The Power of Selection Through Memory

As many of you know, I primarily work from memory and imagination. Many years ago, I started to explore this way of working, and now it has become second nature to me. It is also part of the method I teach my students. I wrote more about that here and here.

One of the strongest reasons to train your visual memory is the power it has to distill and intensify your experience of the landscape, and as a result of that, to assist you in creating a very personal response to it in your art.  As Carlson says, this helps us to locate the source of our originality. It is our personal response to the landscape we seek to express, rather than a copy of the scene in front of us. Because memory acts as a filter to select certain information while rejecting other information, it is a highly personal tool for art making.

I spent last week in Fredericksburg, Texas with Mallory Agerton, a friend and former student. Mallory completed the Atelier Program in 2015. In fact, she was part of the first group of students that I used as 'guinea pigs' for my memory training exercises. Today, as a professional artist, she works from the drawings she makes in the field and memory (no photography).

We also spent a week together last year at about the same time of the year. On successive evenings we went out just before sunset to observe the landscape. We were both taken with a little creek we found and spent about 20 minutes each night for three evenings looking at it.  We both did drawings of it from memory later.

Here is Mallory's drawing.

And here is mine.

Obviously they are very different. After we made our drawings we talked about what we saw and what we were interested in about the scene. For me, the large tree and its gesture against the sky, the intimate space around the creek and the sliver of water made a big impression. I also wanted to get my drawing dark enough to suggest the failing light. Mallory noticed a smaller tree in front of the big one and the filigree of its branches against the sky. She also wanted to simplify the whole scene into very simple shapes. She depicted it as more open.

When I got back home I painted this little study from memory. The idea that I captured in the drawing was further distilled and sifted again through memory (including remembering the color).

Hill Country Dusk

10 x 9

Of course, there isn't any right or wrong here.  Both Mallory and I responded to what was most interesting and our memories were strongest of the things that interested us most. Those things to a very large extent reflect our personal aesthetics. Memory, if properly trained and used, will help you identify the things you really want to paint--not things that are merely interesting, but the things you find truly compelling.

Training Visual Memory

Morning Walk, Fence Line

(painted from memory)

One of the key ingredients of the Drawing/Painting Program of The Landscape Atelier is the training of visual memory. Many years ago, I embarked on a journey to find a way to use memory in my own work. Over time, I developed some techniques and strategies which helped me retain visual information. As a result, I became comfortable working from both memory and imagination.
When I started The Landscape Atelier in 2014 I knew I wanted to make memory training part of the curriculum. Last month I gave a paper at the TRAC 2015 conference entitled The Training and Use of Visual Memory for Representational Landscape Painters which describes why memory training is important, the literature and history of memory training, the method we use in the Atelier, and the results we obtained over the first year using these methods.

My paper is now available to read online. Here's the link. This will take you to a page on my website. Then just click on the title of the article.

http://www.deborahparis.com/Asset.asp?AssetID=42291&AKey=LCEK6WCL

Upcoming show- Albuquerque Museum Miniatures & More

Evening Pond

10 x 12

Available at Albuquerque Museum Miniatures & More

I am happy to say that I will have three paintings in the Albuquerque Museum Miniatures & More exhibition and sale this year. The Gala will be held on October 26, 2013,  and the paintings will be sold by fixed price draw.

This is another painting based on a pond near my home and studio and painted from observation and memory.

How Can You Become a Poet?

REPLY TO THE QUESTION: “HOW CAN YOU BECOME A POET?”

take the leaf of a tree
trace its exact shape
the outside edges
and inner lines

memorize the way it is fastened to the twig
(and how the twig arches from the branch)
how it springs forth in April
how it is panoplied in July

by late August
crumple it in your hand
so that you smell its end-of-summer sadness

chew its woody stem

listen to its autumn rattle

watch it as it atomizes in the November air

then in winter
when there is no leaf left

invent one

~ Eve Merriam (1916-1992), American poet and playwright

Dusk Study

6 x 12

Last week was my birthday. We took a day trip to Ft Worth to see the Caravaggio show at the Kimbell Museum and delivered a painting to my gallery in Ft. Worth, Galerie Kornye West, which is just down the street from the museum in Ft. Worth's Cultural District.

As we headed home, we saw a beautiful dusk fall over the landscape. With the intensity of the sun below the horizon, the sky took on a beautiful glow and the reflected light into the clouds was magnificent. I painted this little study from memory.

Spring Trees

Spring Trees
10 x 12

This past Sunday I should have been in my studio-I really should. But, it was such a gorgeous spring day and friends offered to take us over to a nearby ranch. It's a property of about 1100 acres that I would never had access to without their generous offer. So, off we went in pick up trucks and 4 wheelers. There were creeks and pools (ponds) and big hills! Trees were leafing out and red buds lit up the mauve and green haze. It was heavenly.

I painted this little study from memory today.

Backyard Magic
36 x 30
Private Collection

I am happy to say this painting found a new home in Ft. Worth last week. Although this "view" is only a few hundred yards from the door of my studio, I painted it from memory late last fall or early winter. I have talked a bit about that process in these posts.

The online class Painting Water is in full swing and it is a lively bunch! Some bloggers you might know are in the class (Brian McGurgan, Loriann Signori, Caroline Simmill, just to name a few) and we have Scotland, Germany, and all over the US from coast to coast represented as well. Next month, one of my most popular online classes- Drawing and Painting Trees- returns! There are a few spots left. You can click here for information and here to register.

More About Memory

Edge of the Field II
8 x 10
Available at Huff Harrington Fine Art

This small painting was done from memory. Working from memory is a skill that can be acquired with practice. It requires careful observation over extended periods of time. Why is this important? Memory is a powerful aid in helping us separate the things which are visually compelling as opposed to merely present in a scene which interests us.

To illustrate this point, in my workshops, I ask students to close their eyes and remember a very significant event (this can be visual but doesn't have to be). So, go ahead-close your eyes and think of something in your life like that and try to see it in your mind's eye. When you do that, you will remember and "see" details about that event even though it may be far removed in time. But, if you try to remember things that are extraneous to the event- the weather, what you had for lunch that day- those memories will be gone. That is because your memory has distilled and intensified the most important aspects of the event. This can be an incredibly powerful tool in making art. We just need to learn how to use it.

Zig Zag

Zig Zag Oil 6 x 8
Sold

This is another piece done from memory. I am intrigued with the patterns and marks on the land made by agriculture.