Exercise from the 2008 workshop – Taking a Line for a Walk
Copyright Peter Griffen 2008
“I believe that to make discoveries, risks must be taken, the traveller must get lost.
A well planned journey can only lead to an already known destination.
At some stage the painting must go out of control.
From chaos the universe was formed.
The artist enters chaos and by taking control, synthesising and simplifying, new images are discovered – images that are potent and speak from the past.” – Peter Griffen – Manifesto
In a week that delivered more than the usual number of serendipitous occurrences… here is but one!
Last week my mail server died and I was without emails for a few days. For me… that is nigh on catastrophic… as I do seem to receive an inordinate amount. Consequently… when the glitch was finally ironed out… in excess of 80 emails poured in all at once from all over the place… and I spent the better part of Monday sorting them all out!
Amongst the important ones was an email from renowned Sydney artist Peter Griffen… whose workshop you might remember I participated in… and reported on… at last year’s ArtEscape. A few weeks ago I bumped into Peter again at this year’s event [yes... it's been a whole year!] and asked him if he would consent to an interview on the Blog. The email as it turned out contained his ‘considered’ responses to the interview questions along with the heads up about his upcoming appearance on ABC TV’s Landline going to air on SUNDAY… which featured his recent [so cool to be there] workshop in Birdsville… outback Central Queensland.
As I sat there reading the email on MONDAY… realising I had already missed the program… the phone rang. It was a non-artist friend of mine. She asked me if I had ever heard of the artist Peter Griffen. I said I had… and that coincidentally… I was reading an email from him as we spoke. She then told me that she’d watched Landline on Sunday and had thought how much I would have enjoyed seeing it… and that in case I had [in fact] missed it… she was ringing to tell me the program was being aired again on Monday night.
[Insert spooky x-files music here]
Funny how life is [lately] kinda like that. And I’m loving it.
You can view the ABC episode here… [take a look - you won't regret it - Peter delivers one of the most instructive and entertaining workshops on the planet - and well worth it - even if you have to travel all the way to Birdsville to catch up with him!]
Anyhow… without further ado… here is the Interview.
When did you first realize you were an artist?
Over a very long period of time I got used to the fact that I was gradually changing from being a high school teacher to being an artist. I suggest that it happened during the period 1972 [when I first exhibited a painting] to 1986, when I finished my four years at art school.
What artists have influenced you and why?
Australian artists
Fred Williams for landscape and colour
Guy Warren
Sidney Nolan
and Arthur Boyd for lyrical stories in the landscape
Arthur Streeton
and Tom Roberts for atmospheric landscapes.
The New York school for abstract expressionism
St Ives artists for abstracting the landscape
The Fauves for wild colour
The Russian constructivists for highly ordered pure abstraction
The German expressionists for aggressive freedom
The CoBrA group for painting from primeval instinct
Cezanne for structure
Picasso
Miro
and Klee for imagination
Matisse for wisdom
Vermeer for attention to detail
Rembrandt for a bench mark
Pierro della Francesco for spiritual intimacy
Boticello for simple beauty
Anselm Kiefer for raw bold honest statements
and there are more that I cannot think of at the moment.
What inspires you?
The Australian landscape, the deserts and the Kimberley mainly. Also estuaries, rivers, headlands, colours in the landscape and man’s interaction with the land.
How do you stay motivated?
I love painting and everything else is an interruption.
Do you consider your work to be evolving?
Yes, always, but themes started several years ago are continued or revisited.
Advice for the struggling artist?
Join the club, anybody who is any good always struggles, and if you find that you don’t have to struggle then it is time to stop.
Aspirations for the future?
To keep painting better.
Funniest thing in my career?
I have experienced a lot of good luck which I am happy about but that’s not funny is it?
I will give this question more thought.
INTERVIEW ENDS
Thanks Peter for being such a good sport and taking the time to compile your responses for us here!
Peter Griffen’s artworks can be viewed online at his website www.petergriffen.com
Take care everyone… until next week…
and remember [in art as in life] to… be there or be square! (((chuckles)))
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Thanks, Jean, for the thoughts, the interview, the link, and the look at Peter Griffen’s wonderful work. I’m not easily a big fan of abstract art. Too much, if not most, of it seems to me like decoration, pretty but without substance. I veered away from it as a youth fior the same reason I veered away from modernist poetry, it seemed to easy. But I go crazy for the great ones, Pollock, DeKoonig, Kline, et al. And Griffen has a place with those guys.
I was once at the Getty (10 minutes from my house) standing in awe in front of a very large Pollock. A man and his young daughter, perhaps 8 or so, were strolling by and the father was dissing the painting with the usual foolishness, “they call that nonsense art,” etc. I excused myself and asked him if he’d mind my talking with them about the Pollock. The man was very pleasant and agreed to my intrusion. I told him about Pollock’s classical training, and about the compositional elements that held together what looked to him like arbitrary splatter. And I pointed out the fact that no one can imitate a Pollock, thereby proving his uniqueness. The man thanked me warmly, and turned to his daughter saying, “did you get all that?”
