Saturn

Flying off at a bit of a tangent we arrive in orbit around one of the largest planets in our solar system, the sixth planet from the sun, second largest in our solar system, Saturn, a "gas giant" named after the Roman god Saturnus:



Although titled "The Bringer of Old Age" he was also a wicked old bandit who is said to have devoured his own children as shown in this painting by Goya:



But it is as the "Bringer of Old Age", as identified by Holst, that I turn my focus on. I think of those colours which speak to me of old age; yellows and blues, greys and mauves, like my granny's dresses, and her wallpaper [Please remind me never to wear dull colours].

This study in acrylics explores those feelings that arise:



And again:



The dots which have now appeared represent in my mind some of the 61 known moons (not counting the hundreds of small 'moonlets' within the rings).

"Titan" is Saturn's largest moon which I represent here as an old person being gently let towards her demise. After all, Saturn, according to the 1st century poet, Manilius, is "sad, morose, and cold, and is the planet of mortality" and that is why we speak of him as 'The Grim Reaper' and he carries a scythe whose shape is derived from the ring shape around the planet:

There is a bell shape in the top right-hand corner tolling the end of her life, and the planet disc (centre) has clock hands pointing to about five-to-twelve.

Or is that just time for a drink?

The Sun/Apollo

In hot and fiery pursuit of the cold and fearsome Artemis we have Apollo, the sun god boiling with passion and desire.

This X-ray image of our very own shining star taken by the Yohkoh Solar Observatory in 1991. The structures that can be seen consist of large and hot coronal magnetics. This particular image, one of millions, shows an active corona from near the maximum of the solar cycle. At the upper right (solar northwest) we can see one of Yohkoh's original discoveries: an "X-ray jet" squirting outwards:



But, of course it is the personification of this star that I am interested in.

The Romans named our star Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto (a Titan), god of light and a fine figure of a man as this statue from 2nd Century AD shows:

Apollo was also the god of music as shown by the lyre in his left hand.

But here, still as god of music, we see him on the fiddle serenading the girls, and how they just love him!:

The "girls" are in fact the nine Muses who sing their accompaniment to Apollo's playing. This is part of a much larger fresco painting by Raphael and is one of four called "Parnassus" in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Palace (dated c1510).

With all this background information in mind the starting off point for my painting is that of a male figure (self portrait!) which I use on my own business card called "With Out-stretched Arms":

But here I am thinking too small - the sun's disc needs to be much larger and in fact so much larger it cannot be contained within the bounds of the picure!

Fresh thinking takes me back a stage and I make this charcoal value study which more suitably mirrors my painting of Artemis:

He turns towards her with arms outstretched inviting her to join him.

His passion is unbound, but still there is a Dark Side. He will not be refused and red-hot passion turns black with anger at her rebuff:

The flecks of gold on his cheek, running down his arm, and on the sun's corona counterpoint the silver on Artemis, his outstretched hands reach out and almost touch her hand.

These two paintings need to stand together if ever seen in exhibition.

The Moon/Artemis

Major breakthrough!

After a long, and sordid, battle with "Mars, the Bringer of War", which ended in a stalemate - no falls, no submissions, no knockout - resulting in a backing off, promising to "have a go" later when both parties are sufficiently recovered, a change of subject brings the results I am looking for!

Artemis, as the Greeks called her, or to us "The Moon", the only satelite of earth, and the only one on which Man has set his acquisitive foot. She is feminine and a beauty. She courses across the heavens pursued endlessly by Apollo, that masculine god of light forever chasing his opposite hoping to possess her.

The Moon is the largest satelite in the solar system:



Aristotle described the universe where the moon marked the boundary between the spheres of the mutable elements - earth, water, air and fire and the imperishable stars of Aether (personification of the upper sky) - space, and heaven.

Anaxagoras (Greek, 428BC) reasoned that the sun and the moon were both giant spherical rocks and that the latter reflected the former. His views got him imprisoned and exiled.
Oh, how we have progressed.
Or maybe not.

The starting off point for this subject was a pencil sketch made some time ago showing two female figures, but it is the right-hand figure that I focussed on:



Taking the right-hand figure and making a larger scaled study of her in Pastels:



As with all the projects, I need to do a value study to see the subject in it's simplicity, and to build up the design:



But, before I commit to paint, one last stage to explore the colour relationships:

Neocolour II's on paper, A2.

Then the final painting in oils:

Oils on board, 61x42cm.

