Filbert’s Newsletter: March 2006 Issue 4

Welcome to the Filbert Splosh Newsletter. Your comments, suggestions or contributions are welcome.

The things people say:

‘It looks like a photograph – it must be art!’

Not necessarily. An artist might be technically brilliant and able to depict, for example, a person’s face with amazing accuracy, but is that all we want? We can admire the skill, but is the artist telling us anything about the person. If he isn’t then we are left with only the skill to admire and little else. We will probably pass the painting by and soon forget it. Like photography, too much emphasis on the technical aspects rather than the emotional, passionate and incisive insights can lead to a bland piece of work.
We need look no further than the marvellous portraits of Rembrandt van Rijn to see an artist who combines wonderful technical skill with the ability to capture emotion, feeling and pathos. This comes through because of his interaction with, and knowledge of the sitter, plus the ability to let these abstract concepts flow through his brush onto the canvas.
The technical skill argument is one that exercises most people who find modern art difficult to understand. This comes about primarily because they only use one means of judging the art, namely that the work has to look like something seen to be understood. By implication if the painting does not look ‘real’ the artist is dismissed as talentless or lacking in skill. Yet when we think about it all painting and drawing is by its nature unreal, the artist simply uses ‘tricks’ to create the illusion of reality. Maurice Denis described painting as a series of colours, lines, shapes and textures arranged in a certain order on a flat surface. The truly great artists could take something as bland as that description and create a work that makes us feel, react and think. Wonderful.
Leonardo da Vinci could draw, using lots of lines, a naked woman with phenomenal accuracy and detail, where as Matisse would often use just a few sweeping curves. Leonardo’s work shows us the structure of the body of the woman with its accuracy, but Matisse shows us the sensuousness of the woman with his flowing lines.
Leonardo’s drawings could be described crudely as being as accurate as a photograph, whereas the Matisse is definitely not, yet they both give us insights into what it is that we understand by the concept woman.
Try sketching a figure from life in about 10 minutes, then the same figure in about 5 minutes, 2 minutes and finally 30 seconds. You might be surprised that after the previous three drawings the final one somehow captures the essence of the figure. Then we are on the way to an individual response.

This month’s featured artist: Edgar Degas 1834 - 1917

Degas was born and died in Paris. He came from an upper middle-class family. Up to 1870 the painter signed his name Edgar de Gas. He took part in the first Impressionist exhibitions, in fact in the third exhibition he contributed 25 canvases. He is famous for his pastels, particularly of women. Huysmans once wrote, ‘Degas has flung this most excessive outrage in the face of the century by upsetting that often tactfully treated image. Woman, whom he debases by showing her in her bath or in the humiliating poses of her intimate toilet.’ He is often regarded as one of the greatest draughtsman of the 19th century. He was a shy, rather haughty, conservative and single. His pictures show a self-contained and self-observed world, whatever the topic. Ballet and race scenes are a means of exploring movement and space. Degas was fascinated by meticulous but innovative craftsmanship, in pastel, oil, printmaking and sculpture. He used photography to create the clipped effect photographs often create in his paintings. As a compositional device he often uses a receding diagonal to help bring us into the centre of the action. His most expensive work was ‘Danseuse au repos’ sold in 1999 for £16 million.

If you are interested in Impressionist painting why not come along and produce your masterpiece at the Impressionist Painting Weekend. For details click here

Filbert Splosh’s News

This month sees the launch of two new features on Filbert’s website:
a site search engine: which allows you to type in a word and find all instances of in on the Filbert Splosh site.

Filbert’s online shop: Have a look, you will find T shirts, mugs or mousemats, designed by Filbert for sale. New products will be added in the near future.
New Venue and new courses
The new venue of Aston on Clun has new courses beginning in June. It is set in a wonderful setting surrounded by the Shropshire hills.
Broadfield Court 7th to 10th August
Broadfield Court, near Bodenham, just south of Leominster is a 16th century building with many out buildings. It is a working vineyard and has wonderful flower gardens and great views. This four day holiday is ideal for those wishing to explore drawing and painting in the surroundings of a wonderful vineyard, plus the odd glass of the best English wine. Accommodation can be arranged as required. For more details click here.

Forthcoming Events

This month’s courses
Inspired by Kandinsky Weekend on 4/5 March at Leintwardine
Inspired by Hundertwasser on 12 March at Broadfield Court
Drawing Clothed Figures on 18 March at Leintwardine
Abstracting Nature on 19 March at Cradley
Impressionist Painting Weekend on 25/26 March at Leintwardine

Special Offers

· If you book a course/s at Aston on Clun by printing off the booking form on the website and sending it, together with your remittance to Filbert before the end of March, you will qualify for a 20% discount. This applies even to a single course booking – a bargain!!. Please quote ‘Aston/March’ in the Order Quote box.

Contributions from Readers
· FREE TO GOOD HOME. Tin of 36 unused Derwent pastel pencils, together with an unopened block of Ingres paper in 8 assorted colours size 14" x 19". E-mail Sue at 25thehope@tiscali.co.uk to arrange contact.
· SLAGs MAKE AN EXHIBITION OF THEMSELVES.
o Stanton Lacy Art Group (or SLAGs as they're known) held their first exhibition in the village church on 11 and 12 February, to coincide with the Snowdrop Teas. A group of six enthusiastic amateur artists, the SLAGs meet for 3 sessions a year (to fit round harvest, lambing and haymaking) in a spirit of mutual support and encouragement. Although largely untutored, some have benefited from recent workshops with one Filbert Splosh. It was hoped that the exhibition would not only show what the group had been doing, but also increase membership. Despite the lack of numbers, 30 pieces of work went on display, from large pencil drawings to small oils, abstracts to still lives, reflecting the diverse interests within the group. A steady flow of people on both days appeared to enjoy the show. Although not a selling exhibition, one or two enquiries were made and it is hoped that sales will follow. The membership drive would appear to have been unsuccessful, but maybe people need time to think about it. It was a sharp learning curve - one of the biggest problems was finding titles for work that had happily sat around with no designation whatsoever - and the SLAGs await feedback with interest. Who knows, if they can only polyfilla up all the holes in the church walls before the churchwardens find out, they may be asked back again next year! Contributed by Sue Pauli


Have a great month

Regards

Filbert Splosh