A trip to Chile: Pucón, part 2, from above

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 Pucón, oil on card, 23.5 x 28.5 cm- available

Pucón, a neighborhood, oil on card,  19.3 x 23.5 c- available

Painting from above

One enjoyable trick is to steal from medaeval art to place elevations and ground level views on the  birds eye view street plan: This can lead to enjoyable tensions.

The second picture here is very good, having a brisk energy about it.

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A trip to Chile: Pucón, part 1

Description

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Pucón 

Pucón. volcano, lake, oil on card, 23.9 x 28.7cm   AVAILABLE

Like Villarrica, Pucón is a resort town on the lake. But it is more extensive with more of an infrastructure.

I'd have preferred somewhere a bit wider in both cases, more rural. I had somehow imagined that these towns would be buried, hidden and that I'd arrive as if the first to reach for generations, but everything here is quite polished and you might even imagine yourself to be somewhere in the USA at times. I confess that I often had a feeling of unexcitement in Chile, as if the place were determined not to get under my skin.

Well, it became very hot, and it rained. 

But I worked very well, with a good rhythm. When painting goes like that life is pretty much as good as it can be.

Travel painting

One of the things about travel painting is how it forces ones critical judgments to become rapid. One has less time to find subject matter and acquaint oneself with it. And one has less time to make judgments about ones own work. 

This might lead to weaker or more conservative work- more conservative because one might be less willing to take risks. But I think for me the result is simply that I work with more energy and make better use of my time. I think there is something in the idea that if you give a man an hour to do a job, he'll take an hour, if you give him two hours to complete a job ...and so forth. Time limitations concentrate energies. 

Another thing to thnk about is how creativity is about working with that you have at hand. So a time limitation can make you far more aware of the diverse possibilities of a given set of tools, and in the case of a lanscapist, also the possibilities in any specific view.

The world is essentially an interesting place, and creative responses are not necessarily richer in dramatic locations. I would say, however, that variety is always good: a diversity of landscapes and a diversity of media with which to interpret them. But I add, at risk of contradicting myself, that some places just seem to be more inspiring than others.

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A trip to Chile: Villarrica, part 4

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Villarrica, blue river, oil on card, 24 x 28.7 cm

Villarrica, a landscape with a river, oil on card, 24 x 28.7 cm  - available

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A trip to Chile: Villarrica, part 3

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This pair from Villarrica was painted in the woods by the river-one of the few places, in the unusual heatwave, to offer shade.

The two paintings represent two stylistic approaches that I have been playing with over the last years, the former more detailed and constructed of smaller strokes, the second made from fewer, larger areas, and with much thicker strokes.

One reason for the second style is that it is a reaction to the former, which can degenerate into fussiness. The fussiness happens when the light shifts on the motif- and as a result I unconsciously start repainting various areas, and therefore the painting loses the compositional objectives it had the start. To resolve the resulting  confusions I  simplify the composition using larger brushes. 

Another reason for this style is that I am conscious that pastoral painting can easily become twee. This awareness makes me want to use a more forceful style  to prevent this from happening, and which I call the blocky style and which produces pictures that are a bit more like posters.

In contemporary art twee, or any sweetness is an anathema. This is connected to the idea that artists should participate in (and ideally lead) revolutionary movements and these have to be utterly poker-faced and cold and aggressive to achieve their objectives. There are one or two exceptions, such as Klee.

Villarrica, forest path, oil on card, 24 x 28.2 cm

Villarrica, oil on card, 28.7 x 23.7 cm  unavailable

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A trip to Chile: Villarrica, part 2

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A trip to Chile: Villarrica, part 2

Villarrica itself isn`t interesting. But it sits on the lake and has beautiful views of the volcano.

So here are two paintings of the same volcano, one right after the other, from a slight change of position. But I cant tell you which was first... 

The idea of self-consciously working in series is a recurrent theme of modern painting, linking Cezanne and Monet. For a painter, it can be very satisfactory. You resolve basic problems such as composition and can focus and more subtle factors such as light, or colour changes, and you have  a run of pictures for comparison- rather pleasing. 

Villarrica volcano no. 1, oil on card, 33.5 x 19.5 cm- unavailable

Villarrica volcano no. 2, oil on card, 34 x 19.6 cm unavailable

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A Trip to Chile: part 1; Temuco and Villarrica

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Chile

My trip was shaped like this:

Florianopolis- Santiago- Temuco - Villarrica - Pucon - Melipeuco - Valdivia - Puerto Montt - Santiago - Florianopolis

Temuco

I flew into Temuco, a somewhat nondescript town, albeit one full of curious characters, most of them seedy. The area around the bus station is especially full of such people and they sell vegetables, bric a brac and probably themselves along its urine stenching streets. I strongly recommend a visit. 

Seedy places in Chile are the only places that I've come across in Latin America where chips are sold as a snack fo you to walk away with. They are sold in a choice of minuscule bags at 700, 800, or 900 Chilean Pesos (900 fits about 15 chips, so for 700 I suppose you receive about five). The chips are oily and flaccid like mysterious body parts. You might not like them. They also sell them in Puerto Montt, which is very seedy too.

There is a very good art shop in Temuco.  

Villarrica

But the first place I did any work in was Villarrica, which isn't seedy at all. There was a heat wave so it was pleasant to work in the woods by the river. This first painting is very good. 

Villarrica, gardens viewed from the river, oil on card, 21.7 x 24.5 cm  - available

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