A Cool Idea - Lawren Harris, The Idea of North

Mount Lefroy Lawren Harris

I like being reminded of North. Never more so than at the tail end of a late season heat wave while living in a hot, dry, congested city like Los Angeles. Lawren Harris's paintings do a remarkable job of transcending summer at the newly opened exhibition at the Hammer Museum titled, The Idea of North.

Mountains Near Jasper Lawren Harris 

To many of us here in the Northern Hemisphere, the idea of north means cool, cold, snow. It may also mean remote, and isolated.

Isolation Peak Lawren Harris

The blues are strong, the shadows deep. The whites are made of many pale shades of yellow, gray, violet, and even green.

Included among the large paintings were smaller versions; studies and variations. Many of them painted on beaver board; once a trademark, beaver board is a compressed fiberboard.

In Buchanan Bay, Ellsmere Island Lawren Harris

Arctic Sketch XXII Lawren Harris

Harris's paintings admirably restrained, simplify form. These landscapes are refined to essential shapes and subtle palette choices, giving us the peace and space we crave.

This refinement has not reduced the sense of scale and strength. Harris has not left out the sense of awe and sweeping grandeur and immensity these landscapes evoke.

Lawren Harris

Romantic and Sublime, The Critique of Reason at Yale

Lion Attacking a Horse George Stubbs

I was fortunate to take in The Critique of Reason: Romantic Art 1760-1860 at Yale University this summer. I had never had the opportunity to visit Yale or the Yale University Art Gallery and I was happy to find the gallery is extensive is size, located in a substantial building. The exhibition took up the entire 4th floor of the building, accessed by an enormous elevator. Someone attuned to the current tiny house trend might find the elevator large enough to live in.

As told by The New York Times review, this exhibition is a sweeping, 300-piece survey of the Romantic movement that reformulates the concept of the Romantic artist from dreamy introvert to critical, political thinker. 

Hadleigh Castle John Constable 

The exhibition's title, recalls Immanuel Kant's two philosophical tomes: Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason. The rise of Romanticism out of the Age of Reason encompassed the general shift against the scientific rationalization of Nature and towards subjectivity, and includes the sublime; the overwhelming forces of Nature and the vulnerability of mankind.

Vesuvius in Eruption Joseph Mallord William Turner

As the first major collaborative exhibition between the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art, as might be expected works of Turner and Martin were present, but none of Caspar David Friedrich - whose work to my mind is almost synonymous with Romantic art. However, for me, the absence of Friedrich was compensated by the abundance of Stubbs.

The Deluge John Martin

A Lion Attacking a Horse George Stubbs

The Stubbs painting above is one of sixteen in a series that preoccupied him for nearly 30 years. This one is almost life size in scale and was displayed at the entrance of the building.  The sublime in art, as in Nature, activates the emotion of awe. The sublime is defined as a terrifying or disturbing event, contemplated from a safe distance or within the controlled confines of art and inspires the more potent emotion of excitement stoked by terror. In Stubbs 'sublime action' one form of the sublime is overpowered by another.

Animals On My Mind

Animal have had a place in art for as long as there has been art. From the paleolithic artwork of the Caves of Lascaux to contemporary depictions, animals have long been part of human culture, myth, and symbol.

Sojourn Pamela Murphy

What do animals mean to our psyche? Many earth based cultures consider animals as spiritual counterparts, as messengers, and as partners in life on earth. Jung stated that animals were a relevant symbol of our psyche and often  represented the self.

Tiger Tiger Travis Louie

Theriomorphism: the ascription of animal characteristics to humans.

Stilts (Adaptation) Martin Wittfooth

There seems to be a resurgence of animal imagery in contemporary art. One theory for this is that we are compensating through art for a loss. As humans grow more urban our involvement with non human animals becomes increasingly rare. With the exception of those animals doomed to be commodities; as food, as pets, and used for entertainment - which could include animal sanctuaries and parks, as well as zoos - natural encounters with animals, wild or tame, are few and far between. The occasional encounter with deer becomes an almost magical moment, and happening across a coyote, bobcat, or bear, or even a wild turkey or goose, often causes fear or confusion. 

Mixed Metaphor II Robert McCauley

Anthropomorphism: the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object.

Intermission Theresa Elliott

The questionable practice, in my opinion, of using live animals as art has unfortunately also surged. As I write this, an Ibizan Hound is part of an exhibition at LACMA. This practice to me is an extension of perceiving animals as commodities. None of those images appear here, or of taxidermy based art, as these are simply, to my mind, further forms of animal exploitation. The very same mind set that allows people to feel comfortable with exploiting animals, may also allow them to feel comfortable exploiting people.

Enassamiian Tom Uttech

"There are some who can live without wild things and there are some who cannot." 

 - Aldo Leopold "A Sand County Almanac"

Have you ever wondered: who does the remembering?

Cape Cod Great Marsh Sketch/Marsh Labyrinth 2 Katherine Kean
graphite on paper 6 x 6 inches

Our physical bodies are entirely replaced by every seven to ten years - some parts sooner. Surface skin is replaced every two weeks or so, the stomach lining in 5 days, the liver 300 - 500 days and the skeleton in seven 

to ten years.

