tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48616431571217037712024-02-06T18:58:25.195-08:00The Great Snark HuntA running commentary on painting pictures for a living
and how it relates to the business of being human.Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-80436181026093167322013-05-22T08:51:00.000-07:002013-05-30T02:55:31.866-07:00Water Phoenix<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_93goZj8Rdez8meYFx7-MLrPf4Yqt0rbwenIRdy8Vtna8YujZ8nca4iQxvnlOfG8j6xZmpm20-Z61GutfXYz94IYhVSiSX7o6XULnmVzN4lmREDctZpV0cZSUOsGeRQ7FaCI1nv8x6qOu/s1600/Phoenix+wip+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_93goZj8Rdez8meYFx7-MLrPf4Yqt0rbwenIRdy8Vtna8YujZ8nca4iQxvnlOfG8j6xZmpm20-Z61GutfXYz94IYhVSiSX7o6XULnmVzN4lmREDctZpV0cZSUOsGeRQ7FaCI1nv8x6qOu/s640/Phoenix+wip+6.jpg" width="570" /></a></div>
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It wasn't supposed to be this way, but the history of this painting is starting to read rather like a tempestuous love affair. Starting off full of promise, hitting a snag, then another and another, going from one version to the next, so many times seeming to be complete only to discover that, no, it's not over yet.<br />
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It goes back to my very first attempts at painting in oils back in 2008. One day running on the beach I saw a weary cormorant on the beach and realised it was dying. Perhaps it was the very next morning that I went down to that beach to scout for potential photos with by brand new camera when I saw the same bird awash in the surf. Caught as it was in the fried egg-like surf's edge it seemed to be flying, as if in death it had come alive again.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFctT0pwC31ZESU5JJ-uisZjF39CuOgXqpdqo6mODWYkVw0fCStGp_tofM8fnyPZhGLKPnSwjcItJusPKDBMygkEsjag3Ulh7jybLQrH_hsZBM21tShdXCXJHYEUkqUa37ujeNJnZ0LCua/s1600/Crossing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFctT0pwC31ZESU5JJ-uisZjF39CuOgXqpdqo6mODWYkVw0fCStGp_tofM8fnyPZhGLKPnSwjcItJusPKDBMygkEsjag3Ulh7jybLQrH_hsZBM21tShdXCXJHYEUkqUa37ujeNJnZ0LCua/s320/Crossing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I no longer have that photo, but my 3rd or 4th serious attempt at a painting was based on it, following the image quite closely. <br />
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At the time the subject had a lot of meaning for me as I was myself taking a leap of rebirth into fine art as opposed to the advertising animation that had been my vocation to that point. More than that, it was a conscious attempt to break free of a way of life based on the noisy but limited thinking mind and into something transcendent beyond it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7enBRO3O54VSTJQ6BmdbNxF_zrGa2kALYQacZfXjZBasznnZWGVx4XItc44CtmQ-SeWised43UaN8CdfsP01rlFlSqt0-8KI-yAwJJVDre9ZCXcYUO68YL5vJhuSaGerNWD4d10F0Gs1/s1600/Phoenix+sketch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7enBRO3O54VSTJQ6BmdbNxF_zrGa2kALYQacZfXjZBasznnZWGVx4XItc44CtmQ-SeWised43UaN8CdfsP01rlFlSqt0-8KI-yAwJJVDre9ZCXcYUO68YL5vJhuSaGerNWD4d10F0Gs1/s320/Phoenix+sketch.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
Five years later and I'm still working on that particular little detail, but along the way my relationship with oils has freed up somewhat. I knew back then that I'd like to revisit the subject, and about 2 years later did a small oil sketch of how it might work, this time following the reference very loosely.<br />
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I liked the bold strokes suggesting feathers and wondered as 2 more years passed how I'd interpret that in the very much larger canvas I had in mind. Eventually at the end of 2012, after weeks of deliberation, I finally started painting on a canvas just less than 180x120cm. Nice and big.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsUfLaTsBa6w1MazABzcIHU17ahsqbRJX8pCo00NQRyUhRkWOIYMxhc71R6VNj1Qv1Q259jE_1dTcU0Ygl-LOw3fWWIPLnXEk23AtjIm0CyGJKv9gRQ2LnqfMecl5VqzKkQj35HcOdNO82/s1600/Phoenix+wip+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsUfLaTsBa6w1MazABzcIHU17ahsqbRJX8pCo00NQRyUhRkWOIYMxhc71R6VNj1Qv1Q259jE_1dTcU0Ygl-LOw3fWWIPLnXEk23AtjIm0CyGJKv9gRQ2LnqfMecl5VqzKkQj35HcOdNO82/s400/Phoenix+wip+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Here's an early stage in the actual painting. I wanted the left to be noisy in contrast to the empty stillness of the right but I had no intention of laboriously painting in words as I had in the 2008 version, so I threw some lines around at odd angles and added symbols that looked like code, as a background. I was pretty pleased with the way it was going and thought with smug satisfaction that it was going to fall nicely into place.<br />
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Rather like said love affair, had I known the dance it was going to lead me I'd have reconsidered that smugness. But there it is. Life will do as Life will do. Not to bog the story down, I'll fast fwd to the first time I thought it was nearly done, around March this year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih5yoDbBJOSo_4jXeBJOI1R9eB0oU6q4Zw7POumIVIsn_RDcIrqPhZZOLwQjnWCL7LdvkykXSOyeFkTE3ovs0dtiqOsNtmPqA2-cT1TVT7xIBswT0uxxLIV85l9TGiepUmFJSy_8Yxn0tH/s1600/Phoenix+wip+3+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih5yoDbBJOSo_4jXeBJOI1R9eB0oU6q4Zw7POumIVIsn_RDcIrqPhZZOLwQjnWCL7LdvkykXSOyeFkTE3ovs0dtiqOsNtmPqA2-cT1TVT7xIBswT0uxxLIV85l9TGiepUmFJSy_8Yxn0tH/s400/Phoenix+wip+3+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a>Something kept bugging me about it. Something was missing and I didn't know what it was. So after a whole lot of buggering about with solutions that weren't solutions, each tossed out in turn, layers disappearing beneath layers, and then more of the same, I understood I had to darken the left of the image to give it weight.<br />
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A major disruption of my careful solutions. A long deep breath. Begin.<br />
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About 2 months and a whole lot of agonised tweaking later, here's the next time I thought it was nearly done, last week:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzpZIehS4j2Kl0sollH1ZkExBz7sdTA7yzqJJhyphenhyphenip5uh_P9jWfDpvsIEkUegDjQ1879IaLPIMGory7qUQrnf0v9RxZbDy4YAP6ZVD7kLBLkV9PlzuEFt2W9wjaQ9lqnaIqgRkJC4MRSSN/s1600/Phoenix+wip+5+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzpZIehS4j2Kl0sollH1ZkExBz7sdTA7yzqJJhyphenhyphenip5uh_P9jWfDpvsIEkUegDjQ1879IaLPIMGory7qUQrnf0v9RxZbDy4YAP6ZVD7kLBLkV9PlzuEFt2W9wjaQ9lqnaIqgRkJC4MRSSN/s1600/Phoenix+wip+5+blog.jpg" /></a></div>
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You guessed it. I still wasn't happy. Yes I wanted the left trailing behind the bird to be noisy, but it just seemed <i>too </i>noisy. And just too damned...<i>fussy. </i>In fact it was so fussy it was embarrassing.<br />
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One of the hazards of the creative process - in love affairs too I guess - is the temptation to hold on to little things that you like. The way the paint landed at a particular spot, the way colour glows at another and so on. Each of these precious little details is carefully preserved, with modifications to them done in the gentlest possible way so as not to upset them too much.<br />
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What I had here was a collection of preciousness that finally I realised I just couldn't live with. From the very beginning I'd wanted bold strokes as suggested by the oil sketch, and what I ended up was a whole lot of fiddly neurosis. The whole way through the journey of this painting I'd been wanting to slash BIG BOLD strokes through it to meet that vision but had lacked the courage needed to pull it off. So I'd settled for the safe timidity of delicate tweaks and fallen into the trap of not wanting to ruin my pretty marks.<br />
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Looking last night at the product of 6 months of careful incremental tweaking I knew I could stand it no longer.<br />
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And so it came to be - cue drumroll - that I arrived at one of those threshold moments in the life of a painting. With a batch of sloppy white paint mixed I stepped up to the canvas and without even thinking about it slashed huge white lines across my months of precious fiddling. Followed up with equally unthinking modification of the white with some bits of folded up canvas.<br />
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It's fascinating to look at those moments as if a spectator. Some kind of animal emerges from the cage of careful control and follows an instinct unlocked by sheer embarrassment of the timidity revealed in the work. After the thick white lines had landed their modification was more like rugby than art. Call it guided savagery. Or perhaps zen. "<i>It </i>hits", Bruce Lee tells us. "Stop trying to hit me and <i>hit </i>me!" Morpheus says to Neo.<br />
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It reminds me of <i>ubermensch </i>Howard Roark in Ayn Rand's "Fountainhead" slashing lines through all the fashionable pretty adornments with which his architect employer had required him to clutter up his elegantly functional blueprints. He got fired, and walked out with his first client. Death and rebirth.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFnAnsvBMUgEuEBxu4z-Ji5Z3qQnHGhBBd-QzbndJZ_zEA0LEuuWXcftmp2ulwk2RYl6UYk-5cSLgzvcqy8dIhhmnFDkDKNsUmxCcU7muaJB7-vck4pPciZ3yZF_dirACU-3HbrFvCIzE/s1600/Phoenix+wip+6+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFnAnsvBMUgEuEBxu4z-Ji5Z3qQnHGhBBd-QzbndJZ_zEA0LEuuWXcftmp2ulwk2RYl6UYk-5cSLgzvcqy8dIhhmnFDkDKNsUmxCcU7muaJB7-vck4pPciZ3yZF_dirACU-3HbrFvCIzE/s320/Phoenix+wip+6+detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Here's my favorite result of one of those "it paints" moments. The central diagonal is the product of less than one second's worth of furious activity. Careful tweaking can't do that shit.<br />
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The large image below is what I now believe to be the final version, an update from the one above with fairly delicate additions of colour not immediately visible at this size. I'm not sure how well this will work as I've not tried it before, but try <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/82ZTmScmrUFtSUGmNKZ5YvVsdQZLTFICvK0Y6io-5GM?feat=directlink">this Picasa link</a> to view a hi res version. There's a zoom button there but it seems a bit temperamental depending on the browser used.<br />
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Phew. It's been a long journey.<br />
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I was told the other day I should do a self portrait. The answer to that is, they're <i>all </i>self portraits. This one seems to be something of a summary of a lifelong struggle to break free of all manner of hidden stuff, y'know, the life that happens while we're busy making other plans. So it's not surprising that the painting's been a bit of trek.<br />
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I guess.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH9LPcA3H9yI2AhNoHqvqJ3zRczoTm7ub_gczEkiIcfhApAKARZYs0fKoZ5592t7WPvRAzJtLsDaHHY3ObQ238gfOi81u2UnflXdTX_HmWDWo9jwamGg8eJXBKtS_YCRQkMf7SK2fTWUeJ/s1600/Phoenix+Comp1+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH9LPcA3H9yI2AhNoHqvqJ3zRczoTm7ub_gczEkiIcfhApAKARZYs0fKoZ5592t7WPvRAzJtLsDaHHY3ObQ238gfOi81u2UnflXdTX_HmWDWo9jwamGg8eJXBKtS_YCRQkMf7SK2fTWUeJ/s1600/Phoenix+Comp1+blog.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br />Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-49335461672258238532012-04-18T06:31:00.000-07:002012-10-27T01:29:29.121-07:00AfrikaBurn, Africa Plays<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTzk2A-JGvFMGqQvzzaV6s_RTMHE97HRdnS_-lGjX02jwYEiS7WCL4dRkhMc5pay4ejINokIR6sOCmNKhjKPbo7whgmgEL_5yLHowMZyLvZTnsEYhUlf_iN442DSYlQhZDIxwt_7us_EQX/s1600/Circledome-Scape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTzk2A-JGvFMGqQvzzaV6s_RTMHE97HRdnS_-lGjX02jwYEiS7WCL4dRkhMc5pay4ejINokIR6sOCmNKhjKPbo7whgmgEL_5yLHowMZyLvZTnsEYhUlf_iN442DSYlQhZDIxwt_7us_EQX/s1600/Circledome-Scape.jpg" /></a></div>
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For those not familiar with the "AfrikaBurn" festival, it's a gathering of people in the dry N Cape Karoo, bringing with them all manner of inspired or crazy ventures into creativity. Based on the "Burning Man" festivals in the States, the creations are actually burned at the end, thus the name.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56YUeLSyLy2riU6nFo2XHE9kgown8ZGJI6zVQIWOPpWwlaNJth4dNiEQLE6QzCwgS6eds-QMaOWlNcOTR-L7i6jA0Ab1TSyT5KSy5-F0o9Zv0RlhQNohQz2kHL_rdrI3tLVhPj8kGoEij/s1600/HereUare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56YUeLSyLy2riU6nFo2XHE9kgown8ZGJI6zVQIWOPpWwlaNJth4dNiEQLE6QzCwgS6eds-QMaOWlNcOTR-L7i6jA0Ab1TSyT5KSy5-F0o9Zv0RlhQNohQz2kHL_rdrI3tLVhPj8kGoEij/s320/HereUare.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The conceptual framework of the festival is rather interesting and you can find out more <a href="http://www.afrikaburn.com/">here</a>, but what drew my attention was a series of pics taken by a photographer friend on mine at the 2009 event - Monica Miguel Vaccaro. She documented the entire event using a rather specialised fish-eye lens, warping space, curving horizons and giving the sense that, yes, we actually live on a round ball.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XlOSp2ss14c/T46nyVJdbJI/AAAAAAAAAHs/1C8RD7Nyizo/s1600/Nascabike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span id="goog_79222341"></span><span id="goog_79222342"></span></a></div>
