THE SELF-ISOLATION RESIDENCY 10TH JANUARY 2021: DAY 287

'Describe what you actually see?'
New work in progress: Working title: "Celestory".
Oil paint on plywood block, 150 x 150 mm

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 10 th January 2021.
Part 8: 'Describe what you actually see?.'

To further exhibit the idea of painting being its own subject matter let us once again flip the coin and consider what figurative painting actually is. I have already stated that all figurative painting is, by its very nature, abstract in that it is always the artists interpretation. This is made as a statement of fact but I do understand that to the none painter this may seem to sound more like the ‘interested’ opinion of a painter rather than a fact and so I will at this time break down this idea.
There is actually a very simple and instructive way to consider paintings that will illustrate my statement, it is a process that I have used on many occasions’ whist giving lectures to students as we stand before paintings in art galleries. In that first-hand context of viewing art, it is always an instructive exercise: I am not quite as sure that it will be so functional in this essay form, but we will try. For our example, let us return to our earlier reference, La Giaconda, The Mona Lisa. If we enter the Louvre in Paris and make our way through the bustling crowds of spectators to stand before and gaze upon that hallowed edifice I will ask you a question and I want your immediate, honest, first answer to this question: describe what you actually see?
Now if this question is answered immediately and instinctively as it should be there will be answers that differ slightly but generally they will be variations on the themes of “a woman/in a landscape/the Mona Lisa/La Giaconda”…and these answers are of course all wrong.
 
To be continued…