Interpreting the Landscape

"Reading" by JimCarpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 7 1/2" x 9 1/2"

Painting #13 Day 16 in the 30 in 30 Challenge

Jim: Can I paint this field purple instead of green?

Linda : It all depends.  Did you bring you license?

Jim: My license? What license?

Linda: Your artistic license.

Yes, this dialogue actually took place when I was a student of artist Linda Pence.  Though the subject was not specifically the purple field, I had asked her a question of similar import, and I assure you that I was totally baffled when she asked me if I brought my license with me.  Still the lesson is a hard one to learn.  

One spring I went out painting with Linda and another art buddy. After hours of looking at beautiful fields layered with intermingling swaths of pink and purple and yellow wildflowers, we ended up inexplicably selecting a plain green field with nothing to distinguish it from any big patch of green grass.  There were a few weedy pale pink flowers hidden in it but they were obscure and negligible.

I resigned myself to painting this somewhat boring flat green field, and soon got lost in the painting.  I was picking out the flowers in the field, squinting to track their spotty layout, and by the time we decided to pack up a few hours later my painting of the green field was filled with swaths of blue and pink and purple flowers. 

It can take a few minutes after a painting session to distance oneself from what has been done, and when I stepped back to look at the painting I laughed at myself for painting something that would never pass as an accurate recording of the green field.   

Perhaps this was a foreshadowing of the way I would come to paint a few years later in the studio, but at the time I didn’t recognize it as personal expression or personal interpretation of the landscape.  I owned the purple field, but it didn’t register that it was necessarily a step in the right direction for me. 

I find it amusing now that I was not more tuned in to the notion that an artist interprets the world around him.  I know that is what artists do, but somehow I wasn’t thinking I had the license to do it myself, despite the many times my teacher reminded me that if I brought my artistic license with me I could paint whatever way I wanted. 

I titled this painting “Reading” because to read means to interpret text, both verbal and non-verbal.  Artists are constantly interpreting the text of the world around them, and their interpretation – a dance, a film, a piece of sculpture, a poem, a painting, a song – is there for all of us to read.  

Museum: A Place to Be

"Museum" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 11" x 11"

Painting #12 - Day #15,  The 30 in 30 Challenge - "Museum"

Originally "museum" meant "a seat or shrine of the Muses."  Today we think of it as the place where we go to see artifacts, ancient and modern, art and technology.  But I would like to go think more about museum as a shrine of the Muses.  What is a museum if not the dwelling place of items that exemplify what it means to be inspired.  In a museum, we can see how man has been inspired through the ages to make a mark in the world.  

The structure of this painting was in place all day long but the sense of it didn't occur until - out of discomfort with the coldness in the right side of the painting - I got out the Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and warmed up the painting with it. It is astonishing how meaning can suddenly be made by layering in a pigment.  Now the figure leans against a wall covered in obscured messages, and seems to be observing the scene before him.

As I was working on the painting the white figure was always the main character. The painting is about him.  I assumed all along that he is alive and present and all of the other figures are not of the same reality.  But in a moment of honesty I admitted that he is stone-like.  Is it possible that he's a carved block of marble in a museum and all of the other figures are present and real? Is this what the Muses have in mind when an artist says, "I want to be in a museum someday"?   Perhaps.  

Compose

"Composure" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 11" x 11"

Composure: Painting #11 Day #14 in 30 in 30 Challenge 

I no longer can remember what my start looked like. The only thing I can remember is that I painted and lifted and painted and lifted a lot, and that figure on the right, this woman of great composure walking toward the viewer, was adamant about being there.  And it remained the only clear thing I could see in the paper during the entire process. I layered in paint to isolate the figure and that gave way to hints of a misty environment - given some substance by the second figure seeming to be walking behind and following.  

