THE SELF-ISOLATION RESIDENCY 19TH JANUARY 2021: DAY 296

New painting: "Altitude". Oil paint on canvas, 250 x 350 mm

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 19th January 2021.
Part 13: 'Interpretation, abstract, illusion. Describe what you actually see?.'

Traditional techniques of painting evolved to allow the artist to produce more and more realistic images via their medium. Most of this work was carried out under very controlled conditions in the studio with the objective being the perfection of these techniques. It is interesting to me that this process continued up until the middle of the 19th century, when with the works of Turner and the founding of Impressionism, painting turned a radical corner, and that the timing of this change coincides so closely with the development of photography. Both in that most early photography took place outside and also that the perfection of the photographic image and its democracy throw the imperfections and autocracy of traditional painting into sharp relief.

That word Impressionism, although not actually coined by an Impressionist, is of key importance to the development of all painting since that period. As with early photographers, artist began to work outside more with the endeavour to capture the ‘impression’ of the moment, of light and atmosphere as it happened in a similar way to a photograph.

At this point in the evolution of painting the spirit of the painter re-emerges, perhaps for the first time since those very earliest cave paintings, the ones that predate the notion of illustration, and also correlates directly with outsider art and the naivety of children. The brush marks are quick, intuitive, reacting directly to the provocation of the artist by the environment and the moment.

To be continued…