“In Vuillard’s interior every detail however trivial, however hideous even- the pattern of the late Victorian wallpaper, the art nouveau bibelot, the Brussels carpet is seen and rendered as a living jewel: and all these jewels are harmoniously combined into a whole which is a jewel of a yet higher order of visionary intensity.” This quote is from the remarkable essay ‘Heaven and Hell’ by Aldous Huxley, published in 1954. In this part he’s referring to the great French painter Edouard Vuillard, 1868-1940. For Huxley, Vuillard’s painting is a vehicle that transports us into a heightened sense of reality, one akin to visionary or mystical experience and this experience, which one might call aesthetic rapture, is a deeply rooted need in the psyche of man. He goes on to say that this need has been the impetus for artmaking since the beginning of our species history. It transcends cultural considerations, civilized or uncivilized, colonized or fre...
Posts
Process Artmaking and the Apreciation of Beauty.
- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
updated 3/12/2025 What is process artmaking? The great painter Grace Hartigan said it simply…” I am a process artist…you start out with an idea; ideas keep coming as your creating and eventually the painting tells you what it wants.” An idea can be the impetus for the painting but is not intended to be the end point. It’s the creative process itself that gets full permission to take whatever turns it wants, often bringing the artist to a place of surprise and amazement. Some process teachers tell their students that beauty has nothing to do with this process because the intention to make something beautiful can derail the process which is after truth and not necessarily beauty. Beauty, of course is in the eye of the beholder, in my mind if a work has the ring of truth or is an authentic expression of the heart it is naturally a thing of beauty. But beauty in the traditional sense of the word is not something to be averse too either. My observations over the years in process paint...