Closet Artist

I wanted to call myself 'The Weekend Artist' but deardear says that's copycat. So maybe, I will call myself a 'Closet Artist'. After almost 1 year (with long stretches of break), I finally completed this painting I titled 'Capri'. I hope the bright colours and little details of the painting truly capture the essence and beauty of this Italian seaside town/resort. This painting has been a test of my patience and skills. The dotting method looks simple enough at first glance, but it is not at all true. I experimented and tried many methods before I achieved the balance of colours, shadows and etc.

This painting brought to mind an essay I wrote for my Art&Philosphy module in NUS about 10 years ago and is in fact part of my inspiration for painting this painting in this manner. Below is an excerpt from the essay:

"A resemblance may exist between a painting and reality, but it is not to say that the artist copies reality, even when the artist captures that resemblance. Whether or not a representation does or does not resemble reality depends on the way we view a representation. How is it that blotches of ink on a two dimensional surface can be seen as a bed? Here, the mind generates visual experiences out of itself. When one sees an inkblot as a bed, an image generated by the mind is fused with the external object....

According to Gombrich, through repeated trials and errors, the artists have discovered the techniques for making paintings look life-like. When the dabs of paint and the organization of shapes and colours deceive our eyes into interpreting those sensations as the sensation of reality, we have learnt to see life-like objects in painting: we have an illusion.

When artists are confronted with the same object, with all other conditions remaining unchange, every artist will produce different looking paintings. Each will develop their unique way of representing the object..."

So now, do you feel the sun in your eye and the cool glistening water with tons of tourists walking around?? Hehe...