Yes, friends, I am still here!
I've been thinking about this one for awhile and am just now finding the space and time to put it to paper, so to speak. If you enjoy it, please share it , and as always I would be interested in your feedback.
The title "The Poetry and Composition of Still Life" comes from a book I read recently in which I was introduced to a new artist, Adriaen Coorte who painted still-lifes in Middelburg, a city in the Netherlands, from 1683 to 1707. More on him later. I have long been fascinated by still-lifes and have tried, unsuccessfully, to replicate the old masters' works as an exercise in my photography development much like the original still-life paintings were made as training for painters. I say unsuccessfully because while I tend to clutter I think I've also overlooked the more important element of composition. An excellent definition calls "still-life" an arrangement which usually involves what at least a first glance appear to be every day objects, typically immovable and inanimate, but can also depict things from nature such as flowers and insects composed together to captivate the viewer and draw him or her in and force a closer look. Without the composition of the chosen objects, there is only chaos; without the atmosphere created by the complementary nature of the objects, there is no poetry.
The term I learned in digging deeper into still-lifes is "vanitas" or that which shows the transitory nature of life. The original masters of still-lifes showed wealth and abundance--referred to as breakfast or banquet paintings--or rarity. Later, artists like Cezanne and Van Gogh showed poverty and deprivation. My newest piece called Cucurbita Pepo transcends the idea of abundance or poverty, representing, rather, degeneration. Time has an effect on every living element of the earth. As the cucurbita pepo dries out, its edges curling and turning in on themselves, the colors fade and blemishes appear, the seeds separate from the meat; but the manufactured cut glass plate on which it sits has survived for over one hundred years.
I promised to get back to Adriaen Coorte. He is, to this day, not very well known but his style is distinctive. He painted small, using whatever paper, not canvas, he could afford or otherwise come by. His themes were simple such as a piece of fruit or a shell, and many if not all his works were staged on the same shelf made of stone. Never the entire shelf, often from the same or similar angle, leaving us to wonder just what lay beyond those few inches of space. Simplistic is defined as excessively simple or simplified. Coorte's work is unaffected, genuine as in free from intent to deceive or impress, rather than lacking in sophistication.
This is exactly what I'm trying to achieve with this picture.
If you're interested in learning more, check out these resources I used in writing this post:
Thunderclap, A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death, by Laura Cumming; published by Scribner, July 2024
"A New Perspective on 'Still-Life' by Sila Scheepens at https://gallerease.de/de/magazin/artikel/a-closer-look-at-the-still-life-as-an-art-form__b92b379cdd8f).
Cucurbita pepo on Wikipedia at https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita_pepo.
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