So, who remembers? What part of a person stores the memories of people, places, and things from youth? 

Cape Cod Great Marsh Sketch/Marsh Labyrinth 3 Katherine Kean
graphite on paper 6 x 6 inches

It has been suggested that when drawing and painting from memory that it may be better to observe intensely and then do the 'transcribing' back in the studio. A famous art teacher, Lecoq de Boisbaudran,  instructed his drawing students to visit the Louvre to carefully study a painting in order to reproduce it from memory later. This would develop observation and memory skills, as well as help the student to discover their own visual language.

Your body is younger than you think.

Where are old memories stored in the brain.

Thinking About The Third Thing

Raindrop Pattern sketch  ©2012 Katherine Kean
graphite on paper 8 x10"

My studio time is scheduled in fits and starts, sandwiched between the many tasks that I deferred over the past few months and the lure of the garden and getting late season planting in. The sketch above is a preliminary drawing to explore raindrop patterns for a new painting.

I recently came across this quote - actually a non rhyming poem - by author D. H. Lawrence:

Water is H2O, hydrogen two parts, oxygen one, but there is also a third thing, that makes it water and nobody knows what it is. The atom locks up two energies but it is a third thing present which makes it an atom.

In this painting, I think the "third thing" will live somewhere in between the foreground raindrops and the wet, blurry background of the street. It'll be whatever you, the viewer, interprets it to be.

I love wondering about the mystery of the third thing, don't you?

Changing Conditions

Rapidly Changing Conditions oil on linen 20 x 30"
©2010 Katherine Kean

Although I am technically finished painting for my show, new images continue to come to mind. The painting above shows the Kilauea fumerole as the wind shifts direction scattering the ash and steam emanations. I love the shapes and patterns that the wind makes.

I've heard that the lava is flowing again and I hope to get a chance to go see sometime in the next few months. In the meantime I've been keeping up to date through the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory page.

Here at home our amazing weather has shifted from a pattern of late season marine layers and cooler than normal temperatures to warmer, yet still nice, conditions. Maybe now the summer vegetables will make some more progress! In the meantime, I've been enjoying grapes, beans, greens, and an artichoke.

Volcano Art Exhibition

I learned about this exhibition from the Volcanism blog, it's called Volcano: Turner to Warhol featuring five centuries of volcano art, obviously including Turner and Warhol, among others, as well as a selection of work from Icelandic artists. If I were in the UK I'd definitely go see it.

Below is an excerpt from a corner installation by James P. Graham, called Iddu, which means Him in Sicialian dialect, created over a five year period upon the Stromboli volcano:



A review of the exhibition from the Gaurdian.

I just found and started following the Volcanism Blog last week and it has quickly become my place to go to for all things volcano.

Another Beach, Another Storm

Another Beach, Another Storm sketch 8 x 10" pencil

© 2010 Katherine Kean

I'm just getting started on the painting that this drawing is for. I became so fond of another recently completed painting, I wanted to do something with a similar feel right away. This one is much more complicated than the last, both in the clouds and in the water. There are many subtleties in the greys and the clouds are rolling and curling and carrying out all kinds of interesting manuevers. This drawing serves as a map for values and a guide for the motion and detail. I'm finding it interesting that at the actual location, the sea with the incoming waves felt very dynamic, while the sky, though not exactly calm, felt heavier and more stable compared to the water. In the drawing I feel the reverse - although that may change in the painting of it. Painting this is either going to drive me crazy or it's going to be a lot of fun!

Where the Lava Meets the Sea

Where the Lava Meets the Sea
8 1/2 x 8 1/2" pencil on paper
© 2010 Katherine Kean

This is not that eruption. This drawing is of the steam plume that forms when the lava meets the sea, from the ongoing eruptions in Hawaii. From the National Park Service website, "The steam plume produced by lava entering the ocean contains fine lava fragments and an assortment of acid droplets."

I'm one of those people who cannot seem to get enough of the sights of natural phenomena, the shifts and events, including storms and volcanos. I'm not referring to images of destruction and loss, but the visual evidence of the energy released - the rolling, spinning, spilling, rising, and billowing force. I also find these phenomena challenging and fun to paint.

I Saw it in the Sky

Converging Conditions work in progress 48 x 60" oil on linen
© 2009 Katherine Kean

I'm back on the large surfaces again with the initial over layer of color complete on this, the largest one, while the other is getting it's finishing touches. I'm liking the effect of working on large areas with big brushes. I'd like to keep it as simple as this is while still feeling complete about it, although I'm wondering how it'll fit in with the rest of my work. Time - and the application of paint - will tell.

Previous Stages:

Storm Clouds Over Lava Field

Back to Work

Storm Clouds Over Lava Field

Storm Over Lava Field sketch © 2009 Katherine Kean

I'm just starting on the last large work. The sketch for it is above. This one will be 48 x 60" - a bit larger than the previous painting, but for some reason the dimensions make it look smaller to me.

I'd like to have all of these larger works finished by the end of the summer, or at least well before the days become much shorter. I like working in natural light best, especially on bigger canvases.

The weather has been so beautiful over the past few weeks - I have to keep reminding myself that it is August.

Related Post:

Ash Plume and Lava Field Sketches