Organizing & Being Disorderly

(^ Pale Blue Bottle with Heirloom Tomatoes. 2012. oil on panel. 5 x 7". © Bullock Online 2012)

"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up."
- A. A. Milne

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."
- A. A. Milne (again)

I admit it --- I find painting terribly difficult work sometimes. And if I am painting in oils, then doubly so. On the one hand, staying organized and neat prevents it all from becoming a mess. But painting is also about letting things happen, on their own to some extent, and allowing for unexpected discoveries.

Working small (this panel is only 5 x 7") and aiming to complete it in one sitting means I have narrowed my range of colors to only six (not counting white and black). I can mix clean, bright secondary colors (orange, purple, and green) and some rather pretty muddy kinds of colors, some of which are unexpected and which I get when things start to go awry. We painters love those.

But it is not fun, I don't think. It is hard work. And often frustrating. Yet something makes us painters do it anyway.

The True Basis

[^ Memento Mori, interrupted. graphite on prepared paper. 6 x 9″. 2012. © Bullock Online 2012]

"It may well be said, that anatomy is the true basis of the arts of design. It bestows on the painter a minuteness and readiness of observation, which he cannot otherwise attain."
- Sir Chales Bell, The Anatomy and Philosophy of Expession as Connected with the Fine Arts, Seventh edition, revised, 1877.

With an interest towards expanding my abilities as a painter and draftsman in general, and better representing the human figure in particular, I am studying anatomy and figure drawing. It is challenging, and sometimes even discouraging. But it is also rewarding.

The Art Students League of New York and Spring Studio both offer excellent opportunities to draw from a live model, with or without instruction. But there is nothing that beats the models in the Greek and Roman collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For years I have been coming here and drawing from the statues. They do not move, which is a distinct advantage when attempting to draw them.

As I, hopefully, improve in this I should find an improvement in my work overall.

Ascending Curves

[^ Storm Clouds Over Brooklyn. watercolor. 9×12″. 2012. © Bullock Online 2012]

"We are little apt, in watching the changes of a mountainous range of cloud, to reflect that the masses of vapor which compose it, are huger and higher than any mountain range of the earth; and the distances between mass and mass are not yards of air traversed in an instant by the flying form, but valleys of changing atmosphere leagues over; that the slow motion of ascending curves, which we can scarcely trace, is a boiling energy of exulting vapor rushing into the heaven a thousand feet in a minute; and that the toppling angle whose sharp edge almost escapes notice in the multitudinous forms around it, is a nodding precipice of storms, 3000 feet from base to summit."
- John Ruskin, Modern Painters: Of Truth of Clouds: Ch. III

Reading John Ruskin is either inspirational or paralyzing, depending on what else is going on that day. His five-volume Modern Painters is worth reading just to understand how high the bar is set for the rest of us.

While he would not likely praise my recent watercolor of cloud formations, I think I got a few things right. He comments in the same chapter that "if artists were more in the habit of sketching clouds rapidly, and as accurately as possible in the outline, from nature, instead of daubing down what they call effects with the brush" then there would result more truth and accuracy of form and effect. (By "sketching" he may be referring to oil painting quickly, in an alla prima technique.)

Clouds are extremely difficult to paint "live" because of their continuously changing effects. Generalizing defeats the point of painting them in the first place, but inevitably some generalizing takes place, I think.

With Such A Sky

[^ With Such A Sky. watercolor. 6x6". August 2012. © Bullock Online 2012]

With Such A Sky
It is a beauteous Evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea:
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal moon make
A sound like thunder --- everlastingly

-William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

With the summer beginning to wind down, we have been having some very fine sunsets here in Brooklyn, and it is a short trip for me to the fire escape with my watercolors and some paper. Caught this one that was so strange, with the sun looking like some wounded saint resting in these thick, woolen clouds.

