What is Art?
What is art anyway? I don't know. I am a fine art painter hopefully. I have been painting since 1980 and what is in focus, hot, just keeps changing. I felt like I was chosen by my teacher Eleanor Seng. I sometimes wonder about that, but Eleanor said she was always right.
My early art heroes included Van Gogh, Hopper, Fairfield Porter, and others. A respect for things as they are had a lot of appeal to me, that is Fairfield's idea. Art that didn't have idea in it also appealed to me, again Fairfield. And composition where there are colors that don't repeat also appealed to me, once again Fairfield Porter. I am not sure why I really liked Hopper, he seems stiff to me now. Maybe it was the subject matter. And Van Gogh, well, I think Fairfield probably found him interesting. Everybody loves Van Gogh.
But of course art without ideas in it is contrary to the way most people think about art. As my friend Britt once said, art is idea. I think we debated this until four in the morning with a good bit of alcohol. Although I agree that art is idea, I also agree with many of the things that Fairfield said, as a plein air painter. And when the weather is good I love the challenge of plein air painting. I like seeing things as they are and painting that.
I look at the art being produced around me now. The technical ability of many artists is amazing. They can make it look very real! They are almost photograph like. It is impressive. And there is a lot of it around. The internet give us all a window to what everyone one else is doing. The current realists edit, change reality at will and seem to use a fairly restricted palette. Balance of tones, color, and composition seem to be a theme and quality of what they are about. There is a painting per day movement out there, usually on the small side. These are auctioned on the internet. Nice colors, strokes, simple compositions, and desirable subject matter, all are available on the internet. I knew the internet would be important to art but what has come to be is an interesting surprise.
And I need to mention abstract art that seems to be in. Wow! I recently visited several art galleries as I look to spread my wings. Amazing techniques are being used by the abstract painters to produce very textured surfaces, and paintings that are not real but not really totally abstract. I think in between is interesting. And sometimes it is not in between, but totally abstract. These pictures range from layers of minimal visual and visceral entertainment to jarring abstract expressionist pieces filled with color and energy. It's all out there. And this is selling.
Pinterest is an amazing tool for learning about current art and art history. It is free on the internet. If you are an artist who wants to see a lot of art from significant others and your contemporaries you really should tap into pinterest. Follow all the boards that interest you and keep expanding on that. I keep boards of my own and it helps keep a record of what I have done with my paintings , where I put them, and provides some exposure too. I have particularly enjoyed following the boards of David Hockney, Lucian Freud, and Bonnard lately. There is no one book that would reveal the breadth of any one of the artists the way pinterest can.
I was taught, when in doubt, use a color. Eleanor, my primary teacher, was an expressionist. In our world gray really was the enemy of the painter. Using all the colors that were available was like learning to play all the frets on the guitar, or playing the entire keyboard on the piano. And it was important to develop this skill. She was a color master, and I benefited from her company and companion painting method of teaching for many years. A simple ride in the car would reveal fields of raw sienna soy beans and something pink to make it really sing. But now, I am experimenting with more limited palettes. I did go through a phase of painting with primaries that were developed for the design school at NC State years ago. But now I am using the off the shelf colors. I like the internal harmony that comes from this approach but I miss the risky color expressions that were part of the Eleanor approach to painting.
So back to the original question of what is art, certainly it is in the eye of the beholder. But for me it is going to be some kind expression brushed out on a 2-D canvas, a shared visual experience of the world I live in, that hopefully will talk to my viewers. And I want to keep working from life. I feel there is something special about painting from life and that the result is worth the effort. But contemporary pressures may lead me to explore abstraction, likely the in between type. Many of the artists I respect are tapping into this. Hopefully going outside of my box or comfort zone will take me to a new, more interesting place.
