A View of Delft - "Perfection of the life or or of the work?"

I was attracted to the book "A View of Delft - Vermeer then and now" by Anthony Bailey (Chatto& Windus 2001) at the local library because of the amazing painting of that name by Vermeer and the fact that I too am painting views of my local area. I had never read about Vermeer's life in such detail before.

The first unanticipated fact that I read was about the gunpowder explosion of 1654 in Delft in which Carel Fabritius lost his life. Earlier this year I read Donna Tartt's novel The Goldfinch about Fabritius's painting by that name. In the novel the painting survives a 20th century terrorist bomb explosion in an art museum in New York and in the Vermeer book I discover the real painting of the goldfinch did in fact survive an explosion in Delft in 1654. Maybe Tartt makes this link in her book, maybe it was her starting point, but if so I glossed over it at the time.

The Anthony Bailey book I read with a much larger Vermeer monograph of the complete paintings by Norbert Schneider beside me so I could peer closely at the details he described.

I would like to quote a passage from Bailey page 104.

"With an eventual eleven living children, Vermeer may well have pondered how to divide his energies; his slow production of paintings meant he completed only some three pictures for every child. The poet Yeats later put the dilemma as which to choose, perfection of the life or of the work? A ruthless genius may plump for the latter. A more difficult task faces the home-loving artist who tries for both."

I believe at different stages of our lives we oscillate between these two. Certainly for me at the moment the art comes before the life. It is the most important thing, but would it even exist without the life? And if so in what diminished form?

Friday Portraits

I am establishing a painting routine that is working well for me. Most of the week I work on my own in my studio and Friday mornings I go to Royal Queensland Art Society to work from the model. One week it is a nude figure the next it is a clothed figure suitable for portrait work. It is always just the one three-hour pose for the entire morning.

This is my painting from yesterday's session.

The model was nude and I was given the opportunity to "set" her pose so I chose a standing pose up on the plinth with her body facing towards me and her head angled away looking up. I was seated on a donkey easel with a lower viewpoint.

During the week I saw the amazing movie "In Search of Chopin"  and I was reminded of Delacroix's portrait of Chopin.

It is obviously just a quick head study not even progressing past the tonal block-in stage but the angle of the head really appeals. It has a lean not only sideways but also away from the viewer as if he is listening to music and concentrating. It is a fully Romantic image fitting in well with the feeling of that whole era of artists. painters, composers, musicians, and writers (George Sand) all being great mates and bouncing ideas off each other. Mutual respect was the order of the day. I have visited George Sand's house in Paris and it felt like a pilgrimage to the shrine of Romanticism. There is a great movie called "Impromptu" starring Hugh Grant as Chopin and Judy Davis as George Sand that I saw years ago that has stayed with me. In fact I used to dress in a men's style black suit  with tie there for a while in my youth!

To get back to my work, I had forgotten how much I enjoy working "alla prima". Obviously before the age of photography  everything was done from life (or from memory) but not necessarily as quickly as this sketch seems to have been done. You can't expect a model to hold such an obviously awkward angle for long. That is why I placed myself at the lower viewpoint.

The light was from above and to the left and I started boldly with yellow on the left of the face and purple on the right. I think the nailed the right side pretty early on and have just left it. The eye on the right I had to adjust several times and I do think it was because of model shifts after each break. I still have a plan of working with the "accidental" and the messy mark that is almost so wrong it is right, Almost!

Acrylic on card, big brushes throughout. Lots of the cardboard left to show through.

Portrait - Looking Up to Jan

I apologise to my readers for having neglected this blog for a while.

I have been painting almost everyday and posting many of the images on instagram, also behind the scenes studio images, complete with dogs, cats, and cups of tea.

http://instagram.com/  user name robynbauer

Last year was what I referred to as my "study year" with my anatomy classes, life drawing, sessions with David Paulson, heaps of art reading and attendance at Royal Queensland Art Society portrait group sessions (all untutored).
This year, while I am still letting myself experiment quite a bit, I am consolidating what I have learned with the production of lots of new work on a consistently bigger scale than ever before.

It has always been my goal to "put it all in". A bit daunting and maybe not even possible, but I have an idea of including my portraiture, figure work, botanical things such as the big fig trees and other flora and of course fauna in big landscape compositions of the Paddington area where I live with its timber and tin cottages and leafy gardens.

All this new work is to be included in a solo show in March 2015 at the Petrie Terrace Gallery of the Royal Queensland Art Society. I have a few threads going that I am happy with and lots of other dilemmas to resolve. The main problem is balancing my work  from observation with my work from imagination. The different paintings work in themselves but will not work together so well for a solo show. I am sure the answer will come through "painting it out". I still thankfully have a bit of time up my sleeve.

In the meantime I thought I would post a recent portrait.

I am calling it "Looking Up To Jan".  Jan is a model we sometimes have at RQAS.

She was doing a standing pose up on the model stand and I decided to sit down and work so that I was literally looking up to her. She did look a bit like a diva or opera singer and I went with that idea. It is acrylic on shellac-coated card, unpainted bits showing through.

I am pleased with this painting. It had been quite a tough week and I had made a big decision to leave another group I had been going to as I felt it was becoming toxic for me and bad for my work. I feel as artists we have to nurture ourselves and our ideas. Our work always comes first and if we find ourselves in a group or situation that has stopped working for us we have to absent ourselves.  So having been through this experience I arrived at RQAS on the Friday morning feeling a sense of relief and excitement.  I  don't think I have ever painted so boldly and quickly from the model. The painting was finished in about two hours of the three hour session and I have left it alone since.

