Training and Use of Visual Memory, Deborah Paris TRAC 2015

Morning Light Deborah Paris
24 x 30 inches

As mentioned, I learned much from Deborah Paris's presentation at TRAC earlier this month:

The Training and Use of Visual Memory for Representational Landscape Painters

In her presentation, Paris reminded us of how memory works and how memory training was once considered a significant part of training for artists. Her presentation reinforced the importance of memory in loosening the contemporary reliance on photography as a reference tool and showed how memory provides a bridge to working from imagination.

The memory training method described by Paris is a logical extension of training made known by Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran along with new, contemporary techniques developed by Paris.

In a nutshell (and as I remember it), the basic steps in this training, when working from a master drawing for example, are as follows:

   The big stare - at least 10 minutes of focused observation

   Describe what is observed to another person (or yourself) and/or write about the observation

   Make an air drawing - trace the contours of the subject in the air with your pencil, brush, or finger. 

   Make a drawing based on the memory and compare it to the original. 

   Repeat the process to strengthen and develop observation and memory skills.

It may seem odd that writing about an observation or verbally describing it to someone would help, until you remember that memory works by association. The stronger the associations the more quickly and fully a memory can be retrieved. Associations can be formed from a variety of sensory and cerebral input. In training for a massage therapy license, a group of us had heard that scent aids recall. We agreed together to use peppermint, and so studied and memorized with peppermint oil and we all wore peppermint oil to our final exam.

George Innes

Other training methods include removing oneself further and further from the subject, in both time and space. A friend who long ago attended the School of Visual Arts recalls drawing classes where the model would be on one floor and the easels on another. One either sharpened memory skills or got more of a workout than bargained for.

Nocturne James Abbott McNeill Whistler

You can see how useful this training can be when you want to work from imagination, or consider the many subjects that do not easily lend themselves to a photographic reference, such as the magical hours of dawn and dusk or the constantly changing clouds and ocean, or the night sky, or stars, comets, lightning, and volcanoes.

I've just touched the surface of Deborah Paris's presentation, and the subject of memory training in general. Fortunately, I understand that her paper will be published at some point.

UPDATE: Deborah Paris's paper is now online. Here's the link: http://www.deborahparis.com/Asset.asp?AssetID=42291&AKey=LCEK6WCL

Keep your eye on Field Notes  - Paris's teaching blog.

A few more resources:

Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran's book is available online here:
The Training of the Memory in Art and the Education of the Artist

Memory Drawing 2 Stapleton Kearns

The Tradition of Drawing From Memory Malcolm Armstrong

Memory Drawing Techniques  Carol Allison

Deborah Paris's offering of online classes and field and studio workshops can be found here:
Deborah Paris, The Landscape Atelier classes and workshops.

Surface Damage and Airport Dress Rehearsal

Marks imprinted on varnish caused by plastic wrapping
adhering to surface.

I learned last week the unfortunate news that a painting that I had shipped off to an exhibition arrived at the venue with damage caused by the packaging materials. I felt for the exhibition’s director since that must be very difficult news to tell an artist. Fortunately it was quickly determined that the damage was only affecting the varnish and not the paint surface. I've never experienced this problem before, in all my years of shipping artwork, and it wasn’t an issue for another painting that was varnished at the same time and wrapped and shipped at the same time, in the same way.

Although it was generously offered to have restoration performed, I think that artists make the best conservators of their own work. I also know the peace of mind of seeing with one’s own eyes what the problem is and getting it solved.

Plans were put into place for me to fly there and remove the damaged varnish prior to installation.

When the travel day arrived I was up bright and early, supplies packed; lint free cloths, gloves, etc., at the airport and beginning the checking in procedure only to find that the kiosk wouldn’t accept my reservation. To make a long story short, I had been sent to the wrong terminal and by the time I got the information and got to the correct terminal, the check in “window” was closed. The airlines (there were multiple airlines involved, hence the confusion about which terminal) made it right in the end, but it meant flying out the next day instead. So I went home and rescheduled cat sitter, dog boarding, rental car, and accommodations and repeated the entire departing procedure again the following day, except with better knowledge of which terminal to show up to.

Shadow box to hold any protective wrapping
away from the surface.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful. The exhibition manager and staff were amazing; providing solvent, drop cloth, encouragement, and a well ventilated, quiet place to work. The repair went well and the surface was even and without plastic imprints when I finished. I am glad that I used Gamvar for the varnish because it removes easily with oderless mineral spirits or Gamsol. These are fairly weak solvents that mean it is easy to remove the varnish without affecting the paint at all.

