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MEMBERS' NEWSLETTER: May 2003 Thoughts from the high chair What is artistic success? It seems to be a fact that many of the famous artists from the past were not financially successful and this raises a deeper question of how we measure reward. To an outsider it seems that many artists are quite secure in the belief that their ‘reward’ is the certain knowledge that people appreciate their artwork. Many artists say that they do not work for money and claim a variety of reasons for their motivation. Certainly personal pleasure and private artistic development rank high in the reasons given for their creative endeavours. In addition peer recognition is often a strong motivation, particularly among artists who have had formal training. It seems strange that while many of the ‘recognised artists’ obviously make a living from their art, it looks at least from the outside, that writing books and running training courses is the primary source of income. However I cannot think of anyone who claimed to have decided at the outset of his or her career to become financially rich by becoming an artist. It seems to me that any income obtained from artistic endeavour is legitimate. History shows us that many of the past masters were not above tutoring to supplement their income. The spare-time, hobbyist and pleasure artists can claim, quite legitimately, to have no commercial incentive but many would like occasionally to sell some work they show at exhibitions so as to recover some of their expenses. While our Spring Exhibition is fresh in our minds perhaps we should consider, when we offer pieces for sale, how we ‘price’ the work we submit. The most obvious costs for paintings are the easiest to identify. The canvas, backing, paper, mountboard, painting material and framing can be directly related to purchases and these items should form the basis of the initial items that make up the real cost. However, the amount to be charged for actual creative work, based on time involved, perhaps training undertaken or judged by a lifetime of experience is difficult to establish. The only comment IÊcan make is that most people seem to value their work too lightly. All too often the prices appear too low and cannot possibly reflect the talent, effort and endeavour involved. Should we continue to establish minimum prices at our future exhibitions and try to ensure that artist’s work is sold at a price that reflects a genuine reward for artistic success? Graham Butler, Chairman Responding to Art In January’s newsletter, Graham Butler suggests that ‘the primary human response to art is its ability to stimulate our imagination.’ That sounds very plausible and on reading it I thought, ‘Yes, I can go along with that.’ But then I asked myself what it really meant, and was it true of my own experience? There is a painting, for example, by a minor Danish master (whose name I forget!) painted at the turn of the last century and showing a woman in a white dress sitting under the white blossom of a pear or cherry tree Ð a delightful work that I had seen reproduced in art books and on birthday cards. Then, one day many years back, my wife and I wandered into one of the big Bond street galleries and there was the painting, held by two porters, clearly being shown to its new owners, and I was gobsmacked by it. Sorry about the vulgar expression but that is the point. My reaction was not cerebral, it was visceral. The painting was very much bigger than I had imagined from reproductions. Possibly eight feet high. And it was ravishingly lovely. My imagination was certainly captured by the extravagant excess of blossom, the dazzle of light, the warmth of the sun, the demure languor of the seated woman in her long white dress, the sense of that moment in that place perfectly captured. But the ‘primary human response’ was not going on in my head but much lower down, like a thump in the guts. Again that crude language, but how else to convey the intensity of my reaction to such a beautiful thing? There was envy too, for the new owners were a pair of very young Hong Kong Chinese, and one imagined them to be on their honeymoon and taking the opportunity to view this wedding present from a doting daddy while passing through London. I remembered an ex-pat friend telling me that you could not understand the meaning of wealth until you had seen the way some Hong Kong Chinese lived. These youngsters were suave and sophisticated and beautiful and owned this lovely thing. And IÊwanted it. Never mind that I did not have a room high enough to take it, I wanted it, wanted it, wanted to posses it. Not an edifying emotion, but real nevertheless and not a lot to do with ‘stimulating the imagination’ in the elevating way that Graham Butler meant. Nor, I suggest, is this visceral reaction unique to me or to this one particular painting. If you told me I could have any picture I liked from the National Gallery, I’d rush past all the glorious and famous masterworks to rip from the wall an exquisite little panel by Pisanello, showing ‘The Vision of St Eustace’ and I’d clutch it to my chest and run out of the Gallery to find some quiet, secret place where I could just be together with it in private. Oh yes, it stimulates my imagination like billyoh, and I admire its technique and its haunting poetic quality and its impossible perspective, and the enigma of the empty scroll beneath the leaping greyhound and the wonderfully precise observation in the painting of the pelican and the way that the saint expresses his astonishment at seeing a crucifix between the antlers of a stag, not in a theatrical swirl of draperies but with one gauntleted hand raised in a restrained and courtly gesture of salute. All these aspects of the picture I love and admire, but when you have catalogued them all, there is still something more, something ineffable. And perhaps that is what separates real art (in any medium) from mere decoration, that in some way it manages to express the inexpressible, or one tiny facet of it. And when you have said that, what have you said? Not a lot really. Not anything that is easily communicable. So perhaps, after all, Graham Butler’s ‘stimulus to the imagination’ is as good a definition of what is basically undefinable as any other? But maybe another reader can offer a helpful thought to explain our response to art? Clive Nicholls A brush with the Society’s President, Trevor Waugh ‘Who is this new President none of us have heard of?’ The question took me by surprise since it was posed last year by one of our more knowledgeable members. Members unaware of our new President’s achievements clearly need to be enlightened. Once they have made his acquaintance members will find Trevor to be an engaging and prolific artist who is establishing a worldwide reputation and will begin to appreciate why the Committee invited him to be President. The discovery of
Trevor’s watercolours will surely give members the thrill of 2003! If you are
tired of the Seago/Edward Wesson/John Yardley tradition of understated and
