Before and After Social Distancing

Up to the advent of the Corona Virus the regular followers of my blog, sculpturestudiodominica.blogspot.com were artists and art students in over sixty countries. Now my world-wide audience has increased dramatically in terms of general interest, indicating that art has therapeutic role to play in these difficult times.

I started Notes for Art Students years ago specifically for CXC Visual Art students in Dominica. At that time my followers were few and far between. But thanks to the Corona Virus it is now beginning to attract a world-wide audience. Hence, its present resurrection.

The opening picture is of a studio visit by Dominica Grammar School students and the one below is a demonstration sketch I made of Shayla.   

Although at this point in time I cannot have actual studio visitors, I have thousands of virtual ones!

Your creative potential

While I patiently wait for Dominica Grammar School CXC students to send it samples of their work, here is a sample from one of your fellow students (my son) who is not taking art. 

Tristan made the drawing when he was five. It is a picture of a house he one day intends to build. If he can produce his own masterpiece at five you can produce yours at sixteen. Remember what I told you about creative potential diminishing between birth and sixteen. Rediscover your creativity before it's too late!

An elephant with the ears/wings of a butterfly

While waiting for my Dominica Grammar Students to send in their work, let me introduce a student that recently contacted me regarding pursuing her interest in art.

Dionne sat CXC in Visual Art when she was a student at Goodwill Secondary School. Regardless of her passion for art and her undoubted talent, she did not do well. In fact her paper was returned unmarked. She is not alone in this predicament. My most outstanding Dominican student took the exam a few years ago and came away with no more than average marks. Unlike mathematics and science there is no right or wrong answer. Everything depends upon the examiner's ability to recognise emerging talent. 

In my experience students fall down, not so much on the work that is done on the day of the examination, but on the work that is prepared and submitted beforehand. In particular this applies to the "Journal" element. For this year's students the handing-in-date for the journal - which covers a two year period - is barely a week away. Nevertheless,you still have time to dip your pen into a glass of creative nectar and come up with something lyrical. 

Below is one of Dionne's paintings: an elephant with the ears/wings of a butterfly. Now that is what creativity is all about...a different way of seeing. 

If you think that an elephant with ears/wings of a butterfly is weird, Paul McCartney of "Beatles" fame once said:

I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird. Now I know that it is the people that call others weird that are weird.

Dionne is now a student at the State College. But alas, because the college offers nothing in art she is instead studying Law Enforcement. 

Practice, Practice, Practice

Before I begin commenting on student's work, let me show you what practice can do. 

The watercolour below is the first that I ever painted. The year is 1960 and I was seventeen years old. I remember taking myself off into a remote field so that no one could see the mess I was about to make. I realise now that my brush was too small and my colours too dry. At the time I considered it to be a complete failure but now I see it as a brave attempt.

 

Move forward to the year 2000. A similar subject but what forty years of practice can do!

From the very beginning I realised that speed of execution to be the secret of a good water colour. The first painting took me fifteen minutes and the second took me fifteen minutes....plus forty years of practice! 

Lots of sound but no vision

When I talk to students about the art, I begin by asking them: how many hours a day do you spend listening to music. Their response is usually in double figures and for some the headphones remain plugged in even during sleep. In response to my next question: how many hours a day do you spend looking at pictures (and I don't mean videos) the response is zero.

Until recently it would have been impossible for those of us living on a small island in the Caribbean to spend time looking at the work of painters and sculptors, both past and present. But the internet has changed all that. Almost every major art gallery in the world now has their collection on-line and there are hundreds of sites devoted to individual artists. A good starting point for looking at pictures can be found at: www.abcgallery.com

It is by studying the work of others that we develop as artists in our own right. Notice that I say studying and not copying. 

Art students in the following countries regularly follow my main diary page at: sculpturestudiodominica.blogspot.com 

USA, UK, Ukraine, Philippines, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Columbia, Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Algeria, India, Chile, Russia, China, Thailand, South Africa, Sweden, Poland, Serbia, Romania, Bangladesh, Australia, France, Peru, Brazil, Norway, Belgian, Italy, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Honduras, Kenya, Germany, Malaysia, ShiLanka, Hungary, Myanmar (Burma), and almost all of the Caribbean Islands.

If they can take an interest in Art, so can you!

My sketch of Dominica’s Carnival Parade gives you the vision and leaves you to key in the sound.

Keeping it simple

In terms of drawing materials, anything goes.  Toulouse-Lautrec and Auguste Rodin at times resorted to drawing on brown wrapping paper and painting on sheets of cardboard.  I made the sketch below with the only materials at hand: a ballpoint pen and a sheet of photocopy paper. 

Gretel Sleeping

The more readily available the materials the more you can afford to practice.  A successful artist covers acres of paper with sketch after sketch.  Take heart, for the learning curve does not always climb steadily upwards.  There are times when you feel to be getting nowhere.  But you must continue to work through those periods.  The reward comes when on day you unexpectedly break through to new ground.

I can draw and paint without any materials at all.  As I queue at the supermarket my eyes are studying the people around me and my brain is mentally working out how I would put the scene down on paper: the lines, the shades, the colours.

Below is one of Toulouse-Lautrec’s sketches that he made with a stick of red chalk.  Use the internet for find out more about this artist.

The Art Spirit

Almost a hundred years ago an artist named Robert Henri published a collection of notes that he had made for students attending his classes.  The notes are not about how to mix colours or draw perspective, but rather they delve into the very nature of the creative soul.  As such, it is worth more than all the How to Draw and Paint books put together. The book remains in print and is available in paperback from Dover Publications. My Notes for Art Students are in a similar vein. 

I will occasionally quote at random from the book, beginning with:

We are not here to do what has already been done.

This is something I have to keep reminding myself.  We can’t forever keep repeating the same painting, no matter how successful.  Creativity must break new ground. The fundamental necessity for any artist is not paper and paints, but passion.  Without it, technical ability is useless.   

The two sketches below show the possibilities of the materials that I introduced last week.  The first is one of my studies of the nude figure, and the second a drawing made in the Congo war zone by Feliks Topolski.  Use the internet to find out more about this artist.