TALKING TECHNIQUES
One thing I stress as a teacher
is that there are no rules: it
just feels right or feels wrong
BELOW Old
Fashioned, oil on
panel, 21x15cmRIGHT Silver Bowl
with Lemons, oil on
panel, 23x15cm
A
painting by Todd M Casey
is a set of visual clues –
potent images that come
together to suggest a story, often with
the help of the title.
In Death in the Afternoon, the
eponymous cocktail sits on a wooden
table with an old-fashioned fountain
pen, a half-written letter, a pipe and a
pile of books, while in The Great
Escape a model yacht with a Union
Jack sail perches on an old wooden
box with a bottle of whiskey beside it.
There’s a strong nostalgic feel to
this work: the New York-based artist
favours dusty books, old-fashioned
scientific instruments, fountain pens
and vintage toys. They are arranged
with a keen eye for composition,
creating a sense of drama that’s
enhanced by lighting fit for a stage.
To unravel the techniques of Todd’s
work, this is where you have to begin:
not with the first brushstroke but with
the first object, the dialogue it creates
with other objects, and the ways in
which Todd’s skilled use of studio
lighting enriches this.
Todd’s CV gives some clues as
to how he came to do this so well.He credits time spent working in
graphic design at Ralph Lauren with
sharpening his eye: “A lot of what I did
there was compose,” he says. “At first
it didn’t go so well, then eventually I
learnt to balance things.”
He has studied the theory of
composition, but his approach is
mostly instinctive. “The rule of thirds
is a good place to start,” he says.
“Look at where the ‘power points’ are- where the lines [of thirds] intersect.”
While Todd will try to place his focal
point at one of those spots, he admits
that geometry and mathematics don’t
really feature strongly in his work. He
will try to dig into the feeling
associated with the subject instead
and ask himself why he finds it
aesthetically appealing or why it
speaks to him.
“Think about movement, building
asymmetry into the design rather
than making things perfectly
symmetrical,” he advises.
“Also, try to think about the
narrative quality that ties it together- juxtapose odd things together.
One thing I stress as a teacher is that
there are not really rules: it feels right
or feels wrong, and we can dig into
things we think will help get us to
the right place.”
The lighting is part of this. Todd
favours 3,000-kelvin studio lights,
arranged from multiple angles; for
every new subject, he spends time
moving them around, trying to get
the best results.
“I have tried natural light, but
studio lighting is a bit more on the
warm side – and I associate warm
paintings with life,” he says. In his
new book, The Art of Still Life, he has
included lighting as a key element of
his chapteroncomposition.