The Miracle of Painting

Waiting for Dawn by Richard Edde

We tend to think of art as that thing that moves us, that it is the painting, music, or writing that becomes the object of our affection. Our culture has prizes for the best art, the best music, the best written word. The painting, in my case, becomes the end all of my work. From the Renaissance to now we became self-defining individuals and view the world as a set of neutral objects to be studied, copied, manipulated, or redefined in an artistic way. We became creative subjects separate from the objects we paint and merely observe or comment on the world in which we live.

However, I think creating art goes deeper than that. Something happens to the person who paints a picture. And it happens while he or she is in the act of painting.

So, what happens when the brush touches the canvas?

My answer is -- a miracle.

In the process of painting I realize and become who I am because through this expression I clarify and make distinct who I am and am becoming. In touching paint to canvas I become a human being. I have created not only a painting, but myself. This is the miracle. I rarely wonder if my work is important or will have lasting value or if I should be better occupied. Instead, the painting draws me into the thing that captivates me and time ceases to exist. A heady moment, indeed.

For if art's only value was to infect us with the creator's passion it would be a very sad situation. Art's true nature is that of transubstantiation, something that transcends ordinary feelings and goes beyond the normal, conventional means of expression. In doing so the artist has enhanced his existence, he has seen, he has become. I know that fragile human effort, almost painfully awkward, can come together into something worthy of divinity.

Just paint it!

A Beautiful Brain

Flower market at the Madeleine by Edouard Cortes

Each time I look at the street paintings by Edouard Cortes, I am in awe of the mood he was able to create on canvas. In the above painting, an idea formed in his mind, was molded through hands and paint, and became a beautiful work of art. What is the process, this mechanism by which the brain can construct from an intangible idea a work that is so exquisite we marvel at the genius who created it? What happens in the brain during the creation of such a piece? For years these unfathomable questions have frustrated researchers. Until recently. Scientists have now begun to unravel the secrets of the creative mind.

Charles Limb and Allen Braun studied the activity in the brains of professional jazz pianists while they were improvising music. What they found was astonishing. While these pianists were creating music there was extensive deactivation in the frontal cortex as well as in those areas thought to control emotions. These areas are thought to be important for the conscious monitoring, evaluation, and correction of behavior. They could be involved in assessing whether behaviors conform to social demands and place inhibitory control over inappropriate performance.

What this may mean in simple terms is that artistic creativity is doomed to failure if it is tailored to conform to social demands rather than to the uninhibited feelings of the artist. Self-censorship is not part of the creative process.

A major function of art can be seen as an extension of the function of the brain, namely, to seek knowledge about the world. The brain filters out surrounding distractions of the visual input as it is categorizing an object. Art, as well, attempts to distill on canvas, essential qualities. This acquisition of knowledge through the distillation of essential characteristics is the primordial function of the visual brain. It happens to be the primordial function of all art.

Abstraction is also a critical part of the acquisition of knowledge. This is a process by which the visual brain subordinates the particular to the general so that the information can be applicable to many situations. This may be why we cannot recall the details of an event a long time after the fact. Art also abstracts and externalizes the inner workings of the brain. The works of Edouard Cortes demonstrates this fact in so many beautiful ways.

Clear as mud, right?

Science is just beginning to unravel the mystery of artistic creativity. An almost prophetic Picasso once said, "It would be very interesting to preserve photographically . . . the metamorphosis of a picture. Possibly one might then discover the path followed by the brain in materializing a dream." His statement is close to reality.

More on how we can unleash our creative essence on a future blog.

Just paint it!

Diligent Mediocrity

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. – Margaret Young

How many gifted people do you know, true creative geniuses? Einstein, Michelangelo, Jimi Henrix? There are more, to be sure, but out of all the people who have lived the number is amazingly small. Which leads to the observation that most successful artists, not being geniuses, are able to do what they do because of one thing, and it is not talent - simple hard work. An enormous amount of hard work over many years; work that is demanding and painful. It is a fact most of us do not want to hear.

Researchers have shown that it takes about 10 years of hard work before some people arrive at a certain level of competence or even greatness. And not just any type of hard work. Experts call it deliberate practice. This deliberate practice model is found in all endeavors including music, art, athletic performance, medicine, even business. Paul Cezanne is a perfect example of an artist with a great deal of perseverance. He went every day to the foot of Mont Sainte-Victoire in France to paint it. Every day! In addition, it is not just any hard work. Hitting a bucket of golf balls at the driving range is not deliberate practice. Hitting 500 balls to within 20 feet of the pin most of the time and doing it every day is what the experts want. In a study of young violinists by Ericsson, the best group averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives, the next best averaged 7,500. Consistency is crucial as Ericsson points out. "Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends."

It seems there really is no such thing as a free lunch or free ride.

So is there such a thing as talent? Possibly, but for most of us the answer is, practice, practice, practice! And remember what Gustav Flaubert said, "Talent is long patience."

Next week I will discuss how the brain processes artistic creativity.

Just paint it!

The Mystery of Color

Autumn in Bavaria, Wassily Kandinsky

You’ve heard it often enough – we all see color differently, right? Well sort of. A more accurate view would be to say that we all perceive color differently. The actual science of seeing is relatively constant, however complex.

When light enters the eye, the lens focuses it onto the retina. There, it is absorbed by pigments in light-sensitive cells, called rods and cones. We humans have three different types of cones (about 6 million) which are sensitive to short, medium, and long wavelengths. The 125 million rods are sensitive only in dim light and are monochromatic – black and white.

