Jean Burman

“Lost yesterday… somewhere between Sunrise and Sunset… two golden hours… each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered… for they are gone forever.” - Horace Mann

“Time Was” watercolour 22″ x 30″ on Arches 640gsm

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

[This was my grandma's watch... given to her by my grandfather on the occasion of their wedding in 1910 - she was just 17 - the bar at the top was originally her wedding band keeper. The story goes that when his mother saw how small the ring was (that he was about to give the young Ivy)... she remarked... "George, the girl who wears this ring will never be able to work". His reply was "Mother, the girl who wears this ring will never have to work". In an ironic twist... she was to become a strong and resourceful pioneering wife in the early days of last century... and went on to have nine children!]

We don’t often give much thought to “last times”.

Life is so full of “life” and the busy day-to-day living of it… that we are often lulled into the thought… the idea… that life as we know it will go on in exactly the same way as we have always known it to.

We imagine that our children will stay young… and our parents won’t grow old… or that even we for that matter…won’t grow old. But that of course…is not true. Time moves relentlessly on… and in the space of what seems like just a few heartbeats… the moments of our life have conspired together to make up a whole lifetime. The precious memories that each moment held… are now simply just that…“memories”.

We reflect upon our children’s lives and realise with a jolt that we can’t even remember the very last time we held that little hand to cross the road…or gathered them up into our arms to comfort them after a fall. We no longer hear the passing whisper of a parents voice… or the lingering conversations around the kitchen table. Those moments stole quietly away from us one insignificant day…and we can’t remember exactly when. Last times have a habit of doing that.

It is only afterwards that we realise the time has passed…and that one last time moment is gone forever. We missed it… not only because we didn’t know it was coming… but also because… we had to lose it to know it was gone!

Life’s short… eat dessert first!

Drink coffee often!

It’s been a busy week. Last Wednesday I conducted a watercolour workshop for the local Art Society in a small country town not far from here. I had put quite a bit of thought into what I would try to impart to the group in the 2 and a half hour timeslot allowed.

Watercolour 5″ x 7″ on Arches cold pressed (medium)

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

2 and a half hours is not very long… especially when it comes to the difficult and challenging… but completely “delightful”… medium of watercolour! A further challenge for me was the rather large group’s mixed level of experience with the watercolour medium. Although many were accomplished artists in other mediums… only some were accomplished watercolour artists (but interested in learning something new). Some had dabbled in the past (with mixed results)… and some had never painted in watercolour before.

So… as you can see… the challenge was to come up with a way to keep the interest of the experienced artists… whilst trying not to bamboozle the rest! Among those who had dabbled with it… there were many pre-conceived ideas and notions about watercolour… and many had been disappointed by their results in the past.

Clearly… my first job was to restore faith in the medium… and to try to convey the sense of joy that lives and breathes in watercolour… and the best way I knew how to do that was to introduce the concept of “no rules”. It’s quite strange and wonderful what can happen when the spectre of rules and regulations are lifted from us… suddenly anything seems possible!

Watercolour 5″ x 7″ on Arches cold pressed (medium)

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

And so… to the strains of inspirational Mozart… I began with a favourite Skip Lawrence quote…

“There are no rules in watercolour… only consequences” (Skip actually said “There are no rules in ART… only consequences” but hey… I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded… and may have even approved of the aberration!)

This one action alone gave everyone permission to “relax”… and just go with the f~l~o~w! And so… with an audible sigh… (and a collective giggle)… there was a palpable shift in the atmosphere… and we were underway!

I had decided earlier (for speed and efficacy) we would work in small format (postcard size)… 5″ x 7″… on four different types of paper. Cold pressed medium… cold pressed rough… hot pressed smooth… and for good measure… and in the spirit of “no rules” a piece of canvas textured acrylic paper.

Watercolour 5″ x 7 “on canvas textured acrylic paper

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

This deviation from the norm drew initial resistance from the “experienced” ranks… but soon everyone had relaxed into the spirit of the experiment. The approach was to be loose and free in the early stages… using “flung” masking fluid and candle wax marks initially… and then randomly wetting the paper leaving plenty of gaps of dry paper (for vitality in the finished work).