I relate strongly to Monica's sense of composition and her eye for interesting elements, so some of the images were saying loud and clear, "paint me", which with her permission I began to do earlier this year. The first of these began with this image.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMBgvxc_12z6d46ytNluHsFcqgJDh7dfDwbaTSCs4WVRNXarl94EX3LcPg4YdPsWyZEZcMLCgPtb_PQOCnD_ZU3M30dZa60BYdPNK4qha_MnG00onjnhSiUxecIeh-PmkzIktRBaekgISv/s1600/Nascabike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMBgvxc_12z6d46ytNluHsFcqgJDh7dfDwbaTSCs4WVRNXarl94EX3LcPg4YdPsWyZEZcMLCgPtb_PQOCnD_ZU3M30dZa60BYdPNK4qha_MnG00onjnhSiUxecIeh-PmkzIktRBaekgISv/s320/Nascabike.jpg" width="320" /></a>It's taken through one of the circles in the dome above, and the line in the sand is actually an enormous pictogram a la the Nasca lines in Peru, visible only from the air. In this case the lines were laid out with the use of GPS, but unfortunately no helicopter was on hand to get the full effect. Nice concept though. The bicycle is there because cars are banned and cycling is the best way to get around.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0CCOxat4gCj0Jp4212nQO6p-mZl02hYcOyzL5mtue3-xCLE8MEca-U95UZDwyb9Nc734zhK1G5hYJ6k1oyuGaHMsdP29lx4hq6Q53Ds-XNERIC3YmCdaco1yv5_yXayJT5AKvE8Rfzk1v/s1600/Nascabike-Doodles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0CCOxat4gCj0Jp4212nQO6p-mZl02hYcOyzL5mtue3-xCLE8MEca-U95UZDwyb9Nc734zhK1G5hYJ6k1oyuGaHMsdP29lx4hq6Q53Ds-XNERIC3YmCdaco1yv5_yXayJT5AKvE8Rfzk1v/s320/Nascabike-Doodles.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As is usual with my approach I messed about with the image in Photoshop, and in this case took that a stage further by printing out the result and doodling over it with a ballpoint pen. For no reason other than that I could, I enlarged the rear wheel of the bike and added a flag. The lines in the sky followed an idea of drawing a pictogram there. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_HJrWha3i2X7VMd2OSUwQmxma_-fcr4TKXdlcQmArRhVvqmtkpsmyJJNTU5M2F6izwkQqkpo5BM-wNamJbTRNmGkdyv-_DcIkpXqW87nS-mXSzYtOraVCmFfJQypOXmUxPw4xa6ZAFd1g/s1600/Lines-of-Intent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_HJrWha3i2X7VMd2OSUwQmxma_-fcr4TKXdlcQmArRhVvqmtkpsmyJJNTU5M2F6izwkQqkpo5BM-wNamJbTRNmGkdyv-_DcIkpXqW87nS-mXSzYtOraVCmFfJQypOXmUxPw4xa6ZAFd1g/s1600/Lines-of-Intent.jpg" /></a>In practice though the bike had to be reduced on the canvas, the lines became a crisscross dividing the painting into segments rather as if reality itself were cracking, and the curve of the horizon changed. How that last happened I really don't recall, but I much prefer the final version.<br />
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This piece is something of a stylistic departure from earlier work, in particular because I was experimenting in the final painting with the doodles and cross-hatching of the conceptual sketch. I found that the paintbrush isn't that comfortable with the approach so the result was quite messy, but somehow it works.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAq0KS3iYlBnrwRnmGUmDGlk21qcgrhxnnaYQK_qxPGv7ieBZkhLMhNfQJL58yazMUajjwa1mbvROllGlplo79EWZUjjy-ExxUQyo7yKcix5YvFBG5nlx2q3XgTOpJQTTdhvEc6GXGkvOo/s1600/Lines-of-Intent-CU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAq0KS3iYlBnrwRnmGUmDGlk21qcgrhxnnaYQK_qxPGv7ieBZkhLMhNfQJL58yazMUajjwa1mbvROllGlplo79EWZUjjy-ExxUQyo7yKcix5YvFBG5nlx2q3XgTOpJQTTdhvEc6GXGkvOo/s1600/Lines-of-Intent-CU.jpg" /></a></div>
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At 180x110cm it's a big canvas, but as of this writing I'm contemplating doing a short run of prints which will be smaller due to the limits of printable canvas size.Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-71221856499788097202012-03-11T04:11:00.000-07:002012-03-11T04:11:17.441-07:00So Anyway...It's been quite a while since my last post, and rather a lot has happened. Out here in the African Sticks the big annual shindig is summer season, when the N2 snaking along the Garden Route fills up with happy holiday makers eager to spend the money they've slaved for all year. It's rather like the Sardine Run elsewhere along the coast, only with BMWs.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qNhbsf52bRCINj_OPPkbeJTR16wqRSAWC6Wxf-_r26IF7A53h_G2tP6chl_m9xs27lbEjOApSyjrsuGLpaY39crPUQDMmUxyVuZVwSfA5pZ6AwO7PTWeG8Z7F8hVoUKJIrAoDQIAlZ5M/s1600/Opening-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qNhbsf52bRCINj_OPPkbeJTR16wqRSAWC6Wxf-_r26IF7A53h_G2tP6chl_m9xs27lbEjOApSyjrsuGLpaY39crPUQDMmUxyVuZVwSfA5pZ6AwO7PTWeG8Z7F8hVoUKJIrAoDQIAlZ5M/s320/Opening-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>So I took advantage of an empty shop at a fascinating take on the shopping experience - Timberlake Village in the middle of everywhere alongside the N2 - and put on an exhibition of work by myself and some other local artists. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLiXJP59RsG9jyo4KAl-gMQZWGLaXTe8eoJ8rplhXuLdR7yVvfWYWRPV4SRi9n2uQFgXlxB2CNbh87LUMyhqEPmjJd-EiqsImWQF5CCM7dRPtHyywNtvucNK1-dK4uj1q4Z5ZC37MlAL50/s1600/Opening-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLiXJP59RsG9jyo4KAl-gMQZWGLaXTe8eoJ8rplhXuLdR7yVvfWYWRPV4SRi9n2uQFgXlxB2CNbh87LUMyhqEPmjJd-EiqsImWQF5CCM7dRPtHyywNtvucNK1-dK4uj1q4Z5ZC37MlAL50/s320/Opening-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Looks awfully trendy don't it just?<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglofjcFSLClJ2Msq9s7H5WOD4OJMMkQGpofPP_b4jDXHaepqGcE8I8teRlrfU2Sw39jQY8inteJXkAHY9QjTbq-k2U3pfit6bmJFjFzwEdS6Xf_ALy9aar6Wyt6QjgyYQj5uyveneHVxWq/s1600/Opening-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglofjcFSLClJ2Msq9s7H5WOD4OJMMkQGpofPP_b4jDXHaepqGcE8I8teRlrfU2Sw39jQY8inteJXkAHY9QjTbq-k2U3pfit6bmJFjFzwEdS6Xf_ALy9aar6Wyt6QjgyYQj5uyveneHVxWq/s200/Opening-3.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
Well, be that as it may it all went pretty well and by the end of season the place was almost cleaned out.<br />
<br />
Recession? Huh?<br />
<br />
So anyway.<br />
<br />
The point of this bit of back patting is that the various works in progress reported on last year were brought to completion for the show. In particular Beach House Kleinkrantz last mentioned as merely a thought was done, up in pride of place and nice and big.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ8PsLK-XXI9AM3davB_vHfsVM3OnqgTQ4MNqFUWHlCYH0ejcNAh0xZk83RRwFsXvUmmB7Zt-UMmI-gy-iXsTeNrMWIdnthEEbtOKDPv9Pgr6dIUaJN50hRZihkkyNF3JM3Sbp1Jf3N367/s1600/Beach-House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ8PsLK-XXI9AM3davB_vHfsVM3OnqgTQ4MNqFUWHlCYH0ejcNAh0xZk83RRwFsXvUmmB7Zt-UMmI-gy-iXsTeNrMWIdnthEEbtOKDPv9Pgr6dIUaJN50hRZihkkyNF3JM3Sbp1Jf3N367/s1600/Beach-House.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Earthen Moon, Tall Story and Scorpio Sunbird were also complete and were sold over season along with Beach House and African Dream. Of these Earthen Moon, Scorpio Sunbird and Beach House are still available in limited numbers as giclee prints on art canvas.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEx1RDkPjpFOwHMDeXzVKUcHRNpPuwobV4lGDpT9Xd8ViQtOsfQWILEMwyx25gcWSXTMh4BK0qDWEA0nWGP4SW86rln7AFmCtxf6FcKNTfzxXzf97aPWi_vD6hirYnRbr63iQLp0ltnhqo/s1600/Montage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEx1RDkPjpFOwHMDeXzVKUcHRNpPuwobV4lGDpT9Xd8ViQtOsfQWILEMwyx25gcWSXTMh4BK0qDWEA0nWGP4SW86rln7AFmCtxf6FcKNTfzxXzf97aPWi_vD6hirYnRbr63iQLp0ltnhqo/s1600/Montage.jpg" /></a></div><br />
So what now?<br />
<br />
Well, I rather like Timberlake, so after the show was taken down I thought I'd try the shop out as a working studio/gallery. It's been about 2 months now and I'm rather enjoying this, having started on a new series of paintings derived from the 2009 "Afrika Burns" gathering. <br />
<br />
More about that shortly...Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-79512944817676981082011-10-14T09:10:00.000-07:002011-10-14T09:10:13.306-07:00The search for authenticity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/01/20/article-1348845-01BAB2BA0000044D-985_474x589.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/01/20/article-1348845-01BAB2BA0000044D-985_474x589.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br />
<i>And then you get and artist</i><br />
<i>says he doesn't want to paint at all<br />
He takes an empty canvas</i><br />
<i>sticks it on the wall</i><br />
<br />
Mark Knopfler<br />
<i>In the Gallery</i><br />
<br />
<br />
Behind the scenes, pretty much constantly as I watch the stuff that appears on the canvas of my mind and on the easel in front of me lurks the inevitable question, "Is this Art?"<br />
<br />
This leads to the next question, "What <i>is </i>Art?" and waiting in the queue just behind that one is "What is art to <i>me</i>?" <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0Fsjb6sCyt49YRYTiJuod9F7S4mglj5TzVHQb5lOlgaKqnEOo7POLsCcVCCMo24BuhxzUQR8M4tNeQF_ec-LSVgeONgTvZfKUkhE6CHgesq7TDrZ56UZcuCS7rlmMlbgH2KCLG8jzTkG/s1600/Crazy-Story-5-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0Fsjb6sCyt49YRYTiJuod9F7S4mglj5TzVHQb5lOlgaKqnEOo7POLsCcVCCMo24BuhxzUQR8M4tNeQF_ec-LSVgeONgTvZfKUkhE6CHgesq7TDrZ56UZcuCS7rlmMlbgH2KCLG8jzTkG/s320/Crazy-Story-5-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I'll confess that I've never really resolved any of these questions. Mostly I dance around a sort of central pole that I sense but don't fully grasp, but a few days ago some of the mist cleared when I realised that my obsession with marks as they land on the canvas is a quest for something authentic. This doesn't take me very far because immediately the next question pops up, "What's authentic?"<br />
<br />
What Mark was complaining about in his song quoted above was that the passion of his hero Harry, who "made a bareback rider, proud and free on a horse" was dismissed by the hip art crowd in favour of clever statements like hanging a blank canvas on the wall and calling it art.<br />
<br />
So is cleverness authentic art? Could be. I guess.<br />
<br />
But then investment banksters are also clever. In fact it could be argued that their diabolically clever manipulation of our lives via the money system is as much art as Damien Hirst's provocatively clever manipulation of our sensitivities with his sheep in formaldehyde or <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1348845/Damien-Hirsts-latest-unveiled-Royal-Academy-Arts-Maggots-flies-barbecue.html">rotting barbecue</a>. <br />
<br />
Perhaps Art then is what you can get away with. After all a con artist is still called an artist.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeU-OxgnUEFbPcTlRjojqmMj0eq3R-fjIR9XRdQ067419PdrVol2_NW86BbvdI8Sc6F7RzW9uKVe5Hmkk8rNcVB8MbEdlEQVI4dZX5BmBz3Dur82rKDUX86B804Q-67f9ZneQ8mRv3kI3/s1600/Firedance+Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeU-OxgnUEFbPcTlRjojqmMj0eq3R-fjIR9XRdQ067419PdrVol2_NW86BbvdI8Sc6F7RzW9uKVe5Hmkk8rNcVB8MbEdlEQVI4dZX5BmBz3Dur82rKDUX86B804Q-67f9ZneQ8mRv3kI3/s200/Firedance+Blog.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>However that may play out, one thing's clear - I'm not in the con business. Between the need to communicate with an audience and the sometimes errant meanderings of my mind there's a wobbly line that defines a common perception of value. The elasticity of that line has often surprised me as I veered closer to my own brand of madness than seemed safe, only to find an enthusiastic reception in the people passing by. Or at least some of them.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhFbkIXo5xZO1H8Mz7PtgXOrrWJFFE2WRuGXClXXyyUPfAcSWCmxTuFVzt3GzL7zB2QHAvBekooCPQXPbELMHAsUTd5zjnKqUtgHpCLKjKHKKC8j-hgRuiwAD7GjXj92qDWo_wFFtSrrZ/s1600/Sunbirds-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhFbkIXo5xZO1H8Mz7PtgXOrrWJFFE2WRuGXClXXyyUPfAcSWCmxTuFVzt3GzL7zB2QHAvBekooCPQXPbELMHAsUTd5zjnKqUtgHpCLKjKHKKC8j-hgRuiwAD7GjXj92qDWo_wFFtSrrZ/s320/Sunbirds-8.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>So bolstered by this knowledge I now find myself playing with something I don't even really understand. If I look at this current piece objectively I must admit that it flirts dangerously with a terrible cliche, the raven haired voluptuous beauty. I guess I'm attempting the opposite of cleverness, allowing whatever arises to arise and dealing with the fallout later.<br />
<br />
So is it art? Mmmm.<br />
<br />
The only thing that's clear to me is that I'd like the strokes that land on it to have the honesty of living their lives much as they were born. Some will pretty, some ugly but interesting. Those who are neither get dissed and scrubbed into the chorus line. More marks will land later and slowly build up a song amongst themselves.<br />
<br />
