Archibald Campbell, in his journal, November 25, 2024
What do I paint today?
I constantly study the work of other artists, and my own past work, in order to think through the way forward. Life seems, on so many different levels, a search for harmony, most of all harmony with the world within. Abstract painting fascinates me – anything abstract or realistic that changes your mind or your mood, that captures your imagination and takes it off in a new direction, or that embodies an emotion -- is a worthwhile painting.
What is my deepest truth, that may speak to your truth? What fascinates me about my best work? About the work of others?
Eyes fascinate me. I’ve read that social animals have whites in their eyes in order to communicate emotion, thus enabling complex social interaction. Eyes communicate confidence, aggression, nervousness. A predator’s eyes have an intensity that the eyes of prey animals lack. The eyes of a prey animal often communicate watchfulness and sometimes fear and nervousness. Or calmness. Horses’ eyes often seem to communicate kindness.
When Picasso looked at a drawing or print, I was surprised that anything was left on the paper, so absorbing was his gaze.
- Leo Stein, patron of Picasso
We all know art is not truth. Art is a lie to make us realize the truth.
-Pablo Picasso
Art is a search for the underlying truth, the truth that transcends the facts. An artist who paints the facts is not an artist. Hemingway, when he was stuck, would think of the truest statement he could come up with, and start writing from there.
...sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.
- Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable FeastStyle is truth. Once you nail down what you want to say about yourself and your fears and your life, then that becomes your style and you go to those writers who can teach you how to use words to fit your truth.
-Ray Bradbury from an interview, The Paris Review
A painter goes to the work of other painters who can give us new ideas on how to use materials to dig for our truth. One’s truth is deep down and perhaps unfathomable, so it is often a quest with an unachievable destination.
Artists are people who are not at all interested in the facts—only in the truth. You get the facts from outside. The truth you get from inside.
- Ursula Le Guin
What is my truth? I meditate regularly on that, down deep into my deepest reverie. Of all of my paintings, which get closest to truth, to my truth?
The paintings of eyes. The eyes of a bear. The eyes of a raptor. The eyes of a songbird. The eyes of my dog are completely different when she’s looking for squirrels than when she’s looking at me, wanting affection.
So eyes can change, but they always seem to reflect what’s going on in deeper levels. Picasso’s eyes. Penetrating. Missing nothing. Searching for what’s under the surface. Searching for the deep meaning. Below that, a few quick watercolor sketches I did trying to capture Picasso’s eyes.
Here’s a self portrait Picasso did shortly before he died. He reportedly spent several months working on it. It is entitled “Self Portrait Facing Death.” Facing death — he died a few months later — he’s still searching for truth.
A perspective on Picasso by folk/rock singer Joni Mitchell:
My two patron saints are both monsters. But I love them to death: Miles Davis and Picasso. They are restless and creative. They can't stay put. First of all, they are long-distance runners. They are lifers. They have the potential, until they snuff, to re-invent themselves. They have to re-invent themselves. That means they need fuel. Those kind of monsters eat things up around them. . . Picasso changed women, he changed houses, he'd stir up trouble, anything to keep the flame.
But in the divinity of it all I think they have to be forgiven, because they are monstrous in their devotion to their art, which makes them appear to be extraordinarily selfish. But it is oddly yin/yang. It is selfish and selfless. It is duty to them. It must be done.
- Joni Mitchell, The Miles Davis Radio Project
You can see the monstrosity of Picasso in his eyes, in their intensity. They search for what is below the surface. They penetrate the fakeness, the phoniness, of the surface of humanity.
The eyes are the window to your soul.
- William Shakespeare
Hemingway’s eyes are less intense but still searching, still reflect someone who’s lost inside a search.
Rick Ruben’s eyes. He’s a prominent music producer and author of the recent bestseller on creativity, The Creative Act.
Einstein – no ferocity, just lost in reverie.
The eyes of an old coyote.
And a young wolf.
Owl Eyes
A young bobcat.
Harrier eyes.
Osprey eyes.
So yes, paint eyes but go deeper. See how deep you can take it. Add abstract shapes. Get more impressionistic. Gao Xingjian goes deep in his paintings:
The Celestial Eye
A New Heron Dance Book:
Meditations on Gratitude, Beauty and Mystery: Gratitude as a philosophy of life and as a spiritual practice.
Visit here for more information and to order.
A mockup of the first two pages of the new book, Meditations on Gratitude, Beauty and Mystery. It is available now as a PDF, and in the next few days as a hardcover.
A mockup of the first two pages of the new book, Meditations on Gratitude, Beauty and Mystery. It is available now as a PDF, and in the next few days as a hardcover.
A mockup of two pages of the new book, Meditations on Gratitude, Beauty and Mystery.
Front cover, The Pausing For Beauty Poetry Diary. PDF and Softcover (Lay Flat, wire-o binding) versions available. Visit here.
Two interior pages, The Pausing For Beauty Poetry Diary. PDF and Softcover (Lay Flat, wire-o binding) versions available. Visit here.
Below, two sample pages from my recent art journal, and the related diary/planner
Nurturing The Song Within
There are a few copies of the first edition (hardcover, dust jacket, premium art paper) still available. After they are sold out, we don’t plan to republish, at least in that format.