BTW, Jean, I went to view the video clip but got only the soundtrack, no picture.
Hi John
Thanks for that. I’ll look into whatever potential problem might be lurking there. It works fine for me… but I’d like to hear from anyone else who’s having a problem viewing the clip? Please?
It’s such a great film clip I would be very disappointed if you all can’t see it!
John… that’s a great story about the father and daughter at the Getty. So glad you were able to encourage them to see another point of view. Since taking Peter Griffen’s workshop and immersing myself in a week of creating it… I took away a whole new appreciation for how abstraction forms the framework for all great art.
You wrote: “I took away a whole new appreciation for how abstraction forms the framework for all great art.”
Interesting way to put it, Jean. You’ve got me thinking, would it also be possible to say that all great art forms the framework for abstraction? Hmmm. Of course, it’s true that all art, starting back with prehistoric cave painting, is abstraction. Speaking of that, I once saw ancient cave painting in Zimbabwe and it was an awesome experience. The cave was reached by about a two-mile hike up rugged terrain, just a guide and my traveling companion, nobody else around. That was one of those times that I knew I had learned about art, eclipsing all my Art History classes in college.
Gosh John… now you’ve got ME thinking! LOL “Would it also be possible to say that all great art forms the framework for abstraction?” Um… I dunno… I would probably say not… but heck… who knows? [grin] I guess it’s one of those “what comes first the chicken or the egg” questions. But if the word “abstract” is taken to mean… “having an intellectual and affective artistic content that depends solely on intrinsic form rather than on narrative content or pictorial representation” then no… I guess all great art doesn’t form the framework for abstraction… because a lot of great art (most in fact) has narrative content and pictorial representation. But like I said… who knows? Surely not me. And darn it now my head hurts from thinking about it! LOL
On a lighter note… your trip into Zimbabwe sounds really fascinating. What an experience! Isn’t it strange and wonderful how life experience so easily transcends and replaces the theory of it. So often in life this is so. Don’t you reckon? I think it’s got something to do with “feeling” the experience as opposed to “remembering” it. Facts can be remembered… but remembering how we felt about it lasts forever. Oh man… there I go again! (((chuckles)))
Thanks John… you’re a stalwart support here and I love our conversations!
It’s very easy to be a “stalwart support” here, Jean, since your discussions are always engaging and thought-provoking.
Regarding abstraction, yes, I can see your point. In terms of art history and “criticism” your definition is the prevailing one. It just seemed to me that it’s easy to expand the term, if only in thinking about the “chicken and egg” aspect of it. I was intrigued by the notion of all art being an abstraction of “reality,” which is consistent with one of the many dictionary entries for the word. It’s much like with drama, where there’s a spectrum from “realism” to various levels of stylization and yet even the grittiest so-called realistic movie isn’t real-life as we know it, it’s a selection and arrangement and synthesizing of life. One could also contemplate as an exercise whether all of art is a subset of abstraction, or vice-versa, but that’s for a day when I don’t have to rush off to the school for my annual CPR renewal. [grin]
Good luck with that John. Sounds like you’d be a good man to have around in a crisis!
I totally get the co-relationship with drama. That is so right. Hadn’t thought about it like that before. Realism to stylization without any of it being really real. As for the subsets…
Actually… when you come to think about it… abstract is a really interesting word. It’s rarely used as a noun except to describe a form of art. In fact there are way more usages for the word as a verb or adjective. It’s a word that is as “abstract” in name and meaning as it is in nature… not meaning “nature proper” of course (as in trees and substantial things) … but in the way it is understood. Abstract thought for instance… which is exactly what this is…. never more so than at 6.30am in the morning with the brain already whirring even before the day begins (((LOL)))
Another big day today… more later!
I received this email from Peter Griffen the other day.
[Hi Jean,
Your blog is very good, very interesting and put together with wit and enthusiasm, well done. I am very impressed and for my part, have no problems with it [the article]
Keep up the fab work, thank you for your support and looking forward to seeing you again.
Congratulations,
Peter O<]
Cool!
Hi Jean,
Accidentally stumbled on to your blog with my interview. Good to see it again and thanks for taking the time and effort to include me in your world.
Hope you are very well and painting madly. If you are in Sydney look as up, check us out etc.
Best wishes,
Peter O<
Hi Peter! I’m SO GLAD you stumbled by! And so glad you brought me back here into the archives for a revisit.
Thanks so much for the encouragement [coming at a very good time] and the invitation to visit. Next time I’m in Sydney I will indeed look you up. Would be great to catch up.
Best wishes to you both as well…
Jean