Artist Statement

I travel the world for inspiration, looking not only for interesting patterns and harmonies of colors, shapes, and lines, but also for subjects that move me emotionally in some way. My method of working is to capture the essence of a place using plein air sketches, working outdoors with either a pochade or a full easel and palette, often working quite large. Working directly from nature helps me capture the color relationships and harmonies more accurately. With more complex figurative works, I use a variety of methods. I might do one or more color sketches outdoors, and take photographs to complete the figures and portraits in the studio. Sometimes I return outside to finish the complete painting. Sometimes I do the portraits outdoors directly from the model instead of using photographs. Often I will spend a lot of time in the studio using my photographs to develop my composition. This usually involves creating a large number of compositional and notan sketches to explore different design options and to carefully plan the design, color harmony and value structure of the painting. Each work, although figurative, is planned from the point of view of an abstract painting. My philosophy on painting is to combine the poetry (emotional and conceptual) aspects of a painting with its music (the underlying abstract design). The goal is not only to create a beautiful piece of artwork, but also to leave an impression, a memory, or some feeling with the viewer long after they have seen the painting.

Regarding my philosophy on painting, my criteria for evaluating a painting works on two levels. The first is at the conceptual level in which I think a good painting should communicate something to the viewer, whether it be an emotion, a story, or an insight into the beauty of things around us that the artist helps others see more clearly. This is what I like to refer to as the 'poetry' of a painting. Without this component of a painting, I think that a painting can be no more than a nice decorative object (usually referred to as decorative art). This is why I think academic training is essential for an artist, for the simple reason that unless you have a basic set of skills like drawing and the ability to see accurate colors in nature, you are really hampered in your ability to communicate many things.

The second level in which I think a good painting should work is at the abstract level. I like to refer to this as the 'music' of a painting. That is the part of painting that is entirely independent of subject matter and that just depends on the arrangements of lines, shapes, colors and transitions on the canvas. For me a great painting has a very strong underlying abstract design. This is for me what turns a mere image of something (usually referred to as an illustration) into art.

This emphasis on abstract design takes a painting beyond the level of 'poetry' of a painting and brings out the 'musical' potential. This is what the abstract painters of the 20th century were focusing on and where a study of modern art comes becomes useful. However if you look at the art of the middle east or of asia centuries ago, you will find that abstract design ideas were not really new to the 20th century.

A further element I like to focus on is the brushwork in a painting. For me this adds yet another depth to a painting to make it far more interesting to look at. The way this works is that when you get close to a painting, and just look at a part of it (because you are so close you cannot see all of it), you find another abstract painting buried within the larger picture. Try using your hands to frame a part of a painting that has a lot of visible brushwork on it and you will see what I mean. In fact in a good painting you can find hundreds of embedded abstract paintings all within the same painting. This provides interest for the viewer, who can then look at the painting for hours, continually finding new things in it.

So why do I use these terms 'music' and 'poetry'? I use the term 'music' because of the various analogies between music and painting. A good musical composition has harmony between its notes and a good painting has harmony between its colors and values. A good musical composition has an interesting rhythms in the time sequence of its notes, and a good painting has various rhythms in the spacing between its shapes. Likewise good music takes advantage of repetition in sequences of notes with some variations. Repetition and variety in shapes and colors is one of the key principles in painting. Hence the strong analogy between painting and music. Interestingly a high proportion of painters are also musicians.

As for poetry, I cannot say it any better than a quote I recently read by William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963) in a1950 interview:

"Poetry is language charged with emotion. Poetry is words, words rhythmically organized. A poem is its own complete small universe, it exists separately. Any poem that is/has worth expresses the whole life of the poet. It gives a view of what the poet is."

Just change the word 'poetry' in this quote to 'painting', and you'll see what I mean:

  "A painting is an image charged with emotion. A painting is shapes, lines, colors and values rhythmically organized. A painting is its own complete small universe, it exists separately. Any painting that is/has worth expresses the whole life of the artist. It gives a view of what the artist is."

That's why I paint things around me, and not historical scenes that I have never seen. It's why I get outdoors and travel to paint where I can experience life and feel its emotions first hand. And it's why I don't paint commissions where I don't have a feeling for the subject matter.

When I evaluate a piece of art I basically think of these two things: first what emotional impact did it have on me? and second, how long could the painting hold my interest. When I go to a museum now, I find that there are some paintings that I can sit in front of and enjoy for over half an hour continually finding pleasure and interest in it. I've noticed that all of these paintings seem to have the above characteristics.

I will finish with the names of some of the painters who have influenced me. When I was young I was impressed with the work of John Constable (1776-1837) who painted the countryside of my native England, as well as JMW Turner (1775-1851), perhaps presaging my interest in the abstract ('musical) quality of painting.

