On being an artist

 

A great painter will know a great deal about how he did it, but still he will say, 'How did I do it?' The real artist's work is a surprise to himself (Robert Henri)

Robert Henri was an American artist and teacher who wrote this over a hundred years ago. Most of his teaching was by post. His students would mail their work to him and he would reply with his comments and encouragement. He kept records of all this correspondence over the years and they are collated in his famous book 'The Art Spirit'

The artist and creativity coach Peter Moolan-Feroze recently wrote on Linkedin, about how on one of his creativity workshops (I'm sure on most), his business students had entered another world, one  of absorption as they painted, a kind of empty timeless space where creativity flowed though into their group paintings; images emerging as if by magic which surprised them and made them feel happy.

This painting of mine above, is a good example of the meaning of Robert Henri's comment.

 I'd been simply musing in my studio, listening to music and fiddling about mindlessly, and this painting, which I'd painted six months ago, caught my eye, I took it off the wall and sat it on my lap and decided to read it like a story. 

 If you look to the top, a bit to the right , you'll see a man, maybe an angel, in a blue cave being discovered or even rescued by a white dog. And it shocked me to realise that I have been for ages mourning for my dog Bessie who died some years back. And I have yearned to have another one. I have tried helping out in kennels to compensate, but it breaks my heart to see such sadness in their eyes

Then at the bottom middle of the painting, you'll see a bunch of colour shapes which my artist friend in Santiago, Mariana Fassnidge describes as follows

'I don't know what you will make of my very first impression of this painting....it is about your childhood (left at the bottom I see a child standing back to me and holding a string of kites, colours, happiness...and behind that lovely world something black and strong is covering the blue sky'.

I honestly cannot recall painting an angel and a dog, and nor of being, until now, conscious of  the images which Mariana sees.

And I don't know where all these possible stories and ingredients come from when they are gifted to artists. So, in the meantime I can decide it is from a Muse, or some Greek God of Creativity, or the Universe, pouring stories and images into our unconscious minds, probably as we sleep.

I'm sure that this ia a phenomenon which all artists, painters, writers, poets, etc experience often, if not always; soaking it all up and running with it; manifesting it in some form or other and putting it together out there into life.

Painting as story telling

 Lighting the Dark

Michael

michaeleldridgestudio.com