As for the overall impact of the piece as it progresses, I'm willing to keep pushing paint around and wait to see if the story that eventually emerges is of value.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqW5XdKZExG0DsWyc2vVis9Vssp38D6x-c2-yq8bvhPTumTszNVHec6FdQQyuoanL7t0Knvlj4hwT22gcdToU_t2m61jOC8_Ez6rz2BVmL0WS4SdVz7g4p_nIHIVqXzNGfNnJyfybEsQu/s1600/Tall-Story-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqW5XdKZExG0DsWyc2vVis9Vssp38D6x-c2-yq8bvhPTumTszNVHec6FdQQyuoanL7t0Knvlj4hwT22gcdToU_t2m61jOC8_Ez6rz2BVmL0WS4SdVz7g4p_nIHIVqXzNGfNnJyfybEsQu/s1600/Tall-Story-7.jpg" /></a></div>In the meantime another <i>Tall Story</i> is slowly approaching that mysterious central pole. I pushed some more paint around this week and found some resolution to the lack of integration that has been its big issue since the start. It's been a rather difficult child with a 6 month labour so far but as I look at it now I begin to think it might just turn out to be a favorite one. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wd-eA-allgrXFuGEY1yZdpSn7RRhBvNarXl-BrdS6lfcMq83bCIRe2CGpH39_Y8il0WjnktWkY5-2oa2HRiM4FbDtOmEdB2lQiANCywZv-44GzzYNl-BWraI75unKOmFar8MNGraSCI7/s1600/Phoenix4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wd-eA-allgrXFuGEY1yZdpSn7RRhBvNarXl-BrdS6lfcMq83bCIRe2CGpH39_Y8il0WjnktWkY5-2oa2HRiM4FbDtOmEdB2lQiANCywZv-44GzzYNl-BWraI75unKOmFar8MNGraSCI7/s1600/Phoenix4.jpg" /></a></div>Also meanwhile, two other children are looking for re-incarnation, both of them revisits of much earlier pieces that I've been wanting to explore again. This one's currently called <i>Water Phoenix</i> but that could change. Here's the digital thought form. I'm thinking of making it nice and big.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.yessy.com/1635192587-27632a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://img.yessy.com/1635192587-27632a.jpg" /></a></div>It's a development of the 4th piece I did when this painting lark began, when I knew that I wanted to work loose and free but didn't know how to yet, and settled for painfully careful.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbjAfxTqgQL_kFT1Y7ZpmHgX5oisc8ptwWFPwYizQr4y9Xv6n9xo6U6ax6xUvWOzLK5gdQrXFmCmBnABExppr3ZavuR0jdpXX7NEGMplAIoMYnzKMK0PoDl8ujsHLcvA9n4iJQ7qDk5VH8/s1600/BeachHouseRevisited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbjAfxTqgQL_kFT1Y7ZpmHgX5oisc8ptwWFPwYizQr4y9Xv6n9xo6U6ax6xUvWOzLK5gdQrXFmCmBnABExppr3ZavuR0jdpXX7NEGMplAIoMYnzKMK0PoDl8ujsHLcvA9n4iJQ7qDk5VH8/s1600/BeachHouseRevisited.jpg" /></a></div>The other revisit I'm thinking of also harks back to the early universe - <i>Beach House</i>, and again I want to go big, currently thinking 180x120cm. Even bigger would be even nicer but there's a limit on what I can move around the world, and that's it. Here's the original digitally manipulated as a guide.Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-14677407789850548462011-09-30T10:17:00.000-07:002011-09-30T10:26:35.352-07:00Tall Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZUgQG2FA17aSVCS3iE16q1SCvqTpnU_0SKkC51nRkrJo04J7k5nAkiCbMWiiJakUQl3eiaetfZZicXI6Av0BLt9ckzvppBz1O_1ZZZDV74-MkQMrolM4qZxZCl7u1rRkDf8USOXURXH8/s1600/King-of-Streets-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZUgQG2FA17aSVCS3iE16q1SCvqTpnU_0SKkC51nRkrJo04J7k5nAkiCbMWiiJakUQl3eiaetfZZicXI6Av0BLt9ckzvppBz1O_1ZZZDV74-MkQMrolM4qZxZCl7u1rRkDf8USOXURXH8/s1600/King-of-Streets-4.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>So something moved.<br />
<br />
Let me tell you something about sitting doing nothing in a deliberate and sustained manner. It's not easy. The mind wants to constantly jump up and go ferreting about in it's grimy old haunts and has to be repeatedly ushered back like a child to its lessons. Which in this case is a little silly because what it has to be ushered back to is this incredible African Spring. Paradise can't be all that different.<br />
<br />
Anyway, the experiment was to see if something moved on its own without me moving it, and I can now report a useful outcome. Earlier this week I got interested enough in the unresolved King of Streets painting to get up from my stillness and try an idea I'd thought of on the weekend.<br />
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That was the first thing that moved.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC5sq258EOSlRSJpgYID8DnRsylC3A0gUGiN_mOYTvI3Rwpc4HiKCT-Y1xbLniFTmTs-mvdclnQiL9XDs1-UMCiy5CGu1DinkTSba4gWhTWNsBEhVpJdAF-Op60rE_xuf_qMmpMuGptSyV/s1600/King.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC5sq258EOSlRSJpgYID8DnRsylC3A0gUGiN_mOYTvI3Rwpc4HiKCT-Y1xbLniFTmTs-mvdclnQiL9XDs1-UMCiy5CGu1DinkTSba4gWhTWNsBEhVpJdAF-Op60rE_xuf_qMmpMuGptSyV/s1600/King.jpg" /></a>The beauty of computer imagery is that I can try things out digitally before committing oil to canvas, and in going there I discovered an earlier digital experiment I'd forgotten about. It was suddenly so obviously right that I took the jump and painted it. And ended up in quite new territory.<br />
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Here's the backstory. Back when I lived in the Cape Town I was often struck by how much the faces of the city's street people resemble the original inhabitants of this land, the Bushmen. Whether this is true or not it seems feasible that their hunter-gatherer lifestyle got shunted aside by a new world that had no place for them, and they ended up at the bottom of the pile.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihXLD8VwhywjY_VeV_cYc4a36eTYw79jG8nMM_pyh4PXa2500oFNB1M0S10ShVxB5VL9f9EObgS0v5TkzJ7U8j-FnavsTf_svs6KYssOBp0yAXQYEtsF8nEAufjgBU_EKIDOo4rJsIkUHK/s1600/Queen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihXLD8VwhywjY_VeV_cYc4a36eTYw79jG8nMM_pyh4PXa2500oFNB1M0S10ShVxB5VL9f9EObgS0v5TkzJ7U8j-FnavsTf_svs6KYssOBp0yAXQYEtsF8nEAufjgBU_EKIDOo4rJsIkUHK/s1600/Queen.jpg" /></a>However that may be, at the time I often looked at my own struggles of survival in the modern world in terms of small nomadic bands roaming and living off the indigenous landscape. The modern equivalent featured shiny buildings and BMWs cluttering the same spaces, but the struggle for survival still ran strong in this new world. Only now with TV and more angst.<br />
<br />
So probably my interest in this couple was more personal than just a subject to paint. What attracted my attention was their incredible vitality and joy in the moment in spite of their poverty, so the contrast in the painting between them and the wealthier but more inhibited crowd around them wasn't lost on me.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVI55yAGfTcA5vgBSkp-b4t40n8nSO8m3dE4mKkAmzsaFW9qoO0E5jlc5xHsSnTNCTfwNBHNuRDf83ZTao5NBc4SctgoMvRbnSgDEY8Dhhd1jMEv1D2-leK5o2KArC2PaBRK9X6FiMi0P/s1600/King+of+Streets+Semi+Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVI55yAGfTcA5vgBSkp-b4t40n8nSO8m3dE4mKkAmzsaFW9qoO0E5jlc5xHsSnTNCTfwNBHNuRDf83ZTao5NBc4SctgoMvRbnSgDEY8Dhhd1jMEv1D2-leK5o2KArC2PaBRK9X6FiMi0P/s200/King+of+Streets+Semi+Final.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>But the painting just wouldn't get resolved. I'd tried all sorts of ways to fill in the bottom left corner which clearly needed something, but nothing worked. One idea that kept surfacing was to put cave-style images of animals there but it seemed somehow too obvious, or maybe too pretentious. But that was in fact the idea I discovered when I looked at my earlier digital experiment.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLoVgFjpzU50gut4LXcnB6IEikkkzphLa52BAmGjf-hwFTG3fjOgEhYEXvSXXn2f1bpiphuRtp9gkyKWta4qi3HuY1rRJ5AevYaCQUGxS_CUA2WQo3BIFcgVVcJBBVDcZgsCiD8527g-cW/s1600/Crazy-Story-5-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLoVgFjpzU50gut4LXcnB6IEikkkzphLa52BAmGjf-hwFTG3fjOgEhYEXvSXXn2f1bpiphuRtp9gkyKWta4qi3HuY1rRJ5AevYaCQUGxS_CUA2WQo3BIFcgVVcJBBVDcZgsCiD8527g-cW/s320/Crazy-Story-5-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>So I did that and immediately the dust of Africa entered the picture. The new atmosphere was undeniable. A layer of prehistory had become superimposed over the modern street scene, as if the deep memory still running in those lined faces had seeped out and onto the canvas. It felt authentic.<br />
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Only trouble is, I felt like a fraud. What business did I, a first world white man, have painting in a bow carrying hunter? Ok, it's out there in my world which happens to be the Africa I love, but it's not my culture. Hell, I haven't even seen a real life bow hunter, other than as cave drawings. I'm basically being a cultural thief.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0Fsjb6sCyt49YRYTiJuod9F7S4mglj5TzVHQb5lOlgaKqnEOo7POLsCcVCCMo24BuhxzUQR8M4tNeQF_ec-LSVgeONgTvZfKUkhE6CHgesq7TDrZ56UZcuCS7rlmMlbgH2KCLG8jzTkG/s1600/Crazy-Story-5-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm0Fsjb6sCyt49YRYTiJuod9F7S4mglj5TzVHQb5lOlgaKqnEOo7POLsCcVCCMo24BuhxzUQR8M4tNeQF_ec-LSVgeONgTvZfKUkhE6CHgesq7TDrZ56UZcuCS7rlmMlbgH2KCLG8jzTkG/s1600/Crazy-Story-5-2.jpg" /></a></div>And then the second movement happened. How would those ancient cave painters view this bizarre white man's world? Without really realising I was doing it I scratched a primal hi-rise building amongst the dusty animals.<br />
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It took all of 10 seconds, but it completely transformed the painting, and for that matter my role as painter. The whole long human story of civilisation rising like a bean stalk through the most fundamental patterns of human life got summed up in those few strokes, and along with it our dislocation from our own deepest nature.<br />
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In the months I've been hunting for a solution to this painting I've occasionally been asked what the man in it is saying. In the context of the primitive hi-rise and the plane I added afterwards, the expression on is face is saying, "You won't believe this baby, it's just too wacky to be true, but I swear, it's real."<br />
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So I've decided to rename it Crazy Story.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Mzy8ECLnk875S2EqlSvKo_8ZjaQStwKSrEOPWLh5Y_hP4W9Eu38FemBOBCGJ7cacUqyyaDGZ8J8enoXJqf2qcc7-bGn0_41k-NTKkQcP95ne64qC8WFWyil_rkX1baEauWAiA1goxB_M/s1600/Crazy-Story-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Mzy8ECLnk875S2EqlSvKo_8ZjaQStwKSrEOPWLh5Y_hP4W9Eu38FemBOBCGJ7cacUqyyaDGZ8J8enoXJqf2qcc7-bGn0_41k-NTKkQcP95ne64qC8WFWyil_rkX1baEauWAiA1goxB_M/s1600/Crazy-Story-5.jpg" /></a></div>Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-10079423729698993792011-09-22T08:24:00.000-07:002011-09-30T10:30:02.893-07:00Come to a stop. Get more done.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBsSxa2KrP3aKkcHFmJfsk-2ZqFV2B5KCtR6cIRuspSmvXKeuDLLcqTwK14U8tqYflAtleUzKg8aygjG2dsY_74KNyhbRrxVJjl2cY_ZuWVX0eTUc3WjsCt5aH7xl31TAGQbcNez7F6MU/s1600/Eve-WIP-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBsSxa2KrP3aKkcHFmJfsk-2ZqFV2B5KCtR6cIRuspSmvXKeuDLLcqTwK14U8tqYflAtleUzKg8aygjG2dsY_74KNyhbRrxVJjl2cY_ZuWVX0eTUc3WjsCt5aH7xl31TAGQbcNez7F6MU/s320/Eve-WIP-1.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTtDVBWa3SCJ4kS1StB8KHolZXt3POj5GQdU0aqL1VcyTv4KkNvuvdjY0DTCnX9s8qktLolxaooV3tbIAPSWQJe5rhfAruclq4RWh_7cseKj86YfhcfKfHlKujTry6KB9JORJT4oee0fJy/s1600/Playful-Mountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
Because I can, and because circumstances have suggested it, I've been experimenting with the complete absence of effort as a way of getting things done.<br />
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If this sounds like a load of bollocks to you, indulge me for a sentence or two before you sign off because there <i>is </i>method at work in this seeming madness.<br />
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It arises out of the process that produces the work I do. I've noticed again and again how the best paintings are most often those that arise by surprise, take over the creative process and basically paint themselves. Quite often this will produce something that I believe at first the public will dislike, while typically it's those pieces that become the most popular.<br />
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Because of this I often say that I just follow orders, it's not me doing the work. This is familiar to many creative professionals, like musicians who report songs dropping into their minds essentially complete, all they had to do is write them down and soak up the applause.<br />
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Sounds like a damn fine idea to me.<br />
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By contrast I've also seen with tiresome monotony how charging after some stated goal with all the enthusiasm of a puppy far too often just produces a tired and disappointed puppy.<br />
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So for some years now I've been fascinated with the possibility that life can be lived from a state of non-effort. Rest on Existence as a seed rests on the breeze. Move only when moved, so that what emerges is the product of a deeper current and is achieved effortlessly even if vast amounts of energy are being expended.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6tH9je2rhRAnl7Z8wik36p1eJ9OgFrYXRm3Rm8Jr41qHr_DQg_KoFQI7CgtAi1FyTDbbGqOM9uEEk7wdl710mKaOOlZzh-t5gkbd7RKptGYKwvHsPa2aou_SOvJ2gJxRLRDd3h54ZlNGM/s1600/Lightrider-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6tH9je2rhRAnl7Z8wik36p1eJ9OgFrYXRm3Rm8Jr41qHr_DQg_KoFQI7CgtAi1FyTDbbGqOM9uEEk7wdl710mKaOOlZzh-t5gkbd7RKptGYKwvHsPa2aou_SOvJ2gJxRLRDd3h54ZlNGM/s320/Lightrider-4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The most recent bout of this thinking came along as a result of the Lightrider piece (seen here in its final form). The metaphor of surfing got me pondering the interplay between the immensity of Immensity and the small but crucial human.<br />