She stands there with cold indifference, turned away from the hot-blooded Apollo who chases her, seeking her favour. She holds a bow in the shape of a crescent moon, with strung arrow pointing backwards towards Apollo dicouraging him from approaching too close. The Romans called her Diana "The Huntress" with her bow and arrows.

Apart from the original sketch, elements of this image (the raised right arm) are taken from a female model at Life Drawing Group, and the moon disc itself is the initial acrylics wash left untouched simply because i could not imagine myself recreating this bubbled effect any other way.

Flecks of tin-foil are pasted on to the crescent, up the girls dress, and on her face to emphasise that forbidding coldness.

The afro hairstyle just suits her.

Neptune

The eigth planet from the sun, Neptune is named after the Roman god of water and the sea. He was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto, and is analogous, but not identical to, the Greek Poseidon.

Neptune is an "Ice Giant" coloured blue as a result of absorption of red light by methane on the surface. It has 13 satelite moons, the largest called Triton, and it also has a dark spot similar to Jupiter's red spot:



The classical representation of Neptune is of this somewhat fearsome male figure with flowing locks and carrying a trident spear:



Wanting to bring a more contemporary slant the image I have had in my head from the outset the idea of a scuba-diver suspended up-side down in the deep-blue ocean with the planet seen through the surface of the water from underneath:

Pencil on paper, A4 Sketchbook page.
However, it felt like too much to show the full scuba-diving gear so, thinking about the pleasure I get from a simple snorkel and flippers when I go swimming with the fishes on Mediterannean holidays, this is how I will show him.

I am easily convinced that the concept is right and quickly turn to explore colour choices:

Neocolour on paper, A4ish.

Neocolour on paper, A3.

Acrylics on paper, A2.

The final painting remains close to the original concept as shown in the studies:

Acrylics on canvas, 61x42cm.

Neptune is diving deep underwater accompanied by his thirteen acolytes represented by 13 small fishes.

I would have preferred to have him holding a modern trident spear-gun but it never looked right so I left him with the simple spear. I may want to revisit this subject again when the course is finished but for the time being this will be presented as one of the 11 paintings I intend to complete.

Project 5: Theoretical Study

1.00 Introduction

The path to this door started, without any doubt, with the purchase of a book on the journals and drawings of the English artist, Keith Vaughan in 1972, and one ink and gouache painting in particular:

“Group of Figures - Amacuzac, 1959“(1).

This small coloured drawing, only 36.8x31.8cm, had such a fundamental impact on me I have been continuously drawn back to it over all the intervening years frequently making copy studies of it. If only I could make images like that I would be a happy man.
What I saw in it was the simplified forms of figures overlapping one another in a sort of free for all jumble of shapes and lines, and although the illustration in the book is not in colour, in my head I could imagine what the real thing must look like. In many other paintings of his he would often use yellow ochre and blues as well as black.
What also fascinated me was the suggested shapes and forms of some background setting, perhaps a doorway, a wall? It was this ambiguity that always suggested more and always brought me back for more.

2.00 Keith Vaughan:

His Journal was begun at the outbreak of World War II and, having registered as a Conscientious Objector he joined the St John Ambulance Corp., there would be no opportunity to continue ‘normal’ life as a painter. However, with his life no longer his own, there would be many periods of inactivity to pass in the company of others which he recorded in writing and with small drawings, it’s purpose was “therapeutic and consolatory” (2). His journal continued for 26years until his death in August 1965.

Influenced , as many artists of his time (and still are), by Pablo Picasso, with his simplicity of line and form, I in turn have been influenced by Vaughan’s manner of drawing. The quality of a portrait like this small study of a young man with the assured lines and solidity of form has been my inspiration to draw better:

“Study of a Student”, 1950, 20x28cm.

But it is his colour studies such as this one of figures in a landscape which point towards a semi-abstract style of painting:

“North African Scene”, 1965.

The figures are distilled down to simple, mainly rectangular, shapes and slabs of colour but also become part of the background such that you are unsure where reality begins and ends, an idea derived largely from Picasso’s Cubism.

We see that concept again in many of Vaughan’s studies for paintings like this one:

“Boy with a Jug”, 1949.

The boy merges with his background and is also overlaid by unspecified elements in front.

In this charcoal study for a painting the features of the figure are further simplified and have become somewhat unnatural making for a more dramatic graphic image:



In the following illustrations of some of his paintings made during the 1960’s he has pushed the figurative much further into the abstract and much closer to the paintings of Nicholas de Stael whose work I’m sure he would have been aware of:

“Three Figures in a Landscape”, 1960.

“Bather”, 1961.




“Study for Lacoon” 1964.

