Praia Moçambique; hackneyed subjects

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Praia Moçambique, sea, late afternoon, February 23, 

oil on card, 28 x 29.7 cm

 

 

 

 

Praia Moçambique, sea, late afternoon, February 23 - detail

 

 I believe the sunset would be more striking seen from near Santo Antonio, and I shall go there shortly.

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My old art teacher from Hazlehead Academy, Alexander Hamilton, would say, and I generally agree, that some subjects should be avoided because they have already been so often visited by other painters that an original response is impossible and one`s painting will, inevitably, be hackneyed. Usually sunsets would be included among such prohibited subjects.

But while agreeing, I admit that the pleasure of watching and capturing in paint a sunset is immense.

 Ergo, I continue...

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Rowney Victoria pencil eraser

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Rowney "Victoria" pencil eraser

  The colours of the side stripes are glorious harmonious The palette used by Rowney is reassuring. That green is lovely, calm like pine.

It's one of a huge pile of pencil erasers inherited over twenty years ago, and which have followed me through over eight apartments. Now it sits on a desk in northern Florianopolis.

I think of the qualities which I can detect most pleasurably are:

 1. the cool smoothness of the rubber (reassuring)

 2. the scent of the rubber (a little sharp)

 3. the parallelepiped shape (a wonderful word)

 4. the lovely lettering- extended Roman combines with some sort of sans serif

The Use of Rubbers

When I was at school my art teacher, Alexander Hamilton, said, with characteristic sternness, that the use of rubbers was not advisable in drawing.. He argued that a drawing is a record of a visual exploration and a thought process and that rubbers made it impossible to take advantage of these aspects of a drawing. 

Nowadays, when a high level of "finish" is so readily available using photo-shop this idea, of a record of a process, rather than a finished "product" strikes me as even more valuable.

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