Finding Reality

"The painter makes real to others his innermost feelings about all that he cares for. A secret becomes known to everyone who views the picture through the intensity with which it is felt." - Lucien Freud

One of the main ideas I am dealing with in my art recently is how to portray reality as I see it. Every person has a unique way of seeing. This fascinates me! An artist can document reality to a hyper degree, every point covered with accuracy and clarity, or abstractly depict an emotion evident in the same reality. Can you consider both characteristics of realist art? I believe so.

When I was in New York City in 2006 I saw an inspiring exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum that featured Picasso's abstract works directly alongside more realist art (including his own). The exhibit was called "Spanish painting from El Greco to Picasso". This juxtaposition of various types of art has stayed with me influencing the way I see. I found it fascinating that a portrait of a beautiful woman could be so realistic by one painter, and so abstract by another, yet both would obtain likenesses in terms of the character within. Both are valid expressions.

Often when I'm painting a realistic portrait I find that the smallest details can make or break the likeness. What is about your face that makes it unique? That makes it yours? Is it the slight upturn of your nose, the close set eyes, the high brow or square set chin? If that defining marker is emphasized in a portrait then a likeness is guaranteed. We all have seen cartoon versions of celebrities on the Simpsons or a similar show. But how are their characters captured? This is the talent of the cartoonist - finding identifying traits and bringing them out in an unrealistic way yet still showing resemblance to the real thing. This is also the talent of the graphic designer - creating a logo that finds the identifying markers of a company, brand or person and distilling them into a simple graphic mark.

"I sense a scream passing through nature. I painted ... the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked." - Edvard Munch, on his painting The Scream.

Something else affects my portrayal of a person: emotions. What is it about a person that makes them "them" beside their physical characteristics? Are they morose, melancholic, cheerful, stoic, tenacious, quiet or calm? And how are those emotions portrayed in a portrait? And what about the artist's relationship with the subject? Complex emotions can be brought forth even in a benign still life because the artist transfers his thoughts onto the subject. I think every artist's inner life is evident in every type of artistic expression whether they're aware of it or not.



Talk of this sort wouldn't be complete without bringing up Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. Essentially his art dealt with mixing up the senses, ways of seeing beyond the simple organ of sight. He viewed color as a way to represent how he saw sounds, in fact, representing various colors as notes on the musical scale. This exploration of synesthesia interests me. When I see a soft feather I am not so interested in portraying the physical characteristics of that feather but something about it that speaks the essence of feather to me. Perhaps it is a relationship to an eagle's wing, flight and freedom. Or maybe a connotation of heaven and angels, purity and strength. Or maybe I'm listening to a song about a soft touch at the time of my painting. How are these ideas wrought out in my artistic process - in my materials, color choices, and even in my surroundings? I hope to explore this more in my upcoming pieces.

"I paint forms as I think them, not as I see them." - Picasso

IMAGE CREDITS: Top - Ceiling of the Guggenheim in New York ©2006 Bethany Vanderputten. Bottom - Kandinsky art at the MOMA in New York ©2006 Bethany Vanderputten.