My first studies in painting in my early 20's were with an artist called Frank (I never knew his last name) who painted in the style of Constable. I also liked the marine paintings of the Dutch landscape painters, the scenes of country life by Gustave Courbet (1819-1887), and the beautiful interiors of Vermeer (1632-1675) that strengthened my interest in composition and the division of space in a painting. My friend, the American painter  Daniel Sprick (b. 1953), is one of the few contemporary realist painters whose work I really admire and that I put in the class of Vermeer for his fine sense of composition, as well as for his extremely refined use of edges.

Rembrandt (1606-1669) was also a favorite of mine in my early years, whom I knew from my visits to the National Gallery in London. Many years later when I lived in California, I studied with David Leffel (b. 1931) who has made a lifetime study of the painting methods of Rembrandt. In my early years I was also introduced and very much influenced by the art of Michelangelo (1475-1564) in the Sistine chapel and his sculpture of David in Florence. It was the emotional impact of seeing his art in my late teen years that set my mind to becoming an artist, and probably started my lifetime love of Italy.

Of course I was influenced by the French Impressionists such as Renoir (1841-1919), Pissarro (1830-1903), Sisley (1839-1899) and more strongly by Monet (1840-1926), whose series paintings such as the Rouen Cathedral and Venice paintings I find particularly interesting, and who got me interested in optical color mixing effects, an area in which I am still doing research.

When I lived on the east coast of North America I visited Toronto and saw the work of the Canadian Group of Seven, including the work of Franklin Carmichael (1890-1945). A.Y.Jackson (1982-1974), Arthur Lismer (1885-1969), Lawren Harris (1885-1970). This work left a great impression on me because it so strongly communicated to me the emotional feeling of the northern Canadian and cold and forbidding arctic landscape that I had not seen personally: showing me how a painting really could communicate an incredibly strong feeling and emotion, the poetry I referred to earlier that I think is so important in a painting.

When I moved to California in the early 90's, I was introduced and enthralled by the work of the California Impressionists. I loved the color harmonies of the work of Franz Bischoff (1864-1929), Edgar Payne (1882-1947), and in particular William Ritschel (1864-1949) who together with one of my other teachers and friend Ovanes Berberian have opened my eyes up to the possibilities of color. Ritschel was a great inspiration because he lived in Carmel Highlands on the Big Sur coast of California where I painted for many years.

We both saw the same incredible scene time and time again of the sun's iridescent glowing through the fog of the Californian coast in the late evening hours. It took me 10 years to be able to get anywhere close to being able capture that effect in a painting, and the more I studied Ritschel's work the more I realized what a true master he was. Seeing the beauty and sophistication of the color harmonies that these artists  created has made me see color in a way I had never seen previously. All of a sudden I was evaluating paintings, including my own, against a whole new level.

Much of this eye opening experience was due to working with Ovanes Berberian (b. 1951), initially my teacher and now my good friend, and seeing the small plein air sketches with exquisite color harmonies that he so effortlessly produces. Ovanes studied with Sergei Bongart (1918-1985) who taught, or at least heavily influenced, a large number of the contemporary American painters who have strong sense of color and good bravura brushwork.

Following this revelation I became acquainted with the work of the Russian Impressionists such as Fedor Zhakarov (b. 1919), Sergey and Alexei Tkachev (b. 1922 and 1925), Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939), Abram Arkhipov (1862-1930), Igor Grabar (1871-1960), Vladimir Gavrilov (1923-1970), Vladimir Stozharov (1926-1973), and the contemporary painter Bato Dugarzhapov (b. 1966), one of the best color painters I have seen using an optical color mixing approach. His color is more sophisticated and interesting than Monet's.

There are a number of other even better Russian paintings that I have seen but I couldn't translate their names into English, partly because I saw many of them in a Chinese museum show and the Russian was translated phonetically into Chinese making it impossible for me to translate! All of these painters show a very sophisticated use of color. I also came to admire the earlier Russian painters called the Itinerants whose work, though not as advanced in my eyes from a color point of view, from all other points of view are some of the best paintings I have seen.

The painters whose work I admire the most in this group include Isaak Levitan (1860-1900), Valentin Serov (1865-1911), Abram Arkhipov (1862-1930) and Ilya Yefimovich Repin 1844-1930). Russian painting reached a level that in my opinion surpassed most of the French Impressionists, and has not yet been surpassed.

My other more recent influence has been the art of the Chinese with their incredibly beautiful brushwork, initially sparked by my studies with Jove Wang (b. 1962). Jove and the master Chinese painters taught me the importance of brushwork, and how it contributed so much to the 'musical' quality of a painting, further raising the bar on the evaluation of my own work and that of others. Finally, but not least, two of my favorite painters from an earlier century, Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923) and John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) who were two of the greatest painters ever. Sorolla had everything: color, composition, brushwork and that elusive 'poetry'. Sargent was the same, maybe not so sophisticated in his color or so varied in his brushwork, but creating incredible compositions with a tremendous control in his use of edges and values.

My view of painting now is very different from where I started as a professional painter and I now see things in paintings that I never saw before. The downside is that once you have seen that these things are possible you are never satisfied with your own work!

Barry John Raybould, April 2010, La Serra di Lerici, Italy.