All posts by Brian Deagon

Essays

When is a painting finished?

When is a painting finished?

In an Atelier,the first block-in is called an ebauche..Usually executed quickly, it is frequently left in varying degrees of completion, not for aesthetic reasons, but because students simply dont have time to finish it, or because the particular problem the artist was concerned with has been solved, and they move on to the final version.

 

In the C19, students began to leave more and more of the ebauche unfinished.Following the example of Constable , Turner, Rembrandt , Hals, Rubens, Velasquez, and Titian, they were puzzled by the vivacity and spontaneity of “unfinished” work. To their professors, “finish” was an aesthetic and moral issue..

 

This debate stemmed from the “Poussinistes V Rubenistes” and the followers of Ingres and Delacroix who were really continuing a debate that started in C16 Italy between the Florentines and Venetians.

 

“Is drawing more important than colour? Should the designo be worked out first, or can the artist make changes in the working? Is the intellect and reason the basis of art or emotion and intuition? “ Do you want a 10 minute debate or pistols at dawn ?

 

By the C19, the debate had begun to focus on “finish” What that had come to mean was the softening of tonal transitions in order to heighten the illusion of reality, and reality didn’t have brushstrokes! The problem was, you could “finish” a painting to death, and lose other values such as spontaneity.Its good to note the debate was not clear cut. Alma-Tadema was criticised by his peers for relentlessly “finishing” everything in his paintings to the same degree, thus ignoring “the natural order of things”

 

The master artists above( particularly Velasquez)were such “painterly” artists they were able to make the brush mark an intrinsic part of the illusion. At a particular viewing distance it all “fell into place” Closer up, it all “fell apart”, leaving an experience a bit like sitting in the orchestra instead of the audience.

 

So French artists , as French artists do, began to insult each other. The young accused their professors as guilty of “licking their paintings clean”.(ie,removing brushmarks) Unpeturbed the older suggested that the young “ would finish their paintings if they finished their education”(ie showed some respect for hard work,craftsmanship and the buyer)

 

The Impressionists were influenced by photographic representation of movement and light, but we were not told till recently that Bougereau and Alma-Tadema also used photography. It is clear to me that Bougereau was imitating the brushless surface of photographed nudes, and beautiful it can be.In Young Girl and Love ,he has not only idealised the proportion, but the surface of the models skin.Finished to perfection! But surely, Monets broken rainbow haystacks are finished in the sense of being completely resolved, and clearly in the studio! That leaves us with at least two meanings for the idea of “finish”

 

In all the debate over Modernism , we have forgotten what the dilemnas were .In the current revival of the Atelier and of its teachings we have also inevitably revived its problems. “Finish” is still a technical, aesthetic and to some, a moral issue. Another issue probably more important is the issue of what to paint. The Impressionists rejected Godesses in favour of middle class nymphets in fashionable dress.Can we adopt C19 approaches to picture making without also reviving its debates and its flaws? Is a tattoo and a nose piercing enough contemporary relevance?

 

.To eliminate the brushmark with the sole purpose of heightening illusion is to seriously miss the point. “Take a photo!” is then, good advice.Painting to imitate the brushless surface of photography is a folly if that’s all it is.(.Incidentally, this has nothing to do with the old “painting from photographs” argument.I can think of no reason not to.)

But to leave the brushmark which becomes integral to  the illusion requires much,much more.I am not precluding the blended stroke either. The hue,value ,chroma , shape, density ,etc etc of every brushmark must be “right”

If the “what to paint” had a political and class dimension so did the brushmark. The mark is a signature. Its personal and all the way to Jackson Pollock being promoted by the USA in the Cold War as a symbol of democratic individualism, its interpretation is deadly serious. It also is in danger of being tamed by the Atelier ethos. You may view this as a good thing. Too much narcissism today anyway. Or a bad thing, impinging upon your unfettered right to creative markmaking. But if you are threatened by it, you are in the wrong school.

 

We would not tolerate a violin concerto in which MOST of the notes are correct. In fact, the academy method was to develop the painting till almost finished then add those “finishing touches” of heartstopping bravura. Sargent was famous for it.

 

I am suggesting an extraordinary level of mastery here, an aspiration for atelier students,and in an important way, it doesn’t matter if it’s a painted pumpkin ,a rose or a nose. To those who don’t understand “viewing distance”, the capsicum might seem “unfinished” if we mistake “polish” or “detail”for “finish”. On the other hand , when is a painting “unfinished, not resolved, incomplete”? Whats the difference between a “painterly” pumpkin and a badly painted one? I am still working on it.

 

To really succeed, the Atelier movement ( and it seems to be global) needs to have high expectations, but equally an ability to articulate them. For its students, the conversation over lunch is as important as it was in Paris a century and a half ago, and its not finished.

