Ivan Olinsky: Prodigy

"Purple and Gold" by Ivan Olinsky

"Distinguished as a painter and teacher, Ivan Gregorovitch Olinsky (1878-1962) is best known for portraits and images of female figures in interiors, which he rendered in a vivid Impressionist style. Often he showed figures who appear to blend in with floral backgrounds, demonstrating a decorative approach similar to that used by Robert Reid and Frederick Frieseke. Like Reid and Frieseke, Olinsky complied with the taste for depictions of attractive, pensive women, but he also captured the individuality of his subjects, conveying their intelligence and strength of character.

The son of a farmer, Olinsky was born in an agricultural part of Ukraine and grew up in Elizabethgrad, Russia, a town near Odessa. Having begun to draw before his family settled in Elizabethgrad, he was sufficiently talented to study drawing at the university when he was only nine or ten years old--most of his classmates were twice his age. When he was twelve, his family emigrated to New York City, settling on Henry Street in lower Manhattan. In New York, Olinsky initially attended public school, but when he heard about the National Academy of Design, he was determined to attend."

To be continued

(Excerpts from the biography of Ivan Olinsky from Spanierman Gallery's website.) 

Frederic Porter Vinton: Observations

"Alexander Moseley" by Frederic Vinton

"It is not fitting for the present writer to attempt a technical criticism of Frederic Porter Vinton's qualities as an artist, but certain points were apparent to artists and laymen alike. No one could see his portraits or know the man without being struck by the seriousness and integrity with which he did his work. He was a realist in the sense that he rendered what he saw with the most simple and direct frankness, but from the faults which may result from a realism too exact, his art was saved by the manner in which what he saw was qualified by his thoroughly artistic temperament.

How close to the fact he came is illustrated by the remark of a physician from Philadelphia, who, seeing in an exhibition at the St. Botolph Club, a portrait by Vinton of a subject who had lost the use of his ears, remarked to a friend: 'He's painted a deaf man.' He was asked why he supposed the original to be defective in his hearing. 'Why,' the other answered, 'can't you see that he's listening with his eyes?' When Vinton was asked if he had intentionally given this expression to his sitter, he answered simply: 'I only painted what I saw.'

Although Vinton was known by his portraits, he has done enough in other lines to prove that had he devoted himself to landscape, he would have won a place no less notable. During his early stay in Paris he was naturally under the influence of the Barbizon School. His landscapes of the time show this affiliation with complete frankness. When, however, during his stay in Europe in 1889-90, he came in contact with Impressionism, then his whole method of painting nature altered. He embraced the new gospel of sunlight and open air with the artistic enthusiasm which was characteristic of him, and the brilliant landscape bought by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the last week of the painter's life indicates how intelligently and effectively he was able to apply it without effacing his own individuality." 

(Excerpts from "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Frederic Porter Vinton" by Arlo Bates on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911.)  

 

Frederic Porter Vinton: A Good Finish

"Alanson W. Beard" by Frederic Vinton

"In June, 1889, Frederic Porter Vinton and his wife went abroad, and remained for eighteen months. They visited France, Italy, and Holland, with a week in England. The artist's enthusiasm over the work of Franz Hals was hardly second to his admiration for Velasquez, and subtly influenced his later work. During his stay in Paris Vinton painted the well-known portrait of his wife, which, exhibited in the Salon of 1890, received Mention Honorable. This picture, with others, also won a gold medal at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.

After his return to Boston in the autumn of 1890, Vinton took up his work with fresh vigor. He had abundant commissions, and that general and undisputed recognition which stimulates an artist to his best. In 1891 he was made a full Academician of the National Academy of Design. In 1894 he painted the admirable portrait of the Hon. Alanson W. Beard, which by its wonderful vitality deservedly won a silver medal at the Paris Salon of 1900. In 1909 his work was awarded the Temple gold medal by the Pennsylvania Academy. The finished portraits that he painted number between two and three hundred, and embrace a surprising variety not only in subject, but no less in treatment. The fervor with which he worked, and his nervously sensitive temperament, combined with so much labor, wore him out. Although he showed no failure in his artistic powers, his friends were deeply troubled by his physical condition long before the end came on the morning of May 20, 1911."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Frederic Porter Vinton" by Arlo Bates on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911.)  

