The Painting Matters – Not the Reality
If you want to convey fact, this can only ever be done through a form of distortion. You must distort to transform what is called appearance into image. (Francis Bacon)
Recently I was at an art exhibit and one of the guests commented on the featured painting of a streetscape: “That corner doesn’t really look like that. The building is too close to the street.”
He was absolutely correct – but was he absolutely ‘right’ in saying that? A painting is not a photograph even though in some paintings of realism a feather may appear to float out from the canvas. The composition of a painting is the synthesis of the artist’s experience. He/she has necessarily edited extraneous detail and reconfigured placement in order to make a statement that is readily understood by the viewer.
Even the idea of scale from a real life building to the confines of a canvas has distorted ‘reality’. What we are looking at is a symbol. Just as the word ‘book’ is the symbol of the object that we pick up and read.
In the painting now in the Nano Gallery, “The Gooderham Building”, artist Tony Batten has distorted ‘reality’ of the stark city scape of Toronto to create an image of humanity bustling about within the parenthesis of warm terra cotta brick of the Victorian foundations of our modern city. His image – created – is of the warmth, familiarity and humble activities of everyday life near the St. Lawrence Market.
At a time when all of life is towering over us – skyscrapers, information, stresses and demands, this painting tells us we are still very much human in our simple pursuits.
About Marilyn
We believe that living with original art of quality is intrinsic to a good life - well lived! Like music, or the touch of one who loves us, it transforms our every day experience.
Marilyn Harding is an Art Liaison promoting the visual arts as necessary components to balanced and joyful living. mhArt does this through strategic partnerships, special exhibits, symposia, blog, social media and internet marketing. mhArt creates collaborations in order to invigorate the relationship between artist and collector. We select acclaimed and adjudicated Canadian artists whose mastery of their craft is proven and introduce them to the discerning collector.
Marilyn Harding
is the director of
ArtemisAllianceInc.Com: Strategic Alliances in the Business of Arts and Letters,
mhArt.Ca: Creating Relationships in Art
LightBeam.Org: Conscious Choices for Living Well;
ExhilartedLife.Com: Travels with My Heart and Soul
and
SilverArrowPublishing.Com: Bringing Beautiful Books to Life!
a member of
The Arts & Letters Club, Toronto, and
Women's Art Association, Canada (WAAC).
and a contributing author to BlogCritics.Org and RebelleSociety.Com
Marilyn Harding is a seasoned and award winning executive marketing strategist and effective communicator with more than twenty years experience. Currently, she writes on holistic business principles and ethics, art, travel and philosophy. A zealous student of life, Marilyn continues to hone her skills in internet marketing and strategic alliances.
Devoted to the life path of personal mastery, Marilyn lives in the spirit of holism and conducts her life with the goal to augment vibrant and open hearted access to living a superlative life in creativity, wellness, spirituality, productivity, and accountability as citizens of the world no matter what our role.