Lying in front of the cones in the retina are three different types of cells, one being the bipolar cells which transmit information to the retinal ganglion cells of which there are about 1 million in each eye. The purpose of the ganglion cells is to compare signals from many different cones adding and subtracting signals from these different cones. For example, by comparing the response of the middle-wavelength and long-wavelength cones, a ganglion cell determines the amount of green-or-red. A signal is then sent to the brain which incorporates three different attributes of color – the amount of green or red; the amount of blue or yellow; and the brightness.

All of this physiology just so we can appreciate an artist like Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter born in 1866. His devotion to abstract work he called inner necessity, a passion for color symbolism. In his latter writings Kandinsky compared the spiritual life of humanity to a large triangle similar to a pyramid; the artist has the task and the mission of leading others to the top by the exercise of his talent.

The Kandinsky Prize, named after Kandinsky is a newly-created award, sponsored by the Deutsche Bank, AG and the Art Chronika Culture Foundation. It was organized in hopes of developing Russian contemporary art and to reinforce Russian art’s status within the world. In total, $72,000 is awarded to the artist.

Just paint it!

Frederic Remington 1861-1909

The above painting, The Stampede by Frederic Remington, was my first introduction to his work. I liked this painting so much that a print of it hung in my office for many years.

Remington was born October 4, 1861, in Canton, New York, the son of a hardware store owner and colonel during the Civil War. Frederic was a naer-do-well of sorts not wanting to have a military career as his father wished. From an early age he enjoyed drawing and hoped for a journalism career with art as a sideline.

He attended the art school at Yale University but was bored with painting only still lifes, preferring action scenes instead. After the death of his father and a rejection of his love interest, Frederic worked for his uncle's newspaper until, at age nineteen, ventured West. He wanted to buy a cattle ranch and a mine but realized he did not have enough money for either so he spent his time camping, hunting, and enjoying himself. He began to sketch in earnest and bartered his sketches for the essentials. With financial backing from his uncle, he was able to persue his art career and support a wife.

Through the 1890’s, Remington took frequent trips around the U.S., Mexico, and abroad to gather ideas for articles and illustrations, but his military and cowboy subjects always sold the best, even as the Old West was playing out. Gradually, he transitioned from the premiere chronicler-artist of the Old West to its most important historian-artist

Success inspired a grand life-style and Frederic became well-known throughout the country. His paintings and sculptures depicted the people and animals of the West with landscapes of secondary importance. His weight ballooned to over three hundred pounds. He invented "cowboy" sculpture with his inaugural peice, The Bronco Buster, (1895) and it has become a favorite art form well into the present day.

Sadly, Frederic Remington died of complications of peritonitis following an appendectomy on December 26, 1909. His weight contributed to the effects of the anesthesia which directly led to his death. He was only forty-eight. His depictions of the Old American West can be seen in museums across the country.

Just paint it!

A Glimpse Of The Sublime

The above painting, "Solitary Camp," is one I did and felt inspired while doing it and was pleased with the way it turned out. It is not always the case.

There are times when I paint and paint and nothing seems to work. What I envision is not what my hands can translate onto the canvas. Try as I will I cannot summon the muse and the painting turns out simply ordinary.

But then, quite by accident it seems, something extraordinary happens and it all falls into place. I am inspired by what I am putting on canvas and am totally in the moment, almost giddy. It is these times that persuade me to keep returning to the easel; I simply must paint, nothing else will suffice. I have forgotten the times I wanted to quit for good or thought the muse had abandoned me forever.

And if luck is with me, I can remember something of the moment and utilize what I learned on future works. Call it learning or muscle memory but it serves to inspire me to continue pursuing this passion, this obsession. The muse has not abandoned me after all!

Just paint it!

The Hudson River School

My earliest and fondest memories of landscape art were works by the Hudson River painters. Beginning with the works of Thomas Cole (1801-1848) and Asher B. Durand (1796-1886) they formed the first coherent school of American art. Sharing the philosophy of the American Transcendentalists, the Hudson River painters created visual embodiments of the ideals about which Emerson, Thoreau, William Cullen Bryant, and Whitman wrote. Their paintings depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, including the Catskill, Adirondack, and the White Mountains. "School", in this sense, refers to a group of people whose outlook, inspiration, output, or style demonstrates a common thread, rather than a learning institution.

Most of the finest works of the Hudson River school were painted between 1855 and 1875. During that time, artists like Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt were treated like major celebrities. When Church exhibited paintings like Niagara or Icebergs of the North, thousands of people would line up around the block and pay fifty cents a head to view the solitary work. The epic size of the landscapes in these paintings reminded Americans of the vast, untamed, but magnificent wilderness areas in their country, and their works helped build upon movements to settle the American West, preserve national parks, and create city parks.

If you have never viewed painting by Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, or Albert Bierstadt you are missing a wonderful experience. Treat yourself.

Just paint it!

My Ramblings As An Art Guerrilla

This is the initial posting of my art ramblings. I began painting a little over 25 years ago and it became a voyage of self-discovery. The beauty of nature continues to inspire me and I struggle to convey that awe and sense of beauty in my paintings. My hope is that I paint light, not things, for without light, there would be no drama, no passion, no beauty. To me, art is a search to find poetry in simple things. It becomes the expression of love (or insanity, if you're a pessimist), the hope that there is, indeed, goodness around us.

Over the next weeks and months I will be rambling on about topics that inspire, anger, or even depress me in the world of oil painting. My interest is painting landscapes and I welcome all comments, ravings, or compliments on this blog. If you don't like my opinions, by all means, let me hear from you.

Finally, if you have a painting you have done I would be honored if you post it here.

Just paint it!