The Ecstasy of Truth

The German filmmaker Werner Herzog, in recent interview, talked about the role of factual reality in filmmaking. He had this to say about the liberties he takes with facts in some of his documentaries:

"If we are paying attention about facts, we end up as accountants. If you find out that yes, here or there, a fact has been modified or been imagined, it will be a triumph of accountants to tell me so. But we are into illumination for the sake of a deeper truth, for an ecstasy of truth, for something we can experience once in a while in great literature and great cinema."

This statement applies equally to art. A still life is not simply an even rendering of a group of objects any more than a shopping list is a piece of literature. Take for example the difference between these two "realist" paintings:




The top still life by Stephen Gjertson is an impressive piece, definitely what we would call realist art. There is no denying the artist's ability to reproduce what he sees onto a flat surface. Everything is clearly represented and experienced to the same degree, which, quite frankly, is a little boring and not representative of we we experience the world around us. In the long run this painting leaves me a little cold.
The second painting by David Leffel is a much more powerful work. It is accurate and abstract at the same time. There are artistic decisions which have been made. He has modified and interpreted reality into a work of art that speaks about how we see and experience reality. This is a painting to be dreamed into and lived with.

We painters need to find our special way to an ecstasy of truth.

Cool Landscapes

Fellow artist and illustrator Mike Sass and I decided to spend the weekend in the Canadian Rockies painting. Saturday was beautiful, warm and sunny.








We were both looking forward to continuing Sunday. Unfortunately the gods had other plans. We woke up to 0 degrees and 10 cm of snow.


Yes, it can and does snow every month in Canada.

Villa People

Surrounding Florence are scores of masterpieces tucked away in country churches and small public museums. Some of the most interesting are to found in the Medici Villas which dot the Tuscan landscape. These include: Villa “La Petraia”, Villa of Castello, Villa of Careggi and Villa of Cerrrto, Certainly all of these are worth a visit, but perhaps the most interesting is the Villa of Poggio a Caiano. Designed by Giuliana da Sangallo for Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1480, this villa contains a beautiful garden and the Museum of Still Lives. This museum boasts rooms of paintings from the Medici collections, well presented and rarely visited. The villa itself is a slice of Medici life, including games room, theater, dining rooms and bedrooms. Of particular note is the Salone di Leone X (which takes its name from the famous pope, son of Lorenzo). This room is a showcase of important 16th Cetury frescoes illustrating episodes from Roman history by Andrea del Sarto, Allesandro Allori and Francabigio. The finest work, however, is the lunette by Pontomoro. A mannerist masterpiece, it depicts the divinities Vertumnus, god of harvests and Pomona, goddess of fruit tress.




The villa is a 50 minute trip from Florence. For 2 euros one catches the COPIT bus next to the MacDonald’s on via Nazionale. Phone the museum ahead for a reservation (see number below), pack a lunch to eat in the garden and enjoy a day out of the city.

After the villa, and seeing as how you are in the neighborhood, it is a short bus ride to Carminiagno, where a second Pontoromo masterpiece, “The Visitation”, resides in the church. You can buy a bus ticket (95cents one way) at the bar across the street from the villa and catch the bus directly in front of the villa. Ask for directions to the church when you arrive. Not much else to see there, but be sure to try some of the local sweets and indulge in a bottle of wine from one Italy’s finest regions.

Villa Poggio a Caiano 8:15 – 12:30 2:00 -18:30.. Closed the 2nd and 3rd Monday of the month.
Still Life Museum 055 877012
Both are free to visit.

Drawing from me head!

I have been working on a a program that would develop in students the ability to create and draw the figure from imagination. This an area that is overlooked in the drawing programs of many currents art schools where students are taught to copy and render the model without analyzing it in a way which allows them to create figures without a model. The ability to compose wothout a model is a necessary skill not only for fine artists but more so for students wishing to work as illustrators and concept artists with the film and gaming industries. ( Both of which offer many opportunities). I am consolidating ideas from a number of sources including: The Angel figure drawing program, Andrew Loomis' books, Glen Vilppu's drawing manual, Leonardo's notebooks, the sketchbooks of Adam Hughes, Bridgman's Drawing manuals and Strength Training Anatomy by F. Delavier. The first student of this program is me. Below are some of my sketchbook pages:

Portrait of a Woman

Ingres once asked 'Is there anything more difficult than painting the portrait of a woman?'. Indeed it was Ingres who I took as my model when completing a recent portrait.
The subject was a lovely Florentine lady, so I decided to try and interpret her in the Florentine 'sweet' style so familiar in the works of artists such as Perugino, Leonardo, Botticelli, Raphael and finding it's ultimate expression in Ingres. The basis of this style focuses upon the conceptualization of the subject. Big basic forms are clearly expressed with smaller details subdued. Smooth, luminous modelling and architecturalization of features (modelled on prototypes of classical sculpture) are evident. One can see this clearly in Ingres, who was emulating Raphael. It is also seen in the work of Bouguereau.


Here is my result :


When the subject came to see the portrait she asked "Pero, non e' finito, vero?" (It is not finished, is it?). She explained that she was flattered, but she wanted to look older. And so my experiment came to an end. Time for a repaint.
Since the painting as it was had been painted with an emphasis on the big simplified forms and smooth modelling adding age was relatively straight - forward. When she is happy with the result I will share the final result, and that of the companion portrait.

Yikes and other small suggestions!

Comic book great John Byrne had some advice for me when I asked him how to achieve success as an artist:

"Treat it like a job. Start at the same time, break for lunch at the same time, end at the same time. And remember, time working is time working, not time listening to DVDs, or watching TV, or any other timewasters/distractions.
Focus!"

And then he added this little rhyme:

Busy doing nothing,
Nothing the whole day thru.
Trying to find
Lots of things not to do.

Busy going nowhere,
Isn't it just a crime?
I'd like to be
Unhappy, but,
I never do have the time.

There really are a million excuses not to work. I like to think of myself as a craftsman rather than an "artiste". My father was a carpenter and my grandfather a shoe maker. Working in this tradition is much easier than waiting for my muse to show up. I have to get out of bed, drink some coffee and get to work.
Somewhere around the time of Leonardo and Michelangelo, artists went from being craftsman to being divine. Of course the ultimate conclusion to this way of thinking has lead to anyone who decides to call themselves an artist is an artist. And look what we we end up with: conceptual art and websites full of bad painting. I have a student who is a brain surgeon and wants to be a painter when he retires. It is a strange coincidence because when I retire from painting I was thinking about taking up brain surgery.

Press and More Press

It's been a good month for recognition of my work. First, I came in third in International Artists' Dec-Jan issue figure painting competition. Won a $1000 for that! Next, my painting “Vanitas of the Angels” recieved an honorable mention in the 2007 Art Renewal Center's Salon.(http://artrenewal.org/)
And finally I got an email from a pal back in Calgary. A slick local magazine called "Avenue" featured me as one of Calgary's best artists in their "Best of Calgary" issue.

Ok enough boasting, on with Art!