PAINTING NUDES IN A SERIES – Painting “Outside” of Time

Have you ever painted a motif – a difficult subject - and reflected: “How did I succeed in so short a time?” Or have you ever looked at a piece of art and wondered how the artist with such bravura was able to capture the essence of the subject in a seemingly brief time?

When I return from a life drawing session and look at my sketches, very often the most successful ones were executed in five minutes or less. The nudes painted during longer poses are not necessarily the best ones. Why? Let me explain by interjecting thoughts and quotes by John Berger in the essay “That Which is Held” (1982)*

Berger says that since the nineteenth century most accept the view of a unilinear or uniform ‘flow’ of time. Yet, subjectively we can experience time as passing at different rates. Just think. When one is immersed in a totally exhilarating experience, say a stimulating dance or when watching an immensely captivating sport match, time “seems” to pass by swiftly. The opposite is true when anxious and the last one at the end of a long queue waiting to be served.

Berger says: “The deeper the experience of a moment, the greater the accumulation of experience. That is why the moment is lived as longer. The dissipation of the time-flow is checked. The lived durée is not a question of length but of depth or density.” Therefore, if I have accumulated enough experience in doing something such as painting a certain subject, and execute this “quickly” I am in effect “compressing” time to coin a phrase. This, I reason, is what I do and experience when I paint a series of a live model properly proportioned and well designed (a complex subject) in a very short time. The series of five nudes (illustrated here) were three minute poses while the model posed for five minutes for the series of four poses.

How do I do this? Time and experience. There are no shortcuts. I have been drawing the figure regularly for close to forty years, both nudes and clothed figures. Therefore, on a “good” night when I am in “flow” or “in the zone” I might produce such a series. I first draw in pencil precisely the main shapes of the figure. Then, using one natural hair brush and a few watercolor pigments I add the color using the lines as a guide but mostly I draw with a brush and paint.

The advantage of painting a series on an elongated horizontal paper format is that I can link one subject to the other and even now and then go back and forth from one pose to another to add or adjust a color, form or detail. Because watercolor dries at different rates this strategy is very helpful because, for example, one can only add a small detail such as a dot for an eye over a painted area once this section has dried.

To arrive at such a pleasing exhilarating experience in art where “time seems to evaporate” and be inconsequential one has to draw, draw, draw, practice, practice, practice. Just as the musician, dancer, actor or race car driver. Then, when it is “time” to perform, paradoxically “unilinear time” ceases to be of importance. One is 100% “in the zone” and creating. “The moment lived is longer”. I am painting “outside of time”. And what joy!

*Selected Essays, John Berger, edited by Geoff Dyer

Raynald Murphy sca

DEUX ARTISTES - DEUX VISIONS

Vous êtes-vous déjà demandé pourquoi un dessin ou la peinture d'une scène diffère tellement d'une photo ?

Un jour, mon ami Yvon et moi étions à croquer la même scène, assis l'un à côté de l'autre. Une demi-heure plus tard, nous avons comparé nos dessins. Tous deux travaillions le même motif et pourtant le résultat n'était vraiment pas le même. Et ce n'est pas tout, nos deux croquis étaient totalement différents d'une photo prise quelques jours plus tard. Pourquoi ?

Voici quelques-unes de mes observations.

Le centre d'intérêt. Pour ma part, c'est la forme triangulaire de la fenêtre au haut à droite et l'effet occasionné par l'ombre qui ont attiré mon attention. Yvon, de son côté, a débuté son travail à partir du niveau de la rue. Sa vision partait d'en bas pour se diriger vers le haut. La caméra, quant à elle, a été incapable de sélectionner certains éléments comme le font les artistes. La photo a capté tout de manière identique. Quant à nous, le fait de donner de l'emphase sur certains aspects nous a permis d'attirer l'attention sur ce qui avait attiré notre attention.

Texture. Yvon a utilisé une ligne brisée, de style staccato, pour symboliser la texture. J'ai rendu les décorations en bois en exagérant l'aspect viellot que donnent le temps et les intempéries. Nous avons tous deux traité la texture de manière différente parce que nous avons chacun notre style. La photo, cependant, n'a pas, comme nous, saisi l'impression de texture sur les surfaces.

L'ombre et la lumière. Dans une photographie, les parties ombragées sont habituellement reproduites plus foncées qu'elles ne le sont en réalité. De plus, la couleur et les valeurs y sont mal rendues. Par contre, en travaillant sur le motif, l'artiste peut voir avec plus de netteté dans l'ombre et choisir de reproduire cette partie à sa manière. J'ai choisi de rendre les sections ombragées assez foncées. Le rendu de Yvon, d'un autre côté, est plus lumineux et moins atténué.

