Letter to Monty on pictorial harmony

-
Dear Monty,

I have started a 'painting' - really it is mixed media, drawing, fresco and sculptural relief. Anyway, a waterfall, or the memory of a waterfall. Some of the elements I am happy with, others not. I turn it on its side - and in so doing I see the force of the water more acutely than when vertical.




Writing about this striving for pictorial harmony, Pissaro is quoted in 'Cezanne a life' by Alex Danchev -

" When I start a painting, the first thing I strive to catch is its harmonic form. Between this sky, this ground and this water is necessarily a link. It can only be a set of harmonies, and that is the ultimate test of painting...The big problem to solve is to bring everything, even the smallest details of the painting, to an integral whole, that is to say harmony."

Cezanne is quoted as saying - "Art is a harmony parallel to nature"

The above quotes are the best descriptions I have read describing the internal struggle of creating harmony when making a painting or for that matter making the garden. For me creating a pleasing harmony to the point where accuracy of depiction is surpassed by the need to create a balance of forms is such a thrilling thing to do.

I still strive for it in my paintings. Each one carries the struggle forward - trying to loosen up here - define there - achieve this elusive harmony that some artists seem to achieve with ease.

I believe that making a garden uses a similar co-ordination of hand and eye - it is like a musical composition or a poem. I felt this poetic element when visiting The Veddw.veddw.com

The term 'tone poem' used in music could be equally applied to gardens and paintings.

So my latest anguished and modest attempt at harmony and balance of forms is to be called a waterfall tone poem.

I have also recently drawn feet, even in feet there is a harmony to be had.  This foot has walked on mountains and trod the Holy Land. The harmony was found through colour and composition, through the curves and curl of flesh over bone, of rude health in pink and red and orange and blue. All in a foot - something we hardly notice.


Finally for my 52nd birthday yesterday I bought two Ilex x aquifolium 'J.C.van Tol' in order to balance the composition of my garden, it will take a few years for them to develop, and I hope I will have the joy of seeing them take shape. (Thank you Mum and Dad in-law)



Here is to harmonic form,



Cheers Monty,

Paul

Comments

  1. Gardener in the Distance15 January 2013 at 09:56

    A very harmonic dog you have there, Paul! I like that you suggest harmonics are integral to art. The gushing of the waterfall is a dynamic harmonic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul Steer15 January 2013 at 11:39

      Ha ! Harmonic yes and he has smelly feet ! It is hard to capture the beautiful internal harmony I feel when reliving a memory, I keep trying Faisal.

      Delete
    2. Gardener in the Distance17 January 2013 at 10:53

      I'm not sure how smelly the paws are, Paul. I've only ever heard one other person say that, like me, they like the small of a dog's paws.
      My Zara has no smell at all, unfortunately!

      Delete
  2. Lucy Corrander : Photos16 January 2013 at 14:29

    Looks a fascinating painting.

    To let you know . . . now Blogger / Google has re-organised photo storage, I've gone back to posting daily at Message in a Milk Bottle

    http://messageinamilkbottle.blogspot.co.uk/

    instead of M2.

    Perhaps you might like to follow the photos there?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul Steer18 January 2013 at 17:37

      Thank you for this, sorry I have only just found your comment it had been put in my junk box by Outlook !

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pity the cabbage white

-
Image
Dear Monty, Having seen you protect your newly planted cabbages from cabbage white butterflies - it made me realise that I haven't seen many this year. Despite warmth yesterday - a brief interlude with blue sky and a light wind there was a dearth of butterflies in the coal tip garden. There were honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, hover flies, a gangly legged wasp, one hedge brown, one speckled wood and a common blue - that is all. Oh and a frog sheltering in the shady hosta and a silent peregrine falcon swooping overhead. What has happened to all the insects ? What has happened to all the aphids this year ? Is it just me that is missing them ? I have seen no ladybirds or ladybird larvae - because there have been so few aphids - was it the birds that have snaffled them ? I worry about the lack of insect numbers. We walked through a wild meadow full of meadow cranesbill and meadowsweet with the purple haze of knapweed in the grasses and yet there were one or two meadow br...
Read more

Letter to Monty Don 48

-
Image
Dear Monty, I know that despite these rambles being addressed to you, they never reach your eyes or heart, but this question is most certainly directed to you : Can nature be ugly ? I am pondering this question sitting in my cupboard of a 'studio' where I am putting the finishing touches to paintings of  British native orchids, pollinators and butterflies for an exhibition next weekend. Now I believe that you understand perfectly well the response you may get when you make statements on GW - including the one about spent buddleja flowers being 'ugly'. I too have always deadheaded my buddleja for the same reason, and as you said to promote new flower spikes. But this ugliness is an intrinsic part of nature - it sets seed to create the next generation, the flowers last but for a few days. Is this ugliness a kind of acknowledgement of the frailty of 'beauty' .... and the cutting off and tidying away a kind of denial ? ( Perhaps I think too much.) I ...
Read more

Monty, where does the road take us ?

-
Image
Monty, I see you have returned to France. Your film reminded me of my visits to Paris as an art student between 1981-83. It is a city that cannot fail to make an impression with its wide open streets, avenues of trees, the river and public gardens. I particularly remember Versailles with its long canal. At that time I was not aware of having a particular interest in gardens, but the gardens at Versailles were astonishing. I saw them in early morning light, when there were not that many people there. I also remember being intrigued by the garden at the Musee Rodin. Strangely for an art student, it was not the sculpture that caught my attention but the garden with pyramid shaped topiary. Perhaps what I was responding to was the sense of order, balance and harmony. It almost feels as though I was meant to visit, and that the encounters I had which were sensually intense, were pre-ordained. There is one incident, which has great significance only to me perhaps, but which was of ...
Read more