Capital "T" Truths

I am taking a Shakespeare course this winter, and have learned that the Great Bard himself occasionally misstated a few historical facts. But as the wise instructor of my class says, those small factual misstatements did not prevent Shakespeare from capturing the true reality of the human experience, in all of its glory. In other words, Shakespeare might not have gotten all of the "small t" truths right, but he definitely got the "Capital T" Truths right!

"Wheatfield with Cypresses"
Vincent van Gogh

I believe that all art involves the search for "Capital T Truths". When painting, I sometimes recall a quote attributed to Tolstoy: "Facts stand in the way of Truth". Put differently, the slavish painting of every telephone pole, every fence post, every leaf on every tree, does not

necessarily make for a painting that communicates the painter's experience of the scene. In fact, a far more powerful  approach is to eliminate extraneous detail from the painting. By distilling things to their essence, the painter can reach the real truth of his experience, rather than allowing minutiae to distract from it. 

"Fish Houses on the Cove"
Oil on Linen, 10 x 20
(c) Lesley Powell 2015
Available Here

This idea is expressed perfectly in a statement about Eugene Delacroix: He had a precious gift in his ability to sacrifice detail in order to attain a more durable reality.*

I close with a few more quotations about finding Capital-T Truths. Enjoy!

My great longing is to make those very incorrectnesses, 

those deviations, remodellings, changes in reality, 

so that they may become, yes, lies if you like – 

but truer than the literal truth.

--Vincent van Gogh 

The more intimately I know a place,

the painted facts become less important

than the truth of the whole experience.

--Bonnie Paruch

"Pont Julien"
Oil on Linen, 12 x 18
(c) Lesley Powell, 2015
Available Here

*Quotation from Delacroix, C. Roger-Marx and S. Cottee, (c) 1970, Henri Screpel, Paris.