MY FIRST ART LOVES
A great thing about teaching is revisiting the work of artists you love. One of my first art loves was Odilon Redon. Like most people at the beginning of their art studies, I thought being a good artist meant you developed the skills to draw and paint what you saw. I figured out how to do this in a short period of time: pay careful attention to what you see, and practice and more practice. Just when I was feeling quite proud of my newly developed skills, a university professor said to me, "so, you can draw, now what?". At 21 years old, I had no idea how to answer that question. And ever since then I am still trying to figure out "now what?"
In the work of Odilon Redon, I discovered the idea of interpreting reality, and combining what you see with what you imagine. I learned how images from the world can be used as a metaphor for abstract concepts such as dreams and the unconscious. I learned art can be about so much more than the visual world. Redon said it best: "While I recognize the necessity for a basis of observed reality... true art lies is reality that is felt".
As a young person I always loved plants and flowers, and would collect and categorize specimens I found in my somewhat industrial neighbourhood on the outskirts of downtown Montreal. I spent a lot of time at the Montreal Botanical Garden. Drawing plants was a natural starting point for me as artist. And I got really good at it, but I kept thinking about the "now what?"
As a young man, Redon was fascinated with Darwinian biology and enjoyed a close friendship with Armand Clavaud, the curator of the botanical gardens in his hometown of Bordeaux. In the late floral still lifes, Redon demonstrated a naturalist’s sense of wonder as well as a richly inventive imagination, combining many different types of blooms and foliage in an effervescent display, often attended by fluttering butterflies. (from the Metropolitain Museum of Art).
My main attraction to Redon's work was his willingness to integrate objects from the world with those of his imagination, resulting in a dreamlike image. He was considered both a
symbolist and a
surrealist because his works went beyond the everyday facts of the observable world. The works feel otherworldly, with even the more straightforward drawings of flowers in vases feeling like they are floating and not quite grounded on the table, or fully part of our mortal world.
Redon loved working with soft pastels and his pastel drawings have a life to them that is sometimes lost in his oil paintings. Soft pastels are almost pure pigment so they never loose their original brilliance. Oil paintings in the past tended to yellow because of the protective varnish, so the colours look less vivid over time. Redon's pastels are done on paper and often kept in a special area of the museum with subdued lighting. The colours are so intense that even in a dimly lit room, these works sometimes feel as if they are lit from within.
I'm excited to introduce an assignment based on Redon's work in my upcoming online course,
Pastels and Nature starting next Friday, May 20, 2-5pm. Hope to see some of you there for the adventure of combining observation with imagination using soft pastels. Can you think of a better way to spend a Friday afternoon?
For an overview of his art and career:
Wendy Welch
Executive Director.