The packing solution? It’s been suggested that crates can be built that support the artwork with screws fastened into the sides of the stretcher bars that hold the artwork suspended during shipping so that nothing touches the surface. The drawbacks are the weight, time, and expense. Another solution is to build a cardboard “shadow box” that keeps any protective wrapping an inch or two away from the painting surface.

My Favorite Questions and Answers From Twitter's Ask A Curator Day

 

Wednesday was Twitter's Ask a Curator Day. Once a year, museums of all kinds around the world make their curators accessible to the general public. Anyone with a Twitter account can ask questions by using the #askacurator hashtag. More than 500 museums registered officially to answer questions. This global online event took place over a 24 hour period and due to the time zones it looks like New South Wales got to go first.

Here are just a few of my favorite questions and answers from the day:

Bluemooie, "Regarding your collections, how do you ensure that you're not purchasing stolen works?"
ArtGalleryofNSW,‏  "Great question! The gallery has a rigorous process for researching provenance. Read more here http://bit.ly/150OWIu "

All About Art, "How do you come up with new exhibition themes? Market research, a curator's vision or...?"
Tyler Collection, "Great question! We look carefully at our collection & think about new ways of interpreting it."

Jessica Cham, "What has been the most outlandish request from an artist involving the installation process of their work?"
ArtGalleryofNSW,  "The relationship between artist & curator is sacrosanct! Often the most outlandish ideas are the best!"

Steve Puttrich, "As a Curator, what's your #1 pet peeve?"
Museum of Inuit Art, "Seeing "the Inuit people" anywhere. Honestly. Inuit means "the people" so it's redundant but so prevalent."
Orphan Train Depot, "People getting offended when we decline an object that has nothing to do with our collection."
Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum Stop,‏ "When people leave objects for the museum with no information about the history of the artifact."

CaFE, "What advice do you have for an art student (both undergrad/grad) just starting their career?"
Boca Museum of Art, "Best advice for art students: have good quality images of your work for submitting to museums, galleries, etc."

Steve Kahn, "What is the best advice you would give an artist?"
Whitney Museum, "Don’t judge your success as an artist by success in the market—it’s not the same thing."

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Guggenheim Museum, and The Museum of Fine Arts Houston all got together to answer questions directed to their JAmes TUrrell exhibitions. You can find the conversation here: http://storify.com/LACMA/2013-askacurator-day-turrell-trifecta .

It was as much fun as last year. Just as it ended I realized that I neglected to ask a lighting question that's been on my mind. I guess it'll be first on my list for next year....

Reading The Art Forger

I found "The Art Forger" another fun and entertaining read, and almost as obsessed with surfaces, brush strokes, layers of luminous color, and compositional strategies as many how-to books on painting. The plot weaves art history with the contemporary, and references the mystery surrounding the Gardner Museum heist, in which two men disguised as ­police officers conned their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied the guards up with duct tape, and made off with 13 artworks, including three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, and a Manet, altogether valued at $500 million. 

Pondering reproductions, copying, and forgeries tends to make one ponder basic questions about the value of art, doesn't it? If experts can not tell an authentic painting from a forgery, then what exactly are art buyers paying for? Is it status? Authenticity? Is it a look or a signature or a name? Or is it the participation in a unique and original vision that ownership provides?

Written in a first person narrative, the protagonist delves into details about forgery techniques, as she employs the famous art forger Han van Meegeren’s methods of painting. Van Meegeren used synthetic phenol formaldehyde resin dissolved in a spirit such as turpentine and/or an essential oil which would then be mixed with hand-ground powder pigments. This was then baked to change its chemical composition permanently, becoming insoluble in alcohol, or other common solvents. The results are described as so beautiful that I'm almost tempted to try it.

Keeping Stored Oil Paint Fresh for the Palette

Over the years I’ve tried many ways of preserving paint, using everything from closeable palette boxes; which only work in the short term – ultimately the paint hardens, or submerging blobs of paint in water overnight; works okay, but it’s a chore fishing the paint out of the water and getting it ready to work with, and there may also be problems with the water breaking down the binder. Overall, the best and easiest way I found was to put the whole palette in the freezer. However, as my palettes have grown larger this has become less convenient.

Recently I learned a new trick. I have smaller pieces of glass to hold the paint, like these from School Specialty. These are lightweight and have smooth beveled edges. I load them with individual colors and line them up around my regular palette. I take color from the smaller glass panes and mix it on the larger glass. The smaller glass stays clean and at the end of the day I put them in the freezer. The cold slows down oxidation so that the paint doesn’t dry out. They are small enough that they don’t take up too much room.