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Take that tiny dark figure out of the painting and it's just a meaningless abstract. Put him back and a huge crashing energy is given conscious intent.<br />
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But here's the point - the rider doesn't create the wave. He/she paddles out, gets to the ideal spot and waits. Floats on the water's surface. Gazes attentively at the vastness that is the ocean, and . . waits.<br />
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When <i>that </i>particular wave is seen approaching it becomes all about place time and balance. If it all works out there's an exhilarating ride that gives the rider a rush like a clean drug, and heshe heads straight back out again for more.<br />
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Now obviously there's plenty of effort involved in paddling out to the back line, getting to the magical spot where the wave picks you up, and of course tons of practice and lots of getting wiped out at first. But ask any surfer if what heshe does is hard work?<br />
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And here's the bottom line. If the surfer tried to get that rushing ride by paddling furiously without the push of a convenient wave, you'd quickly see an exhausted and very disappointed puppy dragging its soggy self back home. The wave supplies the effort. The rider just goes along for the ride.<br />
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It looks rather as if something was trying to make this point to me, because the Lightrider painting is itself the result of a creative surge that arose without my conscious intent. And once it had my attention it pretty much used me as a brush to bring itself into physical form. Certainly there was plenty of kinetic energy expended in its making, but it was energy I simply rode to completion. It was exhilarating and effortless.<br />
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Sounds like a damn fine way to make a living if you ask me.<br />
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So. With this still fresh in my mind, various forces conspired to lead me this week to carefully and constructively do nothing. I don't mean just hang about idly. I mean do <i>Nuh</i> . . <i>thing!</i><br />
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Because if there's one thing we humans do incessantly and uselessly more than anything else, it's think. Lay the body down in a comfy couch and the mind goes hurtling off all over the place. And usually it's fretting, strutting, or fantasizing. Uselessly. First thing AM to last PM. 24/7 (with sleep breaks, but then you dream). Year after year. Most of it utterly fruitless.<br />
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So what happened is that said conspiring forces made me acutely aware that a whole lot of discomfort had chosen to visit with me and that said discomfort was rooted in the incessant chatter of this monkey mind chasing its own tail trying to solve the unsolvable.<br />
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What might happen if I pulled the plug on it every time it got up to its junk jive? Made like the surfer, lay at rest on the surface of whatever mind rests on, and . . . waited?<br />
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As it turns out it's Spring out here in the African sticks, and a rather gorgeous one at that. And because I got no deeds to do no promises to keep (spot the cultural ref? I'll give you a clue. Paul Simon) I have the freedom to sit and constantly refer my inner monkey to the gorgeous Spring out there and away from the tedious and useless obsessing that it so does love to do.<br />
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As a whole lot of Tibetans in funny clothes know, this is not easy. Bizarre how much work it takes to relax. Except that then you're not relaxing, you're working. Bummer. But I've had a bit of practice at this over the years so convincing those little internal clutching hands to unclutch is at least possible in bits. And the gorgeous Spring helps.<br />
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Ok. So I open my mind to the pretty space in the garden. What am I waiting for? For a wave. For something to move without me telling it to. Could be a painting. Could be go make some popcorn. Go snooze. Maybe the solution to the unsolvable. But mostly what I'm interested in is a glimpse of the mysterious something that makes a painting happen without me painting it. That great things can arise out of stillness. That life can become effortlessly fulfilled.<br />
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Sounds cool, huh? But before we get too excited - assuming you're still with me -, the jury's still out on this one. It's really just a working hypothesis and an experiment to match. But the fact that I'm now writing this blog is because something moved - Go write that blog, it said. A first result. Woohoo!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBsSxa2KrP3aKkcHFmJfsk-2ZqFV2B5KCtR6cIRuspSmvXKeuDLLcqTwK14U8tqYflAtleUzKg8aygjG2dsY_74KNyhbRrxVJjl2cY_ZuWVX0eTUc3WjsCt5aH7xl31TAGQbcNez7F6MU/s1600/Eve-WIP-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqBsSxa2KrP3aKkcHFmJfsk-2ZqFV2B5KCtR6cIRuspSmvXKeuDLLcqTwK14U8tqYflAtleUzKg8aygjG2dsY_74KNyhbRrxVJjl2cY_ZuWVX0eTUc3WjsCt5aH7xl31TAGQbcNez7F6MU/s200/Eve-WIP-1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Originally this posting was going to be about the painting at the top of the page. The painting was itself an unmeditated product, having arisen out of a whoosh of creative energy a couple of weeks back. At first I couldn't stop staring at it, smitten by the freshness of stroke and what they represent. But after about 3 days the honeymoon was over and I set about adding to it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2W5PlAH_5olVHHBNChyik_GRTV4k1IcHxiYlXprJNfKBvZKbn6qL1PxnDK2aT7eTIW83N171mz_6efK_CJYIrkBMEOE9ZRag0ehszXRV5uGRQFPSChNUZSZCUndA6qHe-ipDWHuECHA_/s1600/Eve-WIP-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy2W5PlAH_5olVHHBNChyik_GRTV4k1IcHxiYlXprJNfKBvZKbn6qL1PxnDK2aT7eTIW83N171mz_6efK_CJYIrkBMEOE9ZRag0ehszXRV5uGRQFPSChNUZSZCUndA6qHe-ipDWHuECHA_/s200/Eve-WIP-4.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>And completely lost the plot.<br />
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What you see here is the result after rescuing it from a place that was seriously not well. I'd followed a daring idea to smear red onto the canvas direct from the tube, living dangerously and confident that it would work out fine.<br />
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Well, it didn't. The result reminded me of those colourful paintings of clowns, usually very well executed but churned out en masse and corny as popcorn without the taste (I sprinkle Kikkoman on mine).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7S-98AnqWSUrcw_RPW34ud95E2RpIj0PWWgpi4T_mfRzxoqoZQntgPA4tcVHjoQUOEilJMX3_tz1U51OqUE0HtV6y1UOEoy4TkoYzmvYEGBFbMFm1_d5D0T5r_M6QimGIOZNnKiZDyOD/s1600/Eve-WIP-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_7S-98AnqWSUrcw_RPW34ud95E2RpIj0PWWgpi4T_mfRzxoqoZQntgPA4tcVHjoQUOEilJMX3_tz1U51OqUE0HtV6y1UOEoy4TkoYzmvYEGBFbMFm1_d5D0T5r_M6QimGIOZNnKiZDyOD/s320/Eve-WIP-5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>And so things stayed for a while, until this last Tuesday something moved again and I splashed some more paint across, this time coming off my third day of sitting in non-monkey space.<br />
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It's an improvement, but I can honestly say I have no idea where it's going. What seems to be happening is that the disconnect from humdrum thoughtwheels has entered into the creative flow. I found myself adding white right across the body of the figure, following the sort of impulse that I might normally notice but be too timid to act on. I guess I had nothing to lose so I followed it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_euvqY8W7ZmGDcbs_CyH3DhxD3jlHfgEpWGdXDq6RtLG2d-qPC-4rIPRpASGM829nBAKuq0XHa8hrw6gBPg0UsSA7iSbFw_SLrshyphenhyphenCBxkPDo7WYeIvoBQS5F9xL3iOxG34KmU7duBZEUH/s1600/Water-Phoenix-WIP-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_euvqY8W7ZmGDcbs_CyH3DhxD3jlHfgEpWGdXDq6RtLG2d-qPC-4rIPRpASGM829nBAKuq0XHa8hrw6gBPg0UsSA7iSbFw_SLrshyphenhyphenCBxkPDo7WYeIvoBQS5F9xL3iOxG34KmU7duBZEUH/s1600/Water-Phoenix-WIP-4.jpg" /></a></div>A similar impulse produced the squiggle over the right shoulder. A friend had visited earlier in the day and was talking about a bird tattoo across her shoulder. I hauled out an old sketch of a piece I still intend to do sometime, and the upshot was that the sketch got in on the act too.<br />
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So now I find myself adrift on the creative breeze as far as this piece is concerned. It's become the external version of the internal experiment.<br />
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As Zorba said, Ghoo ghno what ghappen next?Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-21574562897260816942011-08-29T04:35:00.000-07:002011-08-31T00:08:37.709-07:00Art and the elves, boys and girls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh18-h9ZHvu4P6xk6l9Eiil_BAVwQZ7P2PO4ZgkSWfPY_WowKH_illyrHljIt5mNH2Ut-LRhjsnfMxfacSZ-5AEGeF26fzRot99m6WteXxoII74uCdtAsP90OXtJOx12cMYYP9a5R4ZTqzt/s1600/Surf-WIP-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 2em;"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh18-h9ZHvu4P6xk6l9Eiil_BAVwQZ7P2PO4ZgkSWfPY_WowKH_illyrHljIt5mNH2Ut-LRhjsnfMxfacSZ-5AEGeF26fzRot99m6WteXxoII74uCdtAsP90OXtJOx12cMYYP9a5R4ZTqzt/s200/Surf-WIP-1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
That hidden hand or mind or whatever has been at work once again in the latest piece in progress. After uploading the previous post I thought I'd better reshape things into a rough usable form before the paint got too dry, so I got to work and scraped, pushed and shoved until it seemed ready for me to get more focused the next day.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiej4oAgmwje3PaxvjZJxI-wSd0ZFa6rpcbvd6NhTQCCWisnPVHQ5brJjAT0t4e7vemXGm-H-jb0mOUcqll4M4Nngt4OuGkdyWSAiO8hgsv3_HtbCeH9tVRN-JBOZs1hUgwE6lpjMAr5Nt2/s1600/Surf-WIP-1-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiej4oAgmwje3PaxvjZJxI-wSd0ZFa6rpcbvd6NhTQCCWisnPVHQ5brJjAT0t4e7vemXGm-H-jb0mOUcqll4M4Nngt4OuGkdyWSAiO8hgsv3_HtbCeH9tVRN-JBOZs1hUgwE6lpjMAr5Nt2/s320/Surf-WIP-1-1.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
As usual I hung it up on my work-in-progress lounge wall and went about the evening's routines. So it was only some time later that I realised it was already almost perfect.<br />
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Here's how it looked at the time, and below how it was after adding light and dark the next day.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCwSvhGxoQqFaA0TgYeXhLuhviH8bAFBlLdzqsGlBCt-e1u0CkQ8pMX-HHXfibmRSsbXb6KEuBMrYufsPiFVL6Sa-qUNF1Wn5-XYgf5fTq_SpSPaRez3hjEZ-HmPUk9SwRZIRe0IzjDT_/s1600/Lightrider-WIP-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCwSvhGxoQqFaA0TgYeXhLuhviH8bAFBlLdzqsGlBCt-e1u0CkQ8pMX-HHXfibmRSsbXb6KEuBMrYufsPiFVL6Sa-qUNF1Wn5-XYgf5fTq_SpSPaRez3hjEZ-HmPUk9SwRZIRe0IzjDT_/s1600/Lightrider-WIP-2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Behind all that huffing and puffing the real creative process had been at work again without my normal conscious mind being aware of it. The big long strokes and vigorous scrubs I'd intended as a guide to later work had already taken on the essential form of the finished piece, all I had to do was add depth following the shape already laid down. <br />
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And try not to bollocks it up.<br />
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This appears to be the way this other mind seems to prefer working. It likes it best when the thinking department is occupied with something other than a direct focus on how to apply or remove paint, as it was when scrubbing away. It's as if a space gets cleared somewhere in the creative warehouse because the well-meaning but rather plodding clerk-mind gets called away and the elusive mercurial genius-mind can take the gap and run with it. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimVVAcTC-2jLe0Er8Ak3NN60ZylTTzhN9PDfen9IaInkev4eKZvuvteSxiUI7tg6Cv0OSsPuHaJjjRdiTNrb_IBJEAg0AQwvAToRQ6z32A103p4f9_ty1ysShKebdclL0KkWW_KD8bnWI4/s1600/Gypsy+WIP+3+detail+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimVVAcTC-2jLe0Er8Ak3NN60ZylTTzhN9PDfen9IaInkev4eKZvuvteSxiUI7tg6Cv0OSsPuHaJjjRdiTNrb_IBJEAg0AQwvAToRQ6z32A103p4f9_ty1ysShKebdclL0KkWW_KD8bnWI4/s200/Gypsy+WIP+3+detail+1.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>Another thing that struck me about this latest piece is how similar it is to the previous one. That too had a stand-back-gobsmacked moment, the time the profile landed all by itself, gifting me with the core of the piece to dance the rest of the painting around.<br />
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Like this one, that piece also emerged at the last moment to bump off from the prepared canvas a different idea I'd been about to start work on. <br />
