For the love of color & light
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 at 09:37AM 
In the previous post, Tim Kingston made a comment that instantly reminded me of a Picasso quote. (Read his comment and my reply with quote here.) It’s not that I just know random Picasso quotes (or any quotes for that matter) from the top of my head, but I remembered reading it and having a “hmmmm” moment, a few years back, when, for whatever reason, I felt all inspiration sucked out of me.
click to view large
It probably stemmed from a serious bout of self-doubt, but to counter-act my lack of inspiration I decided to put the camera down for a spell, and take up another creative pursuit: painting.
During this time, I read a book called Chasing Matisse, by James Morgan. I’m not going to write a book review here, but it was brilliant…very well written, even conversational. It’s about James Morgan’s journey across France and Morocco , tracing the footsteps of artist, Henri Matisse. The book is part biography, part auto-biography, part travel log and personal journal, as well as Art history and philosophy. From it I learned several things:
- To follow my passion, to never give up, it’ll be worth it in the end.
- To live life full throttle
- To pay attention to color & light.
The Blue Window, Henri Matisse, 1912; click to view larger I became obsessed with the work of Matisse, but also his contemporaries Picasso and Derain…even the earlier work of Van Gogh. I consumed Art book after Art book…dragging my kids on trips to the library and museum. My youngest was only 2 at the time, and now, at 4 ½ she can point out a Van Gogh in an instant.
After a few months and several bad paintings of my own, I was completely inspired. I felt equipped with the confidence and passion I needed to once again pick up my camera and I haven’t set it down since.
Up until this time, I worked primarily in black and white film. I loved stark contrast, grainy textures, the way lines created shapes and form. But my new found love of paint changed all of that. Painting taught me to see color and light and a whole new way. I always knew it was there, and I certainly loved to shoot a roll or two of color film every now and then, but I was so in love with b&w that I often overlooked the beauty of color. Then my eyes suddenly opened, and I realized that some images can be about something other than composition. In some pictures, color and/or light can take center stage.
~Chantal
Reader Comments (5)
I think there's a lot for photographers to learn from painters, and what they do with that ability to creatively change the composition, color, etc in a way we are sometimes jealous of. Thanks for that thought along with your lovely image.
Chantal, looking and reading nice.
Keep up the great work
Yes, your post is just another reminder that I need to take more time to study some of the old (and new) masters. And I never knew you took up a brush :-) very cool!
Thanks everyone!
~Chantal
I'm big time Picasso and Van Gogh fan ...
I agree with steve, photographers can learn a lot from painters ... and in fact many photographers were painters too, the most famous being henri cartier bresson ... Alfred stiglitz was married to a painter and they both influenced each other.