Pumps, Oil on Canvas, 24" by 30", 2001 (sold)
Why Still Life?
Still life subjects have been favorite themes in my paintings. For one reason, still life objects are always available, easy to set up, and provide a wealth of visual information for the artist to study. Still life subjects have formed a significant segment of many artists' creative work throughout painting history. We think of Chardin and Cézanne for helping make still life a vital theme of studio painting. Their robust and inventive still life compositions continue to mystify generations of new admirers.
Vincent Van Gogh had a very personal attachment to the still life objects he painted: old wooden clogs dirty from muddy fields where workers labored, favorite books, and of course, sunflowers. Like Van Gogh, Giorgio Morandi was fascinated by ordinary subjects to which he was strongly attached. He had a lifelong interest in studio articles which surrounded him when he painted. Much like Rubens and Renoir with their nudes, Morandi found his ideal muse in tightly packed arrangements of bottles, jars, and other simple containers.
Following Cézanne's example, the Cubist painters Braque and Picasso renewed interest in still life and continued painting in this genre throughout their long careers. The late studio still lifes of Georges Braque are jammed with visual information layered into paintings of engaging richness and complexity.
I myself like to take a little time to set up a good still life for painting. I feel this gives me a head start in making a good composition. However, the objects themselves and their placement are not the most important elements in assuring a good picture. More important is an eager and active involvement with looking at the objects. They could be anything from an elaborate vase of flowers to a humble potato. Still life objects provide the artist with subjects which don't move and which can be returned to session after session until the painting is completed. It is said that Cézanne preferred apples and oranges for just this reason: they didn't move. Cézanne encouraged his models to "be like apples".
I also like to work with a light source which remains unchanged when I am painting a still life. This way I can enjoy seeing how the forms are lighted and how their shadows fall within the composition. I take time to work out the two-dimensional pattern of objects and their adjacent spaces. What evolves is an interlocking composition of shapes and negative shapes which I adjust until the painting is finished.
You'll see that my still life work is often painted in vibrant colors. I must confess, I admire the work of other artists who are successful with more muted palettes. In beginning a painting, I often begin with a subdued palette. Through the course of looking and painting, I find myself almost involuntarily making the colors brighter and brighter. In this way, I am able to layer additional information into the painting until it is finished. This information notates qualities of light, form, and space which I transmit to the canvas with color. For me, color is not the end I try to achieve, but rather the outcome of hours spent looking and painting. I think more of color being in the service of more important issues like light, form, and space.
Cézanne spoke of this method of working as a tightening of the chromas. By gradual adjustment of the brightness (chroma) of the colors, the painting develops a range of chromatic intensity much like an orchestra might begin a musical passage very softly and slowly build toward a final and stirring clash of cymbals.
Another term which can be applied to still life painting is the French term passage. Cézanne first spoke of passage in reference to how his eye perceived his subject. You might imagine how your eye moves through and around a grouping of trees as you look at it. He felt that as the eye moves through and around the subject, it picks out bits of information. And these small sensations he received from the subject required immediate notation. Cézanne noted these sensations with dabs of color from the brush which he put down in patches. These patches were color notes for whatever he happened to be looking at: a tree or at the space between two trees. Most often Cézanne felt no need to fill in all the gaps between these color patches. Oftentimes, the bare canvas peeks through in the finished painting and gives a sense of expansion to the colors to help suggest his passages. Cézanne applied this principle of passage to his landscapes and portraits as well.
When is the still life done? For me, it's done when I've said all I have to say about it. Fear of overworking a picture has seldom been a reason for me to stop. Quite the contrary, I enjoy filling picture spaces to the maximum. When additional moves in the painting feel excessive and pointless, I stop.
October 28, 2009