For Tracy Michele, who always sees them first.
"I wish you to consider that I have been speaking of what I wished to accomplish in these pictures, rather than what I have done; for I may have failed in these efforts. I should, nevertheless, be much gratified if you could see them ...."
- Thomas Cole, letter dated May 1828

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

'accuracy' is relative


"But the accuracy of artists working as artists is the expression of feeling with precision. For them, 'accuracy' is relative, and 'realism' is only a wish to be objective, because there can be no general agreement in the arts as to what is real: each artist has a different way of explaining it."
- Lynton Lamb, Preparation For Painting

This is as close as I've come to identifying with abstract concerns. But it becomes obvious to any working artist --- painter, sculptor, whatever you like --- that even representational art is a form of abstraction unless we enslave our talents to pure surface copying. The simple act of interpretation into paint is a step into the abstract. This watercolor was done recently of a view out of Tracy's window overlooking the BQE with Red Hook to the southwest. Eliminating the smaller elements in the scene, I got down the larger, most important elements to create a balance without oversimplifying.

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