I feel, for me, that painting the human figure from life is the best way I can express myself. Is it better than working from a photograph, I will let others judge.

The direct experience in painting from life is almost inexpressable. You are not painting an interpretation of a thin sheet of paper or a digital image but from an interaction with a real live human being. It is difficult, expensive and frustrating. The reward is something that may be light years beyond the original concept, something that takes flight in our imagination that is not shackeled so often to re-imaging the photographic source.

It is a difficult thing to do, it requires many years of dedicated training and work to be able to paint or draw the human figure with any degree of ability. Our culture does not allow this today but celebrates the shortcuts and calls it 'personal expression', no matter what kind of garbage or personal neuroses is displayed upon the canvas. We have lost the quest for exquisiteness in our work.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Twentieth- the Lost Century of Art

Souren Melikian, a rare cogent New York Times art critic, gave what I thought was a brilliant summation of the 'art' of the 20th century.

The last paragraph is especially telling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/arts/11iht-melikian11.html?scp=1&sq=severini&st=cse

The 20th-century visual arts paralleled the multiplicity of ideologies that reflected conflicting conceptions of society and man’s place in it. The rudderless world that exploded in self-destruction from 1914 to 1918 and 1939 to 1945 also tore itself apart in the images it conceived. It desperately tried everything and believed in nothing. The wild aimlessness goes on minus the craftsmanship
Posted by at 5:59 AM

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