First ARENA OF LIGHT

Borduas said ----

Quote from Paul Emile Borduas
in

ABSTRACT PAINTING IN CANADA

by

Roald Nasgaard

I begin with no preconceived idea.Faced with the white sheet,my mind free of any literary ideas,I respond to my first impulse. If I feel like placing my charcoal in the middle of the page,or to one side,I do so with no questions asked,and then go on from there.Once the first line is drawn,the page has been divided and that division starts a whole series of thoughts which proceed automatically. When I use the word " thoughts" I mean painterly thoughts: thoughts having to do with movement ,

rhythm,volume and light, not literary ideas. Once the drawing has been completely worked out, the same steps are followed with colour. As with the drawing, if my first impulse is to use yellow, I do not hesitate. And the first colour determines all the others Its at the stage of colour that the problems of light and volume present themselves.

The general idea which may be derived from a painting is a consequence of the unity of conditions under which the painting is made, and those conditions are never chosen, but accepted. Once the work is finished, the general idea is of only secondary importance. The essential beauty of a work of art is made up of nothing but its song. there is nothing else for the spectator to sense. nontheless, the general idea, which has its source in intellectual discipline, may be understood by the viewer. intellectual discipline is the artist's mental labour and its rigour determines degree of purity.

.......It follows that the work of art must be accomplished in a constant state of becoming so that instinct, from which the song flows, may express itself continuously as the work is being executed. the painter's song is a vibration printed on matter by human sensibility. Through it, matter is made to live. therein lies the source of all mystery in a work of art: that inert matter can be brought to life.

From John Updike's Rabbit Redux

"Whatever men make," (Jill) says,"what they felt when they made it is there.If it was made to make money, it will smell of money. That's why these houses are so ugly, all the corners they cut to make a profit are still in them. That's why the cathedrals are so lovely; nobles and ladies in velvet and ermine dragged the stones up the ramps. Think of a painter. He stands in front of the canvas with a colour on his brush. whatever he feels when he makes the mark - if he's tired or bored or happy and proud - will be there. The same colour but we'll feel it. Like fingerprints. Like handwriting. Man is a means for turning things into spirit and turning spirit into things.