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

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 23rd February 2021.
Part 35: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion.
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime.

Sculpture, as it might be traditionally considered, is a medium which concentrates the attention like no other, but for a rather peculiar reason. As a piece of work a sculpture has no defined background, therefore anything which surrounds it can in theory become a distraction from it. Now, it is true that many renaissance sculptures where created for specific environments, churches, great houses or gardens where their surrounds or backgrounds might be known, considered or, in the best circumstances, controlled; this of course makes such works the forerunners of the contemporary idea of the ‘site-specific’. But even in such settings as these the artist does not have total control over how the subject of his portrait is considered; how often have you been studying a sculpture only to be distracted by another observer doing the same on the other side of the work? Therefore, because of this nature of isolation which sculpture embodies, the observer really must learn to concentrate on the work in question out of a sense of necessity.
 
To be continued...

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 20th February 2021.
Part 34: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion.
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime.

Painters study their human subjects in detail, but not in as complete a figure in quite the same way that a sculptor might. The sculptor sees all, the sculptor shows all. The sculptor has a unique perspective, almost godlike, he is omnipresent, and his vision must be omnidirectional. When a sculpture is created it also must be considered in this way, there is no front, there is no back. There can be no hierarchy of interpretation, no one part or perspective of the work should be subservient to any other. This idea should define the sculptor, the sculpture and its observer; to interact with a sculpture the observer must engage with it through those same omnipresent eyes of the sculptor themselves. This of course allows the sculptor a unique facility when it comes to telling the tale of their subject, every hair carries weight, be it a hair on the subject’s head, back or ankle. The story of the subject is carried with equality throughout the whole body of the piece.

By contrast the painter may well see all, but they can’t express all. The painter can only create a window into a world through which a snapshot of their subject may be observer. Being denied the sculptors luxury of omnipotence means that the painter has to take almost the exact opposite approach in regard to the expression of their subject; the painters snapshot must be concise, it must tell the story of their subject in the most direct, compact and astute manner that the painter is able to conceive. For the most part this has led to painters composing their portraits around the head and shoulders of their subjects, almost the equivalent to that staccato form of sculpture, the bust. However most good portrait painters recognise the wonderful, narrative possibilities held, as it were, in the hands and wisely choose to also include them on most occasions. Painters do however have one advantage vis-à-vis the aspect of their sitters that most sculptures do not, the context of background or situational information.  

To be continued,,,

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 19th February 2021.
Part 33: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion.
An Unsettling Appeal: Insearch of the Sublime.

Anthropomorphism, where to begin? Well, the portrait seems like the ideal place to me, although perhaps I should begin with a more general definition of the term. Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to animals, gods or, as is usually the case in art, inanimate objects. Those characteristics do of course include things like personality and emotions, but for the purpose of this essay I will on the whole be talking about the way in which art objects reference the, physical, human form.

Some may perhaps argue that as a portrait is designed to specifically represent a person that it somehow goes beyond anthropomorphism, but in regard to the work of art the intent of anthropomorphism is virtually always specific to the piece and as such should not be ignored. This recognition of the human form should not be mistaken for any form of pareidolia when referenced to the artwork, this is not an imagined resemblance, it is a designated function of a deliberate composition, as always must be to truly be a piece of art. No happy accidents need apply.

Of course, there is always a starting point for the creative process, usually when producing a sculpture or a painting which may be considered as a portrait, even an abstract one, an early consideration of the human form is a large part of this. The sculptor for instance, will historically begin with a block of marble, that block, even before be draws out his first designs on it, will have a form of anthropomorphism in that the block will almost certainly have been order to have a bulk that mimics the human form in its dimensions. Think of it this way, consider the block of marble in regard to a coffin, the block is slightly taller, wider and deeper than the figure it contains, but its dimensions are still suggestive of the human form. This same, initial approach is taken by the painter.

To be continued...