Brian E Deagon

7/12/12

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7 First Colour 9 Final Stage "Couple" Version 1 4 Imprimatura and Frotte 8 Glazes in colour 2 Tonal study 3 Colour study 5 Grisaille
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Rarrk

Documentary on Marwundjul. He states that he “saw” rarrk in the flashes of light on the water. I know what that is, but wont paint it. I have always been and feel balanda. But I have seen ,”me myself” rarrk in the criss-cross of palm fronds. Here, completely at home in the tetrachrome palette  I can see a way to abstraction that is mine, and not needing ceremonial validity.

I should mention here, that I had the privilege of being taught by Marwundjul on a visit to Maningrida.He said, that as an artist I was “a bit rusty rough one”

Brian E Deagon
Wednesday August 15th, 2012 10:32 pm

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Ryan’s Tips

Hold your painting up so that visually it is adjacent to what you are painting. Make sure the light on the painting and the subject are consistent. Now you can mix a colour , place a little patch on the edge of your canvas, and directly compare it with the colour in the scene you are trying to match.

Hold your thumb over a patch of colour so its shadow falls on your patch. The tone and colour is exactly what is reqiured for the next tone down in painting your object.

Colour Matching. Choose the closest colour youve got and mix it to the correct tone. Select the colour immediately beside on the colour wheel on the side you want to shift. Mix this to the correct tone.  Now mix the  colour. Some adjustment for chroma  may be required.

Brian E Deagon
Sunday August 12th, 2012 3:40 pm

Related Images:

7 First Colour 9 Final Stage "Couple" Version 1 4 Imprimatura and Frotte 8 Glazes in colour 2 Tonal study 3 Colour study 5 Grisaille
Blog

The Tetrachrome Palette

After a trip to Cairns I began painting rainforest as well as swamp. The relentless green was a problem, and after painting “Swamp” in muted earths I could see a way forward.

Pavey’s book on Humanism and Colour tied together a whole knowledge of colour I had built up. And the light went on! The tetra chrome palette is RED ochre YELLOW ochre BLUE BLACK and WHITE.  This is Aboriginal art, it is Ancient Greek pottery, it is Byzantine icons, it is the Academic palette.   And its subtle when used colouristically,, it is strong when used structurally, and is deeply symbolically charged across a number of cultures. When used as a tonal scale, the strength of the colour, especially the red, can be disturbing, but it works. But as in other palettes, tints with white, or shades with black, allow ANY colour to “slot in” anywhere reqiured from light to dark. Arbitrary colour results, and there is poetry in that.
Most importantly to me, I have found a subject (forest) that has so many potential variations of tonal key, chroma key, use of scumble and glaze, scale and brushwork…….And into which I can integrate my little nudes. Finally “30 of these” seems a pleasant prospect.
As if this isnt challenge enough, I know now I must pursue Pat Moran’s delicious brushwork, working tonally and looser, creating focus with” lost and found” edges. And I suspect the confidence to tackle this has come from being involved in the Salisbury Atelier .
Brian E Deagon
Wednesday May 16th, 2012 9:33 am

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Hi Deevya

We have several issues here.   Malevitch first. You have to understand that a lot of C20 art was painted as illustrations to a philosophical argument. Those arguments often used a reductionist logic as science did at the time. Scientists and mathematicians were looking for a single simple equation that would explain the universe. They are still looking.

In art , the question became “ how little can you have and still have an art work?” A black square? A white one?  No paint at all- just bare canvas? How about an empty frame?

Now this is a fun game to play, and you don’t need a traditional skill set to play it. My problem with it is that it doesn’t make very interesting pictures.

 

So how about we go the other way and try to make fun paintings. No matter what you do, to be visible you need line,colour,tone,texture, shape and etcetera. I THINK that’s what you mean by “form”. Instead of the elements above some just talk about “form” and “space”. Now, a beautiful rock or shell or seedpod is visible form in space. We just enjoy them. Humans always have. But something funny happens when an artist makes a beautiful form in space. Instead of “That’s nice, I will hang it around my neck or put it on the table to look at” we start asking stupid questions like “What does it mean?” “ Whats it supposed to be?” “ Where has it come from?”” Why am I attracted to it?” “How is it made?”

 

Frequently these dumb questions get really out of hand, and result in coffee table books of art criticism.  I learned my lesson from John Marwundjul. I asked him” How do you know where to put things?”  I suppose I was expecting deep insights into his culture.I got one!His reply said it all. With a big wide smile at my ignorance he said “Look nice” I never felt so stupid in all my life. That’s it?  “Look nice?” Yep. Look nice!

