A Conversation
With Nature
By Charles Muench
Does
an artist really need to brave wind, snow, heat, insects,
tourists, and a barrage of other difficulties to make
a good painting? Isn’t it more practical to take
many photos while on a painting trip instead of investing
all of your time in one painting? To the experienced artist,
the answers to these questions are obvious. But for many
beginning, and even some advanced, painters there still
persists this feeling that with a cursory study of Nature,
imperfections of the photo can be overcome. What is often
overlooked, however, is the inspiration for the painting---the
emotional need to interpret what you see into paint.
Whether
I am painting from the figure out of doors or pure landscape,
I liken the experience to having a conversation with Nature.
It is as if she throws out a topic and you discuss it
on canvas. You are listening to the thoughts of Nature
and heightening them. You are not merely copying, however.
You are picking and choosing, selecting that which moves
you. In the 1-3 hours you might spend in the field, you’ll
discover countless subtleties and nuances.
You will naturally, almost subconsciously, eliminate
some elements and heighten others. I am always amazed
when I compare a photograph I have taken of a scene to
the painting done in the field. I ask myself, “would
I have made these decisions in the studio?” The
high paced syncopation with Nature brings forth your creativity
and defines your style---the thickness of paint, the quality
of brushstroke, the level of finish. It happens unintentionally
and without pretense.
When
you work only in the studio from references, the work
tightens up and becomes subservient to the “all-knowing”
photograph. Listening only to the countless indiscriminate
and inaccurate ramblings of a photograph is (too steal
from Whistler) like listening to someone sit on a piano
keyboard.
When I begin an outdoor painting, I look forward to the
give and take, back and forth, experience with what is
before me---a dialog with Nature. I enter the field with
more questions than answers. I know of many students and
even a few professional painters who, when painting out
of doors, create paintings that have no relationship to
the scene before them. They encounter Nature with a paint
box full of preconceptions. When I look at their paintings,
it’s as if they are saying to Nature, “Shut
up, and let me tell you how it is!” For me, this
approach leads to pretentiousness of style and a stagnation
of creativity.
Why
would anyone want to slap Alizarin Crimson all over their
canvas, when what is before them has no such color? Insisting
on such extreme stylizations when working from life, is
not looking for answers. It is talking, not listening.
It is like a dinner guest who dominates the conversation
but knows nothing of what he says. Again, I am not implying
that you slavishly copy every leaf and rock. I am saying
that to create good paintings and develop as an artist
it is essential that you keep the conversation with Nature
flowing. You hear suggestions of deep blue shadows across
a bank of snow or a splash of direct sunlight on the brim
of the model’s hat. Some of these suggestions you
heed; others you disregard. In other conversations, you
may tell Nature that the mountain would be better further
to the left…or the trees to the right made taller.
You may decide to darken the foreground or add a thin
layer of atmosphere to the distant hills. These are all
subtle disagreements in what is a larger, more meaningful
conversation.
The result of this dialog, if all goes well, is a distillation
of everything that is before you into a statement of heightened
reality. You have made decisions based on intuition, inspiration
and knowledge. Through careful observation and understanding---through
a contemplative interaction with what is before you, you
create something that is truly independent of yourself
and Nature: art.
Charles
Muench's website
