Art, another form of intelligence

 

"A Picasso scholar – but not Picasso himself – may be given a PhD. Doing the arts should be recognised as being as legitimate an intellectual process as critical inquiries about the arts. The heart of this argument is that knowledge can be generated in many ways other than in words and numbers. Not all that we know can be put into words and numbers, nor is what can be put into words and numbers all that we do know."

 

Ken Robinson (“Out of our minds – learning ro be creative”)

 

 

Resources

• If you are in the US (Amazon affiliate link): Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative
• If you are in the UK (Amazon affiliate link): Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative

 

  

Ken Robinson Out of our minds Creativity Art quotation

 

 

Artist: Time to start a blog

This article was first published in "Frequency Magazine" – February 2011.


When I started an art blog four years ago, I was not sure how long it would last and what it would bring to me. 350 articles later, I know it is worthwhile and I want to encourage you to start your own art blog, if you have not done so already.

Provided you have access to a computer, setting-up and running a blog is free. The two main blog platforms are Blogger and WordPress. With Blogger, you can choose a template and customise it and then use the editor to write blog posts. The editor is as simple to use as a text processing software, and you can insert photographs and hyperlinks at a touch of a button. You can then save drafts, publish your blog post immediately or schedule post publication for the date and time of your choice. You will be up and running in less than one hour.

What will you do with your blog? There are many ways to use a blog and a good way to find out is to visit other artists’ blogs and see what they have created.

At a basic level, a blog is an online journal. Tracking your progress by publishing your works on a blog has great value. As visual artist, painter or photograph, you can build a blog just by posting images of your work online. You can also get valuable comments from visitors to your blog and better understand what people like in your art.

It is better if you own a good digital camera (you are always keeping a photographic record of your work, are you?) However, if you have a mobile phone with a camera, you can start with it. A resolution of 72 DPI is sufficient to display graphics on the web.

Writing articles around your art and your technique will train you to better understand and communicate what you do. Post after post, you will tease out what constitutes the uniqueness of your art. There is an abundance of topics you can talk about: your art, technique and favourite subjects or art material. I also like to review art books, discuss art history and share art quotations. Overall, the blog motivates me to keep creating, reading and researching art techniques.

This is what I learnt by reading and writing blog posts:

• Post regularly: it could be once, twice or three times a week; but keep posting on a regular basis. Readers will abandon your blog if you publish only sporadically.

• Stay focussed: You need to find your voice and this will take time. Until you do, think about the topic you want to cover, write a description of what you plan to share with your blog and use this as a guide. Your art should be at the heart of your content. You can then broaden the conversation by talking about connected interests.

• Use pictures: You should have at least one picture in each blog post. This will make your content more attractive.

• Grab their attention with titles: The title and the first few lines of your article may be all that your reader will see in their RSS feeds reader. The title should intrigue, amuse or at least retain their attention. The first sentence is your hook and will keep them reading.

• Keep it short: readers on the internet surf from site to site. A short and well written article has more chance to grab your readers’ attention than a long and convoluted rambling.

• Make your content scannable: Readers want to know quickly if the content is relevant to them. You can use various techniques to improve an article readability: put keywords or important sentences in bold (don’t write sentences in all capitals, it would be like shouting); use lists and bullet points; and use short sentences and paragraphs.

It takes time to build readership, so be patient and grow your audience post after post. See you on the web!


Blog Artist blog Blogger WordPress

Tea cup and fruits

Tea cup and fruits - Oil on canvas by (8" x 6") Benoit Philippe

Picasso’s ephemeral works

This article was first published in my newsletter "Notes From My French Easel" – October 2010. Follow the link to subscribe to the newsletter.

Picasso created a lot of works all the time and tried many media or means of expression. But what is interesting is his attitude to art and creation: there was no minor form of art and he always had a playful attitude to art, like a child.

In his book “Conversations with Picasso”, the French photographer Brassaï gave several examples of this attitude. In 1944, when both artists came to talk about matchboxes, Picasso showed to Brassaï a sculpture he made with matchsticks linked together by small balls of plasticine. Unfortunately, Brassaï was not able to photograph this frail work which has now disappeared.


Dora Maar had a small collection of sculptures and objects created by Picasso: “small birds made of brass bottle caps, made of wood, bones; a piece of wood transformed in a blackbird; a fragment of bone gnawed by the sea and transformed into an eagle’s head…”

There is also a moving anecdote about Dora’s bichon:

“Dora had a white bichon that she adored… One day, it died… To console the dog’s sad mistress, at every meal, for several days, Picasso revived the little dog with his big black eyes and his dropping ears. The nose, eyes and mouth are sometimes punctured; more often burnt with embers from a match or a cigarette… One cannot see the fluffy paper of the napkin, but the silky and waving white coat of this dog brought back to life, looking at us through the fringes of his long hair.”


Picasso Sculpture Art history Art quote Art book Brassaï

Google Art Project: down to a brush stroke

The Google Art Project is a fantastic resource for artists, art lovers and teachers. It is born out of the collaboration between Google and 17 major art museums around the globe.

The site has several components. One is the ability to visit some rooms in each museum (Google used their Street View technology) where you can go around and look at the paintings.

As an artist, the most interesting feature is the super high resolution photographs of artworks. Each museum selected one painting. You can zoom on the painting down to individual strokes. I recommend that you look at the selection from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam as it shows very well the artist’s vigourous brush strokes.

Additional resources


You can read Google's press release for more details.