Brian E Deagon
Friday March 16th, 2012 11:16 am

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Essays

Abstraction in Art

“There are no rules. No guidelines. No boundaries .” my friend complained. “How do you do abstract

 

Thinking about it, I could see he had a genuine concern.  I had no answer other than to mutter “ Mysticism. Its about esoteric mystical concepts of purification. Its shamanic identification with the creative process.”

He  frowned. Clearly that was not helpful.

 

Perhaps we could consider its parentage in Cubism and Surrealism?

Cubism itself had its lineage, including ( in no particular order)

  1. Cezanne’s difficulties understanding binocular vision, resulting in multiple viewpoints.
  2. New style shop windows which allowed the artist to see not only the window contents but also the reflected artist and the street behind him.
  3. Double exposures and X-ray photography
  4. Einsteins Theories on space and time
  5. Bargue’s guidelines for figure drawing
  6. The “discovery” of indigenous art, which was ( no..still is )viewed romantically as somehow more “pure” or “elemental”. It was used as a kind of purgative to remove layers of sclerotic culture and offered a new beginning. The new beginning became a nightmare in WW1

The outcomes of this torrent we are all familiar with. The upshot was a structure of mostly straight lines creating interpenetrating planes and a kind of elliptical composition. These planes do not exist behind the picture plane, but on it, or even project illusionistically into the viewers space, while still remaing parallel to the picture plane.

 

Understanding this structure is important, for it provides the underpinning of abstraction, the dominant “look” of the style. The Bauhaus reinforced this, taking over architecture, typeface, furniture. Its everywhere.

.

Surrealism had two arms, both belonging to Madame Blavatsky.

One was dependent on traditional illusionistic painting. Only the subject matter was bizarre. Burning giraffes come to mind.This flourishes in film still.

Of more importance was a more extreme outpouring of Freud and Jung’s unconscious that utilised chance or surrender of control as a creative principle.  Hence the throwing and splashing, the random ravages of weather or processes such as burning or collaged images from every fifth page.

When American artists in the aftermath of WW2 and the Korean war discovered calligraphy it blended seamlessly with this style of Surrealism.

The preparation of the artist before gesturing meaningfully upon a canvas was central to the creative process . Very Zen. Lots of positive and negative space.This is the shamanic side of abstraction. This led to extremes which in turn literally killed artists. Drug addiction is a poor preparation it seems.Better to meditate upon Earth Air Fire and Water, or play the Sex Pistols VERY loud.

 

So there is the Yin and Yang of it. On the one hand the artist manipulates mediums to create a structure that is an expression of the artists will, and the cubist ghost is never far away:  and on the other the artist becomes part of the medium which creates by itself a structure that is revealed in the making, and is independent of the artist’s will. Surreal really.

 

In actual practice, most artists waver between these extremes. Kandinsky encompassed both. Most of the abstract “isms” live or die here.

 

Wolesy will bury his drawings for six months, Klien will cover his models in paint and roll them across a canvas, Gleeson will let paint run and blend , then use the result as a trigger for his quite beautiful brush. Mondrian and other purists were messionic  about minimal means. Kline ,Motherwell and the Europeans Matthieu, Sonderborg took gestural calligraphy to extremes, but never matched the Chinese. Pollock poured out his soul, but who knows where it went?

Vestigial colours of landscape, a horizon here or there, a hint of a figure and some will cry “ Its not abstraction!”    But does it really matter?

 

In the zeal some posess to “restore the old ways of the masters” we had better be careful. It’s a coaches nightmare to have his team obsessing about what the opposition is doing. Rather than pointless spleen levelled at Modern Art and its advocates, it makes more sense to remember that the work that was produced belonged to a particular historical period. Even if we don’t like the art, we should have the sense to view it with the eye of the anthropological archaeologist. “ What does this thing mean?” is a question never fully answered. And we might learn something after all.

Brian Deagon

6/02/2012

Related Images:

Blog

Abstraction in Art

“There are no rules. No guidelines. No boundaries .” my friend complained. “How do you do abstract  art ?” he wondered.

 

Thinking about it, I could see he had a genuine concern.  I had no answer other than to mutter “ Mysticism. Its about esoteric mystical concepts of purification. Its shamanic identification with the creative process.”

He  frowned. Clearly that was not helpful.

 

Perhaps we could consider its parentage in Cubism and Surrealism?

Cubism itself had its lineage, including ( in no particular order)

  1. Cezanne’s difficulties understanding binocular vision, resulting in multiple viewpoints.
  2. New style shop windows which allowed the artist to see not only the window contents but also the reflected artist and the street behind him.
  3. Double exposures and X-ray photography
  4. Einsteins Theories on space and time
  5. Bargue’s guidelines for figure drawing
  6. The “discovery” of indigenous art, which was ( no..still is )viewed romantically as somehow more “pure” or “elemental”. It was used as a kind of purgative to remove layers of sclerotic culture and offered a new beginning. The new beginning became a nightmare in WW1

The outcomes of this torrent we are all familiar with. The upshot was a structure of mostly straight lines creating interpenetrating planes and a kind of elliptical composition. These planes do not exist behind the picture plane, but on it, or even project illusionistically into the viewers space, while still remaing parallel to the picture plane.

