our creativity. There are numerous books out there that will offer food for thought for those who wish to delve a little deeper. For those who might think that Jung is too heavy duty to begin with, why not try Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes - a book that is a must for creative women everywhere - or Shaun McNiff's Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression. 

"From the living fountain of instinct flows everything that is creative; hence the unconscious isnot merely conditioned by history, but is the very source of the creative impulse." - Carl Jung

    

Episode 19 - Inspiration

What moves those of genius, what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough. - Eugene Delacroix

Inspiration -

Did you miss us?! Apologies for the delay in posting the latest episode of the Sight and Insight podcast. We are a day late and all we can say is that the producer was laid low by the heat yesterday. Well, that's her story and she's sticking to it.

However, we are here now, bright eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to share a few thoughts on 'Inspiration.'

Inspiration. What is it, and where does it come from? Can you learn inspiration, or is it one of those things whereby, if you aren't born with it, all is lost? Join Connie, David and Judy as they share their thoughts and opinions. Connie especially, with her psychology background makes some very interesting observations, not least of which is that we have to "get out of autopilot." If you think it applies to you, than take a listen as she tells you how to get out of it.

David talks about how he was inspired by the art of Renaissance painter Paolo Veronse, not to emulate Veronese's subjects, but to be inspired by his sense of design. David then went on to combine what he'd learned about design, with the inspiration of nature, to create his own unique landscapes.

Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) The Conversion of Mary Magdalene, ca. 1548, o/c, 46 x 64 in. National Gallery, London, Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876

Connie suggests inspiration grows when one challenges onself, as painting outside of your comfort zone can get the creative juices flowing. She also suggests we should work on creative strength training. Sounds good? Stay tuned.

The trio also discuss Ingre's painting of The Source (below) as, perhaps, an explanation of the Muse as a springhead of creativity.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, La Source(aka The Spring,) ca. 1820 – 1856, o/c, 63 x 30 in. Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Bequest of the Countess Duchâtel, 1878.

Meanwhile, Judy remembers how New York artist, and editor of The Masses magazine, John Sloan (1871-1951) came to Rocky Neck, East Gloucester in 1914, at the behest of painter Charles Allan Winter. Generally a painter who waited for inspiration to strike before setting out with his equipment, Sloan produced 90 paintings during that summer of 1914; more than he had accomplished in his career to date. Wherever he looked on Cape Ann, he found something to inspire him, be it an effect of light or the ambiance of an art colony. His own explanation was, “I would set out with my equipment and walk a mile or so until I saw some kind of subject that had exciting plastic rhythms and color textures that could be the starting point of a theme.” What artist could ask for more?

John Sloan, Helen Taylor Sketching, 1916, oil on canvas, 26 ¼ x 32 ¼ inches, Everson Museum of Art; Gift of Reverend and Mrs. Benjamin Lake, 65.13

     

The endless variations of light on dark, dark on light, light against illumination, white on white, black on black, blue on cold, blue on warm and so on, are eternally inspiring.-- Sergei Forostovskii

Until next week, stay cool, and happy painting,

Connie, David and Judy

Episode 18: Experiencing Painting

"What is art? We ought to very simply let it be what the artist says it is."

—David Smith

Welcome to another podcast in the weekly series ‘Sight and Insight’ with Lorwen ‘Connie’ Nagle and David P. Curtis, both artists and teachers, as well as – in Connie’s case –psychologist, as they talk with writer and Cape Ann art historian, Judith Curtis. This week the trio discuss the topic ‘Experiencing Painting.’

Judith kicks of the discussion with reminiscences of being raised in an English household where, if they did not have original art on the wall, there were at least numerous fine prints by John Constable and A. J. Munnings. Her first art purchase, with an early pay check in her after school career, was a print of The Oyster Gatherers of Cancale by John Singer Sargent.

John Singer Sargent, Oyster Gatherers of Cancale, Oil on canvas 31 ¼ x 48 ½ in. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

David says that experiencing painting is akin to understanding the history of the world through art, while Connie suggests that it is more a case of identifying with individual subject matter, or the feelings aroused by a particular piece.

The real question is, what do you think?