Les influences du moment. Lorsque l'on dessine ou peint en plein air, la scène ne reste pas statique comme sur une photo. Ce que nous mettons sur le papier est influencé non seulement par notre expérience, ce que nous aimons ou n'aimons pas, mais par un mouvement constant et des changements sur le site même. Par exemple, à un certain moment, un camion s'est arrêté devant nous. Ensuite des passants ont conversé devant les escaliers. Nous aurions pu choisir d'inclure ces éléments dans nos dessins si nous l'avions souhaité.

Impressions et sentiments. Lorsque l'on travaille sur le site, tous nos sens sont stimulés. Le froid, la chaleur, le vent et les odeurs, par exemple, peuvent avoir une influence sur un croquis ou une peinture. Même la faim ou la soif peuvent avoir de l'effet sur l'artiste. D'un autre côté, si quelqu'un travaille toujours en utilisant des photos comme références sans la pratique du travail sur le motif, l'expérience sensorielle lui manque. Après quelques trente minutes, Yvon et moi sentions que c'était le moment de la pause café. Excellente idée, car elle nous a permis de ne pas gâcher nos dessins par des ajouts superflus.




De manière générale, la photo est utile pour enregistrer un mouvement rapide ou un détail. Par contre, le travail « in situ » permet de comprendre le sujet par une observation directe. Si nous décidons par la suite de reprendre le sujet en studio, ces croquis faits sur le motif vont nous remettre dans l'atmosphère du moment, nous faire revivre les impressions ressenties alors. À partir de croquis et de photos, le travail en studio nous rappelle aussi les bons moments passés avec un ami...

Note: L'édifice illustré ci-haut est situé au 1229, rue de la Montagne, à quelques pas au sud de la rue Ste-Catherine à Montréal. Le deuxième édifice, qu'on apperçoit ci-bas, a aussi été dessiné par les mêmes artises. Il s'agit de l'édifice Allan situé au 333, rue de la Commune Ouest.

Raynald Murphy sca

Highway Drawings on the Move - Sketching what’s out the window (Part I)

Movement: The artist can draw or paint movement in different ways. Or rather, one should say, attempt to draw movement. Movement, by its very nature is not static. Therefore, to try and render motion on paper or canvas involves a totally different mind set than drawing “from” a fixed or static motif. The strategy used is usually more complex.

Generally speaking, when I draw a subject that is in motion or is in potential motion, I am more involved with process than product. Its outcome is secondary.

Time does not stand still. Therefore, all drawing from nature is by essence not static. Whether or not your motif moves or not is a question of degree of motion or change. The exception is drawing from a photograph or photographs. This deals with a totally different issue to be discussed at another time.

When sitting before a landscape, for example, the leaves may rustle slightly, the brook babbles, shadows come and go and so on. Even the live model shifts if ever so slightly, blinks, sags. The exception would possibly be the still life set up if lit by artificial light.

Drawing the landscape from a moving vehicle.

To draw a motif while looking out from a moving vehicle requires a different mind set than say, drawing from a sculpture in a Museum or drawing a Still Life. These situations are at opposite extremes. The passing landscape is constantly changing while the items on the table or the sculpture are fixed. When drawing from a still life I can choose to alter what I see when I draw. However, the stimulus is internal in this case and not external.

While I attempt to represent on paper the appearance of the passing landscape I am constantly recomposing, modifying, inventing, synthesizing, abstracting, inventing, repositioning, adjusting, and so on. I have to deal immediately with the unsettling - to a certain degree - fact that the passing motif influences my marks on paper.

Of course this is a challenge I impose upon myself with little regard for its outcome on paper. It is an exercise in deepening my understanding of “time in motion” for lack of a better phrase.

Let me conclude this discussion with some quotes from John Berger in the essay The Hals Mystery*

“Because the visible ‘appears’ one can wrongly assume that all painting is about appearances. Until the seventeenth century most painting was about inventing a visible world. This invented world borrowed a great deal from the actual world but excluded contingency. It drew - in all senses of the word - conclusions. After the seventeenth century a lot of painting was concerned with disguising appearances; the task of the new academics was to teach disguises ... His (Franz Hals’) practice as a painter was not to reduce a bouquet of flowers to their appearance ... nor distant figures in the street ... it was to reduce closely observed ‘experience’ to appearance.

The ‘experience’ of sketching the landscape from a moving vehicle is one I enjoy and find challenging. The element of contingency stimulates my creativity, memory, inventiveness and so on. This experience is quite different from drawing from a ‘fixed’ motif.

Try it, you might like it.

NOTE: In an upcoming blog (Part II) I will explain in greater detail how I draw and paint these "Highway Sketches".

*Selected essays, John Berger edited by Geoff Dyer (Vintage Books)

Raynald Murphy sca