On Painting Part Two

Image: Ken Kewley, Cherry Cheesecake with Pear, 2000, Oil on Panel, 8 x 10 inches

From an interview with Ken Kewley on Painting Perceptions Website

I tend to like paintings where the abstraction is strong. By this I mean that the paint, the colors and shapes, are distinct, like strong actors in a play. Going towards abstraction does not mean going away from representation. It is more like describing something real by other means than illustration. It is like describing an apple with your hands, forming the shape in the air with your hands, by enclosing an imaginary object with two hands. You do not try to make your hand look like an apple. Paint takes over the role of the hands and does not hide the fact that it is paint. Painting is talking with hands made permanent.

In painting you never do what you set out to do. Something else happens. If it always turns out right you are probably doing something wrong.

Do not try to make a picture of something. Make something.

More Quotes - On Artistic Process II

“You have to reduce in order to be clear.” Luc Tuymans

“Art proves itself in the making…I don’t want to see the world in any personal way. I have no aesthetic problem and the technique of making is immaterial. There’s no distinction between paintings, and I would like to change my methods as often as appropriate.” Gerhard Richter

“The physicality of the painting is important, whereas I don’t think the depiction of psychological states can give the same impact, the same strangeness, the same directness – or indirectness”. Luc Tuymans

“Certainty is the less safe option” Gerhard Richter

“When you are in front of a painting, you’re in front of the place where whoever made that work was, and you see the process of the making…” Jenny Saville

“You realise that you can’t represent reality at all – that what you make represents nothing but itself, and therefore, is itself reality….I’m not trying to imitate a photograph, I’m trying to make one.” Gerhard Richter

Image: Gabrielle Jones, "Sofala" 2008 Oil on Canvas 110x 83cm

More quotes on the Artistic Process

"The only way to learn about new styles was to make a great deal of art." Milton Avery

"During these twelve years (after arrival in New York in 1925) he allowed himself the freedom to experiment without feeling the need to freeze his art into a permanent style. His openness to new ideas, his obvious talent, and his ability to wait patiently for maturity made him a role model". Robert Hughes about Milton Avery,

" The most important tool the artist fashions, through constant practice, is faith in the ability to produce miracles when they are needed" Mark Rothko

"If anyone works long enough on anything, inspiration occurs a bit" Frank Auerbach

"An artist should observe nature, but never confuse it with painting" Picasso

"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own, and other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open" Shakti Gawain

Image: Gabrielle Jones, "Night Storm" 2008, 122 x 152 Oil on Canvas

More Quotes - On Process

“Art is a way of thinking things out differently” Gerhard Richter

“I like the process of images and information filtering through your body – which stimulates reaction to create marks which collectively make some sense.” Jenny Saville.

“The object is so important to me that I take a great deal of trouble over my choice of subjects. It is so important, that I paint it.” Gerhard Richter

”For me it’s about the flesh, and trying to make the paint behave in a way that flesh behaves. Using its material quality which ranges from a stain to something thick and juicy to something quite dry….Because I take so long to make work, I like to layer the paint like a network: paint on top of paint. It’s almost as if the painting has had a life of its own by the time it’s finished. Its lived a life. I have a dialogue with it…sometimes it dictates to you what it wants to do, and sometimes you’re dictating to it. It’s a real relationship. When the painting starts to suggest its own direction, that’s when the process is the most stimulating….I want the feeling that you don’t only command the piece of work, the piece of work commands you.” Jenny Saville

“You always project your own physicality upon the image” Luc Tuymans

“…my paintings, whose immediate cause is my inner state, my happiness, my pain, in all possible forms and intensities, until that cause no longer exists.” Gerhard Richter

“Part of the job is to work, as far as possible, for joy.” Bridget Riley

Image: Gabrielle Jones "Reflection" 2008 Oil on Canvas 122 x 152cm

More quotes on the artistic Process

“(Jasper Johns) uses paint as an active kind of layering. He moulds it. Glues things on, and uses templates until the paint begins to have a concreteness, which reminds me of Cezanne”. Elizabeth Murray

“The notion of not having to get to a destination makes everything a possible destination” Robert Rauschenberg

“..I draw out the shapes as quickly as I can to keep myself off balance. I try to think about them as little as possible and let them come from unconscious places…It’s a way of tricking myself into trying to do or see something not so predictable…I get anxious to discover a new way to paint, which brings back the pleasure. …I play around (with paint) as long as I can stand it…it’s a process of trying to be unconscious and very deliberate at the same time…”. Elizabeth Murray

“If you have no certainty about how something is going to develop, then you go through the whole process of witnessing its development”. Robert Rauschenberg

“One should accept all givens, and move on from there” John Cage

“I like the idea of a thing to describe a feeling.” Damien Hirst

“(Paint) is this physical thing, yet you use it as a transforming agent…..The paint really makes the image. The paint discovers the image.” Elizabeth Murray

“I find it, then I go looking for what it is.” Picasso (on his choice of subjects and shifts of style)

“If you take something that no-one looks at and you displace it successfully, then people will look at it as thought it’s theirs and beautiful” Robert Rauschenberg

Do you relate to these quotes? What is your artistic process? Post your comments here

Image: Gabrielle Jones, "Hill End" 2008, 110 x 83cm Oil on Canvas