Sailing the Catboat Winslow Homer
I’ve just completed an Art History Timeline for Arts In Perspective. I decided to do what I love to do best and compile it into a video.
It was a HUGE job [even though it might not look like it here] but cramming 40 thousand years of human creativity into 12.25 minutes [give or take some] is a pretty mean feat. Who to include? Who to leave out? It was a gut-wrenching decision (((chuckles))) [but it was fun as well]
And in the process I decided something.
I want to go back to the Romantics! Or maybe somewhere between that art period and the Impressionists. I see myself sailing out over the blue horizon on one of Homer’s sailing boats… or bathing in the afterglow of one of JMW Turner’s sunsets over the water. Oh man. Was that ever a time span in art history!
Take a look and see what I mean…
I want to go back to that time when the world could be seen through those eyes. To a time of grace… and simplicity. The earth was somehow purer then… the world more refined.
At least… that’s how they made it look in their paintings.
Rose coloured glasses? Yep you betcha. But who on earth in this crazy modern world would not want to join me? [grin]
But you know… then I got to thinking… what if?
What if… sometime off in the far distant future… some artist just like me looks back through history as I have just done… and longs to be exactly where I am?
Right here… right now… in this space… at this time.
These really are the best of times. And the reality is… they’re all we’ve got.
It turns out Turner’s light is everywhere… and Homer’s waves still crash in.
Art is everywhere.
All we have to do is stop and see it.
Life is what we make it eh?
[Heading off now to polish my rose coloured glasses]… (((chuckles)))
Okay now it’s your turn.
Where in time and space would you like to revisit?
Or are you already making the most of NOW?
LEAVE A NOTE… let me know what you think.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Wouldn’t it be nice to see natural surroundings before cities and farms and logging and pollution and dams and hunting etc?!
I guess I’m a bit lucky in that I do live in a relatively unscathed natural environment. Add to that a tropical climate which has the ability to rejuvenate itself in no time at all… and you’ve got a pretty special place. It is however exceedingly difficult to capture well… but people like Homer and Singer Sargent and JMW Turner have shown the way in that regard. Atmosphere is such an essential element in a painting… and their work had it in spades. I woke up thinking this morning I would like to discover more about JMW’s methods. His paintings simply glow from within. How cool is that?
Thanks for stopping by Galen… I so agree
Hi Jean,
Delightfully presented. I live in the Now, though it’s great to look back on occasion & get nostalgic.
Thankyou & be good to yourself
David
Thanks David
so agree about the NOW… though I still sometimes catch myself looking back wistfully perhaps to a gentler time and place [grin] The modern world has a lot of rough edges… but thankfully we can choose to make of it what we will. Thanks for stopping by to comment David… I appreciate it 
Very cool, Jean….I’ve been reading some John Ruskin lately and so have been kind of steeped in the Romantics since he was a fan of Turner.
One thing I wondered as I lay in my tent camping the other night – I wonder what it was like before the internal combustion engine was invented. It must have been marvelously silent!
This thought occurred to me as I was out in the country but was amazed at how the sound of cars, airplanes, and other modern vehicles was constantly in the background, at all hours of the night, audible from miles away. It’s like there’s a “hum” to our life that didn’t exist before…it would be neat to at least experience life without it for one day!
Thanks Harry
Yes I know what you mean. That constant hum that accompanies life as we now know it. I’ve been promising myself a trip out to Uluru [Ayres Rock] if only just to hear the silence of the desert [even though you don't really "hear" silence but you know what I mean LOL] and to see the stars out there. Do you think it’s possible to find perfect silence anywhere on the American continent nowadays? Maybe the Grand Canyon or somewhere like that? It’s an interesting notion isn’t it… silence. Most of us probably don’t think about it much until the day we realise we don’t have it anymore. Your camping trip sounded a bit hectic… I hope you managed to get your fellow campers sorted (((chuckles)))
Thanks for stopping by Harry… always great to hear your thoughts
wow! that was truly an art history education for me…
though in love with painting since childhood,never really took it seriously enough to actually explore much of its history and possibilities…so it was really an inspiring watch for me….
thanks so much for sharing!
as for revisiting….I do agree with Harry…. it would sure be nice to experience the stillness and space that may have existed before the “hum”
Oh I so agree Gunja
I sometimes wonder if that hum impacts on our collective health and contributes to the level of stress that most people feel these days. There’s nothing quite like silence for soothing frayed nerves but so few of us get to experience it.
Re art history. I don’t know much… but there were a few key players whose work I’ve pretty much always loved. Botticelli was probably my first love [grin]… but later I found Modigliani and became fascinated by his simple shapes and the profound presence in his work. It’s interesting that both pursued a rather flattened picture plane which is also how my work has evolved [although not intentionally] though I do wonder about the subliminal influences from the past and the choices we automatically make in creating something [that perhaps only we might] find beautiful. Making the timeline clarified a lot for me. It was an interesting exercise and although it took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to do in iMovie it was worth it I think. If nothing else it prompted me to go out and buy some better software so hopefully making this kind of stuff will be easier in the future (((chuckles)))
So lovely to hear your thoughts Gunja
I just had the great pleasure of seeing some Turners in the National Gallery – Washington DC – they took my breath away! I hadn’t seen his work up close – it was a wonderful experience. Thanks for posting this Jean!