I like to think of many of the images in my paintings as the remnants and shadows of paintings laid down by artists of long ago, paintings that have been lost, long hidden, and I'm un-covering or dis-covering them. This particular image has those qualities, so I wanted to preserve it. But at the same time I felt that there needed to be contrast, something that was not uncovered yet, but rather remained somewhat buried or untouched, vibrant and obscure.  So I started layering paint on the area to the left, added some line and stamped in the figure "lifting the sky," the single most holistic pattern of Qigong, the ancient Chinese self-healing art form.  It's a composite that juxtaposes the covered and the uncovered, the light and the dark, the warm and the cool, the interior and the exterior, and what may be different moments in time.  

If all the delicate balances are correct and the viewer's eye is carried in the right way from one part of the painting to another then we can speak not merely of composite but of composition.  

Once again my theatre training comes to my aid. I understand that I am splitting the focus in this painting, dragging the focus of the viewer from the gold figure "lifting the sky" up left to the main figure down right.  If I didn't have this in my toolbox from directing plays, I'd be afraid to take the risk of doing this in a painting.  But, I want the viewer to consider both figures and draw conclusions on their own.  It's an invitation to the viewer to compose their own story about what is happening in the painting. 

Care: The Essence Of Making Art

"Care" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 10"x 10"

There are over 400 artists in Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 Challenge. What could possibly possess them all to do this online thing?  I'm sure we all have our reasons, but there is one characteristic, one motivating factor that applies to each and every artist in the challenge. Care. They care about art. They care about self expression. They care so much about their art form that they paint every day and make time for it every day. And, at one time or another I would imagine they have had to deal with the question, "Why."   

I am sometimes overwhelmed by what I see as tremendous care in a work of art - a novel, a painting, a chorus, a play.  I think about how the members of the National Symphony Orchestra have spent a lifetime mastering their instrument, spent countless hours in rehearsal, alone and with others, preparing for the concert. I watch them to see them listening and enjoying, to see them paying attention to the conductor, to the page.  And they do all of this to be a part of making music.  It's a stage full of care.  And so it is with any fine or performing art.  If you take the time to think about the care that each artist, whether an amateur or a great master, puts into the work, it's simply breathtaking,  Care is of the essence.  

My painting today - this 10th painting - was one that gave me a time.  They all do actually, but when it was finished and I had to title it, I was briefly stumped and feared that the painting didn't make sense.  But the central figure seemed to have a benevolence about him and is directing it toward the couple on the left.  The figure on the right seems to be burdened with concern.  And it was then that I realized that this painting is about caring.   The setting is theatre-like, and there's no surprise there, considering my attachments to the theatre.  

Hopefully the painting manages to rise above the literal and can be seen as allegorical. 

Vision

"Vision" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 9"x9"

Day 12 Painting #9 in the Painting Challenge

What coincidences can I dream up today to go with this painting?  It's painting #9 and it's 9" square, an oddball for that, but I plan to mount this on a 10" square canvas.  The painting seems to be true to the theme that is unfolding itself. Each painting seems to be a piece of some greater whole.  

The central figure is one that simply appeared in the paper as I lifted the paint. Well, not so much "simply" as "after much searching, backtracking, lifting, painting, lifting, painting, lifting."  

I'm very much interested in the decision making process.  When do I finally say "this is it" and leave it be?  I was tempted to go at it again, but sensed that it was my own fear of taking a risk that was pushing me not to accept this painting as it is right now.  I like this figure in the center of the painting and the figures that fill in the right and left of the painting. Some one needs to be seeing the figure in the center, and the figures on stage right and stage left serve that purpose.  They are sufficiently solid and by contrast give that illuminated figure in the center a "not really there but really there" character.  

The word "vision" seems appropriate for the title.  It can mean the ability to see, which is served by the characters on the right and left. And it can mean the object being seen, the character in the center of the painting. It can also suggest things of the imagination, things one dreams about, and can carry connotations of the supernatural, the spiritual, and the mystical, all of which are possibilities regarding the illuminated figure.  

Muse-ing For Inspiration

"Muse" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 10"x10"

Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?

