Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Peanut Butter and Jelly
20 x 30 Oil on Linen

The previous post prompted a reader to inquire how I define my painting style. This is a subject I amuse myself with from time to time. Among the terms currently available I find myself landing in a group called contemporary realists. It is, however, a most unsatisfying solution to the problem. I don't deny that I am a contemporary artist but that won't last forever. It seems rather silly to call Marcel Duchamp modern when he did his best work 80 years ago and died over 40 years ago. So contemporary seems to be of limited use. Realist suggests that one is in competition with trompe-l'œil painters and photo realists for the title of most exact rendition. That's not a good description of my work. I like the term classical when it means reaching for the ideals of truth and beauty, but less so when it requires adherence to rigid canons. My work is somewhat romantic, but not so much so that the classical ideals are buried by irrational exuberance. Traditional always sounds old and stale and unimaginative so I don't see that working for me. Representational has become popular over the last few decades. As far as I can tell it means not non-representational. I might well be a representational abstract expressionist. This is where my brain starts to shut down and I realize that my time might be better spent reading a book. When I don't overthink it and go with my heart instead of my head I refer to my style as visual poetry.....

3 comments:

Dale Sherman Blodget said...

Or maybe symphonic presentationalism.

jeff said...

I'm a classical realest, representational, sometime tonalist not a Bauhaus, semi-romantic with influences from the Barbizon school with small touches of Ash Can and pre-impressionist, and on off days just plain rank...

Caio Fern said...

well... i just want to say that i found your blog now , and it is realy great. i like a lot the way you paint , not just the incredible tecnique , but the way you compose the elements with yhe colors.
i do intend to folow your work with the time . if one day you visit my blog ( that is about painting ) i hope you enjoy as well.
thank you.