Donald Judd may well be a name obscure to people outside the art world. Within if he should certainly be renowned as an innovative and fascinating artist, but he should be equally revered as on of the frankest and most astute critics and essayists on art of the 1960s. Possibly one of Judd's greatest strengths in his writings was the fact that, unlike contemporary analysts like Michael Fried and Clement Greenburg, he was a genuine artist himself ,working and thinking alongside other artists showing in New York at that time of the like of Pollock, Newman, Chamberlain and Oldenburg. Judd's writings and these artists, their works and times gives up a genuine, unbiased, insight into this pivotal era in modern art.

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 4th March 2021.
Part 41: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion.
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime.

If we as observers instinctively attain a close proximity to other individuals when we converse with them, the reverse is true when we engage with a landscape. This form of encounter is almost a polar opposite in terms of meetings, to begin with we are not experiencing the kind of intimate interaction with one sentient being as we are during our portrait encounter; now we are spreading out attention over a wide and on the whole unresponsive plane. We are, during these occasions, purely observers, we do not anticipate any two-way conversations as part of such engagements.

Although we do not generally have any input into our meetings with landscapes the possible sources of information on such occasions are so multitudinous that to fully appreciate the scale of the data, we must take both a figurative and literal step backwards in order to wholly absorb it. We begin by scanning all of the possibilities in order to identify individual characteristics and their role in the composition of the scheme. It is by this reading of a landscape that we begin to perceive how the component parts of it work in unison to form the narrative of a single subject. In a natural landscape this form of narrative may be very obscure and our senses will possibly not be attuned enough to appreciate it, however within the composed variety, represented via means of the pictorial plane, the idea of the extended context is likely to have once again been artificially exploited.

To be continued...

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 3rd March 2021.
Part 40: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion.
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime.

This idea of how the subjects contained within the painted plane are arranged does of course relate to the way in which we as observers interact in comparable real-world situations.

If we encounter and converse with an individual our primary focus is drawn to their face, their eyes, their mouth, with a probable extended view to consider their hands, which will often make-up a crucial section of any communication process. The resulting interchange will, traditional, be a relatively close and intimate one in which all the attention of the two parties involved will be focused one upon the other. This is done for two interconnected reasons, one being practical and one social. The practical being the requirement for the affective and accurate transmission of data, as although we are generally considering such meetings from a visual stand point in regard to this essay, this makes up only a small, although important part, of such an encounter. The auditory component of such a situation is generally far more important and may well need an increased focus between the involved parties for the affective reception and processing of the transmission taking place. The social reason for such attentiveness is one drawn from what might be called civil manners, where it is deemed polite to focus our complete attention upon the other in such a social interaction. This civil part of the encounter does of course has its original basis in the practical component of these meetings where such attention has become thought of as polite because it is actually necessary.

To be continued...

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 2nd March 2021.
Part 39: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion.
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime.

Does the progression and evolution of the geometrical form of the image have a relationship between the contained quantities, volumes and proximities represented and to their rapport to the observer? This is essentially the question which I am pursuing during these notes.

If one considers the basic form of the portrait, leaving the extended context aside for the moment, a portrait usually contains one subject, the sitter, observed in a relatively close-up context. A still-life is usually a collection of subjects or objects which are, on the whole, observed in a slightly expanded field of view and therefore necessitating that they be placed slightly deeper within the pictorial plane. Based on this progression what does this infer to paradigm that we know as the landscape? Well I would maintain that the same progressive notion applies and that although a landscape might traditionally be considered to be one subject, the narrative nature of the landscape is usually constructed of my objects, that although many of them may be considered to be part of the extended context, they do however work in an accord to form the story of the general subject. Of course, via a style of conglomeration, one which is vital to the formation of the landscape subject; it means that the component parts of the vision are once again, through necessity, viewed at a greater distance than we experience with the structure of the still-life.

To be continued...

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 28th February 2021.
Part 38: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion.
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime.

This grouping of the edited human figure, basically the head and shoulders/torso, combined with the related area occupied by the extended context behind them gives us the most common format of our portrait painting. It of course has also gone on to give its name to the geometrical format of an image referred to as being portrait; an upright rectangle where the vertical axis is long than the horizontal one. So much for now about the portrait.

When in my original note on this subject I listed the three primary forms of figurative painting as portrait, still-life and landscape it possibly made you imagine that I would talk about them in that order; but I’m afraid not. There was a very good reason behind me ordering the painting forms in that way, it will however not become clear until much later in this essay. For reasons which I hope will become much more rapidly clear I am now moving directly from my consideration of the portrait to the nature of the landscape. When I began talking about the nature of the portrait, I used the following two sentences which I will quote here once again because they contain just as much relevance to the nature of the landscape:

“All painting is a form of encounter, and it can be argued that this is particularly true of figurative painting. The observer interacts with the stimulus provided by the painting, firstly as an object; we sense that we have a foreknowledge of what a painting is and may do, even as we approach it from a distance, followed by the stimulus of the image in holds. “

To be continued...

(The Unreliability of the Extended Context: Books-by-the-yard, Ring-lights and Andy Warhol.