The panes are 4 x 6 inches; inexpensive and small enough to slide into a Tupperware container to prevent accidentally getting oil paint inside the freezer.

Why save paint? One – it’s economical to do so and two, I’m keeping in mind that some of these pigments are mined and once they’re gone - they’re gone. I prefer not to waste them. Three, I don’t want to add anything to landfills if I don't have to. Four, any leftover paint fragments need to be dry before tossing and it’s messy and space consuming to have smears of half used color scattered about drying.

I like to put out more than enough color on the palette when I start painting. Have you ever heard “paint like a millionaire?” It seems to me this makes the work looser and more confident, plus it seems a waste of time and stops the flow to stop in the middle of painting a passage to squeeze out more color.

Please feel free to share this post if you find it helpful!

The Third Space

In addition to Ma, Notan is another design principle to think about. Also a Japanese term, Notan refers to the interplay of dark and light. For artists it is something to bear in mind for composition and value. While considering the layout of a work, Notan is part of the decision to break up the space with interesting shapes, and to balance the darks and lights in a pleasing way - or a disturbing way, if that’s
what you’re after.

 

One way to check a composition is to reverse your image. The inverted values help in seeing in an abstract way if the shapes are interesting and if the darks and lights are balanced.

 
Metaphorically, Notan is a combination of presence and absence. The two, by nature of their dynamic opposition, create tension, and a mysterious, transcendent, ‘third space’ is evoked.

Forever Close, No Matter How Far

 

 I use a reduction glass in the studio, on medium and large paintings – as I've mentioned before – it saves both time and energy and gives me a fresh take on work much as using other methods, such as squinting, or a mirror, and so on.

Another useful tool is a magnifying glass. This can be used in the studio to check your own work, and I like to keep a pocket size one with me to look closely at details on artwork in galleries and museums. It is amazing to me what I learn this way.

 I recently saw an exhibition of Linden Frederick’s work – a collection of 6 inch squares of small towns and back roads seen at dusk. Realistically rendered landscapes, a few depict a solitary home or building, in which one can see tiny luminous reflections in the ¼ inch rectangles of a window pane. As these minute areas reflected the space behind the viewer, it had the effect on me of feeling right in the middle of the space even as experiencing a remoteness – as if I were an invisible giant. The magnifier revealed beautiful paint handling in even the very smallest sections. The experience I took away was of having walked around within a tiny painting as if I were also tiny and being able to step back and become huge and knowing, aware of the contents of the ‘scene behind me’ based on my glimpses at the reflections.

The Long and Short: A Selection of Artist Videos

I recently gathered some friends and watched The Art of Failure, a full length documentary about painter Chuck Connelly's rise and fall - and what he eventually came up with to deal with it. His rants, which were filmed over a 5 year period, I found difficult to watch. The parts that show him painting are fascinating, and as you can tell from the clip above, lots of his work is shown. Daniel Slotnik described his work for the NY Times as, "a blend of Goya and Rockwell", others have labeled him as a die hard neo-expressionist.


Here's a link to an excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ex74Z_BaUE

The video above, of artist Riusuke Fukahori, shows some wonderful brushwork in progress, plus a sophisticated layering technique. And if you stick around there's quite a change in scale at the end.



Along with being amazed with his work, I also discovered a great tip in this Gottfried Helnwein clip. Watch how he uses the back of his glove to wipe or store paint while working. I've since started doing this myself and it's a great time saver.

Preparing Plein Air Panels

While considering what to bring on a painting trip I looked at buying plein air panels to paint on. They tend to be light and small - great for carrying and it seems a good idea keep luggage weight as low as possible while traveling. And since  there are slots to carry thin panels built into my painting box, I might as well use them. My other criteria were that they be quality material, archival, and cruelty free. In other words I wanted oil primed linen mounted on a board - not on a paper or foam product. Inexpensive would be nice also!

I finally found what seemed like the perfect product, oil primed linen, mounted on a board. I ordered a half dozen. They arrived and as I was about to tear into the plastic wrapping, I noticed that the label stated "primed with rabbit skin glue". Fortunately the supplier agreed to take them back. I never did find the product with the exact specifications I wanted, but I did find Art Boards Plein Air - Archival Mounting Panels. These are a thin maple board coated with a heat activated reversible archival adhesive. I have plenty of small pieces of oil primed linen - trims left over from stretching larger surfaces, so using these I've tried them out and I'm happy to say they are quite easy to use. The boards need to be briefly heated: two minutes at 250 degrees - an oven works great - then press the linen (or canvas, or paper, or whatever you are using) to the adhesive surface while it cools. Once it has cooled to about 150 degrees or so, the bond is made. I also tried the reversal to see if it really worked - and it does. All you need to do is reheat the panel and while it is still warm the linen lifts right off.

