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June 11, 2006
Picking your nose
I’m not painting because I haven’t got a model at the moment. Well, that’s not just the reason, I haven’t got the time either, but that’s another story. I’ve tried painting from photographs, but, well, painting from photographs is like trying to pick your nose with a glove on. Not that I’ve ever actually tried to pick my nose wearing gloves, but you get the idea…
When I paint I want to paint what I see and by that I mean the life that is happening there in front of me, with the light changing and the shadows shifting almost imperceptibly as the day progresses or the model moves slightly, slowly, just breathing and talking. That’s life. I don’t do Still Life, or as the French more correctly call it Nature Morte. I paint Nature Vivante.
So I can’t paint from photographs. Well I can paint from photographs but the results are flat and dead compared to painting from life. Mostly.
Painting from photographs is just copying a fixed moment in time, rather than capturing the life going on. Oh dear it’s all a bit complicated, but the gloves are off.
Posted by john at June 11, 2006 09:44 PM