- Shakespeare, Sonnet 100

Day 11 - Painting #8

Five years ago I titled a painting "To A Muse," a joyful painting with floating figures and lots of color.  There is also the play on words, "to amuse" which suggest something enjoyable and entertaining.  But, "amuse" derived from the French "amuser" has as its roots a sense of diverting one from serious business, "a" meaning "from" and "muser" meaning "to ponder," or  "to divert someone from pondering."  And now I look at today's painting with its neutral palette, its near colorless figures grounded in a place that suggests ancient walls and illuminated caverns, sacred places with messages carved into the walls.  And I wonder (muse) about my Muses and the path they have taken me on.  

The figure on the lower right is smaller and he has a cloak, and color in his face, all suggesting to me that he is in this place but not of this place.  Is it possible that he is the source of the figures that rise up larger than life?  Or has he gone to this other worldly place to find his inspiration?  

In the classical tradition we call upon the Muses to inspire us.  Shakespeare in Sonnet 100 asks his Muse where she is, and where she's been!  It is a matter of convention to call upon the Muse for inspiration.  Interestingly enough the verb form of "muse" means to reflect deeply on something, or to meditate. I think that the figure on the lower right of the painting is doing just that.  

Now you may see this painting in an entirely different light.  As I said earlier, my reading of my painting is just my interpretation.  And remember, I don't plan my paintings out, so it is not as if I painted this with set ideas in mind of who is where doing what.  

This painting took me most of the day to complete.  It went through numerous changes before I found what to me what the story of this 10" x 10" painting.   Here are the images of the painting as it evolved.

 The Start

I thought it was done!

I thought I had it all figured out, but ultimately had to admit that it wasn't working.  It didn't make sense to me. The figure on the lower right was just so solid and the figure just above him had a face that looked like a detailed engraving and I was "in love" with it. But the figure on the lower right was central and I wanted him to have focus so I took out the other guy!  In my previous life as a theatre director such removal would be painful for all concerned, but in a painting no one cares! Besides, I know this old man is still there in the painting, under a few layers of acrylic but still there adding character and mystery to the canvas.  And then I looked at the moon and the rest - well, what was I thinking?  I just got out the isopropyl and rubbed it all out and what I was left with was something that looked like the original start but with a little man in a cloak down right.  And I started over again looking for the painting. 

This is my search. This is how I paint.  This is my process. Paint, uncover, paint uncover, paint dis-cover.  This is what I guess my Muse likes to put me through.  I'm not complaining.  I am having a great time on this 30 in 30 Challenge that is being hosted by artist Leslie Saeta.

How does the word "Muse" (muse?) fit into your own vocabulary?  

The Mentor: Finding Courage, Wisdom, Inspiration

"Mentor" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 10" x 10"

Day 9 Painting # 7 in Leslie Saeta's 30 Day Painting Challenge

 Well, just so you know how organic it all is, I didn't know the etymology of "Mentor" until after I looked at this painting and understood that it was about teaching and learning, teacher and student.  I thought that this soaring figure might represent the spirit of the mentor, one who teaches and guides the apprentice.  For a fuller understanding of the term I looked up the definition of "mentor" and discovered that the word has its origins in The Odyssey.

"Mentor" was a friend of Odysseus. When Odysseus left for the war  he placed Mentor in charge of his Palace and his son, Telemachus.   So Mentor was a guardian.  But, on occasion, the goddess Athena sometimes entered that palace disguised as Mentor and advised Telemachus.  Athena was, among other things, the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, and the arts.

Here  is the start for "Mentor."  It was left over from a paint out I participated in several years ago.  I had prepared several 10" square substrates by covering Stathmore Aquarius II watercolor paper with Acrylic gel medium.  Dissatisfied with my painting efforts I did what I often do, I lifted all of the paint off of the image with isopropyl alcohol.  And this is what was left.   I liked it and knew that some day I would paint on it.  I have looked at it many times and just never had the "courage" to tackle it, and waited to be "inspired."  How appropriate it is that this would turn into "Mentor."