I used mini clips to press the edges of the linen to the adhesive surface.

I'll also bring along some pieces of unstretched linen to tape or clip to a board as I work that I can stretch back in the studio.

Holding it Together on a Diptych, Triptych, or Modular Painting

On the Edge

©1991 Katherine Kean

oil on two canvases

42  x 12"

A diptych in art consists of any two panels presented side by side. Traditionally these two pieces would be hinged together. In contemporary art it's not uncommon to see the panels simply hanging side by side, sometimes with a bit of space between. A triptych is made up of three panels, side by side by side.

When there are panels placed one above the other, or in larger, more complex groupings, it is then called modular art. In some works, pieces can be added or removed, or rearranged, to create a new piece of artwork.

There is an advantage to modular work. The smaller sections that make up a large piece can be transported more easily than a single large painting.

When I'm working on a diptych, a triptych, or a modular piece I use C-Clampsto connect the panels. This way I can easily move around the multiple panels that make up one work as an entire unit, making it easy to take off the easel during drying time.

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Waiting For the Sun

Amber Lightfall©2011 Katherine Keanoil on linen  15 x 40  inches

After days and days of rain, the sun has come out at last. It's still chilly, but promises to warm up. I grabbed the opportunity while it rained to get inside work finished. During my document updating I re-discovered the "read aloud" feature of Acrobat PDF files. I found that if I used it to read back to me that I could see how text such as my artist statement did or did not flow. In the past I've asked a friend to read it to me, or recorded my own voice on my message service. The digital voice gives a new variation.I also found it a useful tool to use in proof reading. An error read alound seems to stand out more to me than what I might catch when visually skimming over text.

How to Put a Text Link in a Blogger Comment So That It Opens in a New Window

Now we're getting fancy. Here's an update to Friday's post about putting a link in a Blogger comment. As Marianne Post pointed out the code I demonstrated opens the link in the same window - thereby losing the page we're on, and we don't want that. In order to have it open in a new window this must be added at the end of the url, after the quotation mark and before the less than sign that starts the text:

All together that gives us this to start:

then the url within the quotation marks:

http://katherinekean.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-add-text-link-to-blogger.html"

then:

and last the text with the closing tags:

And the end result is the clickable text link that opens in a new window:

How to Add a Text Link to a Blogger Comment

How to Add a Text Link to Blogger Comments

Some blogging platforms make it simple to add a link. If one types http:// at the beginning of an address it automatically becomes a live link.

Blogger does not have this function but you can still put links in your comments. To do so requires adding just a few more characters:

Let’s say for example that I wanted to put a link to this post about a hike up to Mount Hollywood in a comment. The url of the link is http://katherinekean.blogspot.com/2006/07/mount-hollywood-on-4th-of-july.html  I would then add this in front of the url:

And this after the url:

And it will come out as a clickable text link:

Mount Hollywood on the 4th of July

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Before and After

I've been reworking the look of my blog along with the functionality by changing the fonts, the background color and sidebar elements, and adding pictures.

Below is a "before" screenshot:

As you can see, I've lightened the background color. It is now a very pale gray. I didn't want to go all the way to white. I have the idea that my artwork looks better against a gray background and I personally find a white page hard on my eyes, but that's just me. The darker gray matches my website, so I'll have to change that on my website as well. I've been meaning to make changes on my website anyway. While I'm at it I'll also have to change the font there. Come to think of it I'll also have to change my business cards. My website and business cards both have Times New Roman and the blog is Georgia, so I might want to rethink that. In general I prefer a font with serifs. I know that many people consider a sans serif font more legible on computer screens, but I haven't found that to be true. My experience has been that the serif font, along with a not too white page is easier on the eyes and easier to read.

Below is the "After" Screenshot. Obviously you can see the changes because you are here reading the blog, but I want it pictured as a way of tracking the changes I've been making.

I also changed the Title bar, including the tag line, and I added some thumbnails of my artwork.

I removed the "Links" section from the sidebar because it is, for the most part, duplicated in the blogroll.

Feel free to give me your thoughts. Have I improved the look? Gone backwards? Spinning my wheeels?