another much better nocturne and more whistler quotes

6x16 oil on wood
Another try at a memory nocturne. Pushed the value of the land to be darker which implies about 4:00am, while yesterdays' was right before sunrise. I am working on wood again..birch this time-love it!
Scratching, rubbing and stroking the oil paint to experiment with what it will do.


I will once again end with two famous quotes from James Abbott McNeill Whistler in reference to his nocturnes:

They are "not painted to offer the portrait of a particular place, but as an artistic impression that had been carried away [from the scene]."

I wanted to indicate an artistic interest alone, divesting the picture of any outside anecdotal interest which might have otherwise attached to it. A nocturne is an arrangement of line, form and colour first. the picture is throughout a problem, that I attempt to solve. I make use of any means, any incident or object in nature that will bring about this symmetrical result.

He said these quotes during the court case Whistler vs. Ruskin. This was the case where Whistler became bankrupt. He risked everything for an opportunity to assert the supremacy of art over the increasingly powerful domain of criticism (Ruskin). Yay Whistler!