But it is the paintings in which the figures are simplified into fairly amorphous shapes standing and sitting in coloured settings which I enjoy most and would like to emulate. I like very much the idea of seeing a painting initially from a distance as an abstract with the colours and large shapes attracting my attention and interest but, on approach and closer inspection recognising the figurative elements:

“Ninth Assembly”, 1976.


“Group of Dinkas”, 1963.

“Assembly of Figures VII”, 1964.

This painting in particular I find very satisfying with the figures grouped closely together making a single mass of light browns and blues set against a field of cobalt and violet. I can’t say what the curved element may be but like the way it curves round the figures like a hook to draw us in.

3.00 Nicholas de Stael.

During the 1950’s, a period of painting I particularly enjoy, de Stael, a Russian-born émigré to Paris, was making his own highly colourful semi-abstract landscape and figurative paintings. His style, however was more abstract than Keith Vaughan’s and carried out with his own heavily impasto’d manner in oils:

“Figures by the Sea”, 1952.

The figures are presumably lying on a beach mat and standing perhaps having a picnic by the seaside which can be seen as a patch of blue-grey, top left corner. The figures and surrounding objects have been simplified to rectangular shapes of strong colour laid over a dark background which has been allowed to show through at the edges. Their faces are only suggested by vertical coloured oblongs laid side-by-side.

“Figure”, 1954, 130x80.6cm.

In some respects it is obviously a standing figure with two legs and arms framing it’s own head. The face is a simple white oblong perhaps with dark hair each side of the head. Other elements of the figure have been given individual slabs of colour which seem to be breaking away in movement? I am very attracted to the bold colouring and the simplification of form.

“Parc de Princes”, 1952, also known as “Les Grand Footballeurs”.

This reminds me very much of a small acrylic painting I made for the OCA Painting 2 Course abstracting shapes and colours of footballers:

“Spot the Ball”, 2002.

De Staels “Footballeurs” are treated with the same slabs of impasto colour laid on with staccato directional effect set against a uniform black background base and close greens above which give the painting a strong and clear design.

4.00 William Scott.

Largely known for his still life paintings it is his figurative abstractions that I enjoy most. Like many artists he was a figure drawer of great ability and as with most abstract artists the starting point of life as an artist. And, as with all other artists especially of the 1940’s onwards, obviously influenced by Picasso.


Representational drawing is quickly left behind for the more stylistic interpretations giving his figures a more simplified form such as this painting of a young woman:

“Seated Girl”, 1937.

The figure of the girl with yellow blouse sitting on a chair in a red-walled room with darker red door is treated as a series of interlocking simplified shapes. The only details are patterns on the blouse and skirt and also the flowering plant. It has the feel of a Bonnard about it but you can see the beginnings of abstraction.

“Seated Nude”, 1940.

This later painting also shows how the figure is being flattened out into simpler shapes. Changes in colour values are still present indicating form but essentially the figure is becoming less realistic.

“Girl and a Birdcage”, 1947.

In this painting the figures of both the boy and the girl have been ‘flattened’ out and along with the background has become more like a graphic or poster design.

By the 1950’s Scott was treating his figures like his Still Lifes with exaggerated limbs - either elongated and thin or blocky and fat - necks are drawn out and hands and feet are barely without digits:

“Seated Girl”, 1954.

“Bending Figure”, 1956.

Another preparatory drawing in ink on paper, 63.5x48.2cm, for a painting with the girl bent over and her body looking like one of his own table-tops tilted up so that we can see the full flat surface.

This type of drawing would precede paintings such as this:
“Figure: Red and Black”, 1956.

The figure is massive and altered so much away from reality it has become a huge red canvas in itself, heavily marked and scratched with layers of colour, and blocking out the white chair she is sitting on. The background is a series of dark, nearing on black, rectangles with touches of red showing through.

Finally, in this painting the figure is laid out horizontally and if it wasn’t for the legs separated by a portion of the bed she is lying on it would hardly read as a figure at all:

“Reclining Nude”, 1956, 91.8x152.7cm.

5.00 Conclusions

While the drawings and paintings of Keith Vaughan may have set me off on this path of semi-abstraction I have been fortunate to find many others that work in much the same manner. And while most of these happen to have been active around the 1950’s and 60’s there are still painters around who follow, I believe, in the same footsteps. For example the work of Jacqueline Watt, Scottish contemporary painter and tutor for the OCA, has been a frequent source of inspiration any time I have been fortunate to see her work. I wish to be able to follow in her giant footsteps too.