We then proceeded to drop in… from the end of a large dangling brush… a juicy mixture of various transparent pigments. I explained how by using transparent pigments only… it didn’t matter how many colours we put down… it would be impossible to create the dreaded “mud”. We then threw ground salt onto the washes and waited.

Watercolour 5″ x 7″ on canvas textured acrylic paper

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

It’s always fascinating to watch the chemical changes that occur between the salt and the various pigments as the paper dries. Even more interesting to add the heat of a hairdryer to push the paint around as we sped up the drying process. (We only had 2 and a half hours remember - grin)

After the paper was dry the fun began… as we looked at the paper and tried to figure out what we could make of it! This was where the imagination came in… to find a subject within the confines of a 5″ x 7″ piece of paper with random swirls and marks on it… and then draw and tease out the subject using negative painting techniques and accentuating marks and brush strokes. It was nothing short of amazing as I made my way around the room… to see what each one had read into it... and made out of it!

Watercolour 5″ x 7″ on Arches hot pressed (smooth)

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

I am now more convinced than ever that there is “always” something new under the sun… and that despite having the same materials and the exact same set of criteria… each artist will almost always come up with something that is inately individual… and unique to them.

Watercolour 5″ x 7″ on Arches cold pressed (medium)

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

I believe also… too much is made of the watercolour medium… and there are too many rules and regulations (spooky do’s and do not’s) attached to adhering to the time honoured techniques. Sure… there will be problems if you don’t follow some sort of process… but on the other hand… much fun and excitement will be missed out on… if the medium is not played with and exploited to it’s full potential.

I can’t think of one single better way to learn what to do (and more importantly… what not to do) than to take a fully laden brush and and a piece of good quality paper… and just run away with it!

What fun!

Watercolour 7″ x 5″ on Arches cold pressed (rough)

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

I attended an exhibition opening many years ago… which featured the works of several abstract artists… none of whose names (oddly) I can now recall. I do however largely recall the artworks… and remember being totally gobsmacked at the absurdity of the titles… (if not the artwork itself)

“Drawing the Line”

artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

“Red with black stripe”…I remember… described the work perfectly! As I stood in wonder at the base of the outsized… overworked panel of yes… you guessed it… flat red paint with single black stripe… I couldn’t help but wonder “what on earth is that all about?” And then… almost as soon as it had entered it… the question passed from my mind in such an indecently short amount of time that I almost forgot what it was that I was there for. I stumbled onto the next one… searching searching all the time searching… in an ever increasingly eager quest for some form of greater meaning.

So what exactly IS abstract art?

Abstract art… (also known as non-representational or non-objective art) as it is now generally accepted and understood… is art which does not represent objects in the real world. It relies almost entirely upon colour and form… offered in a non-representational way to describe the subject… which is naturally… (or unnaturally)… abstract in thought, deed, and action. Huh? Okay… shall we start that again?

Andrew’s Abstract breakfast ketchup- photograph testing macro lens (grin)
Copyright Andrew 2007

Abstract art is art that doesn’t look like anything at all… well… anything “recognizable” to the naked eye anyway.

In other words… it’s a cow… but we have to be told it’s a cow… because it really doesn’t look like a cow… or anything else really either!

Abstract art should not be confused with contemporary art… which is art that does represent objects in the natural world… but not necessarily in a way we are entirely familiar with!

So… it’s a cow… but it’s dioxazine purple… and it has a giant sap green udder… and it is waiting patiently at the outsized cadmium red door to the quinacridone gold coloured cheese factory. It’s standing knee deep in some indescribably smelly burnt umber brown madder… oops… matter… on a rapidly waning cerulean blue moon. How do we know it’s a cow? Because it looks like a cow even though it’s purple and all those things… and we know it’s a cow because… um… well… just because we do! So stop asking ridiculous questions.

Abstract art is the direct opposite to Representational art. It is art which “represents” something. It looks like… um… exactly what it is.

