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Nov 12, 2020
Visual artists need to understand how the human eye sees so that they know why, how, and what to put on a 2D surface for you to enjoy. Now having said that, everyone also has their own preferences as a viewer (and an artist). It is these preferences, or "aesthetic" if you want to use a fancy term, that is reflected in the art that you enjoy, buy, or display in your personal space.
There are many things that go into defining your preferences. Things such as the types of shapes or the range of colors and their intensity and relative coolness or warmth, the degree of contrast, the subject matter, the textures, etc. Today, I want to delve into the topic of "information." (I will try to keep this fun to understand so neither of us fall asleep from utter boredom.)
What do I mean by "information" in a painting?
The eye transmits signals to the brain and the brain interprets those signals and turns it into information. The signals include (among many things) colors, shadows, highlights, and shapes. The brain takes those signals and interprets them as cats, boats, sunshine, orange, green, sky, fog. Your brain will also interpret distance (close or far away) and form (a circle vs. a ball).
The interesting thing about the way the eye and the brain work together is that the brain learns to identify shapes with as little information as possible. This is necessary for survival, but can be misleading. For instance, have you ever awakened in the middle of the night and seen a shadowy shape in your room and been frightened? You can't see it completely. Your brain sorts through its library of likely shapes and says that it's a person standing in the doorway. With your heart pounding, you turn on the light and voilà! You discover it's only your bathrobe hanging on the bedroom door. As an artist, I needed to learn how to use those "auto-pilot" assumptions when I create my paintings so I trigger your recognition of shapes.
Over time, visual artists have learned to use light, shadows, shapes, colors, textures, and perspective to recreate 3D images on a 2D surface. Some do it by providing lots of information (detail); others with as little information as possible. Well why is that? When would you want lots of information? When is less information okay?
A brief bit of art history to start. "Art," or the use of drawings and sculpture was originally used as a means of recording important events, agreements, and people. Recall, for example, that in the Middle Ages, royalty and wealthy landowners hired artists to create portraits of eligible women and men, which were exchanged before entering into an engagement. As these were official "documents" used for legally binding actions, the primary driver was for absolute accuracy. Woe to the artist who embellished a woman's looks to please her family, only to have the engagement broken the minute the bridegroom saw his bride-to-be and she didn't resemble the portrait he received.
Here is Anne of Cleves' portrait by Hans Holbein that was done for Henry VIII in 1540. Notice the incredible detail on her headdress, garment, and jewelry. See how carefully he has painted her eyes, nose, and mouth. Her eyes, modestly cast down, have slightly different shapes and one is slightly larger than the other (characteristics that are true for most humans).
Thus, for many centuries, "realism" was how artists made a living. Being faithful to accurately reproducing what was seen was crucial. Here are two more examples of realism from the 1600s:
Still Life with Hunting Horn by Willem Dalf (ca. 1653), The National Gallery, UK (left)
The Wine Glass by Johannes Vermeer (ca. 1660), Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (right)
There is so much information in all three of these masterpieces that little is left for your brain to have to figure out. Each artist shows the precise contours of different objects so you immediately recognize them. Look at Dalf's lobster — see how the claw is indented and curved with all of the teeth on those claws. Look at the stained glass window and the lute on the chair in Vermeer's scene.
Less becomes more
In the mid-late 1800s, the Impressionists were studying various well-known, established artists. They learned to paint according to the norms and standards of the conventional art community in Europe, which still held on to realism. But they felt stifled, strangled. They felt there was no room for how they wanted to paint. Indeed, they were penalized — kept out of the exclusive art salons and exhibits, which were the only ways the public were introduced to the "best" artists and their art. Until the Impressionists created their own salon and went direct to the public — scandalous!