Understanding this structure is important, for it provides the underpinning of abstraction, the dominant “look” of the style. The Bauhaus reinforced this, taking over architecture, typeface, furniture. Its everywhere.

Surrealism had two arms, both belonging to Madame Blavatsky.

One was dependent on traditional illusionistic painting. Only the subject matter was bizarre. Burning giraffes come to mind.This flourishes in film still.

Of more importance was a more extreme outpouring of Freud and Jung’s unconscious that utilised chance or surrender of control as a creative principle.  Hence the throwing and splashing, the random ravages of weather or processes such as burning or collaged images from every fifth page.

When American artists in the aftermath of WW2 and the Korean war discovered calligraphy it blended seamlessly with this style of Surrealism.

The preparation of the artist before gesturing meaningfully upon a canvas was central to the creative process . Very Zen. Lots of positive and negative space.This is the shamanic side of abstraction. This led to extremes which in turn literally killed artists. Drug addiction is a poor preparation it seems.Better to meditate upon Earth Air Fire and Water, or play the Sex Pistols VERY loud.

 

So there is the Yin and Yang of it. On the one hand the artist manipulates mediums to create a structure that is an expression of the artists will, and the cubist ghost is never far away:  and on the other the artist becomes part of the medium which creates by itself a structure that is revealed in the making, and is independent of the artist’s will. Surreal really.

 

In actual practice, most artists waver between these extremes. Kandinsky encompassed both. Most of the abstract “isms” live or die here.

 

Wolesy will bury his drawings for six months, Klien will cover his models in paint and roll them across a canvas, Gleeson will let paint run and blend , then use the result as a trigger for his quite beautiful brush. Mondrian and other purists were messionic  about minimal means. Kline ,Motherwell and the Europeans Matthieu, Sonderborg took gestural calligraphy to extremes, but never matched the Chinese. Pollock poured out his soul, but who knows where it went?

Vestigial colours of landscape, a horizon here or there, a hint of a figure and some will cry “ Its not abstraction!”    But does it really matter?

 

In the zeal some posess to “restore the old ways of the masters” we had better be careful. It’s a coaches nightmare to have his team obsessing about what the opposition is doing. Rather than pointless spleen levelled at Modern Art and its advocates, it makes more sense to remember that the work that was produced belonged to a particular historical period. Even if we don’t like the art, we should have the sense to view it with the eye of the anthropological archaeologist. “ What does this thing mean?” is a question never fully answered. And we might learn something after all.

Brian Deagon

6/02/2012

Related Images:

Blog

The Art of Australia

When I called my website “the Art of Australia” it was in anticipation of a stay in America. It was only in considering what to include in a  retrospective exhibition that I realised that I had landscapes representing every State in Australia except South Ausralia.

Its enough to have me planning another road trip!

Brian E Deagon
29/1/12

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Tom Roberts as History Painter

Tom Roberts painting “Bailed Up” is a history painting in the same tradition as Velasquez “Surrender at Breda” or Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa”.

He worked on the thing over 30 years.  Part dramatic reenactment, part reportage, part documentary, but in the long run a homage to a time in history that had passed before he even began the work, Roberts clearly intended this painting to be his legacy.

What is less clear is what Roberts own criteria for success were. He was well read, widely travelled in Europe, so would have been aware that History painting was considered the most difficult and important genre. If  we   apply those criteria applied to other history painting, we will begin to see both the artist and his work in a new light.

Definitely more than an “impressionist” plein air piece, it is a studio picture in most ways Preliminary sketches, portraits of characters, accurate details of accessories such as guns, costumes and coach all point to the long gestation of the painting. Even the landscape painted largely on the spot was reworked later. It would take the eye of a horseman to recognize the breeds portayed,  the harness details and coach fittings. Roberts was, and aware of the critical rural eye that would notice such things

If histories can be rewritten, and new perspectives revealed by focus on different incidents and artefacts, then surely the “history painting” itself can be repainted.? Most history painting was in the “great men doing great deeds” view of history. Courbet and Manet challenged that. There are other histories to be had.”Bailed Up” may be an “icon”, but is it the last word?

It seems to me that the “assemblage” approach, the gathering of site specific soil samples and referencing almost random photos, plants and geological maps, fabric samples etc is not the only way of deep referencing.  A pictorial approach to the narrative (and these days ya gotta have a “story” underpinning the “project”) may still be possible without the result being “only” or “just….. History painting.”

Brian E Deagon
Thursday November 17th, 2011 8:44 pm

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