It’s a cow and it looks like a cow… it may be a little boring and perhaps a tad unimaginative… but it’s definitely… unmistakeably a cow.

Andrew’s Abstract Breakfast Toast (grin)
Copyright Andrew 2007

So now we know what it is… how do we go about viewing it… and making it?

As a viewer of abstract art we should probably ask the following questions:

1. Am I trying to make something out of nothing?

2. I can’t see it… but can I feel it?

3. Does the title help me understand it better?

4. Have I given it my best shot?

As a maker of abstract art we could probably ask very similar questions:

1. Am I trying to make something out of nothing?

2. I can’t see it… so who the hell else will be able to? (the artist however always feels it)

3. The title must be of no help at all… what is art if it is not mysterious?

4. Have I given it my best shot? Sure… I threw the paint didn’t I? … it stuck… it works… and if not… do I care?

Naaaahhh!

You may glean from this that I am not a lover of abstract art… but all jokes aside… as my level of appreciation for all art grows… abstract art has finally won a very special place in my heart. It does however need to meet the criteria for all good art… and that is… it must have that certain je ne c’est quoi. It must engage us with an intangible excitement. The brushwork must be dextrous and the execution “painterly”. The composition must be flawless and meet the time honoured criteria for all pleasing works of art.

Axis Mundi - Copyright Pauline Jones 1999

(Isn’t it fabulous?)

So… contrary to (some) popular opinion… it’s not about grabbing a board and throwing a bucket of paint at it. I would even go so far as to suggest that remarks like… “any four year old child could do that” seem somewhat ignorant and out of place and totally unwarranted in the world of accomplished abstract art.

So… if the devil is in the detail… all that is left for us to do… is to develop a healthy appreciation for the genre… taking each one as it comes… and judging it on it’s individual merit.

It was a particularly “sparkling” July morning. The sleepy red sun had risen earlier over a languid blue sea… and by mid morning… I found myself standing knee deep in the cool, clear shallows of the lagoon which had formed along the beach. The lagoon had not been there long… perhaps only a few short weeks or months. I marvelled at the changes since my last visit.

Botticelli Sea Garden - Copyright Jean Burman 2007

The beach changes frequently here… the sand shifting in response to the tide. With it’s incessant swirling and circling… the sea forms the sand into bars and creates pools along the beach where once there was none… and where all manner of marine creatures now exist. How they know when to come… and (more importantly) when to go… I have no idea… but I suppose there will always be those who are lost in the ever changing transition between the sea and the shore.

As I stood knee deep in silent contemplation…scanning the horizon and breathing in the fresh beginnings of the day… I felt a rather strange sensation beneath my feet. I looked down… standing perfectly still so as not to disturb the water in order to see… and was all at once amazed and horrified at what I saw. Beneath my feet… and beyond… for as far as the eye could see… were millions and millions of tiny starfish! No bigger than the palm of a child’s hand… they lay scattered like precious jewels flung into the sea… stretching far and away across the sandy bottom.

As I stood there unable to move a muscle… and fearing to take a step should I inadvertently step on one… I marvelled at the fact that I had not noticed them upon entering the pool… as their small, flat, half buried shapes lay silently on the sandy bottom in perfect camouflage with their surroundings.

What to do… should I go… or should I stay? Common sense finally dictated that I couldn’t stay there forever… so with great trepidation and by placing my feet with very great care… I picked my way out of the pool as carefully as I could. It occurred to me afterward that perhaps I needn’t have been quite so concerned as, on occasion, when my foot inadvertently encountered one buried deep in the sand… the starfish slipped effortlessly to safety from beneath the weight. Nature has it’s way.

Back on the beach… the warm sand between my toes… I contemplated the miracle of what I had just seen. From this distance the lagoon pool was motionless… and gave no hint at the tiny miracles that lay beneath. From a distance… this was just another day in paradise… but for me… I knew it was something very much more than that.