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What fascinates me also is that at the time I was obsessed about it being a <a href="http://greatsnarkhunt.blogspot.com/2011/07/whos-in-charge-of-this-art-gig-anyway.html">chick painting</a> and omigod how was I going to hold my head up in the world producing chick art?!? Well, this one's a bru painting. Parity has been found.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUINkNywdqADeIV9Hd9lcktvzZ04tPrLrolaTvlp3P7nqsm-vhxBNAnf2W1rr5TexHPeWtbCql1DjDOATedZ4rNlUQnVeFKM-0gf7ptmHH3BfmdjhcJQQMVOfVMF0g3l-lfGkL_VcbGRze/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUINkNywdqADeIV9Hd9lcktvzZ04tPrLrolaTvlp3P7nqsm-vhxBNAnf2W1rr5TexHPeWtbCql1DjDOATedZ4rNlUQnVeFKM-0gf7ptmHH3BfmdjhcJQQMVOfVMF0g3l-lfGkL_VcbGRze/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-12.jpg" /></a><br />
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Another similarity of opposites is that the first is a woman-shaped gap through which is seen what seems to me like deep galactic space, whereas the second is a small but significant man-shape riding what looks like a wave of light rolling in from those same depths.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCwSvhGxoQqFaA0TgYeXhLuhviH8bAFBlLdzqsGlBCt-e1u0CkQ8pMX-HHXfibmRSsbXb6KEuBMrYufsPiFVL6Sa-qUNF1Wn5-XYgf5fTq_SpSPaRez3hjEZ-HmPUk9SwRZIRe0IzjDT_/s1600/Lightrider-WIP-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCwSvhGxoQqFaA0TgYeXhLuhviH8bAFBlLdzqsGlBCt-e1u0CkQ8pMX-HHXfibmRSsbXb6KEuBMrYufsPiFVL6Sa-qUNF1Wn5-XYgf5fTq_SpSPaRez3hjEZ-HmPUk9SwRZIRe0IzjDT_/s320/Lightrider-WIP-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Are these two siblings? Are they lovers? Hopefully for painting genetics it's the latter, because already there's been cross-pollination from the Lightsurfer to the Earthen Moon. The coloring and strong free strokes of the surfer dude helped free up some of the angst-laden paintwork in the goddess. Following the momentum of that kinetic energy I reworked some areas, particularly the area behind the head, and at last I'm beginning to look at it with a sense that it feels right.<br />
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Now to loosen up those horses... <br />
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Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-23893728667790498772011-08-23T05:45:00.000-07:002011-08-23T05:45:02.509-07:00Ride the Wave<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXT9T2ji2nZnE0VY1zFt4LpUulUsVERyEqw8i9oRVfx0A4nfz0mI_JyeTXLfdYSleSx3V5XoyQ-WfOKhYvMoHY-Xb5sC5pEk-OsRtreuRfgp4p51FZMF4JxzhGEA-f65fdpGjrRjW9uYs1/s1600/Strange+Pilot+layout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXT9T2ji2nZnE0VY1zFt4LpUulUsVERyEqw8i9oRVfx0A4nfz0mI_JyeTXLfdYSleSx3V5XoyQ-WfOKhYvMoHY-Xb5sC5pEk-OsRtreuRfgp4p51FZMF4JxzhGEA-f65fdpGjrRjW9uYs1/s320/Strange+Pilot+layout.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In another of those surprise moves that the creative process comes up with - and it does so more and more often now it seems - the canvas on which I'd planned to begin "Strange Pilot" got hijacked by an entirely different subject.<br />
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Part of it was that I've spent so much time finding my way through the last two paintings that I found the idea of a fast simple piece rather appealing, but perhaps more to the point is that this image caught my eye and was so immediately striking that I just had to go deeper into it. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4UzidqGF8j1eXRTH4LzXDtyyxcXnPp7J-Q92VibpbRGuK5MeVa1hkIuI8GwAHISxOV9-eJynTeNR9hpzx4u_joPLg40MBHL8TIz8kKsSslmgOFbA8zTJTWGixwAp6Yro-D735xUh0Pikw/s1600/Surf-Ref.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4UzidqGF8j1eXRTH4LzXDtyyxcXnPp7J-Q92VibpbRGuK5MeVa1hkIuI8GwAHISxOV9-eJynTeNR9hpzx4u_joPLg40MBHL8TIz8kKsSslmgOFbA8zTJTWGixwAp6Yro-D735xUh0Pikw/s320/Surf-Ref.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Here's what happened. I was at a party with a mix of old hippies and young surfers where the video projection at the back of the stage was surf footage. I've dabbled in surfing over the years but it's hardly top of my mind, so when I hauled out my camera it was to take shots of the play of light around the silhouetted dancers. Scanning through the shots later I saw some interesting stuff but the background video in this particular shot for some reason jumped out, strongly. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj5AEB_Vd9HF-Zr0ARmfxqiCrDBeLq1NPq6wMzfY4YmXtjhL_1xcP3CiWefervskbYGu6MAaGyVbccfZy1xPZIsNw6EXgHFDH3N-e-ZVNtB6HH9C2VFLHlMrND_Qm1qbk36Fhrg9jB7Pdx/s1600/Surf-00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj5AEB_Vd9HF-Zr0ARmfxqiCrDBeLq1NPq6wMzfY4YmXtjhL_1xcP3CiWefervskbYGu6MAaGyVbccfZy1xPZIsNw6EXgHFDH3N-e-ZVNtB6HH9C2VFLHlMrND_Qm1qbk36Fhrg9jB7Pdx/s400/Surf-00.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>So I culled it out, pushed pulled and so on and here's the result as a digital layout.<br />
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The extreme simplicity of it is somehow very appealing, but the suggestion of movement in the crashing wave devoid of detail also suits the big strong brushstrokes I've been exploring, so that was part of the attraction. It's interesting too that "Strange Pilot" was going to be an exercise in light emerging from dark, and that's happening here too.<br />
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But behind these more obvious motivations I suspect activity from that other mind that seems to have the final say in so much of what I do these days. A big wave, crashing hugely, a human form in the thick of it, riding that storm of natural energy? Why should this jump out and say "paint me"?<br />
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As a working hypothesis I'd say it's because that's the way my life seems to be at the moment, and along with mine the lives of many of those around me. Now I'm not gonna stick my head out too far here because humans have encountered challenging times repeatedly over our history, but it does rather seem that something pretty damn big is rolling in.<br />
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So. Note to myself. Priority one: Keep your balance. And if in doubt, paint it. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh18-h9ZHvu4P6xk6l9Eiil_BAVwQZ7P2PO4ZgkSWfPY_WowKH_illyrHljIt5mNH2Ut-LRhjsnfMxfacSZ-5AEGeF26fzRot99m6WteXxoII74uCdtAsP90OXtJOx12cMYYP9a5R4ZTqzt/s1600/Surf-WIP-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh18-h9ZHvu4P6xk6l9Eiil_BAVwQZ7P2PO4ZgkSWfPY_WowKH_illyrHljIt5mNH2Ut-LRhjsnfMxfacSZ-5AEGeF26fzRot99m6WteXxoII74uCdtAsP90OXtJOx12cMYYP9a5R4ZTqzt/s320/Surf-WIP-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Anyway, here's the first paint as it landed on the canvas. As happened last time it's tempting to leave it like this as there's a freshness about it that's rather appealing, but I'm gonna press on with the plan and go high contrast. A bit too Turner-esque as it stands. There'll be plenty of opportunity later to land strong fresh strokes over dark background.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZYfVi3LrD_-ttEUkldU6SqPcbbjpZqjQ54mrS4DAQtFN3leqeiGJWG9leiFHdn9Vaf0mAg-lqbAQWWEVmh0-ZysMlvNtnWoZqTwM0A1c0LHZLHkCdXfmQt14lGjGsGMaCxbt5gquPPFaU/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZYfVi3LrD_-ttEUkldU6SqPcbbjpZqjQ54mrS4DAQtFN3leqeiGJWG9leiFHdn9Vaf0mAg-lqbAQWWEVmh0-ZysMlvNtnWoZqTwM0A1c0LHZLHkCdXfmQt14lGjGsGMaCxbt5gquPPFaU/s400/Earthen-Moon-WIP-11.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Meanwhile back on the back plate,the much agonised-over "Earthen Moon" and I seem to have made peace. The she-being has been given the dark mysterious core that seems to be her nature, and in doing so I've come to realise that what we have here is not an image of a woman but in fact a woman-shaped cutout looking onto something like galactic space.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6rPe8WdhIVzj2GnHXI3djDrn-pN0qdb4_EqiS8NJGNc21pyPUMhFXoWZvuX0eUHClk4YyKWFcZi67Hx1RVBxFH1xJGE31phIcODd6AWopNJNMNH-MPiTFMTfVQ59H2s1vNUTrvKL3AQ5g/s1600/3+Dreams+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6rPe8WdhIVzj2GnHXI3djDrn-pN0qdb4_EqiS8NJGNc21pyPUMhFXoWZvuX0eUHClk4YyKWFcZi67Hx1RVBxFH1xJGE31phIcODd6AWopNJNMNH-MPiTFMTfVQ59H2s1vNUTrvKL3AQ5g/s200/3+Dreams+detail.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>This is in fact an unconscious realisation of what I'd thought to do when painting <a href="http://www.yessy.com/jcdw/emo.html?i=4351">"3 Dreams"</a>, but at the time I didn't know how to do that without getting lost in the obvious and the corny. I'm not entirely convinced I'm in the clear as far as that goes, but I think - I hope - I'm out of the danger zone.<br />
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Still. Dreams, it seems, will have their way. Dreams of she-beings. Dreams of waves. <br />
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In dealing with each - keep that balance.<br />
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Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-70275288412041622942011-08-16T10:07:00.000-07:002011-08-16T10:07:57.416-07:00Art and Darkness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM7ZRd5Gmvi2SocAKPg5ptfiW5Zgi9XOrx_obK6tcxOPFpbO3NJxZ-WD_OLLCTgQ_SoouM5UjCdgo-mthIbEgUmHNS1LI7mioZRABYWMAVFFoRYccX2Ro-4w1wLYqu8kt0RFXqDjKeGDC2/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-10-hair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM7ZRd5Gmvi2SocAKPg5ptfiW5Zgi9XOrx_obK6tcxOPFpbO3NJxZ-WD_OLLCTgQ_SoouM5UjCdgo-mthIbEgUmHNS1LI7mioZRABYWMAVFFoRYccX2Ro-4w1wLYqu8kt0RFXqDjKeGDC2/s200/Earthen-Moon-WIP-10-hair.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Sunday was feeling rather creative and I thought I'd do some, y'know, painting, but I got sidetracked by the discovery of an e-book of John le Carre's classic "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" which I then proceeded to guzzle up on my smartphone book reader, another discovery that reveals how life is not all <i>that</i> bad, actually.<br />
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But here's the thing. Our John is rather fond of the fatally flawed hero and the bittersweet ending, and what with a painting on the back of my mind I began to chew absently on this thing in the Arts where happiness is not typically considered a good thing. As if it's not Art if it's not painful.<br />
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Pathos, I believe it's called. A quick google scan reveals pathos as an appeal to an audience's emotions by identifying with the suffering of a character. It's an ancient thing going back to Greek tragedies, alive and well and living in us still. Look at any graphic novel.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://nwpassage.wordpress.com/files/2006/06/smiley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://nwpassage.wordpress.com/files/2006/06/smiley.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>So le Carre's greatest fictional character George Smiley is a sort of quietly tragic superman, or perhaps supermind. The dominant feature of his private life is estrangement from his beautiful and lascivious wife, condemning him to a life of quiet loneliness. Le Carre could just as easily have given him a happy home life with healthy bouncing children, it would have made no material difference to his role of spymaster, but he chose instead to paint him in shadowy shades of damp grey. Perhaps it's the English weather, but more likely it's an instinctive reach for the pathos button.<br />
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Another great author with an even meaner streak is John Steinbeck, who doesn't even bother with sweet and goes for straight for the bitter end, neat. Perhaps it's authors named John - just a quick ad-hoc hypothesis you understand - but both are quite happy to dish up a bleak end to a story.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.empireonline.com/images/image_index/original/49613.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://www.empireonline.com/images/image_index/original/49613.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Hollywood, by contrast, <i>loves</i> the happy ending. It's understandable. After spending all those millions producing a movie you can't have people leaving the theatre moaning about an awful end. Too risky. <br />
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But their preoccupation with artistic gravitas shows up in movies about the business of making movies like "<a href="http://www.empireonline.com/features/35-great-movie-cameos/p25">The Player</a>". The creative bunfight with the money men over the ending to the movie-within-the-movie is resolved in a in a send-up of of the Hollywood process - Bruce Willis arrives just in the nick of time to save Julia Roberts from the electric chair. "What kept you so long?" she asks as he carries her out of the execution chamber. He smirks that smirk of his and says "Traffic was a bitch".<br />
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Now I'm not flying at those heights. Back here in the African sticks things are rather more humble. But behind this lies a fact that is constantly fascinating to me - in essence what I do is make marks on a flat surface. In an age when pictures move, talk, sing and live the richest of fantasy lives to fantastic soundtracks on any of a range of wizz-bang devices - even mimicking real 3d stereoscopic vision - some simple marks on a surface still have the power to move people to the depths of their being.<br />
