"Distant View, Rainy Day" 4.5 x 9.25, oil on linen (c) Lesley Powell 2014 |
I have recently been trying to approach my landscape paintings with an eye toward simplification. I am working to omit needless details, and focus instead on the essence of the subject. So of course my heart leapt up recently
when I read what one critic had written about the great artist Eugene Delacroix: that Delacriox had a precious gift in his "capacity to sacrifice details in order to attain a more durable reality." *
when I read what one critic had written about the great artist Eugene Delacroix: that Delacriox had a precious gift in his "capacity to sacrifice details in order to attain a more durable reality." *
Ah, yes. Sacrificing details for a more durable reality. What a wonderful way to put it! More prosaically, I find that putting in too many details weakens my paintings. Anybody can draw in all the telephone poles or the fenceposts---but not everybody can fine tune color relationships in a way that conveys reality.
I used to look for details as a way of bringing interest to my paintings. But over the years I have come to believe that "less is more". This balancing act is part of answering the question of "When is the painting finished?" I like Maggie Siner's answer: It is finished when the complete idea is expressed. I believe that the paintings shown in this post express my complete idea, even though they are scant on details. It's always a challenge to know when the idea is complete, and when it needs more refinement. Stay tuned for more exploration of the line between too much and not enough!
"Lavender Fields Forever" 8 x 12, oil on linen (c) Lesley Powell 2014 |
*Quotation from Delacroix, C. Roger-Marx and S. Cottee, (c) 1970, Henri Screpel, Paris.
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