tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524682876220396502.post8484749017735065613..comments2024-03-27T06:56:10.255+00:00Comments on Broad Oak Magazine: A painter on a painting: ‘Girl with a Kitten’ by Lucian FreudUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524682876220396502.post-77148156663110764822016-09-11T15:35:53.620+01:002016-09-11T15:35:53.620+01:00Dear JD,
Thank you so much for your very kind com...Dear JD,<br /><br />Thank you so much for your very kind comment, I am so thrilled that you liked my response to the piece! I would absolutely love to write more!<br /><br />I have had a look at the book - very interesting! I love the beautiful rich colours of the plates! I will study it in depth!<br /><br /><br />Thank you so much for your wonderful support, and I am sorry my reply has been so glacially slow - I have just been curating quite a big exhibition, so I am just recovering, haha!<br /><br />Hope you are very well, and thank you so much for your comment,<br /><br />CatherineCatherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02424768126013866402noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524682876220396502.post-46442645281995885472016-08-18T08:29:30.957+01:002016-08-18T08:29:30.957+01:00JD responds:
I saw the response from Catherine an...JD responds:<br /><br />I saw the response from Catherine and I had heard of Martin Gayford's book although I haven't read it. You could ask her to do more posts. An artist is always worth listening to, much more so than the art journalists. Very few of the critics are worth reading: Robert Hughes, Brian Sewell and Peter Fuller have all died so there are not many left as far as I know.<br /><br />This is one of the best books on painting that I have:<br /><br />http://www.jameselkins.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=227:what-painting-is&catid=2:trade-books&Itemid=9<br /><br />It is somewhat quirky and unorthodox but it is very good. I will not say that it has influenced me but it has certainly had an effect on the way I paint. Chapter 6 there, which can be downloaded, could have been written with Freud in mind. :)Sackersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17284329249862764601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524682876220396502.post-87663560007037843582016-08-17T11:27:31.028+01:002016-08-17T11:27:31.028+01:00Hi JD, that is so very fascinating! Thank you so m...Hi JD, that is so very fascinating! Thank you so much for responding to my piece! I am thrilled that Rolf asked me to write it.<br /><br />It is very interesting that Freud should say that his ideal is to appear in his work 'no more than God in nature', as like you have wisely said in your quote, he was quite a firm atheist, so that is very strange. He also said that the highest achievement in art 'is not to make us laugh or cry, or to rouse our lust or our anger, but to do as nature does; that is, fill us with wonderment.'Perhaps it is this wonderment from his devotion to his work that evokes such spiritual feelings in him? <br /><br />I think that is so beautiful as well, that the most powerful art reflects the emotional state of the artist - although it takes a very brave artist to display their true emotions in their work on display to the public!<br /><br />Thank you for the link to the articles on Freud, they seem absolutely fascinating! Also, have you come across the book 'Man with a Blue Scarf', by Martin Gayford? I am sure you have most likely read it, but it is a really gripping insight into the very lengthy and psychological process of sitting for one of Freud's portraits! <br /><br />Thank you again, and it is lovely to meet you all,<br />CatherineCatherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02424768126013866402noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524682876220396502.post-63909029696217183432016-08-16T17:24:24.311+01:002016-08-16T17:24:24.311+01:00JD directs us to an old post by someone else, cont...JD directs us to an old post by someone else, containing this about Freud:<br /><br />"Above all else, art requires that the confusing detail be stripped away, but not altogether lost – it must be be synthesised through the painter’s own understanding so that each element becomes a metaphor and an expression, and the unity of these self-made parts is a process in the mind of the artist. It is this mental contribution which makes art a worthwhile attempt to build some kind of rapport between creator and observer, and which quite negates the value of photorealist art, whose creators can no longer be distinguished from one another.<br /><br />"This is why it is pointless to try to paint anything with which you are not capable of becoming emotionally involved. The late Lucien Freud, surely one the the most devoted and able painters of the 20th century, was alert to this essential need; he once attempted a portrait of a distinguished gentleman but gave it up as hopeless after a few sittings. When asked why, he exploded, “how on Earth could I paint with that man in the room?!”<br /><br />"As a result, the most powerful art expresses the emotional state of the artist, which requires some mastery of the mechanical processes, but also a unique perception of the subject itself. A portrait painter must have some connection with his model, even if it only forms during the process. Freud’s own sessions were known to extend for months: small wonder his paintings capture every physical nuance of his subjects and evoke such a thorough knowledge of their form. His figures look strangely drained of their souls; perhaps, being an atheist, he saw them as only flesh and blood; this too is an honest expression."<br /><br />- https://iaincarstairs.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/synthesis-and-understanding-the-spirit-of-art-tom-thomson/Sackersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17284329249862764601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524682876220396502.post-2342018271128157642016-08-16T15:44:45.740+01:002016-08-16T15:44:45.740+01:00No, quantum theory does not support that assertion...No, quantum theory does not support that assertion. Unless you wish to posit that God is bound by the laws of probability.Paddingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07952088638231881617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5524682876220396502.post-26816769265635781412016-08-16T12:10:23.551+01:002016-08-16T12:10:23.551+01:00JD comments:
Nice piece by your new guest poster....JD comments:<br /><br />Nice piece by your new guest poster. Freud was rather strange and enigmatic but was a very good painter. His grandfather was barking mad in my opinion and it probably runs in the family :)<br /><br />This is an example of the enigmatic mind of Freud -<br /> "his ideal in art is to appear ‘in his work no more than God in nature’"<br /><br />That's a very ambiguous statement because there are two opposing points of view on that: the orthodox scientific (Newtonian) idea that God created the universe and left it to look after itself or the much older idea that God is the animating spirit in nature (quantum theory is inclined towards the latter idea)<br /><br />Hockney had this to say about Freud's working methods-<br />"His palette is perhaps eight colours. He never put the tops back on the tubes so the paint cakes up on them and he flicks this off on the wall with a swipe. He has been doing this on the studio wall for the last 40 years so it is thick with many years' layers. Like a wall in the life rooms at the art schools of the Fifties that I knew, but this was all done by the same hand - a rare and beautiful thing in itself."<br /><br />http://www.standard.co.uk/news/david-hockney-pays-tribute-to-painter-lucian-freud-who-has-died-at-88-6424858.html<br /><br />I know the feeling. The paint gets everywhere no matter how careful you are and he just stopped worrying about it :)Sackersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17284329249862764601noreply@blogger.com