      

"From the artist there is no conscious effort to find universal truth or beauty, no effort to analyze other men's minds in order to speak for them. His act in art is an act of personal conviction and identity."

—David Smith

Episode 17 - Warm and Cool Colors

Warm and Cool ... and what it means for the artist.

Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1911, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) Oil on canvas

Join David, Connie and Judy as they talk about the use of warm and cool colors and how they can help the artist create a stronger compositionin terms of foreground and distance and also as a tool to emphasize form.

High key color is an important facet of the plein air painting and nowhere is it better demonstrated than by the Spanish painter, Sorolla. What is it about warm high key colors that elevate our moods? How can one not be uplifted by the sight of such glorious tones? As David tells his students, "Remember warm and cool colors will  create form in your paintings, that is, concavity and convexity." And, "White makes light, but color makes bright!"

Warm and cool colors also create atmosphere in a painting. Warm colors tend to come forward and cool colors traditionally recede into the background. Look at this piece by John Singer Sargent of Lake O'Hara.

   

left: John Singer Sargent, Lake O'Hara, 1916, o/c, Harvard Art Museums/ Fogg Museum, Louise E. Bettens Fund

right: Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, Mending the Sails, 1896, o/c, Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna, Ca’ Pesaro, Venice, Italy 

And so, next time you are setting out to paint plein air, remember to accentuate your warm and cool colors to create a bolder canvas.

"On the sixth day, God created the artist, realizing no doubt that He had far from exhausted the uses of color."

— Robert Brault

Wishing you a great week of painting, or a great week looking at paintings.

Cheers,

David, Connie and Judy

        

Episode 16 - Technique

The painterly painter avoids the how-to approach, suspicious as ever, that technique will obscure his or her vision.

— Charles Movalli

         

Having finished breakfast, David and Connie made time to sit down with Judy to talk about Technique, before heading out for David's Boats & Buildings workshop, so we may run shorter than usual. 

Thought for the day: Do all artists have a personal technique? Is it important to have a technique, or is it better for an artist to go out there and just keep painting? After all, technique is just "a way of carrying out a particular task; especially the execution or performance of an artistic work...." In that case, every artist should certainly have technique, but sometimes the word becomes confused with other ideas.

After doing a little research, the Dynamic Trio came up with various lists pertaining to technique, including such things as: underpainting, blocking in, building up texture, dry brush, sgraffito, glazing, painting with mediums; the list is endless. But are we really talking technique here? Never heard of sgraffito? Neither had our own intrepid artists. After further detective work, Judy came up with a definition for sgraffito: "removing paint while it is wet to expose the underpainting." This put her in mind of Emma Fordyce MacRae, the noted Cape Ann artist who had a definite style whereby she would remove flakes of paint from her canvas to let the undertones bleed through, creating something of an aged fresco look.

Picnic on Half Moon Beach, Cape Ann
by Emma Fordyce MacRae (1887-1974) Private collection

So, what do you think? Is technique important, or is it better to concentrate on just doing a better painting through practice and application?

  

left: Diego Velazquez, Mars Resting, c. 1640, o/c, 70x37 in. Museo del Prado, Madrid

right: John F. Carlson, Forest Peace, o/c, 40 1/4 x 52 1/2 in. Private collection

"Art is a thing so much of the imagination, of the soul, that it is difficult to descend to the fundamentals of technique and yet make it plain to the student that these are but the 'means' and not an end in themselves."

— John F. Carlson

Episode 15 - Alla prima

"Get into the habit of doing what you see, not what you know. Human reason cannot foresee the accidents of out-of-doors."

— Charles Hawthorne

Greetings, Art Lovers, and thank you for joining us for Episode 15: Alla Prima. Once again, Connie, David and Judy, gather around the table to discuss another fascinating aspect of the artistic world. 

Alla prima – not, as Judy first thought, an Italian cooking term - is sometimes referred to as ‘direct painting,’ or ‘premier coup,’ depending on who you are talking to, and refers to an oil painting method whereby the artist puts down each stroke of paint – right color tone, value and, of course, the right place – to represent the end result, or ‘final statement,’ as Reed Kay describes it. Merriam-Webster, on the other hand, defines alla prima as “a method of painting in which pigments are laid on in a single application instead of being built up by repeated paintings.”