The Impressionists didn't care about the type of "information" that was required by realism. Instead, they were fascinated by how the air affected the light between them and their subject in nature. They spent most of their time painting en plein air (outdoors, on location) for that reason. They were obsessed with capturing the visual effects of light rather than the details of any one object. Instinctively you know that light is fleeting, momentary, transient — it's constantly changing as the sun moves across the sky and the wind blows the clouds along. This was the Impressionists' challenge and their joy.
For them, the "information" to be captured was all about how each artist interpreted what they saw and felt. The Impressionists would often "push" colors, making them either more intense or using a different color altogether than what the actual "local" color was. For example, as they looked at a mountain in the distance, although they knew it was covered with fir trees of different heights of various shades of dark green (local color) — they would most likely paint that mountain in blues, purples, or cool grays with little to no detail about the shapes of the trees. That's because the air between them and the mountains was filled with moisture, dust, and particles that refracted light so that the further away they were, the cooler in color and less distinct the trees became until they blurred. This has come to be known as "atmospheric perspective." (Nice big term, eh?)
Look at the two paintings below by Claude Monet. They are of the same scene, but done at different times. You can immediately see the difference by his color choices, the shape of the clouds in the sky, and the way the light strikes the trees and the field. But in both paintings, the mountain in the distance is done in cooler colors than the mid or foregrounds — he uses cool blues, violets, and greens.
Using short brush strokes of these analogous colors that are slightly lighter or darker, he gently suggests contours and trees (your brain fills in the details so you recognize them as mountains and not a giant wave).
Field of Poppies (Vernon, near Giverny) by Claude Monet, ca. 1890
In the mid-ground, you immediately recognize the poplar and deciduous trees because they are so distinctive in shape. Again Monet uses short, angular brush strokes of different greens and blues to suggest the texture of the leaves, along with highlights of lighter blues and pinks to suggest where the sky holes are amidst the foliage. And finally, the foregrounds with their vivacious fields of poppies — more texture is created with cool bluish reds in one, warm orange reds in the other — both contrasting with their compliments of green and teal for leaves and grasses.
Merely by using simple shapes, Monet lets your brain fill in the blanks automatically. Your brain doesn't need to see an up close and detailed view of the poplars or poppies to know what they are. Nor does the lack of detail stop people from feeling pleasure as they gaze at the scene. If anything, I feel the dreamlike quality of the Impressionists' paintings actually makes it easier for you to imagine yourself stepping into the painting and becoming a part of the scene. (But that's me.) It is that quality which inspires me to adopt much of the techniques the Impressionists used.
So — how much information is too much? Today, it's a question of taste, of preference. No longer is art used primarily as legal documents were used in the past. Today we can choose how much information is pleasing to us. Many people want to see all the little details because it's exciting to them. They admire the skill it takes to create such a realistic copy of a scene and the objects in it. For them, it's easier to envision picking up an object in the painting, or wearing the dress someone has on. Still others are captivated by the emotions they feel when looking at a painting. They are caught up in the artist's view and expression, and enjoy surrendering themselves to the experience, if only for a few moments. Where do you fall in that spectrum?
Questions for you:
• What emotions (if any) do you feel as you gaze at these different paintings?
• What do you see that captures your attention?
• Which ones do you find unappealing? If so, describe what is unappealing to you.
• Which paintings do you admire? Why or why not?
• What shapes do you see that you like or dislike? What shapes do you not recognize?
• What colors make you smile (or not)? Which colors are you drawn to? Why is that?
Jot your answers down in your art journal. Maybe do a doodle or two or three of something you see in a painting that you really like. Make notes about what it is and why you like it. Take a look around your space at home and at work. Do you see anything that matches or conflicts with what you wrote? Think about ways to resolve anything that conflicts and makes you uncomfortable. What can you do? It could be as simple as giving something away to someone who loves an object that you realize doesn't please you any longer. Or it could be as as involved as refinishing a table. The good news is, you can make your space reflect who you are, and what you most care about. It's all up to you — how cool is that?
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To use this feature, look for the "Live Preview AR" button below each piece of art on its dedicated page. Questions? Get in touch.
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