August Recess

[^Imaginary Landscape 061512E. watercolor on Khadi A6 handmade paper. 4.25x6". © Bullock Online 2012]

Bullock Online has been on August recess, but will be back for September.
Hoping that the summer was good for you all.
Bye.
Robert

Interruptions

As the Bullock Online blog and website are being worked on, in order to better coordinate them visually, interruptions are occurring which result in some images inadvertently being dropped from the blog. We are aware of the problem and are working to fix it. Thanks for your patience.

familiar things

[Still Life with Pink Bottle and Flower Bulbs.
watercolor. 9x12". June 2012. © Bullock Online 2012]

"On a superficial view the still-life attempts nothing save the true-to-nature portrayal of familiar things. But deeper insight does not miss the symbolic and the decorative function. All art symbolizes or decorates in one way or another. Blossoming flowers, ripe fruit remind one of the gifts of creative nature, of increase, growth and genesis."
- Max J. Friedlander, Landscape, Portrait, Still-Life: Their Origin & Development, 1949

A happy occurrence for me — achieving the seemingly contradictory goals of (a.) straightforward depiction and (b.) refinement of the object(s) to clarify the subject and the composition. “Fidelity and simplification”, as my friend Margaret Krug recently put it to me.

Painters have to be editors, and I find that painting is a process of abstracting generalities out of tangled reality. A building can be depicted without describing each and every brick. A wash of color, by the way it is handled, can mean different things — it is not a brick wall but it can depict a brick wall. Observational painting creates a natural abstraction and I find this fascinating and exciting.

nocturne

[Nocturne. watercolor on Whatman's paper. 6.25 x 8.5". 2012. © Bullock Online 2012]

Nocturne: : a work of art dealing with evening or night. From the French nocturnal and the Latin nocturnus. - Merriam-Webster Dictionary

This watercolor painting is based on a brief watercolor study I did back in 1999 in Central Park. I remember it is a view facing east and at the very southern end of the park. I made a few adjustments to the composition in order to emphasize the sense of moonlight. I've been reading again the fairy tales of the Grimm's Brothers and of Charles Perrault, and I think these had an influence on this painting.

'studies'

[Jawbone. graphite on prepared paper. 6 x 9". 2012.]

"Drawings may be done simply to illustrate an object so that the artist can learn and understand its shape. Such drawings are called 'studies'. An artist will refer to such studies and then, with some modification, work them into a picture."
- R.W. Alston, Painter's Idiom, 1954.


I have been working in drawing media for the past two or three months, with only a few small paintings, concentrating on soft, subtle transitions between tones. This clay-coated paper from New York Central Art Supply is an ideal surface for working on in graphite. I don't prefer it for silverpoint but for graphite it is really beautiful to work on.

the slightest line

[Still Life with Glass Bottle, Marbles and Pine Cone. silverpoint. 7.5 x 10". 2012.]

"Fundamentally, even the slightest line partakes of mind and spirit." - Emile Mâle, Religious Art in France, 1910.

I am continuing my work in silverpoint and other drawing media. This still life composition took some time as I worked towards achieving a more dense atmosphere than previous pieces (March's Tulip & Paperwhite Bulbs, for example).

drawing & practice

[Tulip & Paperwhite Bulbs. silverpoint on prepared ground. 7.5x10". 2012]

"Always be drawing and do not waste time." - Michelangelo
"You have to practice even to be lousy." - Jack Benny

The importance of drawing regularly --- daily, even --- is indispensable for the artist. Drawing is the most direct and personal method of working out ideas, developing discipline and coordination between the mind and the hand --- the idea and the recording of it. The drawing above of flower bulbs is done in silverpoint, a really lovely medium I enjoy working in. Silverpoint is an early drawing medium that consists of a wire, about the same diameter as pencil lead, made of pure silver that is held in a stylus or handle, like an X-acto stencil knife handle. (I show three of mine below. The one I set into an old engravers tool handle is the most comfortable to hold.) It is used upon a prepared surface (ground) that has enough 'tooth' to allow the silver wire to leave faint scratch marks which are slowly built up and tarnish. I worked it pretty heavy to build up tones darker than what I am used to seeing in silverpoint. The current exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini, up through March 18, has some wonderful examples of metalpoint drawing and the sophisticated and subtle effects that can be obtained.