Interestingly, this is not a new method in outdoor, or even studio, painting and goes back to the 16^th-century and the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals. More recently, the method was extensively used by the great Spanish master, Sorolla, in describing his sun dappled outdoor figurative pieces on the beach and elsewhere.

  

Left: Boy with a Glass and a Lute, (aka The Merry Lute Player) c.1626. Oil on panel by Frans Hals (c.1581/85–1666), Guildhall Art Gallery, London

Right: Garden of the Sorolla House, Oil On Canvas by Joaquin Sorolla Y Bastida (1863-1923, Spain)

"I could not paint at all if I had to paint slowly. Every effect is so transient, it must be rapidly painted."

— Joaquin Sorolla

Whichever way you look at it, David and Connie, as practicing artists and teachers will describe what alla prima means to them, and how it can be used by the landscape painter to capture, on canvas, a brief moment in time.

Judy, meanwhile, was busy checking the Internet for scintillating information to share about 'alla prima' and found herself googled toward the World Cup. Confused? Judy certainly was....

Happy painting,

David, Judy and Connie 

   

 "The thicker you paint, the more it flows."

— John Singer Sargent

Episode 14: Impressionism

We are all the subjects of impressions, and some of us seek to convey the impressions to others. In the art of communicating impressions lies the power of generalizing without losing the logical connection of parts to the whole which satisfies the mind.

— George Inness

 George Inness, After the Storm (1877-1878), oil on canvas, private collection

When we talk about impressionism, most people's thoughts immediately leap to Claude Monet and the French Impressionists. However, there is a difference between what is called 'small i" impressionism, and the Impressionists.

Join David, Judy and Connie as they discuss the the subtlties of the genre, and what it really means. And where does Guy Rose and the American Impressionists come into it all? 

Connie brings up the point about Claude Monet painting Rouen Cathedral at different times of day, to explore the changing light. Isn't impressionism all about capturing the effect of light hitting the object. Look at the two pieces below to see how Monet observed the ever changing light.

 

     

Left: Rouen Cathedral at Sunset 1894 o/c 39 x 26 in. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Right: Rouen Cathedral, Symphony in Grey and Rose 1894, o/c 39.5 x 25.5 in. Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum of Wales) Cardiff

Thanks for listening. We have enjoyed sharing our discussions on art with a larger audience and we appreciate your company - otherwise we would be sat here talking to ourselves!if you have a subject you would like to have us talk about, drop us a line; we always love to hear from you.

Cheers, Connie, David and Judy

All inspired painters are impressionists, even though it be true that some impressionists are not inspired. — Joaquin Sorolla

    

 

Episode 13 Paint In Verbs

       

Episode 13 - Paint in Verbs

Welcome, art lovers, to another episode of the Sight & Insight Podcast. This week, Connie, David and Judy discuss what "Paint in Verbs" actually means.

The phrase comes from advice given by artist/teacher Charles Woodbury to his students, among whom we find Gertrude Fiske, whose work exemplifes the expression, 'paint in verbs,' or, to put it another way, 'poetry in motion.'

      

Above: Charles Woodbury (left) 'Playing in the Waves,' oil on canvas,  17 x 21, in., courtesy of Parco Fine Art, and (right) 'The Narrow Cove,' c.1906, oil on canvas, 29 x 36 in., Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI.

Charles Woodbury was unique among his colleagues at the Guild of Boston Artists, and not only because he was one of the few marine artists among a coterie of landscape artists and still life painters. He was also the only member to have graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Engineering. Perhaps this was why Woodbury was interested in the structure and make up of terrain and coastline, crest and ground swell. Woodbury's encouraged his students to express themselves truthfully in terms of genre, design and color. "Art is psychology, not science, and there must be one unknown factor, the personal equation. You must know what you see, why you see, and what is worth seeing." [Woodbury, Painting and the Personal Equation, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1919, p.95].

Sounds like good advice. Why not give it a try?

Until next week — happy painting!

Connie, David and Judy