6.00 References.

1. “Keith Vaughan: Journal & Drawings, 1939 - 1965“, page 168.
2. Introductory preface, p7.

7.00 Selected Bibliography.

1. “Keith Vaughan: Journal & Drawings, 1939 - 1965“. Publ. Alan Ross London, 1966.
2. “William Scott”, by Norbert Lynton. Publ. Thames & Hudson, 2004.
3. “Roger Hilton: The Figured Language of Thought” by Andrew Lambirth. Publ. Thames & Hudson, 2007.

Project 5: Semi-abstract Figurative Painting

This is where all the work I have been doing has been leading towards: what I have been calling a "Semi-Abstract" style of figurative painting.

I have waited till now to post up the paintings I have been making partly due to the uncertainty that firstly, they are worth showing, and secondly, that they meet the criteria I have set myself.

I am very uncertain that they meet either standard.

Regardless, there is no turning back. I have presented those pieces of work which I had finished to the OCA tutor and duly received my "Tutors Report" and "Certificate of Completion".

I could stop there and rest on my laurels and do nothing more since I had completed all that I set out to do.

Except I haven't.

What I have done is, even to my mind, the culmination of a fantastic journey but I still need to get some perspective on it, and also complete a couple of paintings so far undone. I also intend to apply for an "Assessment", submission for which is at the end of June this year. So still some work to do.

At the outset I was so nervous about posting all this work for the world (or at least those foolish enough to stop by at this address) that I restricted access and comment to a very few people. Not all took up the invitation to be included, and not all chose to leave any comment. For those that did I would like to express my gratitude for you taking the time to look and voice your opinions.

Now I am much more relaxed about it all and therefore have removed the restricted access and invite anyone to look and comment. All I would ask is that you are at least constructive.

The Project:

One evening last August, having just had a break from working on this Course, I was lying about wondering what theme I would choose to hang this final project on (for I always must have a theme). Watching and listening to the BBC's Proms Season they were playing Gustav Holst's "Planets" and I knew this was the ideal vehicle for me: seven planets (at the time of his composing in 1918), plus Pluto (which was discovered in 1933, even though it is only considered a Binary Dwarf planet), and to which I have also added the Sun (Apollo), The Moon (Artemis), and of course The Earth (Gaia) making potentially 11 paintings in all.
This combines my love of painting with my love of music and also my love of Space, the final frontier. To boldly go....

My intention was to represent each planet with it's personification, not as the ancients (Greeks and Romans) had already done (although I would take all that mythology into account), but with a contemporary take.
Could I do it?
We shall see in the following postings.

Extended Written Project: Painting Feelings and Emotions

This Extended Written Project was completed, and the Draft discussed with the OCA Tutor, last August, but for a variety of reasons I wasn't able to publish it until now.

The subject is an exploration of how feelings and emotions can be expressed through paint, and while it does look at and consider how other painters, both from history and present day, claimed to paint in this way I am more concerned by how I can possibly achieve this in my own painting.

So, here is my illustrated study which runs to about 2,7oo words for which you should be thankful since the original Draft was over 4,000 words! A lot of fantastic stuff has therefore been lost but at least it got finished without tiring out the Tutor who had to read it:


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CONTENTS

1.00 Introduction

2.00 Identifying Feelings & Emotions

3.00 Raising Awareness

4.00 Painters of Emotion

5.00 Conclusions

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

References

Bibliography and Sources

Acknowledgements

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1.00 INTRODUCTION

The subject of this study arose through my personal desire to explore how human feelings and emotions can effectively be represented in paint and to develop an understanding that enables me to express these fundamental aspects of humanity thereby connecting with viewers of my artwork on a deeper level.

But what exactly do I mean by “painting feelings and emotions"?

For me it means one of two approaches, either:

i) the expression of certain feelings such as anger, or love, or compassion, as felt by another person through figure and portrait painting, or one’s own emotions through self-portraiture, and also by imposing the feeling or mood onto inanimate objects, and landscapes.
I define these as “figurative” or “objective”. This of course requires the artist to understand these emotions for himself and then project them on to the object or figure,
or:

ii) to represent one’s own emotional state by finding ways to express these through abstract painting as they arise, or by remembering. I think of this as “non-figurative/non-objective”.

It is this second, more personal or subjective expression of one’s own feelings and emotions that I wish to explore through this project.

