Digital version from the original watercolor,
Farm House in Louisa Virginia
Ever have trouble deciding which painting or print you like and might buy when at an art sale? Ever wonder if there's a simple way to guide your decisions? The short answer is yes there is a very simple guideline. But skip trying and analyse artwork, or trying to figure out what the artist is attempting to say. Skip the trivia as, "This style was popular during the late 90's" etc. etc. Who cares? Plus, that brain-driven procedure asks for trouble, leading you to end up with the wrong painting or print for the wrong reason. It's much better to let your heart and spirit help you decide. Here's what I mean,
Our rational brains can't possibly understand art. They never will, because, like love, art communicates on a different level of awareness than the brain is capable of achieving. Meanwhile deep inside every artist there's a strong yearning for a spirited love connection between his or her artwork and observers. For it is through the artists' own heart and spirit that the artists' best works flow. Artists crave that level of engagement with and for their pieces. I certainly do. The same is true of sculptors, poets, architects, musicians and most of the others immersed in fine arts. You've heard of "soul" music. Consider there's also "soul" art. In fact such is by far the highest quality art. It is art which connects with our human heart and spirit. The same is true in architecture.
Among examples throughout the world, one of the champions of "soul" architecture, or places where heart and spirit connections are famous are found in certain early Celtic constructs called Thin Places -- those places where the veil which normally separates the mundane from the spiritual, becomes very thin. People who stumble upon Thin Paces, now across the globe, have no problem judging the quality of the "art" there, because visitors fall in love with them without trying. They don't have to analyse the architectural style or determine if they should visit again. They are simply drawn back by their own gut feelings about the place. A style is no more than a cosmetic mask. The real attracting personality is behind it. The same is true with paintings and most any fine art example.
In my book, Thin Places and Five Clues in Their Architecture I describe five clues to "soul architecture" connecting with the human heart and spirit. As an architect and also an artist, I recently wondered if those five clues might also apply to good paintings as well. If so, will they help us get a better handle on sensing quality levels in art? Or, do paintings have their own set of clues on how some of them most convincingly grab our hearts and spirits? After mulling over the possibilities, I decided to try three experiments. This article is about the first two of those three. A future blog post will cover experiment 3. Here are 1 and 2.
1 - First, I reviewed critically a good number of my earlier watercolor and acrylic paintings of which I have digital copies, and then I selected some which reveal, at least to me, some heart and spirit "soul" possibilities. These would be paintings which reach out and pull one into the scene, and/or where some of the brush or pen strokes may appear to illustrate feelings and motion more than objects. They may be somewhat musical or poetic in nature. I like such paintings, not for their accuracy, but for their intentional stirring. They have spirit. And soul. Below is a simple sketch example.
I still feel sand between my toes when I look at this one. I never did a "full-fledged" watercolor painting of this scene (like the Louisa Farmhouse above) but I kept this little year 2000 sketch study close by to remind me how much the human spirit prefers free and simple intent. The hardest lesson to learn in watercolor art is when to stop. Usually it's 14 strokes ago.
2 - For my 2nd experiment I pulled the selected digital copies of those experiment 1 paintings up on the screen again, and I studied each one further. Then I asked, "What might I do here, digitally, to bring out the spirited potentials of this painting further? How might this sketch or painting more strongly connect with ones' heart and spirit?"
So, I experimented digitally realizing that this dissolves the penalties of stopping the strokes too late. Cheers for undo actions. Now I can concentrate solely on the art. So, I added a few strokes here and there, then took some back and moved things around a bit. I changed the lighting of some, modified a few brush strokes and revised some edges and colors. I pretended as if I were not yet finished with this painting, and now I am using this new brush... my computer, to finish the long overdue almost-spirited painting.
This digital version above is still not finished, and it is still a sketch. But there are a few enhancements, like partially blended sand color, a darker band in the sky, all to stir a bit more movement within the scene. I also added two dabs of color at the base of the brown house. Those minor additions were driven by my eye scanning over the sketch and nudging the artist in me to do more. No big deal. But after doing that I realized I just echoed architectural clue number 4 of my 5, and which I will review and consider later when I report on experiment 3. I'll leave any further considerations on that until my article then.
Now I have at least two digital versions of many paintings, which may convey different levels of engagement. I learned from that. Yet some artist (and others) may say that computer art is not really art. I totally disagree. If an artist who uses only his pallet knife to spread paint across his canvas (some do) sees someone else using a paint brush, might he exclaim, "Brush art is not really art?" I don't think so. Truth is, the tool is not the art. It doesn't matter what tool is used to help create art. The artist directs the tools and the medium to create art. And Art unfolds in the connections between the artist, the tools and his/her human spirit.
Digital painting built upon my original watercolor
of a tower in Costa Rica
In all of the examples above, original watercolors were painted either live on site or from reference photos taken at the scene. The watercolors are all different by choice from the live view or the reference photos. Then the digital paintings were created from a digital copy of the original watercolors...and the digital paintings are purposely different than the watercolors. When you view paintings, whatever its version, medium or tools were used, forget it all. Step back and look at the painting with a smile. Relax your eyes, breath slowly and allow the painting's spirit to gradually flow into you. After a moment or two you will know if this is a good painting, or just a mediocre painting, or a dud. And, you will feel confident in your conclusions, because deep inside your heart, you'll sense the connection, or a definite lack thereof.
As you practice judging and selecting paintings and prints, remember the medium or its cultured arbitrary "rules of the game" are not important. Only the art and its level of connectivity with the human heart and spirit is important. So, when viewing art, get out of that analyzing mode, reduce your stress level to near zero and let your heart and spirit guide you to long-term decisions. Thanks.
