23 Nov Why a painting can be better than the Taranaki surf

I am at the happy stage of life where I am now free to make paintings of my own choosing. Some will say I am retired and art is a hobby. I can understand that, I could not live off the three or four sales I make in a year. It is just that I think it is more than a hobby, it is more like a very long apprenticeship, in my case a self-directed one, I have never been good at taking directions.

I did have some help though about thirty years ago. I attended a community art class in New Plymouth which was mostly taken by Tom Kreisler. He talked art for one to two hours, yes, nonstop while we just dabbed at newsprint with paint or charcoal.

In these long but interesting monologues, Tom would make odd and seemingly profound comments, and thirty years later I am still thinking of this one below;

This is how I remember Toms comment;

Last Sunday I was walking along the beach with my son, looking at the crashing surf, I said “this is a great scene but you know what? A painting is actually better”

This is an odd remark, a throwaway comment. I am unable to say what Tom was thinking but here is what I think.

Art is always an idea, a concept of sorts. Even if it is just the wonder of the landscape, a thank you for being here. It is something that has affected the artist and the work is something that might move the viewer too. It carries something of the culture of the artist’s time, and of the past too. Man, I am sure is the only creature that works with ideas and concepts in this world and because of that, it is something of the spirit, a little higher than the crashing Taranaki surf.

Tom was an interesting man. If you would like to know some more about him than I recommend this book below. There is a movie too doing the art cinema circuit here in NZ called “Tom Who? the Enigma of Tom Kreisler”

a book about the art and the artist Tom Kreisler

The paintings of Tom Kreisler, “No laughing’ matter” and Dancing dogs” from the book “comma dot dogma”