The questions it raises are: how can this be achieved, how can we identify emotions?
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2.00 IDENTIFYING FEELINGS & EMOTIONS

Having initially made my own list of basic emotions as I understood them, such as love, hate, anger, hope, envy, compassion, research in books and on the internet provided me with more formal descriptions, starting with Dictionary definitions:

feeling, n.: sense of touch; physical sensation; emotion (often of hope, fear, etc); state of consciousness, sensation or desire or emotion of pleasure or pain in any mental state, intuitive belief; (Art) general emotional effect produced.
emotion, n. Agitation of mind, feeling; excited mental state. (1)

It seems that , as in the dictionary listing, feelings actually follow emotion - emotion being the state of being and feelings being the expression of those emotions in our bodies largely through sensations.

In his paper “The Nature of Emotions”, one of the most influential classification approaches for general emotional responses, the psychologist, Robert Plutchik, set out his psycho-evolutionary theory of emotion by listing eight basic emotions and their opposites:

Basic emotion : Basic opposite
Joy : Sadness
Acceptance : Disgust
Fear : Anger
Surprise : Anticipation
Sadness : Joy
Disgust : Acceptance
Anger : Fear
Anticipation : Surprise

Plutchik proposed that these eight basic emotions are biologically primitive and have evolved in order to increase the reproductive fitness of the animal. He further developed this proposition by naming eight “advanced” emotions each made up of two basic emotions, for example:
Love is composed of Joy + Acceptance, and it’s opposite is considered to be Remorse.
(See Appendix A for full list).

I was surprised to find that ‘love’ was not thought of as a “basic” emotion but an “advanced” emotion composed of joy and anticipation but even more surprised that it’s opposite was Remorse. To my mind I would have expected it to be “hate”. So while this theory interests me and helps to explore the concept it doesn’t always resonate with me.

For my Painting Project 4:Feelings & Emotions I simplified this list into my own eight basic emotions, either positive or negative:

Love, joy, compassion, serenity; anger, fear, depression, anxiety.

What was of real interest from Plutchik’s theory was his three-dimensional circumflex model which ascribes colours to describe the relations among emotion concepts that are analogous to the artists colour wheel
(see Appendix B).

Heightened emotion is the most obvious and given the strongest colouring, for example; “rage” is not just red, it is crimson, and “grief” is a much deeper blue than mere sadness.
But do I agree with this model? The short answer is yes in some cases but probably not in others.
When we talk of anger, for example, the natural response is red and in some ways this is true for me - a red mist descends and my face flushes with this very powerful emotion - but underlying these outward expressions is a deep darkness in the pit of my stomach. When I discussed the question of what colour anger suggested to some friends the quick response was indeed red, but one person, after quiet consideration, returned with “black” independently confirming my own deeper feeling.

Colour Meaning
There are many so called “Colour Therapy” sites on the internet purporting to say what colours mean and how they affect our lives, often contradictory, and it is interesting to note how important colour is in relation to emotional responses but too often they are couched in esoteric terms which mean almost nothing to me.
(see Appendix C)

In deciding therefore what colours to use when representing any particular emotion I have two possibilities: either use conventional choices as described by other people, or; make my own choices as I feel them.

The next question for me is: can I become more aware of these feelings and how can I tap into them?
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3.00 RAISING AWARENESS

Emotions are so elusive - feelings quickly arise affecting our everyday lives, constantly changing according to the moment, one minute happy, the next sad, angry, fearful. But where do they lie? In which part of our anatomy do they reside? Where is the source from which they spring?
Is it our brain, or our heart? Our bones, our blood? Or all of these locations, from our whole being? When I say I am happy can I point to one specific place on my body and say…here, or…here? Some people, it appears, do say this and can even say what colour it is. In discussion with another friend on this subject I asked about the feeling “compassion”. She was able categorically to say that feeling lay in her middle “chakra” [See Appendix D], or mid-rift region, and it was a warm golden yellow. She attested to the fact that it was a real physical sensation.
Sadly, I cannot say that.
It does remind me, however, that Matisse also spoke in those terms, emotions and feelings as sensations: “I want to reach that state of condensation of sensations which makes a painting” (2).
Is it possible to develop this capability? Can we open up and become more aware? In his book, “The Body”, the Buddhist writer, Paramananda, explores and describes how we can identify and become more aware of our feelings and emotions through meditation practice. He says: “My own practice of meditation has increasingly emphasised awareness of my body, and I feel, has become both simpler, less psychological, and more based in sensational and emotional experience as opposed to ‘mental’ experience” (3)

