Arriving at Titles... "Coming and Going"

According to the view of the well-known and respected British portrait painter, Lucian Freud, "The only point of titles on the whole is to distinguish one painting from another." However, I do not totally share his sardonic view of this important part of the painting process... for my Self at least.

Assigning a title to a work... is in fact, the final act in the "play" that we artists fashion through our varying processes of thought and activity.... just as signing the work draws our explorations to a point of closure. The title can reflect a wide variety of considerations ranging from simply describing the subject as it is visually presented... through to humour... deeper spiritual, political, intellectual... or reflective motifs. It depends totally upon the thinking process that the artist undergoes... and develops to further encourage and engage the viewer.

In a recent visit that I made to the blog site of an artist, whose work I deeply admire... I was greatly surprised to hear that artist... so prolific and evocative in her children at the beach imagery admit that creating titles was an unpleasant and difficult task for "Her". I was surprised... because her beautiful passages of children at play... "speak" so eloquently and effectively... without any need for words being attached.

I left a comment to that effect to encourage "Her" to think beyond her usual "perspective" of the artist... and "to shift" her thinking/ perspective to perhaps that of the children she was depicting in her images. What would they "say"? Perhaps a wonderfully accurate and novel title might come out of that small "shift in perspective".

In my own case... "I" very rarely suffer from this problem. Often, "I" already have the title in mind before the work is underway... whether in the studio... or en plein air. On many occasions my paintings and their titles owe their presence to a poem... a phrase... or a quotation encountered during my reading. I collect title "Ideas" for future use as paintings or themes in my sketchbooks... so they don't get lost to Time.

On many... many occasions "I" actually pair a painting... with a poem and title that I have created as either a primary or secondary response to something "I" have seen or felt. Encouraged by friends... collectors and family members...I have gathered a number of them together and self-published them in a volume entitled "The Paintings and Poetry of A.W. Bruce Sherman". It can be previewed on our web site http://www.thepaintboxgallery.ca if anyone is interested further in learning more about that process.

This brings "Me" to today's post subject: "Coming and Going".... the title for the final product for my current and freshly completed 36x30 inch canvas which explored my ramblings and adventures in the ancient fishing village of Crail in Fife, Scotland. The concept of ..."coming and going " can be applied at so many different levels in relationship to my experiences in Scotland... and in regard to Crail in particular.

It was here... in this village... viewing "The Hen's Ladder"... that this "Idea" started to take form. My first sketch... or "impression" done on my first visit to Crail records "The Coming". My perspective was very low for this sketch... looking across and up at The Hen's Ladder". After completing the sketch, I worked my way completely around the harbour to the very base of this "ladder".... and in so doing... began to more fully understand why it had its unusual name. One mounted a succession of shallow steps that reached flat planes at intervals... allowing one's ascent/lift to this great elevation... to be more gradual and comfortable to climb.

Midway up... "I" was confronted by a rose-laden stone cottage... the visual impression fairly knocked the very wind out of me. "I" paused... sucked it all in... took some reference photos and then continued the ascent further. Wedged between an ancient waist-high stone fence and a wooden picket fence... festooned with leafery and flowers... "I" turned.... "shifted my first perspective"... from my earlier perspective below... and was greeted by the one-of-a-kind scene that is the subject... "Coming and Going".

"The Going" part of the title was created... when "I" turned my back on that beautiful site and made my way back to the bus stop and back to my B&B "digs" in St Andrew's. I was not to return to this place... though "I" vowed to. My main reason for coming to Scotland was to "be"... with Allison... to celebrate her accomplishments there. The remainder of my time would be given entirely to that purpose...... freely... and joyfully. We shared wonderful and memorable time together.

The excitement of returning to the place from which my Grandparents had come to find and make a new and better life in Canada made my "Coming"... worthwhile and meaningful to "Me".

My "Going" was made easier by the fact that the images... people... events and memories "I" would carry with "Me".... would sustain "Me artistically and spiritually... for the remainder of my days.