 

Frederic Porter Vinton: Success

"Portrait of a Gentleman" by Frederic Vinton

"Frederic Porter Vinton now settled down to steady work, and commissions followed one upon another. That winter he painted Sir Lyon Playfair, Mr. Samuel H. Russell, Dr. Alexander Vinton, and others. In the next ten years came portraits of more than sixty others. Vinton took a leading and undisputed place in the front ranks of American portrait painters, and this he held without challenge to the day of his death.

In 1880 he was made a member of the Society of American Artists, New York. In 1881 he removed to the studio most strongly associated with his name, that which had been occupied by William M. Hunt in the building (not now standing) at the corner of Park Square and Boylston Street in Boston. It is hardly too much to say that the studio became the artistic centre of Boston. 

Mr. Vinton was a man whose personality would make itself felt anywhere. He was concerned in all the important art events of the town, and for that matter was in request all over the country as a member of art juries and hanging committees. The critics of the Boston papers were constantly consulting him, and his opinion was held in general esteem. As he had in 1875 stirred up a commotion by his frankness, he not infrequently aroused antagonism by his plain speech, but his hatred for shams and for what he felt to be bad in art was too strong to pass off in silence because of any fear of consequences."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Frederic Porter Vinton" by Arlo Bates on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911.)  

Frederic Porter Vinton: First Boston Commission

"Thomas Gold Appleton" by Frederic Vinton

"In the autumn of 1878 Frederic Porter Vinton returned to Boston, and established himself in a studio in Winter Street, at the top of a six-story building. Mr. Appleton had sent to the the artist in Paris a sum of money as a commission, and to fulfill this contract the painter offered him the painting he had entered in the Paris Salon. Vinton said: '

'He came pounding his way with his cane up my five long flights of stairs to see the picture. He at once exclaimed, 'You don't mean that for me, do you?' I answered yes, if he would accept it. 'My little order didn't amount to anything, but this does!' He brought a bevy  of pretty women with him on the day following to see my work, and on the day following that he came and proposed that I paint his portrait, for, as he remarked, he felt as though he had robbed me by taking my little painting, and wished to make it up to me in some way. 'When can you begin?' he asked. 'Now,' said I, 'at once.' 'Good!' he exclaimed, 'What fun!' When I said at last, 'There, it is finished,' he exclaimed, 'I like it. That is the man I shave every morning!'

This portrait, which is owned by the Harvard Museum, and is included in the present exhibition, may be said to have determined Vinton's career. It was exhibited at the private gallery of Messrs. Doll and RIchards, and excited much interest and attention. Its sure and vigorous handling struck a new note, and while it was somewhat suggestive of the painter's French masters, it was so individual and sincere as to show conclusively that a new and noteworthy personality had entered the field. Vinton had painted it with a direct simplicity, much as he might have painted a French peasant. Dr. Rimmer, who came into town to see it, congratulated him upon the success of the portrait, and then added with a smile, 'It is perhaps too strong.' It certainly did not indicate an artist who would make his way by painting pretty flatteries, but as time goes on the work gains steadily in favor."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Frederic Porter Vinton" by Arlo Bates on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911.)  

Frederic Porter Vinton: Study Abroad

"Portrait with Yellow Shawl and Fan"
by Frederic Porter Vinton

"Frederic Porter Vinton was bent upon going abroad to study, and with this end in mind practiced the closest and most patient economy. He exchanged commerce for banking in order to have some hours of daylight free for drawing, and was for five years each in the National Bank of Redemption and the Massachusetts National Bank. 

During this time he was associated more and more closely with artists, and eagerly absorbed whatever aesthetic nourishment came in his way. He began also to contribute art criticisms to the Boston papers, and the excitement and discussion which in 1875 followed his outspoken notice of a Studio Building exhibition led to his appointment as regular art critic for the 'Boston Advertiser.'

In the autumn of this year he felt justified in cutting loose from the desk of a clerk and devoting himself to art study. He went to Paris, and by his friend Edwin H. Blashfield was presented to Bonnat, in whose popular atelier he was at once enrolled as a pupil. In the following June, however, Frank Duveneck, who had come to Paris to attend the opening of the Salon, induced him to continue his studies in Munich. Bonnat, although he did not approve of the change, gave the young man a letter, which was never used, to Piloty. Mr. Vinton was received into Piloty's studio, but he did not take kindly to German methods, and after a year of work in Munich he returned to Paris, in, as he says, 'a happy frame of mind.'