loosely applied transparent washes Trevor is your man. For a start Trevor’s
work shows evidence of sound draughtsmanship which is a weakness not usually
addressed by followers of the Wesson School. His Oriental girls remind me of
Sargent and Arthur Melville who tackled similar subjects on their travels Ð the
work of both represent a rich vein of late nineteenth-century watercolour
practice which is worth studying. During his 3-year period as President the Committee will be devising ways in which Trevor can make aÊcontribution to the life of the Society. (See the next item.) Meanwhile you can become acquainted with him through his books, Winning with Watercolour and You Can Paint Animals in Watercolour, both published by Harper Collins. Trevor has kindly presented copies to the Society and they are currently in Craig Young’s custodianship. You can also visit the President’s Page on our website to see examples of his watercolours and read a full cv . Even better than this you can enjoy online dialogue with Trevor if you are brave enough to post comment and questions to the President’s Message Board in the Artists Forum. Robert Kirk Painting workshop at Dinham Bridge with Trevor Waugh, Friday 6th June This is a wonderful opportunity to paint with a truly professional artist who studied at The Slade and has painted and taught in all media for 30 years. The number of students is restricted to 14 to enable Trevor to provide individual guidance where required. The group will meet at the Cliffe Hotel at 9.30 am where free parking is available. We will then proceed a short walk to Dinham where Trevor will demonstrate a painting in watercolour together with discussion. This will be followed by lunch at the Cliffe after which we return to site and paint around the river in a medium of your choice and Trevor will be on hand to help. The day will finish at 4.00 pm. Having been on one of Trevor’s Workshops I know it will be a fun day with plenty of discussion. In the event of rain we will paint inside at the Cliffe Hotel from photographs supplied by Trevor unless you have a particular favourite you wish to bring along. The cost of the workshop is £25 and in order to secure a place a £10 cheque as deposit, payable to Ludlow Art Society, should be sent to: Craig Young, 23 Friars Garden, Ludlow SY8 1RX. Tel. 01584 879848. First come, first served. Craig Young Two good meetings at the Assembly Rooms John Palmer of Bristol treated those of us who attended the March meeting to a very entertaining demonstration. Superb draughtsman as he is, John demonstrated how to simplify a townscape, with bridge, on a very large sheet of watercolour paper, before laying a wash over the whole, and, finally sharpening up the detail at the end. He then went on to a second demonstration of a Venetian scene, again making it look so easy, with wonderful translucent colours. John ended with showing us how to paint a white feather in watercolour. With his easy manner and good sense of humour, and many helpful hints, the evening ended all too soon. At the April meeting we were introduced to a new Art Experience by ‘Filbert Splosh’ (Paul Priestley). The lecture was on Impressionism, with many slides, taking us step by step through composition, colour, form, light, drawing, context and content Ð which points lead us to making a judgement on aÊpainting. A magician with his box of tricks and wand, a large filbert brush, Splosh could not fail to enthuse his audience who participated readily, just as the Impressionist painters engaged their spectators. We were certainly given a lot to think about. Catherine Goldthorp Yes, I’ve become a ‘Bloggie’ Web logs Ð ‘Blogs’ in the current jargon, offer a kind of grassroots journalism to anyone who wants to publish their creative thoughts on the web. Web logs have been criticized by professional journalists who dismiss the majority as being nothing more than banal chat Ð does the world really want to know the details of a twenty-something’s nightmare date? But seriously, publishing on the web offers aÊfreedom which should be valued and requires some thought and effort by Bloggies before they launch their web log. When I started painting seriously I began to keep notes of materials I found suited me, techniques IÊhad read about or seen demonstrated. Eventually this was extended to noting down striking quotations from books and articles. Life was lived with either a brush or ball pen in my hand! These jottings were made in sketchbooks or on scraps of paper and it all became rather chaotic Ð it became impossible to track down notes I’d made even a few months earlier. Initially they were done for my own use and IÊnever thought of sharing them with anybody else. Even so if this material was ever to be of any real use I had to get my act together and record it in a more orderly way. Saving the material on disk offered a solution and I built a database of quotations and notes. Some of the quotations eventually found their way into the LAS Newsletter. Then the growing phenomenon of web logs gave an opportunity to share this material with others. I launched the web log back in February and have tried to add two or three entries each week. The following entry is a sample: Saturday, February 08, 2003
Posted by Robert at 8.30 am. My Blog is unlikely to become one of the major documents of art history Ð but who can tell! You can get to my Blog from the link on the Homepage of my website at: http://www.robertkirk.co.uk. I hope you find the blog entertaining Ð enjoy it! Robert Kirk Here’s a thought I dislike much of the obscure pretentious prattle of contemporary art critics. Rarely do you find one who uses plain words which have real meaning. So it is refreshing to find a clear concise statement about art and one written surprisingly by a British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. He is best known for his collaboration with Bertrand Russell in writing Principia Mathematica , aÊgraduate text in mathematical logic, but in his philosophical Dialogues he gave this lovely definition of art:
A lovely clear statement of what we artists are attempting to do Ð need anything more be said? Robert Kirk Notices Silk Top Hat Tours Thursday 22nd May, Oxford. - Coaches leave from Parkway in Corve Street, opposite the Old Post Office, Ludlow at 9.00 am. The drop off point will be the Ashmolean Museum but you are free to explore any of the city’s multitudinous delights. Leave Oxford at 4.00 pm. Coach costs £15. Thursday 12th June. - Art Deco exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Depart 8.30 am. Leave London 6.00 pm. Coach costs £25. Exhibition entrance extra. For more details or to book ring Silk Top Hat Gallery, 01584 875363. Exhibition Valerie Alexander and Thelma Ayre will be holding an exhibition of their work at the Ludlow Library Gallery from the 1st to the 31st July. The exhibition will be on view during normal library opening times. News & Views to Chris Butler for the next edition by 31st August please. Contact me on: 01952 541687, |