Currently in Japan
and in other places around the world the corona virus has worsened this gallery
will remain closed but will continue to hold small digital exhibitions of
Western Australian artists (even though some have now shifted interstate or
overseas) for some time to come and
please take care of yourselves in this pandemic, thank you.
Michael Doherty
Behind the City, the Desert knew the Sky
oil on canvas
100 x 100 cm, 2021
Caspar Fairhall
Asteroid, 2021, oil and acrylic on wood, 30 x 30 cm.
Diokno Pasilan
Over Board, oil on canvas
40 cm h x 50 cm w 2021
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.
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
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/01/a-beautiful-question-natures-deep-design-frank-wilczek-review
Reading by the Moon
2 Dogs Art Space Akashi Japan
Presents
Pastels/Paintings
of
The Japanese Ume (plum) Tree
by
Peter Davidson
I
enjoy drawing and painting my beauty of the Ume(plum) tree in Japan with its sharp
ragged barren stemmed beauty that erupts into flowers at the end of the cold Japanese
winters, they’re a visual delight.
Sometimes
people ask me why do I paint beauty? The answer is simple I am drawn to what I consider
is beautiful, I don’t need any other reason than that or even to write a theory
behind the image to explain my attraction to it.
2 Dogs Art Space
And my
beauty is not yours. Everyone’s measure
of beauty is independent and different therefore I hope you can appreciate
mine in this smallish spring exhibition of 10 artworks.
Untitled
study of a plum tree nishi ku I
15 cm
h x 10 cm w
pastel/pencil on coloured paper
Please
enjoy this small works exhibition thank you
Peter Davidson
ANU
PhD
Visual
Art
Untitled study of a plum tree nishi ku II
15 cm h x 10 cm w
pastel/pencil on coloured paper
Untitled study of a plum tree nishi ku III
15 cm h x 10 cm w
pastel/pencil on coloured paper
Untitled study of a plum tree nishi ku IV
15 cm h x 10 cm w
pastel/pencil on coloured paper
Untitled study of a plum tree nishi ku V
15 cm h x 10 cm w
pastel/pencil on coloured paper