This time I prepared my own ground, made of fine marble dust and white pigment into a liquid binder of rabbit skin glue, applied in three layers on acid-free illustration board. Each layer took a few hours to dry thoroughly and I removed very rough bits and areas before applying the next coat. A light sanding provides a smooth surface but avoid breathing the dust.

New York artist Margaret Krug, author of An Artist's Handbook, told me that she prepares a ground for her silverpoint drawings by combining zinc white pigment mixed into a watercolor binder, which is simple and economical and provides very beautiful results.

Silverpoint drawing supplies are available through mail-order from Natural Pigments of California.


[^ Above, three of my silverpoint drawings tools. Below, close-up of same. (L) 1.2mm diameter "dead soft" silver wire in an engravers tool handle salvaged from a flea market; (M) 2mm diameter "dead soft" silver wire in an Alvin lead holder; (R) 0.9mm diameter "dead soft" silver wire in an Alvin mechanical pencil.]

no art of imitation

[^ Sundown On the Marshes. Marmora, NJ.
watercolor on paper. approx. 12x15". January 2012.]

"If 'imitation' were to be understood as meaning exact reproduction or copy of reality, it would have to admitted that, apart from the art of the cartographer or the draughtsman of anatomical plates, there is no art of imitation. In that sense, and however deplorable his precepts may be in other respects, Gauguin, in maintaining that painters should give up painting what they saw, was formulating an elementary truth which the Masters have never ceased to practice. The imitative arts aim neither at copying the appearance of nature nor at depicting 'the ideal', but at making something beautiful by the display of a form with the help of visible symbols."
- Jacques Maritain, Art and Scholasticism, Ch. VII The Purity of Art, (1930)

There is a point during the creative process where you know something is working out. The image finds its place on the paper or canvas or whatever surface you are working on, telling you that you are on the right track, even despite things taking a course different than expected. Different, but not wrong. I think it may come from carrying an inner perception or understanding --- a familiarity --- with the thing you are trying to represent.

I grew up on the beaches and tidal flats of South Jersey and those long minutes wherein day loses all its strength and rolls up into the approaching dark are as familiar to me as anything in this world. The light, the quiet, even the air is just a certain way and there is a point when all the dark sits out there on the marshes. The sky goes all electric and the colors can hold you spellbound. To see it is to witness some manifestation of peace and fear.

a still life

[^ Still Life with Brown Bottle, Pale Blue Bottle, and Paperwhite Bulb. watercolor on T.H. Saunders 90 lb hot-press paper. 5 x 7". 2012.]

[^ Still Life with Blue Bottle, Pink Bottle, and Gourd. watercolor on Fabriano Uno watercolor paper. 9 x 12". 2012]

"There is no better subject than a still life for working out ideas about painting. It is the one subject that is completely under ones control; provided that the materials aren't perishable, it can be continued day after day under exactly similar conditions, and the arrangement and choice of subject are entirely up to you."
- Bernard Dunstan, Learning To Paint (Watson-Guptill Publications, 1970)

Wanting to take a break from landscape painting while holding to formal composition and representation, I returned to the opportunities and limitations of still life, which gave me the chance to put to use some old glass bottles I have collected. They have uneven surfaces, mottled patinas and signs of age and use --- scratches, chips, soiled interiors --- which create interesting effects that are extremely fun to work on incorporating in a painting and, I think, help add visual interest. I feel I have gotten more comfortable with painting shadows. They can be difficult, coming across as looking stiff and not part of the atmosphere. Shadows on orange-colored objects (like the gourd in the second painting) are always difficult for me but I think I got this one right. I've seen painters make the error of only using the complimentary color (blue), or a lot of black in the mixture, which is ruinous.

Still lifes provide the chance to set up an arrangement and work on it for an extended period of time, but I was able to work quickly, which helps prevent me from getting botched up in overworking effects. The smaller painting took less than an hour and the larger one I completed in one sitting except for some reworking of the blue bottle which was causing me some minor problems with the reflections and various angles.