Hey Nancy
Great to see you! They’re incredible aren’t they? I saw some of his works in the Tate Gallery in London a few years back. I was reading recently how Tasmanian artist Tony Smibert has been working in collaboration with the Tate hoping to discover Turner’s methods. What a find that will be. He certainly was onto something pretty remarkable! [grin]
Would you believe I forgot it was art history until it got to the Renaissance? Tells you something about me. But my real interest gets traction during the second half of 19th C, through today. For me, Sargent is sort of Ground Zero, the link from the past to the future – I see both in his work. Whistler, Sorolla, Lautrec,Klimt, and a handful of others…it wanes then until (primarily) the Americans (a Burman blush here!) put the pedal to the metal again with Hopper, Wyeth, Motherwell, and a number of Moderns. At present, I believe the most interesting painter is Alex Kanevsky.
Turner might be foremost among the earlier painters for me, no need to explain that, I suppose. I remember seeing Rain, Steam & Speed at the Tate long ago and being blown away by what he was doing about 100 yrs in advance. (of course they have to be seen in person) I’ve recently been having an interesting exchange with a guy who is a Turner fanatic, and he has me thinking more about him again.
A great video Jean, you should produce movies!
Hey Nick
Sorry for the delay in my reply… events are kind of taking over here at this end. No excuse I know. However… I did reply [I think] on Facebook so maybe you’ll forgive me here.
Sargent would definitely be ground zero for me… although the spontaneity of his watercolours might leave some of his more academic work [commissioned portraits and the like] in the dust. I checked out Alex Kanevsky. Interesting. Prolific too.
Thanks for the encouragement on the video… so glad you liked it. I plan to do lots more… in fact my work seems to be taking me more and more in this direction. We’ll see.
Hi Jean,
It is a very nice post and I enjoyed reading it.I live in my present and I also wish to live back in past and I find myself nostalgic when I watch old videos or pictures. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful post.
You’re welcome Waterpearls
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment!
I haven’t yet carved out a few moments to watch your videos, Jean (and I want to do them justice, which means dedicating more than just a few moments, but you’ve featured two on my short list of all-time favorites, Turner and Homer, and your thesis strikes very close to my heart. I’ll be back.
Thanks John… I appreciate that. Look forward to talking to you then. Thanks for stopping by. It’s great to see you
Very good job, Jean.
I suspect there are really two questions implied, one is what historical period one would want to live in, the other is what period “artistically” one might want to live in. I’m happy living now, though I certainly can’t claim I’m making the most of the creative opportunities it affords. I personally think the present is perhaps the best time for artists ever. Having come through the totalitarianism of abstract expressionism in the 20th century, an artist now looking to build a reputation has arguably the greatest range of stylistic possibilities that’s ever been. No single “ism” dominates, anything goes, from all kinds of conceptual art to the highly successful photorealistic work of a painter like Richard Estes.
I’m sure everyone will have their own idea of who should have been included in your compilation, Jean, and I don’t mean to imply that your choices are wanting. I would have included Velazquez alongside Rubens. (Lots of great painters had to inevitably be omitted.) To me that was the moment when painters had learned everything technical there was to know about how to create a two dimensional illusion of a three dimensional world. (I’m thinking also of the mastery of Michael Sweerts.) From that moment on it was inevitable that the horizons to explore were dictated by subject matter and style, and a personal, individual response to the world.
Sorry about all those italics, Jean. I guess I didn’t close the italics correctly after the word “artistically” (2nd paragraph, 2nd line).
It occurs to me that I’m only one degree of separation from at least two of the painters you included in the video. I knew well Thomas Hart Benton, who was Jackson Pollock’s teacher at the Art Students League. And I was friends with film director Jean Renoir, Auguste Renoir’s son, in the last years of his life–I enjoyed visiting with him and his wife Didot at their lovely French provincial-style home in Beverly Hills (where the walls were covered with original Renoir paintings and sketches).
No worries John. I love italics! [grin]
With regard to which historical period [artistically] or one in which I’d like to live… I guess none of us would readily choose to give up our technology or modern materials for anything less. I think it’s extraordinary that Turner’s actual paints [the pigments found intact in his studio] are being chemically analyzed by the Tate in London to hopefully extend the knowledge we have of his methods and materials and how he applied them to achieve such radiance in his work. I wonder that they might not have spoiled in that time… but the vials look very well sealed up… so he must have been organised as well as brilliant in his approach! LOL I’m looking forward to learning about what they find from their investigations. With regard to living in another time… you’ve known me long enough to know how I detest the hard edges of modern day life. But alas we are stuck with it. Sometimes I long for a gentler time with more good manners… but I’m dreaming if I think it’s ever going to happen LOL
How wonderful your connections with Thomas Hart Benton and Jean Renoir. As an artist yourself it’s a wonderful thing to have the influence and exposure to these great artist’s works… their knowledge and brilliance… in your early life. Not many people can say that. That’s just so special.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments John