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| (c) Maggie Siner, 2015 |
One of the biggest messages from the recent workshop with Maggie Siner is the importance of simplification, and the power of simple shapes. Simple (but beautiful!) shapes make for strong paintings. Our very first day, we were challenged to depict the landscape and all of its glorious, expansive space by using just three or four shapes. Yikes!
The proof is in the pudding: if the color relationships are correctly "tuned" among the shapes, that is all you need to make a complete painting. I submit as Exhibit A the top painting, which is from Maggie's own brush. There is no "detail" description, but you know that you are in a wheatfield in the Luberon. No question. Simple and beautiful. Not easy to do.
Thinking about this exercise brought to mind my favorite paintings by Nicolas de Stael (1914-1955). De Stael was a Russian immigrant who settled in France. He is known as an abstract painter, but
he strongly objected to that classification. He noted that all of this paintings were based on reality. He was a wonderful draftsman, and saw himself as a naturalistic painter, working in the tradition of Constable and Corot. I am not an art historian, but it is not hard for me to see a relationship between the painting above by de Stael and the one below by Corot. To me, they seem separated only by a few degrees of simplification. And about 125 years.
It is especially a propos to think of de Stael in connection with our workshop, because he lived in the Luberon area of Provence in 1953 and 1954. In fact, he had a house in Menerbes, which is still owned by his family members (but sadly not open to the public). The de Stael painting just below shows the village of Menerbes:
De Stael had a friend in Uzes, France, and he often travelled the roads from the Luberon to Uzes. I love his series of paintings based on the route to Uzes, some of which are shown below.
I wish that de Stael's life had not been cut so tragically short by his suicide in 1955. It seems that he had much to share with us. I hope to feature more of his work in upcoming posts--but it is hard for me to learn about him, because very little material regarding his work is in available in English. A good reason to polish up my school girl French!
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| "La Route d'Uzes" Nicholas de Stael, 1954 |
he strongly objected to that classification. He noted that all of this paintings were based on reality. He was a wonderful draftsman, and saw himself as a naturalistic painter, working in the tradition of Constable and Corot. I am not an art historian, but it is not hard for me to see a relationship between the painting above by de Stael and the one below by Corot. To me, they seem separated only by a few degrees of simplification. And about 125 years.
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| "Un Chemin Montant" Jean-Baptiste-Camille-Corot, 1830 |
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| "Menerbes" Nicholas de Stael, 1953 |
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| "La route" Nicholas de Stael, 1954 |
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| "La route d'Uzes" Nicholas de Stael, 1954 |
Love these paintings by De Stael, thanks for showing them. I am inspired. Cheers Robyn
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