"Coming... and Going". We all come... and must go.

Life... full of paradox where one state cannot exist except with the other.

"I" am deeply blessed!

Good Painting to All!

Finding "The Flow"... and Freedom

As I previously mentioned... "I" am often paralyzed and overpowered by sensory input in a particular place or situation. Colour and too much visual information shuts down my ability to both process and act upon what "I" am experiencing... no matter how beautiful the subject may be.

In order to deal with this sensory overload... "I" reduce my expectations of my Self... use my sketching materials... either pencil or pens to record impressions... or the "Idea" that causes "Me" to look upon it as a subject of high interest. My camera serves to back up (not replace) my sifting through impressions... along with notes that "I" find interesting and that might trigger and recapture some of the initial excitement later in the studio.

This secondary approach to entering the painting "mode" or process usually results in my finding "The Flow"... as I' ll refer to it... meaning that state in creating when everything else around and inside you ... even Time... ceases to effect, or for that matter even exist. It is in my opinion, another plane of "existence"... a "place"where many artists spend time.... a place where they say that they "play" with their Muse.

It is this space... one of complete solitude and Freedom that "I" seek before launching into painting. Often it can be reached easily and can last lengthy periods of time. There are other times when it is difficult... even impossible to enter -EXCEPT... through the series of rituals and exercises that I have created for my Self to help "Me" slide into that state slowly... but surely.

My Scotland adventure was simply overwhelming for "Me" physically and spiritually. So many outside factors were "playing against" my desire to paint. By choosing watercolours and pen and ink as my tools to record ... "I" reduced the internal pressure and my own usual desire to become involved in adding detail. "I" made the activity free-flowing by lowering my expectation from "a painting" final product... to a journalistic "sketch". This allowed "Me" to gather ideas and data to support a much more finished record later in the studio.

Upon my return to Canada, it took "Me" a full week of looking at the sketches and reviewing my photo references to finally settle upon a direction for the first painting. A Crail subject was the obvious place to start... simply because that site most excited "Me". In that broad sense... "I" singled out the "moment" that "I" had recorded with my camera... high on the Hen's Ladder... looking down and out to sea as the most memorable moment visually. That prompted my preliminary watercolour/pen and ink sketch at the monitor.... which led a week later to the 30x24 inch toned canvas drawing in vine charcoal. This is the lay in stage after three hours of continuous painting shown in today's post. Canvas filled... nothing final... "possibilities" there for further consideration and development are there for the exploring in today's session... but it is from here that "I" am finally have the final freedom... "to create"... no maps... no sketches... no photos... no preconceived ideas. I have no idea where and when the painting will end.

Yesterday... "I" completed the ritual of setting out the palette of colour early in the morning... in preparation for the start of the lay in process later in the day. Before heading to the easel... I returned coffee in hand... to the reading of my new book; The Artist's Mentor, Ian Jackman , Editor published by Random House. Is is indeed a Mentor... in every sense of the word. I heartily recommend it to anyone needing... wanting... or open to new ideas... from a host of masters and major artists.

Here is a sample of what "You" might expect within its pages:

"The most precious factor in the creative life of an artist in any medium is freedom. Totalitarian, political, or national idelologues that seek to direct or channel the arts are pernicious; they can strangle the work of individual artists and cripple their own culture. They are not, however, the only things that hamper an artist's freedom. It can also be curtailed by commercial conditions of the theaters of aesthetics ordained by various groups, cults, cliques, or "isms". It seems to me that the most damaging restrictions on an artist's liberty are self-imposed. So often what may have begun as fresh thinking and discovery is turned into a routine and is reduced to mere habit. Habits in thinking or technique are always stultifying in the long run. They are also contagious, and when a certain set of habits becomes general, a whole art period can condemn itself to the loss of freedom..."

Food for thought ... for all of "Us"!

I'll post the final painting when complete. Stay tuned,,,,,

Good Painting to ALL!