However, after many months of trying I still cannot say I have noticed anything tangible. This suggests one of two things: either those people are deluded, or I am looking in the wrong direction. Or I am an unfeeling person.
I don’t believe that to be the case. I know when I am happy - I feel light-hearted and expansive. And I know when I am angry - I feel it strongly. I can see it in my face. I can feel it in my head, my heart, my stomach. I can even express those feelings in paint:

“Angry Auld Man”, 2008.
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4.00 PAINTERS OF EMOTION

Many artists have spoken of expressing their own emotional states:

Vincent van Gogh:
“I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say, 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly”. (4)

Paul Cezanne:
"An art which isn't based on feeling isn't an art at all ... feeling is the principle, the beginning and the end…” (5)

Georges Braque:
“Emotion should not be rendered by an excited trembling; it can neither be added on nor be imitated. It is the seed, the work is the flower“. (6)

Pablo Picasso:
“What I want is that my picture should evoke nothing but emotion“. (7)

Edvard Munch, is probably the foremost painter who we associate with painting his feelings, usually dark and screaming. His poet friend, Sigbjorn Obstfelder wrote in 1893:
“His use of colour is above all lyrical. He feels colours and reveals his feelings through colours; he does not see them in isolation. He does not just see yellow, red and blue and violet; he sees sorrow and screaming and melancholy and decay” (9)

But it is Henri Matisse, in his “An Artists Journal”, who most frequently spoke about painting from his feelings which he described as “sensations“:

“The expressive aspect of colours imposes itself on me in a purely instinctive way. To paint an autumn landscape I will not try to remember what colours suit this season, I will be inspired only by the sensation that the season arouses in me: the icy purity of the sour blue sky will express the season just as well as the nuances of foliage. My sensation itself may vary, the autumn may be soft and warm like a continuation of summer, or quite cool with a cold sky and lemon- yellow trees that give a chilly impression and already announce winter”.(9)
and:
“Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter’s command to express his feelings”.(10)
and:
“… I simply try to put down colours which render my sensation.”

Matisse had a lot to say about painting his feelings.

Although all of these artists speak eloquently of painting their own emotions they all did so through objectivity - by expressing the emotion through objects or figures.

But it is those painters, who get closer to painting ‘pure’ emotion rather than objectified representations of it that interest me today. Many contemporary artists paint in this way since the idea of doing so was opened up by the American Abstract Expressionists. Mark Rothko being the most recognisable and renowned. He wrote:

“You might as well get one thing straight. I’m not an abstractionist…I’m not interested in the relationship of color to form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. And the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate these basic human emotions“.(11)

He related this to religious experience: “…the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them…” (12)

And I won’t argue with that other than preferring to describe the experience as “spiritual” or simply deeply felt from the core of one’s being. It was, after all, Rothko who identified abstraction as “the expression of the power of the soul“.(13)

In reading about Rothko and looking at his paintings as reproduced in various books,
it left me feeling frustrated that what I was actually looking at probably bore no
resemblance to the real thing and that I couldn‘t get the proper experience of this
painting sitting in my own home. I therefore travelled to London to see the only painting of Rothko’s that was available to me:

“Untilted, 1957.

All object has been distilled out and what is left are rectangular blocks of
thin layered colour speaking intimately of some deeply personal felt experience, not of anger or happiness, but the human condition of tragedy or ecstasy, described
here by the art collector, Ben Heller, in his memoirs:

“How could he, with such a small number of variations, initiate discussions between picture and viewer as personal, direct and intimate as chamber music? How could he, with these few combinations in a palette of hot and cold, bright and dark, shiny and matte, rapturous and melancholy colors, call forth feelings that recreate the breadth, variety, drama, depth and panorama of the orchestral music he so utterly loved? Who can answer such questions? Only the pictures themselves and each observer.” (14)

And so it was with me. Alone with my thoughts amid a noisy open gallery at the Tate Modern, close enough to see the nuance of colour variation across it’s surface, I felt a deep satisfaction that the journey was worth while. Here was a painting that was brought into existence like warm breath on cold glass, quite unlike any illustration of it in a book. The white and pink horizontal line across it’s width just at my eye-level suggested optimism breaking through like an awakening under a field of dismal dirty yellow.


Contemporary Painters
Two contemporary painters, who to my mind capture the essence of painting from deep within, are Owanta (15) and Mary Ann Wakeley (16).

Owanta, a French Gabonese living in Paris, paints colourful abstracts based on direct expression of her feelings which she relates to her own brand of spirituality:

“Blue”, 2008
Patches of bold colour, reminiscent of the more abstract paintings by Nicolas de Stael, she speaks poetically of blue being the colour of the fifth chakra, and expressing personal feelings by communicating with our “inner” selves.