Having used every possible art media in my career I am really gravitating towards acrylic paints now. They allow you to work fast without getting muddy. I think a lot of the blending people do with oil paint makes the work look a bit dated and old hat. I like to put the brush mark there and try to leave it. Acrylic dries so fast that it makes this possible. You can layer heaps in the one session no drying time needed. And it is much more practical and economical to work on card than canvas.

This is another one of the same model. Again painted in the same way, alla prima, fast and furious, about two hours. The shadow cast by the hat was what interested me. I did like it better at an earlier stage, when it was as simple and clear as a Sam Fullbrook but I guess I didn't have the confidence to just leave it then!

A couple of pieces of advice I remember from my artist mother Joan Bauer (1933-1995).  She said to put down the mark and just leave it, and she also said "Just keep on producing".

Painting Paddington - "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

I have been neglecting this blog lately, but I have been busy painting. I am continuing with my project of producing paintings with the feeling of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" set in the suburb I live in, Paddington, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

I think illustrating the story is not the right thing to do, but it is rather the atmosphere and richness of the text which I want to emulate.

Paddington houses, streets, trees, gardens together with portrait heads, animals, and all things botanical are the subject matter. It feels hugely daunting to be attempting this and in some ways I feel I have been heading toward this for years. Trying to put so much in comes with its own set of problems.

I have started about 5 largish canvases and several works on paper just to sort out ideas.

I thought I would post a studio shot to give the general feel.

Trees of Paddington

I have been really loving drawing more of the local Fig Trees around Paddington, Bardon and Milton. In fact it is becoming almost a Zen meditative experience for me while doing them.

This is Fig Tree Drawing No 2. Just drawn in black and white charcoal on a tinted paper.

This is the third in the series. I do feel I am getting better at them.

Annoyingly I framed this one before taking the final photo. So this is just a progress photo and the finished piece is a bit more "finished".

I do see these as real "portraits" of individual trees. In fact just this morning, I had a couple of ladies in my studio who recognised a particular tree. They knew exactly where it was, knew the exact species and told me that is actually a protected heritage tree. Good to know there is such a thing!

Recent Drawings, Trees and some Fantasy

I am really loving working with very basic materials at the moment. I have done quite a few drawings just with charcoal. Some with both black and white pencils on a neutral paper and others on plain white paper with just a hint of colour. I can't resist that touch of bright colour.

This is a giant Moreton Bay Fig Tree that I walk past every day. I spent about a week on this drawing. I don't think I have done anything so detailed for a while. There is a love heart with initials on the branch to the left.

Kangaroos are really a subject I can't seem to leave alone. They keep reappearing in new work when I thought I'd gotten them out of my system with the Terra Australis show last year. I have placed this little guy in front of Brisbane's Story Bridge. Something about the reverse curves got me going compositionally.

This is one of what I call my "fantasy" drawings.  I did quite a bit of sketching when the Brisbane Ekka was on, hence the Ferris wheel and the people on the left. My kangaroo and my Fig Tree are also in there plus Michelangelo's Sybil and a skeleton fleshed out. Don't ask me what this is about. There are orchids in there too.

Another skeleton. This has come no doubt from my concentration on anatomy this year. Glasshouse Mountains in the background, tree, owl, Watteau's Minstrel, all outside a Paddington gate, waiting for the mail.

This is a clump of Jacaranda trees down in my back yard. I haven't done anything like this before and it did take several days. It is a pretty accurate representation of what is there.

Paintings of Paddington

I am sorry I have not posted much lately but I have been working extremely hard. I have been drawing and painting my local area. I have read that many artists produce their best work when they find their subject matter not far from home.

The timber "Queenslanders"  and the wealth of plant life around this area of Brisbane are quite inspiring. I keep returning to things botanical and animals also even when I am looking at the architecture and hilly streets around here.

Here is just a small sample of what I have been doing.

None of these works are actually totally finished which is another reason I haven't posted them. I will get back to them when the spirit moves me.

This is image is looking up Cochrane Street towards Mt Lindsay. The elkhorn has made its home in a frangipani tree. Compositionally I was playing around with triangles.

This one shows the detailing of a typical veranda. In the distance is the Paddington/Bardon water tower. The flowers in the foreground are Bauhinias I think.

I couldn't resist putting in the scrub turkey crossing the road. They are everywhere around here. On the left is an amazing Moreton Bay Fig Tree. I am becoming obsessed with them and have done lots of drawings of them.

This one is looking towards the west. The gap between the hills is actually the suburb called "The Gap". Now I know why! I was experimenting with the effect of the sunset lighting on the fruit and am quite pleased with the result. Something new for me to focus on. I want these works to have the feeling that life is going on, (my life probably) hence the cups of tea, teapots etc.

Another scrub turkey. This image has turned into a bit of a fantasy with the street scene and the animals added! It is actually Haig Road looking towards Heussler Terrace. Again the giant Moreton Bay Fig Trees. The purple shadows against the glare of the road were what initially motivated me with this one. I still visit Lone Pine Sanctuary fairly often and this kangaroo is one of my mates.

The galvanised iron roofs around here are also painted interesting colours. The crows are daily visitors too. One day we could see twelve from our back deck. They are amazing, very clever birds and so beautiful with their blue/black sheen. Three on a telephone line.

I will mention again that these are not totally finished. I will probably spend some time refining them.