In the following essay I attempt to share some of the projects Bill Ainslie taught his students. Although I have attempted to stay true to the original projects, I have used my own interpretations and explanations. Some of us still teach these projects to art students today. These projects were part of the 'Foundation Course', taught to beginners at the Art Foundation. However, no matter how advanced a student was, we were encouraged to revisit these projects year after year. The projects are designed to suit all students, regardless of the the level of their development. In fact Bill himself used to practice some of these projects in his own drawings.
These projects by no means describe the length and breadth of Bill Ainslie's teachings which included art history lectures, seminars on a broad range of subjects, other practical art classes and discussions. I hope information will be added to this website describing lessons learned by students and Bill Ainslie's skilled methods of teaching.
(This essay was published in Botsotso 13, Contemporary South African Culture, 2004.)
What is beauty? If we give this question consideration we may become aware that our thoughts are often based on preconceptions, outmoded references leading to default responses, rather than anything fresh or vital.
We often have paintings on our walls which remind us of something, say an experience we once enjoyed or something we day dream about. Our choice of such a painting is not based the quality of the work.
What is considered kitsch today was once new and original, in fact considered so exciting that it was repeated to death. When we repeat anything stagnation threatens. Yet something can be repeated over and over and maintain that quality which gives it life. It depends entirely on the attitude of the doer.
Think for example of raking a Zen garden or one who cooks for the family day after day with an attitude of love.
My beautiful teacher and mentor, the late Bill Ainslie used to say that if one wants to test to see if a painting is good one needs to live with it for a long time. If you find after some time you no longer look at it, it is not good – but if you continue to see new things and it continually grows on you – it is good. How does this happen? What gives something beauty? How can one learn to trick or sidestep one's preconceptions?
We need to learn to see in order to create. 'Seeing' is not restricted to the eye, rather it is a state of awareness. Creativity is not restricted to art making, but needs to be applied to living.
What are the actual ingredients of an artwork? Let's look at some of them:
Proportion
How things relate to one another in terms of scale. We can see how this can be paralleled in our living if we consider how things become when we blow them out of proportion, underestimate or undermine them.
Composition
Composition or layout of elements on the canvas. This can be off centre, geometrical, apparently haphazard or harmonious, Think too of objects, say in a still life. Visualise these objects, now shift your focus to the space between the objects. See the shape of these spaces. Keep your focus on these until a shift takes place in your awareness and the spaces become 'concrete' in the way the objects were before. Imagine painting only these spaces. The gaps left open would describe the shapes of the objects in the same way we normally leave gaps revealing the spaces. This is the way an artist needs to work a canvas - no dead space, every corner counts. What is the composition of the room where you are seated? What is the composition of your day? Is it working for you? Is there 'dead space'; are you prioritising some things at the expense of others?
Line
Think of line describing the contour of the very edge of an object. It comes into vision, slowly disappears as light floods the surface blending it into its environment and reappears in all it's density as it contrasts with its environment again. Every millimetre tells the story, now rough, now light, now smoother, quivering with sensitivity resulting from acute observation. Paul Klee, an outstanding artist, described a line as a dot taking a walk across the page. In our journey through life each step taken sacred. One foot is placed in front of the other leaving sacred prints which are swept away by a breeze or some other activity as time moves on. Visualise yourself walking. See each step. Each beautiful in it's own right. Each giving way to the next. Slow the process right down. Is our journey like this, or are we plodding along in default mode?
Texture
Texture: smoothness, roughness. Texture on a canvas consists of marks. These may be in the form of regular and/or irregular, dots, dashes, squiggles, plains, etc. Think of the variations of mark you may use to describe the surface of a basket next to that of a glazed ceramic pot. Think of the density or sparseness of mark required to express puddles of shadow giving way to light. In your mind imagine the kind of focused response needed if one were to capture what is happening across a surface with accuracy while simultaneously conveying it's robust liveliness. When we look at the texture of our lives – things are never always rough or always smooth – rather there seems to be a ratio of these in coexistence; one continually gives over to the other.
Colour
Colour speaks a whole language of it's own too. It can tell of temperature and temperament or mood for example. One finds that although one may have favourite colours - in an artwork colour works or does not depending on what colour is next to it. Colours are not independent of one another, What we may consider a 'terrible colour' can come alive and resonate if it's relationship with the surrounding colours works. On the other hand a favoured colour may appear flat depending on the selection of the other colours.
Tone (screen and passage)
Without contrasting tone, everything would even out and loose visibility. All the above ingredients of art making or living relate to this. What is needed here is to use light & dark in such a way that one never obliterates the other but rather work together. This is another example of opposites working together for the benefit of the whole. If the painting is evenly light or dark it cannot work - the variations are crucial. Looking at tone can lead one to break away from seeing in terms of object. Visualise a black bowl on a dark wooden table. Now observe what's happening across the surface. Light falls on part of the upper edge defining it as a slice of light. As the bowl curves down toward the table detail is swallowed by shadow causing bowl to merge with table in darkness. No longer is a bowl on a table but gradations of light and dark are meeting one another at times creating contrasts and at others merging.
In the west we are brought up to think in terms of duality - at school we are taught lists of opposites. Hot - cold, happy - sad, etc. We are also taught to favour one over the other. Happy is good. Sad is bad. Things fall under the over arcing title of 'good & bad'. Our religions and moral systems further support dualism, This leads us to apply energy to embrace what we see as positive. We also apply energy to the negative is the form of suppression. This means that although we believe in one and not the other, both 'good' & the 'bad' are in existence and they are within as much as without. We have chosen to embrace one and suppress the other. If these were the tonal contrasts of a painting it wouldn't work. In life it doesn't either.
In the East a third column is added to the list of opposites taught. Let's have a look at some examples from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Swami Muktibodhananda:
tao
temperate
wisdom
sushumna
androgynous
sunrise/sunset
supramental
neutral
cosmic light
knowledge
unconscious mind
centred
balanced
awareness
central
nervous
system
yellow |
yin
cold
intuition
ida
feminine
night
mental
negative
moon
desire
subconscious mind
internal
passive
subjective
parasympathetic
nervous
system
blue |
yang
hot
logic
pingala
masculine
day
vital
positive
sun
action
conscious mind
external
active/dynamic
objective
sympathetic
nervous
system
red |
When we contemplate this list we realise we need to drop a simplistic 'positive/negative' approach in order to comprehend it more fully. Hot water and certain leaves make tea. The leaves are a part, the water is a part and these are both parts of tea. If the water were to evaporate or the leaves were to fill the pot, we would not have tea. A proportion of both are needed. The proportion needed depends on various factors such as strength of flavour, density of substance, etc. If we look at 'opposites' in this way we develop a different awareness.
The resolution of dualism may be the one reason why we are here.
The story of the Garden of Eden may be centred around this theme. The male & female are led by the serpent to eat fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Good & Evil. Does this tale tell of the birth of Dualism or Separation Consciousness? Do we spend our lives seeking to find resolution to this so that we can again realise 'paradise' - but this time in a state of consciousness. Is beauty born out of the union of opposites? Does this lead to the goal of goals – the union of all things?
© Anna Varney-Wong
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