+River's end
August 3, 2001
Dear Artist,
It's over. Running the boat up onto the waiting trailer--it's as over as
it's going to get. I've always noticed a sense of finality when a boat's no
longer wet.
It hasn't been your average painting trip. As Richard pointed out, the main thing
you can say about this river is that it's "big." One sweeping bay merging
into another, and another around the bend. One big sky after the other. Not even a lot of
subject matter. I've seen more in a single kilometer in a place like Brittany.
This river, in all its greatness, has been an opportunity to confront shortage with an
attempt at personal abundance. There have been lots of places here to ransack the
mindscape. I have the feeling that's what these sorts of trips are for. Focus is
thin; within and without you make what you can with what you find. A twisted stick, a
fossil trilobite, a creeping buttercup, becomes treasure. Running out of yellow ochre
turned into a re-evaluation of raw sienna. A brush left stiff from the previous summer was
made into a new tool. The idea of an art shop around the bend was unthinkable. Under the
cathedral of the sky you tend to work with and pay attention to what's available.
Cumulous, Stratus and Cirrus were often the principal actors of our paintings. A lot of
vapor.
Over two summers Sara and I have been a thousand miles on this river. Her fiance?
Richard joined us for the last lap and added a margin of safety and more joy. Like Noah,
we have a boat full of living things. Before the canvas staples rust--many of these 11 x
14s will actually be finished. Emily and Dorothy kept the bears away. Emily received
an award as the first Airedale down the Mackenzie. In the sky-kennel in the 737, I'm
not sure she knows what she's accomplished. Who does?
Best regards,
Robert
PS: "Everything is a subject; the subject is yourself. It is within yourself that
you must look. The greatest happiness is to reveal it to others, to study oneself, to
paint oneself continually in [one's] work." (Eugéne Delacroix)
Esoterica: After this I crave the opposite. I want the soft eiderdown of society, my
studio space, the opportunity to hang out with lots of artists. I'll have the chance
too--a two-week workshop starting September 24. Funny about the human mind.
The following are selected responses to the above letter. Thanks for writing rgenn@saraphina.com
+Subject-matter blues
On trips I have frequently been confronted with a shortage of
subject matter—when I had expectations that there would be lots. Also, what I found
was not as inspiring as I had expected. For realistic painters particularly, the subject
matter can be a crutch and it's easy to get dependent on it. I have gone a long way,
however, when I have not expected anything. As you mention—perhaps the best part of
those sorts of trips is just getting in touch with yourself. "Content is more than
'subject matter.' It is all the feelings and ideas you bring to your painting."
(Réne Huyghe)
Jason B Hines
+Some thoughts
We have a cottage on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula in Northern Ontario. Though not as
remote as the Mackenzie River, it might as well be when it comes to buying art supplies.
Nada. Also it is very wild and one wonders how many times one can paint the canoe and what
to do when the wild columbine are finished for the year. So I can identify when you say
that the wild buttercup was manna as subject matter. I also agree that each
painting is of oneself, at least it exposes our sight. I also agree heartily with the
comment about lightening up on plagiarism. How can you put paint to canvas and think that
what you are doing is not going to look like someone else's style. Isn't copying the
sincerest form of flattery?
Mary Jean Mailloux, Oakville, Ontario, Canada mjmdesigns@home.com
+Time to feel
Mosquitoes and black flies duly appreciated, was your trip really long enough in terms of
being quiet and listening? Were you moving with the river each day and speaking your
painting language to yourself and communicating with the cyber crowd? In one of my
emigrations, to Australia, it was exactly when I could see or feel no variety and contrast
in the 'bush', the flies and heat seemed intolerable, the isolation of having removed to
the Southern hemisphere and its strange night-time constellations gave such sense of
apartness- it was then that I began to notice the play of steely light on the black-boy
shrubs, on the prickly grasses and sands; the beauty of widely spaced wild plants/flowers,
and the solace that came with drawing and painting in wide, seemingly empty spaces. When
it came time to emigrate yet again (to Canada) the richness of these places had granted me
new ways of seeing and feeling. Canada, especially in the West, was like a Garden of Eden
by comparison!!
Beryl Bainbridge, West Central Alberta, Canada katahdin@telusplanet.net
+Political correctness
Alice Smith in "Loosen Up" (last responses) pretty much
summed it up. Where do we as a society draw the line? Do we listen to the whiners who
think they have cornered the market on creativity or do we continue to go to museum,
galleries, exhibitions, books and expand our own creative process. I guess I just don't
understand. For years I have thought that there truly was a pinnacle to reach. Not. I now
know that to continue trying different styles and techniques makes me reach and reach for
whatever is out there. Guess what, I have a style, but it is ever changing and evolving.
When we look at those who use massive amounts of color, who are bold in there paintings,
who seem to have it figured out, do they or are they simply experimenting in areas that
have already been delved into? I think yes. I think it would be a travesty for all of us
as artists to have any individual, critic or not, decide that we copied someone's work. To
copy a painting stroke for stroke is not at all what I am talking about, but to try and
master or emulate a style is worthy of the learning process. I do find it hard to believe
that some artists are so insecure that they think they can have it all and no one can come
near what they have produced. I beg your pardon--there should be no censorship of the
possibilities. If you truly know how to handle a medium and convey your thought process as
art then who among us can judge us. I am constantly amazed that "Political
Correctness" is now filtering down into even the art world. Amazing. I just wonder
how many of you will buy into it.