Today I’m going to take a slight sidestep away from my ongoing text regarding ‘the search for the sublime’ to begin to consider how the area, which I have referred to as the ‘extended context’ of portraiture during my recent notes, has suddenly taken on a new significance due to the Covid lockdowns. As I have previously expressed, the idea of the extended context has been well known and understood within the arts for centuries; indeed I myself, in what might even seem to be somewhat prophetic circumstances, utilised it in an extreme manner when it became to central focus for my self-portrait painting ‘Desiderata, things desired’ (above)  in which my chair substitutes anthropomorphically for my person.

The notion of the ‘extended context’ although not known by that title, or indeed, probably widely recognised at all previously, has not only become better understood by the general public but it also become something of a fashionable talking-point during 2020 due to the sudden pervasive use of Zoom and other such video conferencing media. Whereas the concept was previously used almost exclusively by artists to give this greater depth of ‘background colour’, accurately or not, to the personality of their subjects, it is now being used by politicians, business people and even egocentric social media users to do the same.

MPs sit in front of rows of well-thumbed volumes as they stare gravely at us from our TV screens (another interesting thing I’ve noticed during this time is a growing business in online companies selling second-hand-books-by-the-yard) suggesting that they have read and digested them all. Businessmen in expensive suits sit at even more expensive, gleaming, minimalist desks, only adorned by the latest and most outrageously expensive, high-tech gadgetry, partly there to facilitate the Zoom meetings but mainly there for appearance. Even home cooks on Tic-toc have taken to buying ring-lights to illuminate and give life to their rows of stale herbs and spices and to make the most of their, normally seldom used, culinary spaces.

Perhaps this is finally Andy Warhol’s famous 15 minutes of fame? If so it is perhaps not only a fleeting but also a sham fame. Can we trust what we see? Can we ever believe in what this extended context tells us about personalities when it can be just bought online by the yard? Could we ever trust it? How many of those painted noblemen that we see in art galleries, quill in hand, could actually write?

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 26th February 2021.
Part 37: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion.
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime.

Previously in this text I have referred to the painter’s portrait in terms of it being ‘a window into a world through which a snapshot of their subject may be observed’. Now that we have established the placement of the sitter in regard to this window, let us now begin to consider what else is visible through the aperture; what I have referred to as the ‘extended context,’ and how the painting may be utilising it.

The figure, adorned in its chosen finery, is obviously the centre of our attention but what else is going on in the enclosure that we perceive around it? Is the book on which the subjects hand rests just a random selection plucked from Amazon, or is there more significance to its inclusion? And what about the astronomical globe that catches our eye of the shelf over the sitter’s right shoulder? Did that just happen to be there gathering dust when the sitter casually reclined in this particular chair, in this particular position to have their portrait painted? Of course not, these are deliberate inclusions and their presence has been contrived to inform us more about the essence of the paintings subject.

Our sitter of course is not ‘casually reclined in this particular chair, in this particular position to have their portrait painted’, this is a carefully selected chair place in a specific location to take the best advantage of both the light and the surroundings. That book is probably a philosophical text which purports tells us two things about the focus of the painting, firstly that he reads and secondly that he thinks. Likewise, the globe’s inclusion may tell us two or even three more details about our subject, it suggests that they have probably travelled, the orientation of the globes may even suggest where they might have travelled. Thirdly just the fact that it is a globe potentially suggests that the sitter appreciates that the world is round and not flat, a serious consideration historically and one that can be used to infer that they are educated.

To be continued...

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 25th February 2021.
Part 36: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion.
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime.

As there is no extended context included within the package of the traditional sculptural form any information which the artist wishes to convey regarding the subject of their portrait needs to be contained, or more appropriately, attached to the parcel thus it may accordingly, all, be delivered en masse. When a painter contemplates the delivery options, re the same portrait subject, including their requisite baggage, there are different possibilities which they must consider.  

Obviously, the first of these is the necessity to perform the required commission in a two-dimensional rather than three-dimensional form, which, unless you are Pablo Picasso, means selecting the one perspective through which your vision will be expressed. More often than not, this will result in the painter selecting an anterior interpretation of the subject to embrace all the characterisational possibilities which are made available to them via the expressionistic qualities embodied in their subject’s face and hands. In addition to the fundamental personality expressed by this, the subject’s essential visage, comes the possibility of supplementary data, which might also comment upon the personality of the subject in question. This information may be transmitted via the optional inclusion of details or fashionable flourishes chosen to be worn by the subject of the portrait for the purpose of the sitting in regard to their personal standing and or ego. These embellishments to the subject’s aspect are usually, predominantly, located on the front of their attire to correspond with the subject’s primary countenance and are therefore another consideration in the artists choice of perspective. These accoutrements may include items such as buckles, buttons, clasps, medals, pockets and zippers, in addition to the more basic structure of colours and shapes exhibited by their garments. These trappings can convey a great deal about the sitter, as long as their proper context, vis-à-vis history and the vision of the artist, is embraced by the observer.

To be continued...

'On my easel' is a series of posts that I am adding to the Self-Isolation Residency Blog which will consider a current painting which is within days or sometimes hours of completion. This isn't quite the same as 'work in progress' as many of the pieces under consideration in this category may actually be complete already. These are generally going to be works which I am reflecting on for one reason or another and it is these needs for reflection which are preventing me from 'accepting' the work as complete.'

Actually not on my easel on this occasion, I've had to move the piece out to the gallery as I've lost the light in the studio. Ironically I think the, brief, improvment in the weather encouraged me towards some lighter tones for the pieces I'm currently working on, that was before the light went. But I do think this one may be pretty much there, so I may leave it in the gallery for a day or two while I consider it