In the Salon of this year, 1877, Jean Paul Laurens exhibited his 'Death of Marceau,' and received for it the 'medaille d'honneur.' The picture so impressed Mr. Vinton that he at once went to call upon Laurens, and asked that he might be received into his newly opened atelier. In this studio he was the only American, and although he has recorded that Americans were not wanted there, his relations with the master and with the clever young French painters by whom he was surrounded were most cordial. Here he painted his first Salon picture, 'Une Bohémienne,' which was afterward presented by Mr. Thomas G. Appleton to the city of Lowell, Massachusetts." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Frederic Porter Vinton" by Arlo Bates on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911.)  

Frederic Porter Vinton: Early Studies

"The River Loing at Grez, France" by Frederic Porter Vinton

"While in the West, Frederic Porter Vinton had worked somewhat in pastel, and had painted a few ornamental signs. His spare hours were devoted largely to drawing, and an inborn instinct attracted him toward whatever pictures of merit came in his way. The time was in many respects fortunate for a young artist, since Boston in the sixties was being aesthetically enlightened by a group of vital and virile spirits, who, with William Morris Hunt at the head, had brought to this country an enthusiasm kindled in the Paris of Corot, Couture, Millet, Courbet, and the other masters of the Barbizon School. Albion Bicknell, John La Farge, Elihu Vedder, Foxcroft Cole, Winslow Homer, Thomas Robinson, and other men of less note gathered around Hunt. 

Long before any other city in the country had quickened to the influence of the new departure in art, Boston had not only responded to it, but had become the one market for canvases which then no other American city would buy, yet which are now recognized as masterpieces. Nowhere else in the land could a young man have found an atmosphere so wholesomely stimulating.

Vinton had come to the resolution to carry to Hunt some of his sketches. The famous artist perceived the talent in the crude work, and cheered the young man by saying: 'You've as much art as I had when I started; go ahead.' By his advice Vinton began to work more systematically. He entered the drawing classes of the Lowell Institute, and afterward took three courses of art anatomy under Dr. William Rimmer. He obtained permission to draw from the casts in the old Athenaeum gallery, and in an unpublished paper of reminiscences he writes:  

'The room was often closed in winter, and rarely heated. I have sat there in overcoat and gloves, drawing away for dear life until I could no longer see, - not feel, I was so benumbed by the cold. As I ramble through the Museum galleries now, I find my old friends in their new home, and rejoice with them in their prosperity. I wonder sometimes if their stony hearts did not pity the friendless, lonely boy who came day after day to that great cold room overlooking the old burying-ground to dream, to wonder, and to work.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Frederic Porter Vinton" by Arlo Bates on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911.)  

 

 

Frederic Porter Vinton: Beginnings

"La Blanchisseuse" by Frederic Porter Vinton

"Frederic Porter Vinton was born in Bangor, Maine, on January 29, 1857. He came of New England stock, although he believed that the Vintons were originally of Huguenot descent. His parents removed to Chicago when he was ten, and his formal education was gained largely in the public schools of that city; although in a wider sense his mind was formed and developed by intelligent and continued reading, by contact with cultivated minds, and by travel. After five years in Chicago, the family returned to the East, and the boy of fifteen obtained a place as clerk in the house of Gardner Brewer & Co. In the following year, 1862, he changed to the employ of Hovey & Co., and here remained for three years. It was during this period that he determined definitely to be a painter, his decision being greatly influenced by the sympathy and advice of William M. Hunt.

His acquaintance with Hunt came about through an incident seemingly sufficiently trivial. As a clerk at Hovey's he was sent across to the old Mercantile Library Building to secure a rope from which a campaign flag was to hang over the street. Arrived on the roof, he found himself looking down into the studio in which Hunt was at work on 'The Listener' Thoroughly absorbed, he hung over the skylight, forgetful of his duty in the store across the way, and then and there he came to the resolution, might for the modest and unknown youth, to carry to the famous artist some of his sketches."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Frederic Porter Vinton" by Arlo Bates on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911.)  

Charles Hawthorne: Concluding Thoughts

"Three Women of Provincetown" by Charles Hawthorne

"Art is a necessity, beauty we must have in the world. Painting and sculpture and music and literature are all of the same piece as civilization, which is the art of making it possible for human beings to live together. When I speak of art I mean painting, architecture, music, the art of literature, sculpture, the theatre, in fact everything that's creative - anything that makes a thought, an idea, or a thing grow where nothing grew before; or a fundamental truth expand and show some new angle of beauty which calls special attention to its being a fundamental truth. All these things and many more come under the category of beauty which is a better name for art than the word itself."

