Photo Essay - The Shipwreck Robert Hubert (French 1733-1808) Excerpted from The Language of Energy in Art: Finding Your Vision Charlotte Wharton, author (charlottewhartonstudio/Language/book.htm) I’d like to share an experience with you. It clearly demonstrates that what the viewer seeks in a work of art is the reading of its expression and that art is entwined with our language through verbal and visual associations we make. Upon request I accompanied my ten year-old granddaughter’s fourth grade class on a field trip to the Worcester Art Museum. She had informed the teacher and the museum docent that I was an artist. Thus, I was invited and encouraged to join the discussion. I chose to be a listener until something happened that made my heart sing. The program highlighted works of art from various centuries, periods, and schools of art. Early Greek sculpture, art of the Renaissance, and paintings all the way through to modern art were included. The docent was highly knowledgeable and sought out each student’s thoughts and feelings regarding every work of art. Finally the group arrived in front of the enormous painting, The Shipwreck, by the French artist, Robert Hubert (1733-1808). The docent asked what was going on in the painting and what did they see. Naturally students remarked that a ship had been wrecked. The docent continued by asking them what did the painting make them feel. Answers were along the lines of scared and afraid. The last girl to speak said, “Something horrible is happening!” I couldn’t keep quiet any longer. I asked the docent to please ask her what made her think that. The girl’s answer was, “The dark clouds, the choppy water, and the jagged rocks.” She was reading the visual expression of the painting. She did not say anything about the fact that the ship was wrecked, that the people were acting scared, or that there was a hand coming out of the water of a soul hoping to be saved. In realistic art, images alone can form associations in our minds. However, she was reading the expression of the Visual Unity in the painting. It was pointed out earlier in the book that children intuitively employed VisuaI Unity in their self-portraits. Now we see that they can read the expression of artwork, including the work of the Masters. Reconnect with your sense of nature, of how you perceive things, and pay attention to what you notice. Understanding your sense of a subject will guide you to how you can visually express it. It takes trust - the open trust and faith of a child - to let your mind and your sense of a thing guide your hand. You are unique. What lies within you, your voice, your vision, your expression of nature is what the world is waiting to embrace. © Charlotte Wharton, author, The Language of Energy: Finding Your Vision charlottewhartonstudio/Language/book.htm
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 14:40:50 +0000