In more subtle mood Mary Ann Wakeley, a sensitive abstract painter from Philadelphia, USA, also generates her painting from what she describes as a “spiritual” impulse:

“Inside the Within”, 2007, 30x45cm.

This painting touched me so much I bought it from her. The blushes of dark blues, deep reds, and greens with circles and dots of pure colour like points of stellar energy or oceanic plankton raises in me similar feelings associated with the sea or, my other great love, space. In fact when I first saw it I made an immediate connection to the music of Gustav Holst’s Planet Suite, and Neptune in particular. Although I don’t claim to have Kandinsky’s “Synaesthesia”(17) I feel that I can ‘hear’ the music in this painting.


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5.00 CONCLUSIONS

With this Extended Written Project it was my intention to explore how it was possible to express my own feelings and emotions in paint by first identifying then raising awareness of them.

In order to develop an understanding of these issues I have sought out and listened to what others have said on the matter - lexicographers, psychologists, ancient Buddhist writers, New Age colour therapists, friends, and other artists, and while much of what I have discovered is greatly fascinating, regardless of what anyone else says, even when spoken with some authority, it is ultimately what I feel and how I can tap into those feelings which counts.

I have come to the conclusion that, while we can analyse scientifically and then try to describe in words where feelings reside in our bodies and what they look like by considering what others have to say about them, neither analysis nor anecdotal evidence is enough. We have to experience them for ourselves for it is my own discoveries that matter most to me as an artist. The basic requirement therefore for me is to simply trust my own intuition and speak from the heart. For what I feel is true.

In practical terms this involves, instead of my usual need for immediate activity, to take some time before a painting session to “tune in” to how I am feeling. I have found that by sitting quietly for a while, allowing the “noise” in my busy mind to briefly and individually arise then let go before turning my attention to the painting subject. In this way, in silence, there is space for the poetry.

And it was in this way that, through Project 4: Painting Feelings and Emotions, I believe I was able to tap into my own inner world and express these feelings in paint:

“Joy”, 2009, oil on board.

“Anxiety”, 2009, oil on board.

The first, “Joy“, received positive and enthusiastic response from many of my friends who correctly identified the intended emotion portrayed as “happy” or “joyful“, but the second, “Anxiety” produced the best response I could have hoped for when one friend gasped in horror saying she couldn’t bear to look at it since it made her feel too uncomfortable! I took that as a compliment.

And with that I finish again with the words of Matisse:

“My choice of colours does not rest on any scientific theory; it is based on observation, on sensitivity, on felt experiences”.(18)
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APPENDIX A

From “The Nature of Emotions” by Robert Plutchik: Advanced Emotions.

Advanced emotion : composed of… : Advanced opposite

Optimism : Anticipation + joy : Disappointment
Love : Joy + Acceptance : Remorse
Submission : Acceptance + Fear : Contempt
Awe : Fear + surprise : Aggressiveness
Disappointment : Surprise + sadness : Optimism
Remorse : Sadness + disgust : Love
Contempt : Disgust + Anger : Submission
Aggressiveness : Anger + Anticipation: Awe

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APPENDIX B
From “The Nature of Emotions” by Robert Plutchik: Colour Wheel of Emotions and Three Dimensional Circumflex Model.


The cone’s vertical dimension represents intensity, and the circle represents degrees of similarity among emotions. The eight sectors are designed to indicate that there are eight primary emotion dimensions defined by the theory arranged as four pairs of opposites. In the exploded model the emotions in the blank spaces are the primary dyads - emotions that are mixtures of two of the primary emotions.
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APPENDIX C
The Psychology of Colour as proposed by kaT, www.geocities.com
This is a list of colours and what emotions have been assigned to them by this "Colour Therapist".
I won't list them all, so here is a couple of examples:

Red:
a powerful colour that has always been associated with vitality and ambition. It can help overcome negative thoughts. However, it also is associated with anger.