"The most important thing is to have something to say - it's so simple as to be almost idiotic. Look at nature as a silhouette and tell how beautiful it is. You cannot begin too early to practice this, for a painter's job is to see a tone more beautifully than others do. If a man lives a lifetime and seriously and humbly studies these things about nature - the beauty of the spots of color made by objects as they come together - it cannot but react on him as a man, and, by the time he has painted for forty years or so, he'll begin to have a glimmer of what beauty is. If he has sufficient humility he may become eligible to help other people."

"You'll have to draw one of these days. No matter how much ability one is born with, training of the eye is necessary. Drawing you will struggle to do until you are ninety. We first learn academic drawing; how to put a nose in the middle of a face and so on. Then we begin to develop a sign language, more and more a convention of drawing from the point of view of selection, eliminating the small forms and getting the ones that express best the thing that we have to do. We make a convention for a nose and everyone recognizes that nose. But, if a man is humble enough, every time he does a nose it is as if that were the first nose he had ever seen. Each time, he develops himself, not the nose. Thus we never learn to draw. One can spend one's whole life and never really know. If we are lucky we do so spend it, for beauty of design and line is the final expression..." 

"This is my final word to you: See the way things come together. It's only a beginning but I believe it is a beginning. From it you have all the world ahead of you. If you believe as I do, that you have to draw, go ahead and learn; learn how to make use of all these things."

"As long as one is simple and childlike and humble, one progresses. Keep this point of view and there is no limit."

"The spirit that moved the greatest master is the spirit that moves us. He may do it more beautifully, but he approaches it in the same way."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

 

Charles Hawthorne: Indoor Model, Pt. 2

"The Waiting" by Charles Hawthorne

• "Note the different quality of the edges - try to analyze the variety of an edge. Take the figure of the little boy. That edge of the shoulder is too sharply cut. It went around easily on the shoulder and on this fold while on the contrary this other shadow was sharp. These differences give a sense of the illusion and make the object go around."


•  "Be careful of the darks on the light side of the face. They are not holes punched in, they are on the surface. Always remember that a dark color happening in a large plane of light isn't as dark as it seems."
  
  
• "Feel the skull under the hair. Study carefully where the hair meets the flesh. The head falls into shadow very beautifully."
  
  
• "Watch the edge of that shadow down the edge of the nose a little more sharply. See where the shadow goes hard and where it loses itself. There are some places where the shadow should be a little lighter and the light on the nose a little lower - the result would be that it would be more like flesh and less like a plaster cast."
  
  
• "You have tried to carry that farther than you knew how. If you don't do what you don't know, you don't give yourself away. If what you have done is right, people will think you have all the power in the world - believe me, you will get on faster by stopping on the right side. If you conduct your work in that way by carrying it each time as far as you know, each time you will go a little farther. Consider the great singers, musicians. They always make you conscious of a reserve of power, something greater that they are capable of. Never fire your last shot. Power is real strength - don't give all, have reserve."
  

  To be continued

  (Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

  
  

Charles Hawthorne: Indoor Model

"The Lovers" by Charles Hawthorne

• "Approach your subject in all humility and reverence - make yourself highly sensitive to its beauty."
  
  
• "If in painting a head you encounter difficulty, just disregard it as a head and treat it as you would a still life. You should go after the big spots, the relation of the figure against the background, the light spot of the figure against the shadow of the figure, first establishing highest light and darkest shadows."
   
• "You must establish a background, in the right relation to the head. Until you have the spot of the face true against the background, you have nothing to build on. Watch the big spots of color make them more subtle in relation to it. Remember that the background becomes a background only in relation to the thing you are doing in the light."
  
  
• "Pay attention to the big note that the head makes. Don't be afraid to paint flesh, think of it as a note of color - get the mass against the background. Close your eyes and remember back and you can visualize the beautiful note of color that was. See it on canvas before you begin - after you get that note of color you can resolve it into feature. Half the likeness lies in the colors - they are the first things we recognize. Your three of four general spots coming together make the portrait, make the likeness. Everyone can supply the rest if the spot of color is fine."
  
  
• "The first color you put down influences you right straight through. Do not put things down approximately - you will start with a wrong note of color and unconsciously key everything to it, making it all false... Separate the canvas into a pattern and give one color its true weight in relation to another."

