A drawing and a painting of the same site, both 9x12, looking down Rue General de Gaulle, Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in Provence.
This week I found an interesting book, Parables of Sun Light: Observations on Psychology, the Arts, and the Rest by Rudolf Arnheim. It's my new daily reading since finishing Walden. The book consists of notebook selections. He writes contrarily:
'The irritating notion that the beholder should complete through his imagination what the artist left undone is refuted by the sumi paintings, so fond of incomplete objects. Try to complete the rocks whose base is lost in the mist or to populate the "empty" spaces with more rocks or woods, and you will find that your clumsy moves destroy the delicate balance and thus the meaning.'
Despite the Arnheim quote, I leave a lot to the imagination in the two pictures above.
2 comments:
Very skillful painting.
I looked up the book. I agree with you that the undone suggested content is really a metaphor. One doesn't really "finish" a work in one's head, but fills-in neg space unconsciously.
Casey, Thanks. Insightful comment, pun intended.
Post a Comment