32 Artists & IllustratorsROBERT HENRI
Attitude
“
I find nature ‘as is’ a very
wonderful romance and
no man-made concoctions
have ever beaten it either in
romance or sweetness. Everything
depends on the attitude of the
artist toward his subject. It is the
one great essential. It is on this
attitude of the artist toward his
subject that the real quality of
the picture, its significance, and
the nature and distinction of its
technique depends. If your attitude
is negligent, if you are not awake
to the possibilities you will not
see them. Nature does not reveal
herself to the negligent.”As a landscape painter, Henri’s passionate words
resonated with me. I have always been a strong
advocate of working en plein air and believe
that the sensitivity between the artist and the
landscape is the vital ingredient, if you wish to
paint with integrity.Learning how to ‘simplify’, as Henri suggests, is not
as easy as it sounds. It requires creative distillation,
extracting the most basic elements of the landscape
and organising them into a coherent whole. Great art is
not merely made by description and it isn’t enough to
go into the landscape and set up an easel. One needs
to really get ‘under the skin’ of the place, learning
something of its people, its culture and its history.Learning how to ‘simplify’, as Henri suggests, is notSimplicity
“
Try to reduce everything you see
to the utmost simplicity... The
more simply you see, the more
simply you will render. People see
too much, scatteringly. A landscape
has got to mean a great deal to
anyone before it can be painted in
any worthwhile way. It is harder to
see a landscape than to paint it. This
is true because there are lots of
clever people who can paint
anything, but lacking the seeing
power, paint nothing worth while.”LEFT: Ray Balkwill,
Refl ections, Thames
Barges, Pin Mill, mixed
media, 33x44cm
BELOW Ray Balkwill, Late
Afternoon Light, Rio de
San Barnaba, Venice, oil
on board, 25x35cm30 Ray Balkwill.indd 32 12/05/2016 10:16