Saturday, October 24, 2015

Trout Spot


Acrylic collage painting on Somerset paper 7.5 x 11 inches.

I'll take a moment to briefly explain why these pictures range from fairly representational, even realist in some cases....to fairly abstract and even nonrepresentational in other instances. Here is an example of a piece that is not very realistic.

Sometimes the intention is to record how the world looks. There are many reasons for this, and there is much that is endlessly fascinating in the way the world arranges its visual effects on a minute-to-minute basis....there is Never a shortage of wonders to look at in the world, and one does Not need to go far to prove this. Look at the corner of your desk, look outside your window, look at the ground, go for a walk and point your face into any little bit of visual complexity. You will not run out of ideas based on visual observation in your entire lifetime as a painter, and to paint the appearance of the world is a laudable goal for an artist.

But.....just as one writer said of Monet, "...he is just an eye, but what an eye!" At times an artist will turn to a Different intention.....so there are times when I sit down to paint and do Not wish to record only what I see. Sometimes there are memories, images in the mind's eye, that ask to surface as well. Sometimes there may be only a sensation, a feeling, a reaction to some event, that asks if a visual equivalent is possible, in relation to itself. So abstraction and semi abstraction are useful directions to deal with these impulses. As well, recognize that there is a great deal of historical convention on which all of this rests. While there Is inventiveness in each piece, there is also much to borrow from. But whatever the painting ends up looking like, in my case, it is always About something in my life and world.....it is not without associations.

www.harrystooshinoff.com  

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