The Starfish - attributed to Loren Eisley

Once upon a time there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to write. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore. As he looked down the beach, he saw a man dancing on the sand. He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day, so he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw he was only a young man, and he wasn’t dancing. Instead, he was reaching down and picking something up, and gently throwing it into the ocean. As he got closer he called out “Good morning! what are you doing?”

The young man paused, looked up and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean…the sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don’t throw them in they’ll die.”

The wise man then remarked “But young man don’t you realise that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can’t possibly make a difference!” The young man listened politely, then bent down and picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea.

“It made a difference to that one” he said.

“Nothing is more dangerous than an IDEA… when it is the only one you have” - Emile Chartier (1868 - 1951)

Artwork & content Copyright Jean Burman 2007

I awoke the other morning pondering the nature of ideas. I was struck by the rather odd realisation that the “idea” really is quite a wondrous thing! It fills the void where… in the moment before we had it (the idea… the epiphany)… there was nothing… absolutely nothing… then as if by magic… there was something… an “idea“.

The toughest question has always been… “How do you get your ideas?” How do you answer that? It’s like asking runners how they run, or singers how they sing. They just do it! - Lynn Johnston (1947 - ) from Lynn on Ideas

Ideas seem to come from nowhere.

They are sometimes triggered by sight, sound, smell, touch, or memory. Other times they just land there unannounced… or settle into our consciousness without our knowing… and manifest themselves by stealth into our current project!

When I am… as it were… completely myself… entirely alone and of good cheer - say travelling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep - it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. When and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them… - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Ideas are often transient.

They may come… (and just as quickly go if we are not very careful). I can’t tell you the number of times I have arrogantly expected the momentary flash of an idea to remain suspended in time until I had the chance to record it… (such audacity!)

“But” I have argued in vain… “in that moment… the idea had such clarity and self assuredness! ”

But alas… in the dark of night (or sometime in the early hours)… I was lured into a sleepy complacency with assurances that the idea would never, ever be lost! But in the cold hard light of day this is rarely… if EVER… the case. How easily the idea is lost… along with the moment in which it was conceived… never to be recalled again with the same quintessence!

Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down - Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869)

Surely we may take heart then… in the knowledge that others have walked this path before us. Though one can’t help but wonder with sadness what genius, masterpieces or manuscripts, have slipped surreptitiously from the minds of their creators soon after the moment of their conception… never to be seen or heard from again! - (grin)

Ideas should be authentic and original.

But how can we be sure that the ideas we have are really ours in the first place… and not derived from the unintentional influence of other people’s ideas?

Marie Antoinette probably had it in a nutshell when she remarked…”There is nothing new which has not been forgotten” - (1755 - 1793)

But does it really matter? Our ideas… once filtered through the fine seive of our own perception and subjected to our own unique interpretation are apt to have some aspect of originality in them… no matter how often the theme or concept has been repeated or re-worked.

And it may well be that in the re-working of an idea… the fundamental genius of another original idea or thought is exposed! The fact that an idea cannot be subjected to copyright seems to bear testament to this notion!

Dare to be different.

I said to myself… I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me… shapes and ideas so near to me… so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down. I decided to start anew… to strip away what I had been taught - Georgia O’Keefe (1887 - 1986

And so…having warmed to the idea… we must now gather the courage and strength we need to “turn our collar to the wind”… and bring our good ideas into action. But this may not be as simple as it sounds. Bringing our ideas to the table in the school of orthodox thought and conventional wisdom has never been an easy task. But a new idea… an audacious idea… an idea that simply refuses to accept the status quo and demands that we view it from a totally different perspective… is (historically) more often than not met with complete resistance.

I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I am frightened of the old ones - John Milton Cage Jr. (1912 - 1992)

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many - Benedictus de Spinoza (1632 - 1677)

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

And so it would seem…we would be in very great company indeed… should we ever decide to break free from the shackles and fully investigate the good and authentic ideas that we have… exploiting them for all they are worth… and delivering them up to a savage (errr sorry… savouring) audience.

The rewards have been great for those who could stomach the resistance… and the acceptance has surely come… albeit posthumously… once they were all long dead and gone! (((chuckles)))