Sherry J. Purvis, Kennesaw, GA, USA dpurvis1@bellsouth.net
+Vacancy of vision
In "The subject is in yourself" we have the crux of the imitation matter. Some
artists are totally incapable of looking within themselves. This may be because there is
not much in there, or it may be that they lack the skills of artistic introspection. They
must forever be dependent on someone else's vision for their own inspiration because
they themselves are vacant of it. They must constantly ransack the work of the truly
skilled and innovative until a bundle of second hand recipe cards gives a feeling of
security and the optimism for possible success. Unfortunately, many high profile artists
are in this camp.
Leonard Druce
+Yin and Yang
What you're experiencing (in your desire to do the opposite) is the natural yin and
yang of creativity. We all do this. When an artist fills his soul with one environment and
its contingent artistic problems, he then yearns for something different. It is these
mixes, the cutting from frame to frame that an artist needs to enrich his vision. Whether
it's done internally with the mind, or by physical travel—the result is the
same. Something to guard against, however, is too much running around for its own sake.
W. P. Hansen, Copenhagen, Denmark
+The choices we make
I got back photographs from my trip to Ireland a week after returning. Although there are
some beauties among them that I will cherish when trying to conjure up specificity of
beauty, compared to the space inside me created by my experience, the pictures were
incomplete. My spirit expanded with the heart of Ireland. The land, history, the animals,
the sea, the lightness and hospitality of the people... all opened up a space within me.
There seemed to be a wonderful simplicity in attitude toward life that I admire. When
asking directions one night to a pier in Wexford, a man gave some specifics and then said,
"Just follow your nose". This could be regarded as perfectly useless, but I see
it as great advice to stay on track, know that it's really very simple so don't question
the simplicity just go with it. In the big picture, don't complicate life and you'll
arrive where you need to be. There's nothing like direct off-the-cuff wisdom. This rings
for me also, because it's something in life that takes me directly to the core if I am
brave enough to embrace it. It's a choice.
Radha Saccoccio NYC, USA wsstudio@msn.com
+East and west
Russian artists are at a high level, have a strong academic basis
and sometimes look crookedly at Western art. When I studied in Vilnius (Lithuania) Art
Institute in 1975-83, some of our teachers visited similar schools in UK etc. and came to
the conclusion that our work was many more times stronger. In our country schools of
classical drawing and painting survived, when in West at most they faded away. In our
country the profession of artist was prestige and the best pupils entered art schools. Now
things are changed - what was good has disappeared, what was bad has grown.
Jurate Macnoriute, Vilnius, Lithuania jumac@searchking.com
+Wonder of clouds
If we were to become brilliant with the rendition of vapor, that would be enough. In
clouds and all of their nuances there is enough for a lifetime of study and joy. Do not be
disheartened when clouds are all there is. Clouds are the spirit and vapor is the mystery
that makes many a painting successful—perhaps because clouds are up there next to
heaven. Also, they engage because of the challenge. The more I paint clouds the more
"I really don't know clouds at all."
Anne Preston, UK
+Art will cure the souls
You send your letters via satellite phone from shipboard and I read these in my Moscow
flat. That is OK, it is civilization. Of course, Tuktoyaktuk people must have to eat in
winter. Of course, it is anachronism to kill the whales to have food. But who can help
those people have job and other food. Where are the fantastic beings calling as sponsors
or more correct it must be the government program to give the job for those people and
save the whales? One missile costs enough to have food for all Tuktoyaktuk. Are you not
agree? Are existing the peaceful ways to regulate the Yugoslavian and Iraq problem? The
Yugoslavia is not far from Moscow, to bomb Europe because of criminal leaders it is crazy
enough. To kill unguilted people in the Yugoslavia is the crime accordingly to laws of the
USA and Canada. It is so crazy as to bomb Montreal in order to stop criminality in the
Canada. But this absurdity is reality, who could believe; the good and polite gentleman
can do it? The Hiroshima was not necessity, the Belgrade now is not necessity, the Moscow
tomorrow will be not necessity. Of course, such crazy people are existing even by us. The
art must cure
the souls of these crazy men to become normal people. It is our mission to help even these
people to understand the World via art influence.
Yaroslaw, Olga Knyaz, Russia tapestry-olgayaroslaw@mtu-net.ru
Emily would like to thank all of those who
wrote to
congratulate her on her recent
conquest of the Mackenzie River in Canada's
NorthWest Territories.
þ
Please feel free to comment on anyone's remarks. If you include
your email address right after your name at the end of the letter, we will include it. If
you wish to write incognito we will honor that too. Readers really appreciate it when you
tell us approximately where you are located. We edit most letters for clarity and brevity.
rgenn@saraphina.com
The twice-weekly letters are in French at http://www.painterskeys.com/fr
Selected responses to the previous letter "Tuktoyaktuk" are at http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/tuktoyaktuk.htm
+Workshop
(RG note) The workshop I was referring to in the above letter is at Painter's Lodge
on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It runs from September 24th to October 8th
2001. It's sponsored by International Artist Magazine and it's a pretty high-end
affair. Painter's Lodge and surroundings have some of the most beautiful places
I've ever painted--I'm really looking forward to sharing this experience.
I'll be there to help everybody in all ways I can to the best of my ability. My
fellow instructor will be Stephen Quiller—an artist who is really at the top of his
form doing workshops these days. It's a bit of a new thing for me—I've
never done one this extensive before. If you're interested there may be some openings
still available. You can get more information by going to http://www.paintingworkshops.net/quill2001.shtml
I also thought it might be fun to enlist a volunteer or two to help with the four Twice
Weekly letters which will be written while at Painter's Lodge, and also to help in
the choosing and editing of the responses. Let me know if you're interested. Thanks.
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