Writings

“I think that the very nature of art is affirmative, and in being so it reflects the laws and evolution of the universe” Barbara Hepworth

  • Rachel Carson's Vision

    Pastel & pen 19 x 29

    15-5-24

I was inspired to paint the painting above by a quote from Rachel Carson (The Sea Around Us, 1950):

The sediments are a sort of epic poem of the Earth. When we are wise enough, perhaps we can read in them all of past history.

Needless to say, through isotopic methods, and others, we can now read core samples from deep in the ocean bed (as well from lakes and ice cores). She was proven right.

I created this piece for the cover of my book Trusted Knowledge in a digital and fragmented world of work, as a metaphor for the deeply embedded knowledge that exists within learning organisations - those that know how to lay down and recover institutional memory.

Becoming an artist

I write a lot about the things I care about - climate, science and more recently, art - on my blog www.essaysconcerning.com

I see many parallels between how scientists and artists think about the world, as I wrote about in Experiments in Art and Science.

I started to express my thoughts about becoming an artist. I learned so much from Alison Vickery, a local talented artist and teacher, on ways of thinking. Her many aphorisms live with me always: don’t get too fiddly; think tonally; paint what catches your interest; just experiment!; and many more. Here are two pieces I wrote:

Becoming an artist: Awakenings

Becoming an artist: Fundamentals

One day, I had an exchange with a dear friend Eva Ehler (a Danish artist, illustrator and children's book author), after I’d posted a charcoal sketch of some onions on Facebook for family and friends. She wrote these beautiful and encouraging words:

You have such a beautiful sensitive touch. You really have found your style. I see it in your paintings and in this drawing. It is so much you. and so poetic...an artist is born. Congratulations.

I asked her can I call myself an 'artist' now? and she replied …

… You are an artist that’s for sure. What is an artist? It’s a person who creates paintings or drawings as a profession or hobby … but there is more than that. You can do shitty drawings or paintings and call yourself an artist. But the difference to me is that you can have a person who does drawings or paintings and you say "oh yes, here you have a drawing" and then quickly walk by and get on with your life.

And then you have the artist. An artist catches feelings and poetry in his paintings and opens the world to others in ways they could not see themselves. And you have to stop and say - "I did not notice how beautiful the reflections in the water really could be or how much beauty an onion could contain".

An artist reminds you of how fragile life is, how beautiful or ugly it is and that all we have is this moment, as in this now, to experience it. Therefore you have to be nicer, live stronger and give much more love to the world. You have to improve yourself to be a better human.

In my opinion anyway. Your work does that for me, therefore for me you are an artist . But keep up experimenting. Just do what you do, you do well.

Eva Ehler, 12th February 2020