Loading...
Village Squire, 1978-09, Page 24subtracted; everything that adds to it must be put in. For Arie, who likes to work on the site as much as possible, the next step is to compose the picture, using paper ruled in quarter -inch squares. He may re -sketch the painting three times or as much as 10-20 times until he gets it the way he wants it. At this stage he becomes very technical about choosing the coloration for his painting, deciding the specific kind of yellow or red he wants to use. Work must also be done to harmonize the colours in the painting. Many times the field work will stop at this stage and he'll return to the studio to finish the painting. If the weather is right, however (not too hot so that he'll get sun stroke or not too windy so that all his materials blow around) he may continue on the site until the work is finished. He does perhaps a dozen paintings a year on the location. If he is travelling and doesn't have the time to stop and work on the site, he may take colour slides for work later, but it's a practice he doesn't like. Colour slides do have a place for him in portrait work, however. He takes a whole roll or slide film of film from all angles when he is preparing to do someone's portrait. This practice can take the place of endless hours of sitting for the artist that once made portraiture a gruelling experience. Using the slides he can cut the sitting time to only about an hour and a half, he says. He is one of the few people in the area to do portraits in oils, he thinks. Some people do portraits in pastels but few in oil. Having portraits painted in oils is something Arie feels more people should do. Good oil paintings done with the proper materials (tubes of good oils can cost $15) will last 1000 years or longer and can pass through generations. They provide a more permanent record of a person than a photograph which will fade after years of hanging on a wall. Arie has a painting in his house to prove the point, a family heirloom that dates back 175 years, though it's not a portrait of any of the earlier members of the family. Portraits, of course are done specifically on order from a customer and so the portraits on display at Arie's gallery are members of his own family. Besides the portraits and the landscapes Arie has examples of still lifes on display. Most customers seem to prefer landscapes but Arie really likes doing still lifes which he says is more difficult than landscapes. He wishes more people would grow to like still life paintings. Arie likes to change his technique from one subject to another so that each of his paintings has a slightly different style. The change is to properly express the mood of the painting, he says. It is important that every painting has something to say, he says, so that is more than a picture of a tree or a lake but gives a mood or peace or tranquility or violence, etc. It is important that the message comes through to the viewer, not necessarily consciously, but perhaps unconsciously. What people really like when they say they like a painting, he says, is the mood of the work. Mood is lacking in too many paintings today he says. Many are just a jumble of colours. Yet even in modern art, good paintings have mood. He has studied art a good deal on his own and has a large collection of books on various masters. Of more modern painters he likes the style of Robert Wood, although he doesn't always like all his work. He likes the middle period of Van Gogh. He feels he has a touch of the Impressionists: Manet, Monet and Renoir. He also likes the softness of Rembrandt's technique. What he likes best, he says, are the artists who can combine softness and hardness of stroke in the same work. Discussions of the great masters of art are a long way from the mundane business world and obviously Arie enjoys being a long way from the business world. Still, he says, he doesn't regret spending all those years in business. The experience helped open him up, he says. He has little nervousness for instance, standing up in front of people now because he did it for so many years while he was in business. He's involved in amateur theatre with the Goderich Little Theatre and enjoys every minute of being on stage. Many people, he says like rehearsing and working on a character, but don't enjoy performing. He likes it. Likewise, when it comes to filling out his income tax or other government forms he has no hesitation these days because he's filled in thousands over the years. Being in business also gave him the life experience he needed to make his work better, he says. He can see a maturity in his work that wasn't there 15 or 20 years ago, and it's due to more than just practice. Yes, the business world helped Arie in many ways but today he's much happier to sit in the afternoon sunshine surrounded by his art than to think about huge management decisions. Letter to the editor Dear Mr. Roulston: I am enclosing my cheque for $3.50 to renew my subscription to "Village Squire". You are to be congratulated for the steady growth and improvements in your magazine. Each issue has something of particular interest. I keep the copies for reference when we are travelling through our beautiful country side. Keep up the good work. Best wishes. Sincerely M.K. Leiper. Don Mills, Ont. Say to yourself: Boy it's great to be in shape. Wouldn't it be nice if you could mean it. nanricinacnon The Canadian movement for personal fitness VILLAGE SQUIRE/SEPTEMBER 1978. PG. 23.