  To be continued

  (Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

  
  

Charles Hawthorne: On Still Life Painting

"Still Life with Fish" by Charles Hawthorne

"This winter do some still life, and I don't mean pretty things like iridescent glass. Do still life because you cannot tell a story about it - paint something that isn't anything until it is painted well. Get stuff that is supposed to be ugly, like a pie plate or an old tin basin against a background that will bring out the beauty of the thing you see. Then try to do it, trying to work for quality of color.

The painting of still life gives one the widest range for study - a bottle is as serious a subject for portraiture as a person. In arranging, place things so they have color and so that you can see it well. If you cannot decide on color and values in the beginning, move your still life around until you get things simple so that you can see big relations.

Select one light thing against a dark thing - a kitchen utensil and a lemon cut in half - try for spots coming together.

An old bit of white china - the way one paints white or black is the test of being able to paint at all. Old restaurant ware used a long time acquires a wonderful beauty of color. Go into a cheap restaurant and if you see a beautiful piece of white crockery, get it. Try to make it look clumsy, it will keep you from being satisfied with well turned edges. Clumsiness indicates a struggle to put things down right, an honest effort to grasp the truth. The study of old crockery is very exacting, very wonderful." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

Charles Hawthorne: Bits of Critiques

 

"The Fisherman and His Daughter"
by Charles Hawthorne

• "Don't model little blue hats in an outdoor portrait - you saw this too much as a hat and not enough as a spot of color. Look at some positive dark to get the value of water behind the head - hold up the black handle of your palette knife to compare it with the darks in the subject."

•  "We must all teach ourselves to be fine, to be poets. Spend a lifetime in hard work with a humble mind. In his attempt to develop the beauty he sees, the artist develops himself."
  
  
•  Try coping with different sized canvases. There is a certain influence that the big area of canvas gives you - it makes you see things larger. There is one thing of which you may be sure, being able to paint large canvases does you no harm when you come to paint a small one. Take out large canvases - when I say a little one I mean a 16" x 20".
  
  
• "Simply graying won't do - in natures it is more than that. If you have done your job well, anyone can tell if it is morning or afternoon light by the color you use."
  
  
• "Don't be afraid of mixing your colors. Some of the most beautiful colors in a canvas are nothing but mud when taken away from their combination. To see a beautiful flesh tone against brilliant sand and to be able to recognize that a piece of mud color from the palette put against a brilliant yellow on the canvas will give the illusion of flesh on the beach - that takes an understanding which comes as a result of study."
  
  
•  "Make background and figures represent the same kind of day - think of your work as the portrait of a day rather than of a model."
  

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

 

Charles Hawthorne: Color

A Study by Charles Hawthorne

"The model out of doors ceases to be the same human being that she is inside - in a head on the beach the features show as reflections, are not drawn as in an indoor head. It is amusing how little one needs features for likeness - think of color notes; spots, not planes, when doing the face out of doors.

Draw as little as is compatible with your conscience - put down spots of color. Seeing things as silhouettes is drawing - the outline of your subjects against the background, the outline and size of each spot of color against every other spot of color it touches, is the only kind of drawing you need bother about. If you do that faithfully you will be surprised at the result. 

Think in color, think in color volumes. The majority of painters don't realize what it is all about - they believe in reproducing nature instead of expressing themselves in beautiful spots of color. Let color make form - do not make form and color it. 

Make it so that I could recognize the subject from the color alone, for color also is a likeness. Remember no amount of good drawing will pull you out if your colors are not true. The spot of color that a model makes against the landscape has much more to do with his character than you imagine. Do that and you have something to work with. Our tool of trade is our ability to see the big spots. 

Starting with a note of truth in a picture is the most important thing - the first color you put down influences you right straight through. Do not put things down approximately - you will take a wrong thing and unconsciously key everything to it, making it all false."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

 

Charles Hawthorne: Painting the Figure

"By the Window" by Charles Hawthorne

"My artist friends are surprised at my having the class paint a model out of doors, something which they consider extremely difficult. But I consider it the quickest way to get under your skin the idea of the way to paint everything - the mechanics of putting one spot of color next to another, the fundamental thing.

We paint the model out of doors because it detaches itself from other things and is easily seen, obvious - it is still life one cannot escape. The figure stands up and is seen solemnly and very beautifully against the background; it is not part of the landscape. Just four or five principal things to do - it is an ideal problem. We paint problems in order to be able to paint pictures, and, if we are good, we keep on doing problems all our lives and the more humbly we stick to that attitude the better we paint.

