A picture is made up of many elements. Certain of them are essentially
abstract. They must be thought out by a sort of mental vision without
words. This is the most subtle and intimate part of the picture. These are
the means by which the ideal is brought into the picture. oil paintings for sale
Line, Mass, and Color.—Such are the qualities ofline,
dissociated from representation; of mass, not as representing external
forms; and color, considered as a quality, not as yet expressed
visibly in pigment, nor representing the color of any thing. When these
elements are combined they may make up such conceptions as proportion, rhythm,
repetition, and balance, with all the modifications that may come from still
further combination. abstract oil painting
It is because these elements are qualities in themselves beautiful that
actual objects not beautiful may be made so in a painting, by being treated as
color or line or mass, and so given place on the canvas,
rather than as being of themselves interesting. A face, for instance, may be
ugly as a face, yet be beautiful as color or light and shade in the picture. These
qualities, I say, do not represent—they do not necessarily even exist, except in
the mind to which they are the terms of its thought. Nevertheless, they are the
soul of the picture. For whatever the subject, or the objects chosen for
representation, it is by working out combinations of these elements, through and
by means of those objects, that the picture really is made. oil paintings of italy
The picture, as a work of art, is not the representation of objects
making up a subject, but a fabric woven of color, line, and mass; of form,
proportion, balance, rhythm, and movement, expressed through those actual
objects in the picture which give it visible form.
I do not purpose to go deeply into these matters here. Elsewhere, as they
bear practically on the subject in hand, as in the chapters on "Composition" and
on "Color," I shall speak of them more fully. But I wish here to call attention
to this abstract side of painting in order to show the relation between the two
classes of things, the one abstract and the other concrete, which together are
needed to make up a picture. oil paintings of nature
The concrete, or material, part of a picture includes all those things which
you can look at or feel on the canvas; and by seeing which you can also see the
abstract qualities, which do not visiblyexist until made visible through
the disposition of these tangible things, on the canvas.
Beyond this
is included all the technical qualities of expression; form, as drawing;
all representations of objects; the pigment by means of which color is seen; and
all those technical processes which produce the various kinds of surface in the
putting on of paint, and bring about the different effects of light and shade
and color, form or accent. oil paintings for sale uk
In learning to paint, it is with these concrete things that you should
concern yourself mainly. The science of painting consists in the knowledge of
how to be the master of all the practical means of the craft. For it is with
these that you must work, with these you must express yourself. These are the
tools of your trade. They are the words of your art language—the language itself
being the abstract elements—and the thoughts, the combinations which you may
conceive in your brain by means of these abstract elements.
You must have absolute command of thesematerials of painting. No
matter how ideal your thought may be, no matter how fine your feeling for line
and color and composition, if you do not know how to handle the gross material
which is the only medium by which this can all be made visible and recognizable
to another person, you will fail of either expressing yourself, or of
representing anything else. dafen oil painting village
Now you will see what I have been driving at all this time; why I have been talking in terms
which may well be called not practical. I want to fix your attention on the fact
that there are two qualities in a picture: that one will be always within you,
mainly, and will control the character of your picture, because it will be the
expression of your mental self; and the other the practical part, which any one
may, and all painters must learn, because it is the only means of getting the
first into existence. wholesale oil paintings
The one, the abstract part, no one can tell you how to cultivate nor how to
use. If I tried to do so, it would be my idea and not yours which would result.
I can only tell you that it is thethought of art, and you must think your
own thoughts.
But the other, the material, the concrete, the practical, it is the purpose
of this whole book to help you to understand and to acquire the mastery of, so
far as may be done by words. oil paintings wholesale
Teaching by words is difficult, and never completely satisfactory. But much
may be done. If you will use your own brains, so that what does not seem clear
at first may come to have a meaning because of your thinking about it, we may
accomplish a great deal. I cannot make you paint. I cannot make you understand.
I can give you the principles, but you must apply them and think them out.
Everything
I say must be in a measure general; for the needs of every one are individual,
and the requirement of each technical problem is individual. I must speak for
all, and not to any one. Yet I shall state principles which can always be made
to apply to each single need, and I will try to show how the application may be
made. flower oil paintings on canvas
Technique.—The science of painting consists of a variety of processes
by means of which a canvas is covered with pigment, and various objects are
represented thereon. The whole body of method and means is called technique; the
several parts of technique are called by names of their own. That part which
applies to the putting on of the paint may be generally calledhandling,
although the word painting is sometimes restricted to this sense, and
brush-work is often used for the same thing. The other technical means
will be spoken of in their proper place. Let me say now a few words as to
handlingin general.
Where did all this technique come from?
From experiment. landscape oil painting on canvas
Ever since art began, men have been searching for means of fixing ideas upon
surfaces. But it is only within the last four hundred years that the processes
of oil painting have been in existence—simply because they are peculiar to the
use of pigments ground in oil as a vehicle, and the oil medium was not invented until the
middle of the fifteenth century.
With the invention of this medium new possibilities came into the world, and
a continual succession of painters have been inventing ways of putting on paint,
the result being the stock of methods and processes of handling which are the
groundwork of the art of painting to-day. oil painted portraits
From time to time there have been groups of artists who have used common
methods, and who have developed expression through those methods which became
characteristic of their epoch; and because the resulting pictures were of a high
degree of perfection, their methods of handling acquired an authority which had
a very determining effect on different periods of painting.
In this way have come those ideas as to what kind of painting or what ways of
putting paint on canvas should be accepted as "legitimate." And the methods
accepted as legitimate or condemned as illegitimate have been varied from time
to time—those condemned by one period being advocated by another; and the
processes themselves have been almost as varied as the periods or groups of men
using them.
In the long run, methods and processes have received such authoritative
sanction from having been each and all used by undoubted masters, that they have
become the traditional property of all art, which any one is free to use as he
finds need of them. They have become the stock in trade of the craft. large oil paintings for sale
The artist may use them as he will, provided only he will take the trouble to
understand them. He must understand them, because the manipulations which make
up these different processes accomplish different effects and different
qualities; and as the painter aims at results, if he does not understand the
result of a process when he uses it, he will get a different one from that which
he intended.
The painter should not be hampered by process; he should not be controlled in
the expression of himself by tradition. He should feel free to use any or all
means to bring about the result he aims at, and he should allow no tradition or
point of view to prevent him from selecting whichever means will most surely or
satisfactorily bring about his true purpose. wall art oil paintings
Of course there are many ways of using paint which are unsafe. Some pigments
are unsafe to use because they either do not hold their own color, or tend to
destroy the color of others. You should always bear this in mind; and if you
care for the permanence of your work, you should not use such materials or such
processes as work against it. But beyond this, the whole range of the experience
and experiment of the workers who have gone before you are at your command,
to help you to express yourself most perfectly or completely; to represent
whatever of visible beauty you may conceive or perceive. oil paintings for sale cheap
And this is the whole aim of the painter; to stand for this is the whole
purpose of the picture.
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