CHAPTER XXII: REPRESENTATION
Although much has been said about the theoretical and abstract side of
painting, and the important to the aesthetic elements in art have been
insisted upon, and is not to be supposed for a moment that painting
does not deal with actual things. All painting which is not purely
conventional must deal with and represent nature and actual facts. These
are the body of the picture; the aesthetic elements are the heart of it. I
believe that is important that you should know that there is that side of
painting, and should have some insight into it; that you should see that
there is something else to think of than the imitation of natural objects.
I would have you think more nobly of painting than to believe that “the
greatest imitation is the greatest art.” Beneath imitation of the obvious
facts and truths, and in and through these may you express those
qualities of intellectual creation by means of which only, painting is not
a craft, but an art.
But for all that, painting does, and always must, deal with those obvious fact; and
however much you may give your mind to the problems of composition and color, you
must base it on foundation of ability to represent what you see. Represent well the
external objects, and you are in a position to interpret the spirit of them. For as nature
only manifests her inner spirit through her outward forms and facts, you must be able to
paint these well before you can do anything else. Intellectual action which perceives and
constructs is the art, the skill which represents and reproduces is the science, of
painting.
Painting is the art of expression in color. The fact of color rather than form is the
fundamental characteristic of it. The use of pigment rather than other materials is
implied in its name.
Therefore the science of painting deals with the materials with which to produce on
canvas all manner of visible color combinations; and those processes of manipulation
which make possible the representation of all the facts of color and light, of substance
and texture, through which nature manifest herself.
Is not enough to have the pigment, nor even that it should get it itself onto the canvas.
Different characteristics call for different management of painting. Luminosity of light
and somberness of shadow will not be expressed by the same color, put on in the same
way. Different forms and surfaces and objects demand different treatment. The science
of painting must deal with all these.