Many months back, I wrote a short post about creativity (Two Takes). Below, I reprise that and apply it to my recent painting process.

Scientist using painting metaphor:

Enrico Coen, in a fascinating book called The Art of Genes, tackles the question: How do biological organisms make themselves? He considers and rejects the idea that there is a set of instructions encoded in the genes that serve as the blueprint for the creation of the organism. In setting the stage for a different understanding of how organisms are created, he uses the example of how a painter creates.

“If you ever watch someone lost in the act of painting, they are always looking with great intensity, reacting to what is before them. Each action produces a reaction which is in turn followed by another action. … As more marks are made, the effects are compounded, accumulating so that a whole history of brush strokes starts to influence the next one.” Coen, E. The Art of Genes Oxford: Oxford University Press (2000) print pg 13.

Art Historian using scientific metaphor:

It seems that the fields of art and science are unified (on some fronts, at least) in the consideration of creativity. Ernst Gombrich, noted art historian makes the following comments about creativity:

“In a way, perhaps, we always control and adjust our movements by observing their effects, similar to those self-regulating mechanisms that engineers call ‘feedback.’ … [B]ut not even the most skillful artist should claim to be able to plan a single stroke with the pen in all its details. What he can do is adjust the subsequent stroke to the effect observed tin the previous one…”  Gombrich, E. H. Art and Illusion Pantheon Books (1959)

Tracing the thought process connecting my recent series of watercolor studies:

I can trace intellectual provenance of today’s watercolor sketch to one I did a week or so ago (Wireless?). I wanted to replicate the form of the greens and blues of this study without any subject in the foreground. This resulted in the sketch: Just Background.

‘Just Background’ reminded me of a body of water in which there might be animal life. This led to the sketch, Koi Polloi. The comma-shaped fish led me to the intended theme for my next composition: Yin and Yang. Technical problems (read mistakes) happened and my Yin Yang composition became my Blue Rainbow and Tornado, based on the visual feedback and my mood at the time. I started another picture of a tornado for my granddaughter (who loves weather).

Today’s watercolor experiment:

Still in the ‘tornado’ mode, I began today’s study with a pencil sketch of a series of circles that was meant to be the backbone of a tornado-like painting. I used the wet-on-dry technique for most of this painting. Beginning at the top right of the frame, I painted an arc of permanent mauve and blended it with a parallel arc of quinacridone purple. Working my way around my palette, I used French ultramarine to form an adjacent, nearly circular shape abutting the purple one.

Leaving the right side to dry, I painted a cadmium orange comma shape, with an interlocking Aureolin yellow shape (a successful yin yang symbol). I had intended to continue building up circular shapes with eventual connection to the blue tornado shapes on the right hand side of the page. However, instead of a connection, I ended up with two interlocking tornados, one right side up and the other upside down. I finished off this sketch by trying to darken the inside of the funnel on the right side.

Sometimes the ideas are better than the execution.

Yin Yang after all:

The interlocking tornado shapes serve as a visual Yin Yang – the concept that eluded my skills a couple of days ago. However, as a personal note, there is another Yin Yang at work here. The memory popped into my head as I was painting.

Many years ago, my older autistic brother had a toy that consisted of brightly-colored plastic rings, which he was supposed to place on a spindle. The larger ones were at the bottom, and the small ones at the top. Mike never got the hang of this. The graduated, brightly colored shapes on the left side of the composition reminded me of this toy. It is fitting that it should be juxtaposed with a dark, more ominous , more tornadoey looking shape. Yin Yang: bright-dark, bright promise-broken heart.