J.W.M.Turner - Poet/Artist

I'm reading 'Turner - His Life and Work' by Jack Lindsay . In it, Lindsay talks about Turner's love of travel and adventure. With a knapsack and easel thrown over his shoulder - off Turner would venture into the wild blue yonder to discover the joys of the world. On these journeys he'd sketch and paint (as you'd expect). But, he would also write poetry.

Chapter five of the book is entitled 'The World of Poetry' and it outlines the part poetry had to play throughout Turner's life.

Well, I came across this 'love' poem written by Turner around 1800-1805 and I thought I'd share it with you, along with one of his paintings. I've typed the poem here exactly as it appears in the book. The painting is from Wikipedia with a creative commons license.

I like seeing Turner's poetry and paintings together. I think it adds another layer of complexity. You can feel his intensity through both.

I mentioned yesterday that I struggle with still life, and I think I know why. In my opinion most still life paintings lack emotion unlike other forms. I wonder if Turner painted any still life's? I doubt it somehow. Being pent-up wasn't his style. Or at least it wasn't on the canvas as it may have been in the bedroom. He remained single and forlorn his entire life.

Turner may have been thinking of 'Fisherman at Sea 1796' - the painting below, when he wrote this poem. There's no mention of it in Lindsay's book, but they do appear to complement each other. Lindsay does say that Turner was having problems in his relationship with Sarah Danby at the time. She was married to a friend of Turners, who died suddenly. And Turner filled the void so to speak. So, this was a difficult time for Turner.

I'll toddle off and go and paint my wee 6 by 6' still life now. Light and shade, light and shade, emotion, turbulence.......bye.

Love is like the raging Ocean
Wind(s) that sway it's troubled motion
Womens temper will supply

Man the easy bark which sailing
On the unblest treacherous sea
Where Cares like waves in fell succession
Frown destruction over his days
Overwhelming crews in traitrous way

This thro life we circling tread
Recr(e)ant poor or vainly wise
Unheed(ing) grasp the bubble Pleasure
Which bursts his grasp or flies

Portrait of Dame Iris Murdoch

I've spent maybe 8 to 10 hours on this painting - trying to get a likeness. Now, I'm not sure what to do. I really like this work in black and white, so I might just continue accenting the light, and trying to add more detail in the hair, eyes and tonal values. The last photo is blurred and I included it here as I quite like the feel of it. Dame Iris was very intelligent so I need to try and reflect that somehow, and I think blurring the image is one way I can garner that. I don't know how the professional artists might tackle this so I'll just experiment and find my own way. If anyone reading has any suggestions - let men know please.

I used black and white as I recently read an excellent book entitled Gerard Richter Writings, and in it were these gorgeous black and white oils. If you haven't seen them - have a look at his website. He's definitely one of the greatest living artists. Well, in my opinion perhaps the greatest simply because of the broad range of work over many years. Anyway, I felt that the black and white images especially suited portraiture as they added a dynamic that couldn't be replicated in a colour image. Rather like a black and white photo compared to a colour one. Sometimes it's better to leave some information out, and give the viewer more - to ponder, to imagine, to speculate.

Another reason maybe that a blurred image appears somewhat spiritual. Iris might like that.

Patricia

24cm x 19cm oil on canvas

It's the second sketch so I started adding some colour. I'll try and get more detail and colour definition in the next stage, and I'll start loading the paint on the brush to add texture. I also like to see the brush strokes. Hopefully it'll come out ok.

I bought a book today entitled 'A Giacometti Portrait' by James Lord. You can read about it here. It's the story of Lord who sat for his portrait by Giocometti. The book tells of Giacometti constantly questioning himself - his ability and lack of progress. It's fascinating - just to listen to one of the great artists going through exactly the same frustrations as a beginner does. I guess this process never ends. Constant self examination, and lamenting at ones ability to create what one imagines on canvas. But Giacometti's resolve is unbearing. He repaints the sitters facial detail over and over again, constantly searching for the right form. At one point he says 'it's true, everything is a square, a cone or a cylinder - I've got to start over again'. He doesn't paint the rest of the portrait and just keeps sketching the head, adding tonal detail, and changing the form. It really is the tonic for anyone searching for inspiration to fight the demons that never abate.


Back at it.

Below is a Giacometti Sculpture.

Sketching R2

I'm a slow learner.

I've been sketching on canvas with charcoal almost the entire day. But my method has been wrong. I've been reading Al Gury's Alla Prima and trying desperately to improve my technique. It's tough this painting gig. But, after about 5 hours sketching I finally nailed the technique that works for me. Now,I gesso the canvas (or board). Then I lightly sand it. And then I paint a thin layer, a sketch of the subject using turps and oil concentrating on the big shapes thinking about composition, and form. Then tonal values, and when I'm satisfied I hang it up to dry. I've been using burnt sienna, and/or red transparent oxide for this process.

Before this I was sketching with charcoal directly onto the gesso, and then painting over a 'ground' with the thin layer of turpentine and oil paint. But the problem was that the charcoal would get mixed with the paint, and distort the lines, and form. And it would change the colour of the paint. What a pain. I've got 3 canvases sitting here that I've wiped clean using turps due to my frustration with this entire process.

Well, I started sketching with paint today, and it's working much better. So, tomorrow I will continue using this method and see if I can't sort out step two - getting the colour mixes sorted out. I'm working on a number of portraits at the moment, and have been using a pallete of titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, deep rose, transparent red oxide, cadmium red, burnt umber, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, and negro black - and it seems to offer the balance of colours I need to create the right skin and hair tones.

So, "Arthur" above (pronounced R 2 in Portuguese) was a sketch I made after discovering what works. R2 is my neighbour's 5 year old child and he pops in to have a paint every now and again with me.

Well, let's see how tomorrow goes.