The Nude, the Landscape and the Still Life

Bon Jour

Today it is Sunday July the 15th only a few weeks to go.  I have finished the representational part of my work.  I will now go on to the boring artist statement stuff so if not interested feel free to skip but it
helps me to figure out where to go from here.  Unlike what I thought ten years ago, when doing abstract, one does not chuck paint on to the canvas like the Art 21 film of Jackson Pollack throwing loose paint all over a drop cloth of canvas.  Believe me he spent hours if not years perfecting a way to do this and make the paintings have meaning and they,some are esthetically appealing.  This may be why so many artist have drinking problems.  It is very stressful trying to intellectualise something you want to come from your heart.  Anyway any one who does not believe me about Pollack has never painted abstract or studied Modernity as it relates to art.

I shall now step off my soap box and proceed with an analysis of " what the hell is Jill doing".

For this series I have chosen three typical classical genre's, the Nude - Manet's Olympia, the Landscape - Cezanne's Pine Tree, and Still life - again Cezanne's painting  Apples and Oranges.  I DO NOT consider my first part of the three painting as comparable to the genius I am referencing in these three particular paintings.  ( This was what I did in Paris spend time with the three chosen paintings, I did not just stare at the Hausssmann buildings. Well maybe a little bit which is why I kept walking into things.)

The first painting I have taken what I thought were the most striking bits out of the painting Olympia's flower in her hair, the scarf type bedspread and the head piece of the servant.  I did loose copies of these and will proceed to do abstract around and through the entire support.  This one is easy I have chosen the colour scheme from the flowers that the servant is presenting to Olympia.  Hopefully that will work, we shall see.

The next paint is the Landscape, a pine tree, there are as many pine trees here as we have cedar trees, well maybe not as many as it is to dry for them to grow as thick as BC Cedar but you get my drift it is the dominate species of tree.  I copied the tree in my own impressionist style staying true to the layout/landscape that Cezanne used.  He would know best, he is the genius i am the student.  And yes I do know that I talk/write about these two artist as if they are alive because for me they are.  The colour scheme for the abstract on this eludes me and that is what I will work out today.

The third and final painting is the Still life the last of the typical genre of traditional painting style, I did not do the portrait because of time and it is going to be tricky getting these back to Canada.  This as mentioned before is a Cezzane painting.  His is much better, but maybe someday.  I too have to work out a colour scheme but am leaning towards the broadcloth or tablecloth that surrounds the original painting.  Although there are a lot of ochres and ochre green in that and it may prove to be to heavy.

What I noticed about these paintings when I did my close read (fancy talk for staring at something for a very very long time)  at the D'Orsay, and these all do hanging in the Musee de D'Orsay,  was that the nude and the still life were treated as landscapes, obviously so was the Pine tree, nevertheless I have intentionally painting the three pieces in the format of an oblong support to reference that original feelings of landscape.

In the still life I played with the objects.  The fruit was easy to find so was a sheet for a table clothe, the Provincial jug not so much.  Anyone who knows me well understands that i d'jour apples and try to get them in my work a lot.

Well that was a peek into the mind of an artist, well at least this one.  We don't just chuck some paint on a canvas and say Voila.  We plan and struggle and try to create an object that has meaning in this world.  Through my painting I want to examine explore and translate what I see when I look at things.  I say I am painting the space between the signified and the signifier and I am.  It is all the jumbled up stuff one accumulates over the years because what you see gets translated through what you know.

Art lesson over. Toodles from Provence