memory, Carlson and invention is art

9x18 pastel and watercolor on Uart

Once again..only memory, no references what so ever. I must say it is the most freeing experience in the world. A synthesis of idea, place and past knowledge. I will keep exploring and learning.
So, of course I quote John F. Carlson,"Painting from memory, then aids rearrangement, and rearrangement is the mother of pure invention. Convention is craft; invention is art. In art, knowledge assists invention." 

PS A big thank you to all my new and old subscribers and followers! I love y'all ! It feels good to know others enjoy seeing my art and reading my posts.  Feel free to email me your questions or ideas for post topics...

early evening, bittersweet autumn and memory

Stored memories can be even more powerful. Time acts like a huge colander so that only that one idea, the one that drew you to be transfixed, remains. To quote more Carlson, " The memory exaggerates the essentials; the trifles of incidents tend to become blurred...Until mastery of memory is reached, the brain refuses to act as a filter. "
This is remembered from one of my fields by Lake Needwood. I paint there often. One time after placing my plein air equipment to the car I looked back and saw this. My jaw dropped. Thankfully I had no camera and had the sense just to watch. It came back to me last night in bed, at least 3 months later. All day long I let it take shape in my brain. Usually I never stay still. My friends who know me know I am called "the hamster" as I am in constant motion ( as in on the wheel.) One good thing I must say about this surgery (and its long recovery) is it has slowed me down to a crawl..maybe even slower than a crawl. Now I sit and think. And then I sit some more and think more.  I feel grateful all the time.  Being quiet and thinking about gratitude brings wonder.
On another note, thank you to all you brave folks who have sent me your memory paintings. I will post on Thursday (February 10)...That leaves time for more folks to try.
Thankfully yours,
Loriann

memory marches on

6x9 pastel on somerset

Thank you everyone for all of your comments regarding memory painting and a big thanks to those wiling to take the plunge. I received one jpg already! If you send me your jpeg please let me know if it's OK to post your painting here. It's interesting to hear your ideas about readiness, articulation, where memories come from, how long they last and influence. I received many thought provoking emails as well. Maybe tomorrow I will write more about it.

For now I will share with you another memory painting from my field. Paul and I took the slow walk out there 2 nights ago, sunset.  The winter sky greens are different, especially at sunset. I played the memory game and now Paul is actively correcting me. I love it. Even he, a scientist/researcher, is seeing more and differently.
I hope you aren't getting sick of my sunset fields. I don't think I will ever tire of creating them.

I move on with another quote from Carlson:
"We must not imitate the externals of nature with so much fidelity that the picture fails to evoke that wonderful teasing recurrence of emotion that marks the contemplation of a work of art."

Memory and the Key Bridge, more Carlson

9x6  pastel and watercolor on uart

 The Potomac River in all its glory is right near the hospital where I stayed. The bridge closest is the Key Bridge, a beautiful old arched bridge- a bridge Whistler would have loved. I tried to paint it as I saw in autumn when I went to the hospital for tests. (back then I was afraid to try all memory paintings, heh) This is of course, all memory, no references.
All I am trying to do is create a believable landscape with the kind of color that makes me say ,"ahhh." Some parts in this one work  and some parts need tweaking. (next time) One thing  have learned is that it is just as important what colors are underneath as what colors are on top. I carefully dance the pastel on top so that the light from the color below glows through the top layers. Some marks are smudged, pressed, brushed, erased and some just placed on like a whisper.
One more great quote from Carlson,
"Trust your feelings entirely about color, and then, even if you arrive at no infallible color theory, you will at least have the credit of having your own color sense."

It was perfect timing to read that. I am now beginning to reread Robert Henri. More about his writings next time.
By the way friends, I am sorry if I have not made it to visit all the blogs I normally enjoy seeing. I still love seeing your work and reading your posts. In time I will be back completely.

pros and cons of plein air and more Carlson

9x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart

What each painter sees and feels is vastly different than another painter. Why is it we tend to ignore this and search for accepted reality? I remember years ago when I was visiting galleries in NYC and one gallery owner explained to me why he did not like plein air work. At that point in my painting life I felt highly insulted. I loved plein air and felt it was an elevated art. After all it WAS my art. He talked about the fact that it simply had too much information, no real distillation  of what is important. Finally, 15 years later I see his point. I will always be a plein air painter, but I think with this winter's long recovery and  exploration into my memory all will be different in the spring. I will be reborn when I go out there.
Last night's contrast between  blue snow on the field  and hot gold sun provided amazing fodder for my imagination.