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So the way I arrange my marks has the power to direct those depths this way or that, and for some reason darkness, whether in the colouring or the themes, is a way to do that.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUnZLKtc-gImmJ43b7edJqO0thnmYvyAIY16veGItWMllNr7Zo2dy0jiurwDClxXEMTPLMChzP7mVNXydiNBFTXhFa34-LAJl9IIjaKdYgc04px4UDKKr2SNTTUum1c__Gb1VKYwxui36V/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-10-head.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUnZLKtc-gImmJ43b7edJqO0thnmYvyAIY16veGItWMllNr7Zo2dy0jiurwDClxXEMTPLMChzP7mVNXydiNBFTXhFa34-LAJl9IIjaKdYgc04px4UDKKr2SNTTUum1c__Gb1VKYwxui36V/s320/Earthen-Moon-WIP-10-head.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Certainly a bright light is impossible to render on canvas without surrounding it with darkness, but in this particular piece it's beginning to look as if the darkness itself is the light. This lass is not a sunny spring day, her beauty is that of the deep night when the moon is down and the stars have the night to themselves.<br />
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It's not pathos, thank pooch, but sometime last week looking at what was appearing on the canvas in front of me I felt a little scared. It's as if I'm watching something deep, powerful and rather awesome rise up from a deep and ancient slumber. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but it has a power that both both fascinates and evokes love.<br />
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Bittersweet love, like dark chocolate. Is that<i></i> pathos? Could be.Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-61438646810152837102011-08-09T04:53:00.000-07:002011-08-11T03:11:31.542-07:00God's stupid brother, beauty and being brutalVia a certain Harry Emerson Fosdick comes an account of an unspecified East African tribe - <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/tricksterkey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.crystalinks.com/tricksterkey.jpg" /></a></div><i>"They say," reports an observer, "that although God is good and wishes good for everybody, unfortunately he has a half-witted brother who is always interfering with what he does."</i><br />
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It seems this brother or maybe his geek son was at work last week interfering in the technology that is usually a reasonably well-behaved servant to the business of painting pictures. The week was spent having to completely re-install the OS and software on my rather new computer, a process that brought with it more juicy opportunities for his activities.<br />
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So the painting that got put on the back plate got joined by everything else while I grappled with this half-wit.<br />
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But here's an interesting thing - he may be annoying and sometimes downright infuriating, but in the bizarre way of things often ultimately helpful. As it turns out this dude - or his wicked little sister - is very well known in myth and folklore. <a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/trickster.html">Crystalinks</a> has this to say about one of his guises-<br />
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<i>The trickster is an important archetype in the history of man. He is a god, yet he is not. He is the wise-fool. It is he, through his creations that destroy, points out the flaws in carefully constructed societies of man. He rebels against authority, pokes fun at the overly serious, creates convoluted schemes, that may or may not work, plays with the Laws of the Universe and is sometimes his own worst enemy. He exists to question, to cause us to question not accept things blindly. He appears when a way of thinking becomes outmoded needs to be torn down built anew. He is the Destroyer of Worlds at the same time the savior of us all. </i><br />
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Reading that I was a little perturbed to realise it's a pretty good description of, well, me.<br />
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"<i>... points out the flaws in carefully constructed societies of man" </i>?<i> </i>Check<i>. </i><br />
<i>"...</i><i> rebels against authority" </i>? Double check.<br />
"<i>... is sometimes his own worst enemy" </i>? Um. Errr . . . Check.<br />
"<i>He exists to question, to cause us to question not accept things blindly." </i>Right on. Etc.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdtIlbsGcJg2tpcgjlOFxauIWiEdhU2SK71-gxpGIED_fvAfpN_noXpG3sko1y5tUJZ7pGseChPkVW39DFYpE1U8jDNT05S3CrAn2IHEo18Zfz8Y5Ki-qdJLtVNcNyzHhjGO5EG3u3ChGh/s1600/King-of-Streets-Semi-Final-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdtIlbsGcJg2tpcgjlOFxauIWiEdhU2SK71-gxpGIED_fvAfpN_noXpG3sko1y5tUJZ7pGseChPkVW39DFYpE1U8jDNT05S3CrAn2IHEo18Zfz8Y5Ki-qdJLtVNcNyzHhjGO5EG3u3ChGh/s200/King-of-Streets-Semi-Final-detail.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>Now it's rather interesting that the painting I'd intended to take off the back plate last week featured this character, a street person in a group gathered on the pavement to listen to a band playing. This guy and his woman were by far the poorest people there but also by far the most immersed in the event. I'd wanted to call the piece 'The Fool and His Wife' but I doubted it would be understood as a reference to The Fool in the Tarot pack - one of the guises of said trickster - and instead as a slur on street people.<br />
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It was his vitality and intelligence that turned him into a subject for the piece, and as usual the painting transformed subject into something else. The beanie he was wearing I'd at first thought to make into one of those pointy hats worn by king's jesters of old, but that didn't work so it became colourful without the baubles and ended up rather like a jolly crown. His blue windbreaker became the burgundy robes of royalty, and even the collar of his shirt took on the feel of a chain of office.<br />
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So he became 'King of Streets' but I'd also toyed with titles like 'The Alchemist' and 'Magus', and again according to <a href="http://www.crystalinks.com/trickster.html">Crystalinks</a> "<i>The trickster is an alchemist, a magician, creating realities in the duality of time and illusion</i>." That's a pretty good description of the function of the Artist too.<br />
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So obviously this guy's important to me. I related to the subject well enough to devote 3 months of agonised tweaking in search of a solution. Probably it's a sort of self-portrait but then that's true of pretty much every painting. Come to think of it the fact that it turned into such a mission makes sense, given his role.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs5oVBim-QUWISv3flbTdlfelAyNmhpUkEFp1gAHCUFUnyobaaXZciQ7JJh7LGY2VzxXo43eKLJO5nMsR6fiHcOVGzcnyPA7xK7_bnC8cjeIGP4fzxViU0ca3Xs_rsfoSBCs80tsau-vaj/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-4-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs5oVBim-QUWISv3flbTdlfelAyNmhpUkEFp1gAHCUFUnyobaaXZciQ7JJh7LGY2VzxXo43eKLJO5nMsR6fiHcOVGzcnyPA7xK7_bnC8cjeIGP4fzxViU0ca3Xs_rsfoSBCs80tsau-vaj/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-4-detail.jpg" /></a></div>But to get back to what was supposed to be on the back plate and my struggle with "chick art". I realised on returning to it what my dilemma was. The head had been originally laid out as dark, almost black, but along the way its colour and texture became so beautiful that I fell in love with it. I was so afraid of losing the beauty that I became creatively crippled, the painting as a whole suffered, and I ended up hating it too. Sounds like a typical love affair doesn't it? <br />
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Also sounds like a job for the trickster. Kill that holy cow for the sake of what lies beyond. Hell, I'm still in love with it, but I realised rather grimly that I just had to get brutal and move things on.<br />
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So I got to work with some sandpaper, some inky dark paint and a rather large brush, and here's where things stand at the moment. Much as I mourn the loss of the delicate beauty of before I must admit I'm far happier with the piece as a whole. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbJYAcDS_wOkiP_0H1KWKUzg7Nja8Z9X56_aRq9HqR6lKcST_A2fIejsXXTzpVbsTTwyOtMIoncgZTNq3vwAlMSVYrnj-ZXZpuUI_oa3lPYglNBcBUaVlQhvlW062dZpzxiAl_fxXca7bH/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbJYAcDS_wOkiP_0H1KWKUzg7Nja8Z9X56_aRq9HqR6lKcST_A2fIejsXXTzpVbsTTwyOtMIoncgZTNq3vwAlMSVYrnj-ZXZpuUI_oa3lPYglNBcBUaVlQhvlW062dZpzxiAl_fxXca7bH/s640/Earthen-Moon-WIP-9.jpg" width="550" /></a>There are many metaphors and lessons that come to mind in this exercise for life, love and being human in general, but I'll leave those aside for the moment. Probably they'll come up again.<br />
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Meanwhile there's work to do. The show must go on.Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-16532030484984183182011-08-02T05:12:00.000-07:002011-08-02T08:39:26.117-07:00No no no it's gotta go<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8PS-WRU-G5URbvpy4g5Ql4xsUb8NEEQAbTk6CB9DyRA_g57QcbQVCWgXdxMN3OS5JUqm8pCuSRb2-W8pLlIu9OgtEwvpRHFs58aIVlRNEJT1TdAi020VrhaAA65mgJFJXnfnEcy04aqx2/s1600/Earthen+Moon+8+mod.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8PS-WRU-G5URbvpy4g5Ql4xsUb8NEEQAbTk6CB9DyRA_g57QcbQVCWgXdxMN3OS5JUqm8pCuSRb2-W8pLlIu9OgtEwvpRHFs58aIVlRNEJT1TdAi020VrhaAA65mgJFJXnfnEcy04aqx2/s320/Earthen+Moon+8+mod.jpg" width="320" /></a>Having had a few days off from staring at the same piece intensely for two weeks I realised I can't live with it. It's just too damn, well, obvious? cute? cliched? There's something or some things about it that really appeal to my glance although it's hard to say what they are. So it's not ready to be scrapped just yet, but something major needs to happen, and I'm not yet sure what that something is. Here's what's on my mind as a first thought, and no, I didn't go mad with a huge brush over the canvas, it's done digitally.<br />
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It returns my mind to the question that came up when I started this blog - If this piece originated as a sort of love song to the goddess, why is that simple idealistic hopefulness less satisfying than the complexities that always follow the honeymoon?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6rPe8WdhIVzj2GnHXI3djDrn-pN0qdb4_EqiS8NJGNc21pyPUMhFXoWZvuX0eUHClk4YyKWFcZi67Hx1RVBxFH1xJGE31phIcODd6AWopNJNMNH-MPiTFMTfVQ59H2s1vNUTrvKL3AQ5g/s1600/3+Dreams+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6rPe8WdhIVzj2GnHXI3djDrn-pN0qdb4_EqiS8NJGNc21pyPUMhFXoWZvuX0eUHClk4YyKWFcZi67Hx1RVBxFH1xJGE31phIcODd6AWopNJNMNH-MPiTFMTfVQ59H2s1vNUTrvKL3AQ5g/s320/3+Dreams+detail.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>I know it's not just me. The definitive case in point is a piece I did last year, 3 Dreams, based on this figure. Believe it or not this girl was dancing at the time but not even she can say why her pose was so closed in on itself. As soon as I saw the pic it fascinated me and I knew there was a painting there. But when I finally got it done and out in the public gaze I was pretty sure it would be too dark, too scary for people. And indeed words like 'twisted', 'alone' or 'lost' were used by viewers to describe it.<br />
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But these were <i>good </i>things. It was a hugely popular piece, and not just to gothic young women out of The Adams Family. Middle aged middle class businesswomen were equally drawn to it, and not a few men.<br />
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So what's going on here?<br />
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It seems we humans are drawn to drama. The fact is that no compelling story is one of simple happiness, something so well known in Hollywood that empires are based on it. Storytelling is based on conflict. Every hero needs a villain. It's embedded in our reality system. We want the happy ending, but not before a whole lot of bad news goes down. Perhaps it has something to do with evolutionary processes, something for consciousness to push against while it whiles away eternity. I don't know. I wasn't there at the design stage as far as I recall so I just work with what's put in front of me.<br />
