Recently
in viewing, via the internet, artworks of an old school friend who I consider
one of Western Australia’s most interesting artists, a beautiful restful
sensation manifested itself through the way he had applied acrylic inks onto
watercolour paper. This sensation prompted me to research the concept of beauty.
The
research was conducted via the internet and soon after I came across a review
in The Guardian newspaper by Graham Farmelo on the Nobel prizewinning
American theoretical physicist’s book titled: In A Beautiful Question:
Finding Nature’s Deep Design by Frank Wilczek (please see link at the
bottom of page.)
In the
book Wilzcek asks “Is the world a work of art?” It’s a very
interesting question indeed and, as I know very little about physics, I
followed Wilzeck,s video on YouTube. Entitled: A Beautiful Question
| Frank Wilczek | Talks at Google, in very understandable plain speak, he presents
some amazing examples of beauty with its associations with symmetry.
During my career as a painter over four decades and in painting across three different seas in the northern and southern hemispheres (being the Indian/Pacific oceans and the inland Seto Sea of Japan) whilst observing their natural states along with physics in action and painting these memories in studio praxis, I can say yes, they’re beautiful.
Beauty
within fine arts and crafts and its
association with physics is the future of art and has been so for many epochs
as witnessed in our aesthetic histories and what is so wonderful is its apparent
universal application and appreciation by all races and creeds of peoples
But
there are some who don’t like beauty as in the case of Pablo Picasso as Graham
Farmelo points out in his review;
I am
not sure that Wilczek’s line of argument in this book would have been
appreciated, for example, by Picasso, who remarked in the late 1940s: “I hate that aesthetic game
of the eye and the mind, played by these connoisseurs, these mandarins who
‘appreciate’ beauty.” There is “no such thing” as beauty, he added, apparently
not knowing that the world’s leading theoretical physicists had long perceived
it in abundance. And, as this book demonstrates, they still do
On
this blog is a small selection of my paintings over twenty years in various
weathers across three seas - please enjoy.
studio praxis
oil on MDF
11 cm h x 25 cm w
Note: The concept behind these paintings
from one of my catalogues
In 1996, whilst painting with William Coldstream’s dogmatic creed of measured exactitude, essentially related to getting things in their right place according to the traditions of objective painting, a significant problem emerged. This involved the realisation that the light shifted across the motif. Hence the shadows grew longer and the hue and tones darker with the setting of the sun, thus casting doubt on the theory. I decided to test objectivity by deliberately painting across time by chasing the light, weathers and seasons as they occurred from memory (vision). For instance, one trace of oil paint could exhibit morning, another midday or evening in order to capture the traces of time on the canvas.
In the aforementioned artworks, within this blog, I have used the above painting concepts with differing painting systems in acrylic or oil on wood/canvas and the resultant images contain the poetry of light/the colour of time.
Peter Davidson
YouTube in video titled: A Beautiful Question | Frank Wilczek | Talks at Google
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/01/a-beautiful-question-natures-deep-design-frank-wilczek-review