Orange: a joyous colour which can free and release emotions alleviating feelings of self-pity. It stimulates the mind renewing interest in life; it lifts the spirits being a wonderful anti-depressant.

etc.
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APPENDIX D

Eastern religions, including Buddhism, speak of “Chakras”, or energy centres along the spine located at major branchings of the human nervous system, and how each part of the body - feet, belly, heart, throat, and head - hold different emotions with specific colours ascribed to them. The heart chakra, for example, has the colour green:



Chakras are considered to be a point or nexus of biophysical energy or prana of the human body. "Prana is the basic component of your subtle body, your energy field, and the entire chakra system...the key to life and source of energy in the universe.
[Susan Shumsky,2003]

The seven primary chakras and associated colours:
Sahasrara : Crown Chakra (Top of the head; 'Soft spot' of a newborn) : violet.
Ajna : Brow or Third Eye Chakra (pineal gland or third eye) : indigo.
Vishuddha : Throat Chakra (throat and neck area) : blue.
Anahata : Heart Chakra (heart area) : green.
Manipura : Solar Plexus Chakra (navel area) : yellow.
Swadhisthana : Sacral Chakra (ovaries/prostate) : orange.
Muladhara : Base or Root Chakra (last bone in spinal cord *coccyx*) : red.
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REFERENCES

1. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 1964 Edition.

2. “Notes of a Painter”, by Henri Matisse, p1.

3. From “The Body”, by Paramanada, p2.

4. Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, The Hague, 21 July 1882.

5. Quotes from Paul Cezanne (1839–1906), About.com: Painting.

6. “Pensées et réflexions sur la peinture”, Georges Braque, 10 December 1917.

7. Letters of Pablo Picasso, Boisgeloup, winter 1934.

8. Quote from “Colour in Art”, by John Gage, p83.

9. “Notes of a Painter”, by Henri Matisse, p4.

10. “Notes of a Painter”, by Henri Matisse, p1.

11. From interview with Selden Rodman in “Conversations with Artists“, 1957, NY.

12. From article in The Times, 7 November 1961, under heading “Rothko, Painter of Light.

13. From “Rothko” by Jacob Baal-Teshuva, p50.

14. From an interview of Ben Heller conducted by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art, 1973.

15. Owanta.com

16. Mary Ann Wakeley at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maryannwakeley/

17. Synaesthesia, as described by Martin Wenham in his Understanding Art: A Guide for Teachers, is a quasi-medical term applied to “…the stimulation of one sense mode resulting in the stimulation in another“. For example: particular musical instruments would have not merely characteristic sounds but also colours or tastes“. It appears to be the innate ability to “see” certain colours associated with certain shapes, and music, which when painted arouse the same impulses or feelings in the viewer.

18. “Notes of a Painter”, by Henri Matisse, p4.

19. “Notes of a Painter”, by Henri Matisse, p4.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES

“The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English” edited by HW Fowler and FG Fowler, Fifth Edition, published by Oxford University Press, 1964.

“The Nature of Emotions” by Robert Plutchik, a written article on the electronic encyclopaedia, World Book Millennium 2000 Premier Reference Library published by IBM Multimedia, 1980.

“Colour in Art” by John Gage,
published by Thames & Hudson, 2006.

“The Body” by Paramananda,
published by Windhorse Publications, 2007.

“Rediscovering Emotion” by David Pugmire,
Published by Edinburgh University Press, 1998.

“The Psychology of Colour” by kaT, www.geocities.com (Yahoo)

“Notes of a Painter” by Henri Matisse as published in “La Grande Revue“, 1908, translated by Alfred H. Barr Jr. published under the title “Matisse: His Art and Public, by Museum of Modern Art, NY, 1951.

“Matisse: Master of Colour” by Volkmar Essers, published by Tashen, 2006.

“Edvard Munch: Images of Life and Death” by Ulrich Bischoff, published by Taschen, 2007.

“Edvard Munch Prints” by Peter Black and Magne Bruteig, published by Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd London, 2009, for The Huntarian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow.

“Mark Rothko: Picture As Drama” by Jacob Baal-Teshuva, published by Taschen, 2003.

“The Artists Reality: Philosophies of Art” by Mark Rothko, published by Yale University Press, 2004.

“Seeing Rothko” edited by Glenn Phillips and Thomas Crow, published by Tate Publishing in association with the Getty Research Institute, 2006.

“Concerning the Spiritual in Art” by Wassily Kandinsky,
published by Tate Publishing, 2006. (First published by R.Piper & Co., Munich, 1912. First English edition published by Constable, London, 1914).
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ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

This study would have been impossible for me without the input of friends and family.

I would like to thank the following people for giving me their valuable time, patience, and insight in the many discussions on how emotions and feelings might be described in words and what colours they would ascribe to them:
Kathleen, Saranajaya, Ann-Marie, Vairochana, Donnie, and Bob from the Glasgow Buddhist Centre, and most of all, my wife Jacqueline for listening.

I would also like to thank Mary Ann Wakeley, Lee Kaloidis, and Mayako Nakamura for the numerous discussions we had over the internet from which I was able to gather valuable information on this subject.


The Very End.