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But whatever. I'm gonna put this one on was on the backplate to boil down and swap it out with what I put there when it got started - and just maybe finally finish a piece that is still not done after about 4 months - King of Streets. What needs attention is the bottom left, an area that got painted out when my previous cert for a solution turned out a dud.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVI55yAGfTcA5vgBSkp-b4t40n8nSO8m3dE4mKkAmzsaFW9qoO0E5jlc5xHsSnTNCTfwNBHNuRDf83ZTao5NBc4SctgoMvRbnSgDEY8Dhhd1jMEv1D2-leK5o2KArC2PaBRK9X6FiMi0P/s1600/King+of+Streets+Semi+Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVI55yAGfTcA5vgBSkp-b4t40n8nSO8m3dE4mKkAmzsaFW9qoO0E5jlc5xHsSnTNCTfwNBHNuRDf83ZTao5NBc4SctgoMvRbnSgDEY8Dhhd1jMEv1D2-leK5o2KArC2PaBRK9X6FiMi0P/s1600/King+of+Streets+Semi+Final.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXT9T2ji2nZnE0VY1zFt4LpUulUsVERyEqw8i9oRVfx0A4nfz0mI_JyeTXLfdYSleSx3V5XoyQ-WfOKhYvMoHY-Xb5sC5pEk-OsRtreuRfgp4p51FZMF4JxzhGEA-f65fdpGjrRjW9uYs1/s1600/Strange+Pilot+layout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXT9T2ji2nZnE0VY1zFt4LpUulUsVERyEqw8i9oRVfx0A4nfz0mI_JyeTXLfdYSleSx3V5XoyQ-WfOKhYvMoHY-Xb5sC5pEk-OsRtreuRfgp4p51FZMF4JxzhGEA-f65fdpGjrRjW9uYs1/s320/Strange+Pilot+layout.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Meanwhile bubbling up to the surface is another image that's been intriguing me for a while which even already has a title - Strange Pilot. This is the digital layout as a quick sketch - the trail of fossily things is likely to change before we go live. Interesting how that primal art thing is now cropping up everywhere.<br />
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Originally I'd seen it as the figure in dark over a light background as per my usual style, but it just sort of came up the other way round. I find it much harder to make a piece work coming out of darkness but this might just be a case where it gets easier. Sort of feels that way. Wish me luckJan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-23972234760338997362011-07-29T08:09:00.000-07:002011-08-11T03:47:30.607-07:00But is it Art?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixH39Xd3ti9LTTwiOgJPPiXGk2y2rArIXaP8RgLYFvqtOlYaquefluz9sCwPrhke7rXF5uVsH562lwJTix5by8wbj-jjpUIlIskTaQTNzBUTYIkX1I2nVX_v7v5OlqP_KBNOA-1tssW88S/s1600/Earthen+Moon+8+500x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixH39Xd3ti9LTTwiOgJPPiXGk2y2rArIXaP8RgLYFvqtOlYaquefluz9sCwPrhke7rXF5uVsH562lwJTix5by8wbj-jjpUIlIskTaQTNzBUTYIkX1I2nVX_v7v5OlqP_KBNOA-1tssW88S/s640/Earthen+Moon+8+500x.jpg" width="560" /></a></div><br />
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Well, here it is. Barring the odd tweak and shave this is pretty much it. So? Is it art?<br />
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If the definition of art is the end result of the urge that drives humans to scratch images on rocks or cave walls, then it is. But then the same is true of graffiti, some of which is viewed as art and some, well, not. Will it end up in the Guggenheim or Tate? Not likely.<br />
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The fact is though that something seemed fairly determined to express itself through me and I did what I'm able to give it expression within my current mastery of oils, and via the shape of my current visual preferences.<br />
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If I look at it from a longer perspective it seems both waif-like and wraith-like. It seems to be a portrait of a female consciousness dreaming deeply with a wildness and intensity bordering on madness. Perhaps it's an attempt by the battered and bewildered love in my own male consciousness to come to terms with the seemingly impenetrable mystery of the female principle, through the only aspect of life that's ever worked reliably for me - art. Whatever that might be. Visual media.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLhY-WKVj36fo42n4-a8TrJfy72Bo9fBP-7Et_dbtuucKoNLyeOofD8zC3egz2aPFweQpElGRQNm9lcHqQ7hyphenhyphen8ZWnNEAR6Pu7c04H6fFd1teIHzEfivynTH5uXqz25nv7UfH51L9MCks7F/s1600/Earthen+Moon+8+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLhY-WKVj36fo42n4-a8TrJfy72Bo9fBP-7Et_dbtuucKoNLyeOofD8zC3egz2aPFweQpElGRQNm9lcHqQ7hyphenhyphen8ZWnNEAR6Pu7c04H6fFd1teIHzEfivynTH5uXqz25nv7UfH51L9MCks7F/s400/Earthen+Moon+8+detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>It struck me last night that there's a dominant arrow shape running through the head. I can't say how it got there, it just sort of happened and I took it for granted and worked with it. Looked at more closely it reminds me of a dark galaxy, and perhaps that's entirely appropriate as company for the moon.<br />
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Whatever the merits or lack of merit this piece might have something in me feels satisfied when I look at it. At least that's the state of things today. It's been known to change.Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-20359060217465913452011-07-28T04:52:00.000-07:002011-08-11T03:44:10.330-07:00Dance with doubtWhen I'm done painting for the day I hang whatever's in progress on the wall in the lounge so I can see it at odd moments, which often provides clues to what has to happen next.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRg_oGqpcuhFs7NbuMFfwqiyjd0ccRnGprWu3TEqeB5EUa-Re1QghKyqz7YBtb4xCJ35pBa7gZ6Y85-CDvtAbGr0TGI1hKsejYi-q5ePmyGMCX0oy8q2nN9PuTmxUPDbKqzr9lh2dPi_B/s1600/Earhen+Moon+WIP+6+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRg_oGqpcuhFs7NbuMFfwqiyjd0ccRnGprWu3TEqeB5EUa-Re1QghKyqz7YBtb4xCJ35pBa7gZ6Y85-CDvtAbGr0TGI1hKsejYi-q5ePmyGMCX0oy8q2nN9PuTmxUPDbKqzr9lh2dPi_B/s200/Earhen+Moon+WIP+6+small.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>So after watching a movie last night I got staring at this piece and it started looking horribly pretentious. Part of this was the 'chick art' thing still hanging about, but what was this romantic thing of running horses for flux sake? And this ridiculous imitation of cave art? How pretentious is that? About the only thing I liked was the moon. Simple, honest, unmodified authentic strokes.<br />
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Some years ago I read a rather excellent book called "The Bohemians" by Dan Franck, about Picasso and that gang and the birth of modern art. Somewhere in it he describes the production of a piece of art as a "dance with doubt". It could be equally called a dance with certainty, as it's some sort of inner knowing that gets the thing moving in the first place. But I know the space he's talking about and last night I was deep in that dance.<br />
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It was quite late by then but the thing couldn't wait. I jumped up and threw some pretty certain paint at the back of the head. This morning I looked at it and saw a goddess having a seriously bad hair day. Out with the scrubber again.<br />
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The problem with this piece is that it looks completely different under different lighting conditions. In good light the colours emerge and the magic of tone and texture is undeniable. In low light it goes into hiding and the chick art thing comes out to taunt me.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2DV_PFBAmDFM_ZrkYZOPysZE2r8sTZjYVUh3U0b4MHNBs2ILtW94tBzjLKcdYujUK29JpQoD6AeEjI-Xd4WgqSuIMl-1DqrA2WXgqn-U28z5-_LP8k3x-6igRj7rk9TSa0mSMWLZ4W3IY/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-7-hair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2DV_PFBAmDFM_ZrkYZOPysZE2r8sTZjYVUh3U0b4MHNBs2ILtW94tBzjLKcdYujUK29JpQoD6AeEjI-Xd4WgqSuIMl-1DqrA2WXgqn-U28z5-_LP8k3x-6igRj7rk9TSa0mSMWLZ4W3IY/s1600/Earthen-Moon-WIP-7-hair.jpg" /></a>Well, there's probably a solution in there somewhere, so after the scrub I pushed some paint around to see what might arise, still working on the area behind the head. Here's the result of the morning's work. It still looks like a bad hair day but I like the texture that's emerged. The paint is rather sloppy at this point and changes at the slightest touch, so I'll leave it as it is for now and play with it further once it's dry.<br />
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And anyway, a nature goddess probably needs a dose of wild hair to make her day. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoAiXQlktgWZeO6cDDLYXp5Xc8fjx_OIx8kf_AcM4hGBso5Ka4gLMYnZBQRjBFXw8Wepe_Eoibla9-rSFpBP8DAdnEI8Pr5kmZU_fBDzB63-TjtT2eevkAlnKaOOGncabsMre4wiyTfZ8t/s1600/Earthen+Moon+WIP+7+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoAiXQlktgWZeO6cDDLYXp5Xc8fjx_OIx8kf_AcM4hGBso5Ka4gLMYnZBQRjBFXw8Wepe_Eoibla9-rSFpBP8DAdnEI8Pr5kmZU_fBDzB63-TjtT2eevkAlnKaOOGncabsMre4wiyTfZ8t/s640/Earthen+Moon+WIP+7+detail.jpg" width="560" /></a></div>In the meantime I added some colour to the body and gave the animals a bit of a push. I'm fascinated by the Lascaux horse on the left. He or she seems to be having a grand day out, with a decided spring in his/her (hirs?) step. Also interesting is how the modeling of the hindquarters has found its way into the horse on the right.<br />
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As for the pretentious imitation of cave art, well, I like the feeling of it. Hell, even Picasso made his big breakthrough because of a fascination with African masks. I'm gonna hang with it and see what happens.Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-48265803172686859732011-07-27T08:10:00.000-07:002011-08-11T03:29:15.470-07:00Get into trouble then dig myself out<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzj3ZuFvokkU4E-n8PZLsCFkexokDREdtz0Y6YMtoRD_B2pJGv-O2-3r6IJd34wuQ1W3Fo9GvMogfPltIzmSdGUvoMUJGBEWwYjOFbR6A0Lq7buHJqHcCb2l20du15PZLs8AfizOyAHjQ/s1600/Earthen+Moon+WIP+5+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzj3ZuFvokkU4E-n8PZLsCFkexokDREdtz0Y6YMtoRD_B2pJGv-O2-3r6IJd34wuQ1W3Fo9GvMogfPltIzmSdGUvoMUJGBEWwYjOFbR6A0Lq7buHJqHcCb2l20du15PZLs8AfizOyAHjQ/s1600/Earthen+Moon+WIP+5+small.jpg" /></a></div>Things don't always work out smoothly.<br />
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It's happened often enough that I'm not sure what's supposed to happen next in a painting, so I deliberately do something with calculated recklessness and then have to repair the mess. Most times when I do this something of value emerges at the end of it that I would not have found otherwise. It's part of the creative process, I've found out. Take risks.<br />
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But in this case it wasn't like that. I thought I knew what I was doing when I added a whole lot of burnt sienna to the bottom. At first it felt good. So I went out on errands and came back with fresh eyes. And it didn't look good no more.<br />
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One of the advantages of working in the digital age is the ability to easily keep a photographic record of work. Comparing what I had on canvas to the way it was before I preferred before. Seems I'd bollocksed it up a bit. <br />
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Fortunately oils are slow drying so there's always a chance to remove unwanted paint. It's very seldom a true undo as the layers beneath are often scraped away in the process, but this adds an element that takes things elsewhere. Sometimes I've scrubbed off paint that wasn't working only to find the core of what was eluding me in the residue left on the canvas.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzfORgteub0uIrlBVLxwY_IgyCFj7vVI4i9qbp_WqXLj7xOMlvq85x-mjzQDT-MSgVv80gsdB-qBcTgFDpeLaKD7uKGazdPo2eeltBEgx-EnOHe__uYnRmytwzDEWt70PH530cdTpjgOX/s1600/Earthen+Moon+WIP+6+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzfORgteub0uIrlBVLxwY_IgyCFj7vVI4i9qbp_WqXLj7xOMlvq85x-mjzQDT-MSgVv80gsdB-qBcTgFDpeLaKD7uKGazdPo2eeltBEgx-EnOHe__uYnRmytwzDEWt70PH530cdTpjgOX/s320/Earthen+Moon+WIP+6+detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>So I got out the undo kit and began the rebuild. Along the way the animals got resketched over the background noise, and now some interesting stuff was starting to happen. The fresh brushtrokes I'd had to sacrifice at the start could now stay there. And once again the unexpected was happening. The left of the two lower figures repeats the unintentional Egyptian overtones with it's vaguely wolf-like head, while it's reddish companion is no longer horse-like but now generic beast. The ones behind are getting a look I like, a sense of movement in the marks with no attempt at realism.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRg_oGqpcuhFs7NbuMFfwqiyjd0ccRnGprWu3TEqeB5EUa-Re1QghKyqz7YBtb4xCJ35pBa7gZ6Y85-CDvtAbGr0TGI1hKsejYi-q5ePmyGMCX0oy8q2nN9PuTmxUPDbKqzr9lh2dPi_B/s1600/Earhen+Moon+WIP+6+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRg_oGqpcuhFs7NbuMFfwqiyjd0ccRnGprWu3TEqeB5EUa-Re1QghKyqz7YBtb4xCJ35pBa7gZ6Y85-CDvtAbGr0TGI1hKsejYi-q5ePmyGMCX0oy8q2nN9PuTmxUPDbKqzr9lh2dPi_B/s640/Earhen+Moon+WIP+6+small.jpg" width="570" /></a></div>The texture that emerged after the scrub was a bit harsh so I brushed a thin layer of white across it. It's likely to be mostly dry tomorrow and I can work some colour back into it. Who can say what surprises may await me there?<br />
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Overall though I'm happy with the look. There was an absence of depth before the burnt sienna was added, and with what remains of it now and the freshly sketched animals it's beginning to feel better balanced. <br />