It seems sometimes as if the figure painted out of doors is easier than the landscape. Landscape differences are more elusive and delicate - a figure in sunlight is more easily seen. The house may look like part of the landscape but the figure outdoors does not.

If the figure is against the sky, the water or the light sand, keep it as a silhouette against its background - it is surprising how violent things are up against the light. Keep the separation of figure from background out of doors. Have the courage to set down the colors you seed there - overdo in color rather than be weak. See brilliant color, then paint it a little more brilliant than you see it. Working out of doors your eye will be brought up to color - it has the effect of shaking off the shackles of your mind, showing you that you can do anything you please, making you dare. It is the most direct way of learning to see color. You will gain great delicacy and strength painting out of doors."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

 

Charles Hawthorne: Learning to Paint

"Girl in White" by Charles Hawthorne

"The only way to learn to paint is by painting. To really study, you must start out with large tubes of paint and large palette and not stint in any way as far as materials go. If you look into the past of the successful painter you will find square miles of canvas behind him. It is work that counts, experience in seeing color. 

Painting is just getting one spot of color in relation to another spot of color - after you have covered acres of canvas you will know. Don't be in a hurry to do something more - think how young you are. Suppose you spend ten years of your life just putting things together - think what an equipment you will have.

Don't try to be an artist all at once, be very much of a student. Be always searching, never settle to do something you've done before. Always be looking for the unexpected in nature - you can have no formulas for anything; search constantly. Don't learn how to do things, keep on inquiring how. You must keep up an attitude of continuous study and so develop yourself. I don't know a better definition of an artist than one who is eternally curious. Every successful canvas has been painted from the point of view of a student, for a great painter is always a student.

Make notes that will help fasten your conception of beauty. The more you study in the right way, the more you progress. Each day's study makes you crazy to go back and do over and do better what you did the day before. Do studies, not pictures. Know when you are licked - start another. Be alive, stop when your interest is lost. Put off finish as it takes a lifetime - wait until later to try to finish things - make a lot of starts. It is so hard and long before a student comes to a realization that these few large simple spots in right relations are the most important things in the study of painting. They are the fundamentals of all painting."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

 

Charles Hawthorne: Seeing Beauty

"A Study in White"
by Charles Hawthorne

"A great composer could find inspiration for a symphony in a subject as simple as the tinkle of water in a dish pan. So can we find beauty in ordinary places and subjects. The untrained eye does not see beauty in all things - it's our profession to train ourselves to see it and transmit it to the less fortunate. The layman cares for incident in a picture but the artist cares rather for the beauty of one spot of color coming against another, not a literary beauty. There are just so many tones in music and just so many colors but it's the beautiful combination that makes a masterpiece.

It is beautifully simple, painting - all we have to do is to get the color notes in their proper relations. The juxtaposition of spots of color is the only way and he who sees that the finest is the greatest man. I want you to learn to see more beautifully, just as if you were studying music and tried to get the finer harmony more and more truly all the time.

You must find the beauty of the thing before you start. You cannot bring reason to bear on painting - the eye looks up and gets an impression and that is what you want to register. Good painting is an excitement, an aesthetic emotion..." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)

 

Charles Hawthorne: On Beauty

"Artist in Plein Air" by Charles Hawthorne

"Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision - it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so. The world is waiting for men with vision - it is not interested in mere pictures. What people subconsciously are interested in is the expression of beauty, something that helps them through the humdrum day, something that shocks them out of themselves and something that makes them believe in the beauty and the glory of human existence.

 The painter will never achieve this by merely painting pictures. The only way that he can appeal to humanity is in the guise of the high priest. He must show people more - more than they already see, and he must show them with so much human sympathy and understanding that they will recognize it as if they themselves had seen the beauty and the glory. Here is where the artist comes in.

We go to art school and classes to learn to paint pictures, to learn our job. Our job is to be an artist, which is to be a poet, a preacher if you will, to be of some use in the world by adding to the sum total of beauty in it. We like to do it. There always have been and always will be people of our kind, who like to look at nature and make representations, and others who like to look at what we do.

We must teach ourselves to see the beauty of the ugly, to see the beauty of the commonplace. It is so much greater to make much out of little than to make little out of much - better to make a big thing out of a little subject than to make a little thing out of a big one. In every town the one ugliest spot is the railroad station, and yet there is beauty there for anyone who can see it. Don't strain for a grand subject - anything is painter's fodder."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)