age old debate: disegno or colore (e.g. Michelangelo vs. Titian).

another debate: which is the essential element defining a form - its drawn shape or its color. It depends on the object. Our brains provide a structure and a simplicity in our understanding of the world around us which as a result leads to making all things recognisable by the simplest representational symbols. E.g. if a child draws the simplest form of a tree, despite coloring it read, I would say the shape rather than the color will define what it, or more correctly what we would understand it to represent. That is what I do in my paintings, a play on how the mind recognises and categorises everthing; the read tree is seen as a painting of nature, of a tree, the pink sky and etc. On the other hand if i paint a blue surface (see Blue Circle painting) and by chance use horizontal brush strokes, the mind will quickly pick it up as the sea, the horizon. I would say in this case, the element defining the object - or again more correctly what we would understand the painting to represent - is the color blue.

about the use color vs. representation of nature: 'a painter had better start from the colors on his palette than from the colors in nature', Van Gogh in freely admitting the artificiality in his art.  one color I miss is the brightest of all whites, the deadly lead white now replaced with zinc and titian white...

an early utterance about complementary colors: 'there is a certain friendship about colors so that one joined with another gives dignity and grace' Leon Battista Alberti, Della Pintura (On Painting).

Cennino Cennini Il Libro dell' Arte (The Craftsman Handbook)

Central theme of the book is the use of color described as ' the glory of the profession'.

As Gerhard Richter says: ‘there is no point in talking about painting’. And I only have a few words about my passion for colour and that life without colour would be very much meaningless and grey. According to Lucian Freud, it is the subject matter that acts as the driving force for each painter – colour drives me. Nature and landscapes are merely a source of inspiration. My fascination lies with the effect of colour and composition, and the live pulsating surfaces of paintings. I invite you to look at my work and make your own stories, albeit here through photographic reproductions.

Colors (Black)

Tree I

Date: October 2011

Size: 152 x 122 cm

form has a definite effect on color - it can nullify or strengthen the effect of color. I read Kandinsky's 'Concerning the Spiritual in Art' sometime after I painted these paintings. I had yet apparently been in accord with the color theory, namely that keen colors are well suited by sharp forms, e.g. a yellow triangle - it is hard to see from the reproduction below, but there is a sharp yellow lighthouse in the shape of a triangle towards the lower middle right hand side. And soft deep colors are suited by round forms, such as a blue circle. 

I painted the blue circle as a representation of absolute truth, life in its absolute perfect and harmonious form - a perfect circle. The below reproduction is cropped on both the left and the right sides, in reality the circle falls in the middle of the canvas, but raised, almost floating, but suspended, in a static state.

"...brief concentration will reveal in the yellow a spreading movement out from the centre, and a noticeable approach to the spectator. The blue, on the other hand, moves in upon itself, like a snail retreating into its shell, and draws away from the spectator. [W. Kandinsky]" 

The mutual influence of form and color is clear. A yellow triangle, a blue circle, a green square or a green triangle, a yellow circle etc ...

The following lines expressed by Kandinsky made me think about above painting 'yellow pink and blue':..."The eye is strongly attracted by light, clear colors, and still more strongly attracted by those colors which are warm as well as clear... Keen lemon-yellow hurst the eye in time as a prolonged and shrill trumpet note the ear, and the gaver turns away to seek relief in blue and green. ... Yellow if steadily gazed at any geometrical form, has a disturbing influence, and reveals in the color an insistent, aggressive character.". Looking at my painting, the eye is invited and rests on the pink-red left hand side, disturbed and chocked by the lemon-yellow centre which overwhelms the whole painting partly due the large surface it covers, and finally obtains releif in the deep dark blue on the right.

Colors (Black)

latest idea: write a book: an organised stream of consciousness

first day