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But now the blank space behind the head is beginning to niggle...Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-65134493504287174762011-07-25T03:22:00.000-07:002011-08-11T03:26:22.437-07:00Portrait of a Goddess<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihRJTw91DshCqnZpN4yCBQJRA59xtgYlBCqnSedd_QBtxlOeIehxRE2UTDmwUpDHTfFecxMIYo9gUGb818JRSzoh4FFTqjyHCwLmnfTAk3CAZTqAOp57uRZ664mawdHoAvBtsNqebjNw8S/s1600/Earhen+Moon+WIP+4+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP6MnfFQ9tri3ESUiZwL-IRDh4HqxfVS32d2yRBtzviIzbA_CwAx9MGg-ERQp6ziFjyKU8q6f6QZMLZMW8lU-FUvAqAMDB5wBlBEsHu27cFm6u74zy2Pb_CVRwjLutSxmOUvBJ384JuuPh/s1600/Earhen+Moon+WIP+4+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP6MnfFQ9tri3ESUiZwL-IRDh4HqxfVS32d2yRBtzviIzbA_CwAx9MGg-ERQp6ziFjyKU8q6f6QZMLZMW8lU-FUvAqAMDB5wBlBEsHu27cFm6u74zy2Pb_CVRwjLutSxmOUvBJ384JuuPh/s640/Earhen+Moon+WIP+4+small.jpg" width="570" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This piece is starting to take on overtones of worship as opposed to a simple exercise in painting. Perhaps that's entirely appropriate given the strong element of cave art that's running in it. Sometime late last week a title suggested itself - Earthen Moon.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Given the way it seems to be largely painting itself this thinking mind sorts through the threads and comes to the thought that it's a current deep in the primal bedrock of this human male, and he's giving expression to a relentless love for the female principle running through the planet, or perhaps for the ideal woman he's not yet met in human form. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Perhaps I should doodle in somewhere the image of a lone wolf howling at the moon. Just kidding.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjWHtbIfHEZJ43MkQAhh1WiDvsNWVnySRGNbZV7Ygn2AOQTBu0yrjxM1hnaxzdrIdmlibH74oyJXvVVpCSB7OWj_5ru2GH9mw25P4rLjEQQb2LeDYak3HovgBVlYXpjxQ2uNDUsEhQw7n/s1600/Earhen+Moon+WIP+4+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjWHtbIfHEZJ43MkQAhh1WiDvsNWVnySRGNbZV7Ygn2AOQTBu0yrjxM1hnaxzdrIdmlibH74oyJXvVVpCSB7OWj_5ru2GH9mw25P4rLjEQQb2LeDYak3HovgBVlYXpjxQ2uNDUsEhQw7n/s1600/Earhen+Moon+WIP+4+detail.jpg" /></a>It's not very obvious in this digital image but one of the things that came along suggesting itself is the bit of blue towards the top front of the head. It was a flash of reflection off some still wet paint that said 'blue' to me, so I applied some with my index finger. I rather like the way it takes a step away from the earthen colours and introduces a piece of the modern world with its access to the whole spectrum. Just following orders again there, and happy to do so. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dri8Ly-hDEpzOOfdqPFJWQu3n88UZHeMpZwnhHpZ4JUNsiPTjXl8tGy8UxBRMzEIWZEjfmNMHkV-_Ehj6c_YzUeMwGZ8jidi9q7bhgi7QSkpaaHEkEa-2BMC0gvx00DKLXHNVzHy_ks_/s1600/Earhen+Moon+WIP+4+detail2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dri8Ly-hDEpzOOfdqPFJWQu3n88UZHeMpZwnhHpZ4JUNsiPTjXl8tGy8UxBRMzEIWZEjfmNMHkV-_Ehj6c_YzUeMwGZ8jidi9q7bhgi7QSkpaaHEkEa-2BMC0gvx00DKLXHNVzHy_ks_/s1600/Earhen+Moon+WIP+4+detail2.jpg" /></a>But manager mind is getting it's way too. The finish was beginning to look a bit too slick, so I scrubbed some white over the lower sections of the canvas to add some texture and am pleased with the result. The original issue that concerned me about this piece, that it was suspiciously like "chick art" is beginning to recede. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So on we go.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-36053508796523378342011-07-18T03:56:00.000-07:002011-07-19T02:47:50.654-07:00Who's in charge of this art gig anyway?I'm in the habit of saying I just follow orders when it comes to what to paint and how it works out. It's happened enough times that the idea I start out with is quite unlike the image that emerges at the end, implying that the thing I'm accustomed to calling "me" is not necessarily in charge of the process. Manager Mind sets up the practicalities, Genius Mind slips in and does the actual creation. Sometimes manager mind gets taken on quite a runaround.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeI8JPE5q7Y0q_j-CpFuH15V5yKhKPP4SjL8_QBO0y9zFDn7YfhPOo1qPHHcWYQr9URObu0bfAkj5Iet_4kDRsUid-l1ED5YXA_MBPt6LT4dhhftygUC4x2OkKI4b-9jugf1jZgM5jEoQ7/s1600/Gaia+wip1+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeI8JPE5q7Y0q_j-CpFuH15V5yKhKPP4SjL8_QBO0y9zFDn7YfhPOo1qPHHcWYQr9URObu0bfAkj5Iet_4kDRsUid-l1ED5YXA_MBPt6LT4dhhftygUC4x2OkKI4b-9jugf1jZgM5jEoQ7/s200/Gaia+wip1+small.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>So it happens that the issue stalking me with a Chesire-cat smile in relation to the current painting is that it's sailing dangerously close to 'chick' art. I'm accustomed to subjects that have some sort of depth somewhere in them, not just pretty pictures, and this one's flirting outrageously with prettiness. Manager mind is concerned.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeU-OxgnUEFbPcTlRjojqmMj0eq3R-fjIR9XRdQ067419PdrVol2_NW86BbvdI8Sc6F7RzW9uKVe5Hmkk8rNcVB8MbEdlEQVI4dZX5BmBz3Dur82rKDUX86B804Q-67f9ZneQ8mRv3kI3/s1600/Firedance+Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKeU-OxgnUEFbPcTlRjojqmMj0eq3R-fjIR9XRdQ067419PdrVol2_NW86BbvdI8Sc6F7RzW9uKVe5Hmkk8rNcVB8MbEdlEQVI4dZX5BmBz3Dur82rKDUX86B804Q-67f9ZneQ8mRv3kI3/s320/Firedance+Blog.jpg" width="320" /></a>By comparison, perhaps the most satisfying of the pieces I've done recently in this genre is the one pictured here which I called 'Firedance'. The guy who bought it described it as "complexities of life" which is as good a title as any. It began as a graphic image based on a pretty girl and slowly worked its way to a representation of sexual relationship, perhaps not the highest of philosophical themes but certainly one most of us humans grapple with for much of our lives. <br />
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By contrast this new piece risks becoming more like a love-song representing the idealised state that exists before the complexities begin. The fact that I find this lightweight is interesting enough in itself - why should that simple hopefulness be unsatisfying without the drama that follows? - but I'll leave that question alone for now and return to the fact that the 'lite' issue was bugging me but the painting would not lie down. So a solution had to be found.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipnnwi6l9uy_VPpvs-z-8xGkIABm_8FeFy_lyz2T1c4wpLwvYPv0nqigVQg3EuSGfi6fGViUjOWC-Ekxb_y6aMY8OkAVjaoCC-H8sCkFRfAq6XYKOWtJUG4tUkRlbxMYz5xh3y19w-iydr/s1600/Ref+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipnnwi6l9uy_VPpvs-z-8xGkIABm_8FeFy_lyz2T1c4wpLwvYPv0nqigVQg3EuSGfi6fGViUjOWC-Ekxb_y6aMY8OkAVjaoCC-H8sCkFRfAq6XYKOWtJUG4tUkRlbxMYz5xh3y19w-iydr/s200/Ref+detail.jpg" width="153" /></a></div>The place where it all gets decided is in the profile, something so delicate in its execution that I had only a vague notion of how it might be done - here's the original reference that started it all. My first shot at getting this onto canvas had gone all wrong so I scrubbed it off and retreated to ponder the next move.<br />
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That came Saturday night. With nothing social happening out here in the African sticks the profile problem started forming itself into that peculiar internal energetic that is the precursor to creative activity. So I donned my painting clothes, retraced the outline, mixed up some paint and stared at the canvas.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimVVAcTC-2jLe0Er8Ak3NN60ZylTTzhN9PDfen9IaInkev4eKZvuvteSxiUI7tg6Cv0OSsPuHaJjjRdiTNrb_IBJEAg0AQwvAToRQ6z32A103p4f9_ty1ysShKebdclL0KkWW_KD8bnWI4/s1600/Gypsy+WIP+3+detail+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimVVAcTC-2jLe0Er8Ak3NN60ZylTTzhN9PDfen9IaInkev4eKZvuvteSxiUI7tg6Cv0OSsPuHaJjjRdiTNrb_IBJEAg0AQwvAToRQ6z32A103p4f9_ty1ysShKebdclL0KkWW_KD8bnWI4/s320/Gypsy+WIP+3+detail+1.jpg" width="307" /></a>What happened next is one of those rare moments that say so much about life as a human. I knew I needed to add depth of shadow to the face, so I sort of lurched forward and waved paint in approximately the right direction, with the intention of shaping it later. This is what landed on the canvas. <br />
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I'd like to say that I carefully placed each stroke to shape the nose, lips and chin as it would imply a high level of mastery, but the fact is it was nothing like that. The features as seen here landed that way with only the vaguest involvement of my thinking mind. I stepped backed somewhat gobsmacked, realising that the elusive profile I'd been a little scared of had appeared with a delicate precision that I would simply not have been able to achieve had I been trying to do so. There was even a suggestion of a Tutankhamen-like goatee to go with the Thoth-like horse from my last post.<br />
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So who, or what, is doing this painting?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmbLttYwuvLvLO-tEc7Le011GR0TiQ2eU3CRr72ci79KBlxEO4O6vxbjnG_GMaEtWSR__7TMkDDJyEnc-9NNIyr6anOrpDZ35Fv2wE_AujGsbE_4rPVSiLXuSK7yTdgGWOEPD4ioJD-jjX/s1600/Gypsy+WIP+3+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmbLttYwuvLvLO-tEc7Le011GR0TiQ2eU3CRr72ci79KBlxEO4O6vxbjnG_GMaEtWSR__7TMkDDJyEnc-9NNIyr6anOrpDZ35Fv2wE_AujGsbE_4rPVSiLXuSK7yTdgGWOEPD4ioJD-jjX/s320/Gypsy+WIP+3+small.jpg" width="320" /></a>Well, back to manager mind. Astonishing as the event of its appearance is, the profile can't stay like that. It's too much like a logo for a range of hair products, but it is the core of what is to follow. The 'lite' issue is not yet resolved but the direction seems to have appeared. Here's the full canvas as of this writing.Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4861643157121703771.post-45744439046434408922011-07-15T03:51:00.000-07:002011-07-15T03:51:49.669-07:00Art as Life as artSo there's this painting I've just started. That's not a new thing, it's what I do for a living, but this one's interesting in that it brings together a number of threads both in my life and in the themes I've been exploring in the last while.<br />
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It gets a bit complicated so I won't go into all that now, but I've always found the process by which a painting comes into the world a fascinating one. Often the end result is quite unlike what I first thought of, and I've noticed that while my 'manager' mind is busy grappling with layout and light and shadow and so on something else is busy with its own project in the background, and very often this reflects what's going on in my inner life.<br />
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The end product of this dance might be something I'm unable to explain, just a feeling that comes off the canvas, and one of the fulfilling things about this artist gig is that it's this inexplicable feeling that people respond to, even when it seems to be quite dark.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioF0-JhUffGY6buFVwJ9ZVCzcfWEItz2HGtf3Hkb8t53abKQqEx0PQlzwaUZFwmu04iub72xIUvN7FCv7fuMtpP6RMeRnoVI9WppamP53BaeTSp_JYuRnDCmr3Khy6BwK14qit-6NRpvm/s1600/Profile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgioF0-JhUffGY6buFVwJ9ZVCzcfWEItz2HGtf3Hkb8t53abKQqEx0PQlzwaUZFwmu04iub72xIUvN7FCv7fuMtpP6RMeRnoVI9WppamP53BaeTSp_JYuRnDCmr3Khy6BwK14qit-6NRpvm/s320/Profile.jpg" width="320" /></a>So anyway, here's the digital layout of this new painting. It's based on a shot I took some time ago of a lovely young woman and as such runs the risk of becoming like a silly love song. This kept on bugging me but the subject would not go away so I started it yesterday.<br />
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One of the themes I've been toying with in the last while is rock art or cave painting. I've done one piece in that style but found it so unlike my other work that it took some time to realise that I could add nothing more because it was in fact finished. So the line of animals here is that thread looking for a way to come to the main party.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeI8JPE5q7Y0q_j-CpFuH15V5yKhKPP4SjL8_QBO0y9zFDn7YfhPOo1qPHHcWYQr9URObu0bfAkj5Iet_4kDRsUid-l1ED5YXA_MBPt6LT4dhhftygUC4x2OkKI4b-9jugf1jZgM5jEoQ7/s1600/Gaia+wip1+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeI8JPE5q7Y0q_j-CpFuH15V5yKhKPP4SjL8_QBO0y9zFDn7YfhPOo1qPHHcWYQr9URObu0bfAkj5Iet_4kDRsUid-l1ED5YXA_MBPt6LT4dhhftygUC4x2OkKI4b-9jugf1jZgM5jEoQ7/s320/Gaia+wip1+small.jpg" width="320" /></a>Here's the first sketch of it on canvas, and already the journey has begun, with the animals beginning to morph away from horse and towards generic beast with mythical undertones.<br />
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The horse at the far left is my homage to the ancient genius of Lascaux, but the rest are drawn from little sketches I did deliberately without using reference, as would have been the case then. I'm interested in the animal above the first horse as its head suggests Thoth, the ibis-headed god of ancient Egypt.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWVZP1qrBwm18pbuwix6IFcLDJdRWh1VimZCbbLgsBTRsdLQmxzuhwXAfuwKvLN-3H4iNH6kiT-q-2DXYKRZ5-f6_dmq6WcY3oidL15ddYqWwTiKUmN0vstbfvF8gH0dwQeZcn3Qk9_j7w/s1600/Gaia+wip1+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWVZP1qrBwm18pbuwix6IFcLDJdRWh1VimZCbbLgsBTRsdLQmxzuhwXAfuwKvLN-3H4iNH6kiT-q-2DXYKRZ5-f6_dmq6WcY3oidL15ddYqWwTiKUmN0vstbfvF8gH0dwQeZcn3Qk9_j7w/s320/Gaia+wip1+detail.jpg" width="320" /></a>I love the freshness of the paint as it lands on the canvas at this stage and was tempted to leave it like that but it's going to be one of those things that get sacrificed to the painting as a whole. Perhaps it will find it's way to the end product.Jan Cilliers de Wethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11794227397551249396noreply@blogger.com0