The Sea of Idea

圖 33The Sea of Idea, Tennessee Pete,

As a surfer may not surf without waves a painter lacking ideas will have nothing to paint. On occasion I have found that ideas are not isolated to one person but often enter the minds of separate individuals sometimes simultaneously and at times

consecutively. This makes since if we think of all people as a common organism as one would when speaking of macro sociology. We are all affected by the same laws of nature as well as circumstance and time. Thus together we are like the ocean pulled upon by the moon and stirred by the winds of time. This becomes interesting when we see other artist who created works of similar subject matter or theme to our

occasions and I have also heard others speak of it. It is exciting and reveals a relationship between strangers that is beyond our own wisdom.

I began this painting with this idea in mind and wished to express how an idea might travel through a sea made up of the minds of people. So I set forth a seascape painted entirely with faces conforming to the contours and perspective of the ocean.

Each expression and feature painted uniquely from imagination and memory. It is a pity that at this stage I did not photograph the work as I spent up to twenty hours painting over three hundred portraits of my idea of a face from every angle I could imagine. Even the mountains in the distance as well as the foam and spray of the wave were painted as the faces and bodies of women.

When I had finished this in a monochrome of Prussian blue over a gesso under painting I was a bit exhausted, and looking at the painting it seemed strange and horrific. At night I was reading A.P. Laurie’s, The Painter’s Methods and Materials, and in reading about the transparency of oil with pigments and his black and white checker board experiment. He painted black and white squares in a non refractive egg tempera paint over a gesso ground, then commenced to test the transparency of white by painting numerous coats of flake white ground with linseed oil in an opaque manner. After placing the picture in the window for about a month the checker pattern reappeared and he learned that all pigments ground with a drying oil are transparent and that there transparency increases with time. With this in mind I decided to test if my painted faces would reappear if covered by layers of pigment mixed with linseed oil, and I came at my painting attempting to make a powerful and attractive wave just beginning to break and release its energy. It is this wall that attracts a surfer. It represents the idea coming to a crucial point of power or consciousness where it can be acted upon or forgotten until the next wave rolls in. Whether or not the hidden faces will reappear remains to be seen.

Conclusion

In the beginning I was drawn to this topic obviously by a love for surfing and painting, and in this study I hoped to discover a bit of the significance that these two activities have not just in a physical since but also on a spiritual level. From the beginning I planned for my work to take a representational style and therefore it would require skills in landscape as well as figure painting. To accommodate this study I purchased a water proof camera and spent my holidays surfing and

photographing surfers, with the idea that I would later use the pictures taken as reference materials as well as for inspiration. In hope of gaining some wisdom of the masters of the past I also began to look deeper into the history of Marine and figure painting. As to the spiritual side not only did I examine some widely familiar religious and philosophical ideas but I tried to dig deep in my soul in order to find my own personal beliefs.

As I cast my bucket into the resource pool at the library I found there to be plenty of water in the well. In fact there was so much information that I realized that my studies would have no end as painters of the sea and of the human figure are as numerous as the hairs on a barbershops floor. For the sake of the reader’s time I decided to narrow down the field and only mention a few seascape painters and briefly discuss their pictures, even though there are numerous other artist who may have a more obvious influence on my own work.

With respect to the philosophical and spiritual study laid forth, I better understand that I am very ignorant as to the religious rituals and practices which are not of my own Christian culture and upbringing, and for this I apologize for any misrepresentations my imagination has led me to conceive. There are numerous

that I have still not touched and many I never will. Instead of giving a complete understanding of all things I have taken a few ideas which seem to harmonize well with the subject at hand, and tried to make a bit of a song for the artist.

By portraying the artist as a surfer in a sea of idea, perhaps I have made him a tad heroic, but as I have found surfing to be a creative and spiritual pursuit so I find painting and I believe that creative ideas are like waves of energy that pass through walls and minds and if we have the will to catch those waves we must chase them lest they pass on by and leave us in flat water. It will take some practice and some waves may be to small and weak to carry us far while others will dump us on our heads, and bloody our skulls. The more we paint and learn about painting the more our creative efforts will be realized and come to reflect our growing love.

When I look at my paintings and the thesis that I have here, honestly I am a little embarrassed. I had hoped my painting skills would be at another level by this point as well as my ability to collect and analyze information. In the end I am still just me but a couple years older, and hardly a baby step wiser. As far as my future plans, I’m giving up painting, I’ve bought an ant farm and am very enthusiastic about their progress and tunnel digging. Just kidding, I plan to continue chasing as many ideas as I can imagine in the water and on the land, hopefully I’ll catch a few and surf them in my little piece of heaven.

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