More quotes from the amazing John F Carlson:
Too much reality in a picture is always a disappointment to the imaginative soul. We love suggestion and not hard facts. (wow, eh! and so true)


The beginner in painting begins by copying nature in all literalness, leaving nothing out and putting nothing in; he makes it look like the place or person or thing.  By and by he will learn to omit the superfluous and to grasp the essentials and arrange them into a more powerful and significant whole.   And it is wonderful to know that these “essentials” will be essentials to him only (and herein lies the secret of originality).  Another man will choose another group of essentials out of the same fountain of inspiration.
(Does this ring a bell or what?)

memory, love of painting, John Carlson

9x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart

9x9 pastel and watercolor

Two paintings of my field at sunset, each trying to create that elusive feeling. I find that I love painting even more than I did before. I love it for its discovery, excitement and freedom. I love it because I feel I am now it and there is nothing in the way. I now know that the pain I feel each day in my body can be erased when I pick up a brush or a pastel. It is then I am free.

Here are more amazing quotes from John Carlson:

If you train yourself in memory work, you fearlessly attack and rearrange your material, for you can retain your original impression.

The more we advance, the more we realize with Whistler that nature is never right.

Thank you everyone for being there.... for your comments and emails. All your gestures are helping me through the hardest time of my life. This blogger world is amazing . It's like having hundreds of studio mates. hugs, Loriann

memory painting and John Carlson

9x9 pastel and watercolor on Uart

Wow, it is really amazing how freed I feel when I take it all from within, just my emotions and memories. This morning's sunrise, houses burdened with thick snow, was stunning. It's the view I see from my window each morning, yet different. Breathlessly beautiful. It painted it 9 hours later.

So I leave you with a quote from John Carlson,
Rest assured that if you work every day at your art, using the materials nearest at hand, you will gradually discover such beauty in them that they will fill you with happiness. 

So true, so true. Lucky am I, as I can work everyday.

use of memory and John F Carlson

9x6 pastel and watercolor

There's a small water drainage site near my home. Yesterday I sat there at sunrise and just watched. The sky was an odd very light grey- a pinkish green, like a curtain, with a slice of yellow at the bottom. My favorite moment was when the sun broke through the trees like a big pinprick.
One of the rules for my memory game is absolutely no cameras can be with me.... too tempting. Only a small notebook or sketch book. I also am now making myself wait for at least 12 hours before I can begin painting. I keep tightening the rules. heh.
John Carlson has an excellent chapter on "Painting from Memory" in his Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting. I think you will find this thought very interesting. Carlson says,
"I am inclined to believe that all creative work is founded upon our earliest impressions, the time when the eye looked with unclouded freshness and candor upon the world! These impressions (rejecting nothing, passing judgement on nothing, accepting all), after ripening or mellowing with time into a subconscious treasure trove, form the principal wells or founts of inspiration for the grown man (or grown woman). From these we select. We see something that stirs our soul with creative desire, because we recognize or remember subconsciously an old experience.
It is because of this that we may be said to paint or write, or act what we ourselves are in every movement and every thought. What we are is not the result of present experience alone, but the aggregate past. In other words, we see and feel certain things today because we have previously seen them in our most impressionable years. We add this to our present "facility" and organizing faculty, which can only be acquired in mature years. Our visions take form, gathering volume as they move, and they mould themselves, sometimes sublimely, into present expression. The artist himself is often surprised at he finished work of art. He can not tell "how it happened" nor could he repeat the feat at someone's bidding.
It is because the memory revives the dormant and stimulates action, that painting from memory is here so urgently advocated. In painting, the memory will be discovered to be very meagre at first. Difficulty will be found at retaining anything. But with practice the practice will be surprisingly strengthened, not as a mere camera lens, but as a power in discerning the significant factors behind common place experiences.
....As we progress, our work becomes more intensely absorbing. We almost live in a world apart. In memory work we relive our experiences and the effect they have produced on us.
So what do you think of that idea?

the ugly duckling

8x10 oil on linen
Do you know that story The Lucky Duckling? It's the story where the swan hangs out with the ducks and everyone thinks she is ugly...not knowing that she is a swan. Well..I am sure hoping one day I will be a swan...but for now it's the ugly duckling all the way. Funny way of saying that as I morph away from what I understand- painting plein air every day, producing a new work each time- to working from my stored memory I am seriously suffering from the uglies. I reread  Carlson to remind myself why I really need to make this change." The memory exaggerates the essentials; the trifles of incidents tend to become blurred...Until mastery of memory is reached, the brain refuses to act as a filter. "
Without the filter you record the information but the mood needs to be the most important.
My recent change in  content has actually made some subscribers leave. I am very sad to see them go, but I have to do what I have to do.
Quack.

PS I will hopefully be able to post part three of Lynne's interview tomorrow.

moving from the literal

7x7 pastel on Uart paper
I went out to the field to study sunrise, but the clouds were still very heavy and quiet after yesterday's rains. It's funny how the yellow flowers draw me to this field but they are also the thing most challenging to fit into a pleasing color harmony. The toned down sky helped me understand a different way to approach it. This afternoon I will take this small painting in the studio and work on a new one with a similar color palette.  There I will have even more freedom.
Today I managed to move from the literal on the scene.....to live for the painting. Yay!

I end with a quote from Carlson:
'Too much reality in a picture is always a disappointment to the imaginative soul. We love suggestion and not hard facts."