Aidan Cartwright, local artist and teacher, talked about why he prefers to create paintings that are not realistic and some of the positive effects of his approach.
“I want there to be no illusion that it is just paint on a surface,” said Cartwright.
He first explained how realistic paintings are made for comparison. He said that the first step in making one is by first defining what the overall color and shape of the painting is, then moving down to the next biggest shape which may only have a subtle change in color, and so on. He said if you keep doing that, it is surpising how realistic the painting would become. He added that if you’re painting with oil which takes longer to dry, you can blend the colors so they become seamless.
“For a lot of more modern painters, they didn’t see the need to go back and do the blending because you still get that impression of reality from just the shapes and colors matching,” he commented.
As for the reason why you may not want to make a realistic painting, he explained that bold strokes, shapes and colors create an effect that grabs your attention because it is more jarring. In comparison, looking at a smooth, realistic painting that flows well provides more of a relaxing experience.
“There’s something nice and meditative about that but there’s nothing that grabs me,” he said. “You need a snap in silence.”
You may not be able to tell what an unrealistic painting is from up close. Cartwright explained that an unrealistic painting may look like squiggles from that perspective but the image envisioned by the painter becomes more cohesive as you look at it from further away since your eyes have an easier time interpreting the image as a whole.
“Nothing makes me sadder than a painting, when seen from a distance, and after going right up to it you get no additional experience,” he commented.
He said that another element of his approach that is important to him is widening the scope of the audience’s experiences and interpretations of his paintings. He mentioned that when he painted the landscape piece on display at The Gallery on 47th Street, he saw hills and trees under a sun. Cartwright said that the painting in question is more strongly defined as a landscape but it is still important to him to give his audience the possibility of seeing something that he hadn’t noticed before or possibly something completely different than what he envisioned.
“If I paint a bluebird and it’s exactly like a bluebird, great, everyone gets the same experience,” he added. After a pause he mumbled the words, “A little bit boring.”
He explained that he would rather paint something that is seen differently by more people. Using the same analogy, one may see a bluebird, another see a flower, and another yet may see a cake.