The allegory of the Cave is from The Republic presented by Plato. ( 514a-520a )
Written as a dialogue, it describes a group of men, chained to the wall of a cave, facing a blank wall. Behind them is a fire with things which pass in front of it and their shadows are projected onto the wall. The shadows are the only things that the prisoners see and only know life through them. The philosopher is the only person who has seen the reality of the world outside and can see what is really happening in the cave.
This theme keeps coming back to me in many ways and so I thought of investigating the concept of light and shadows more thoroughly.
In psychology, the shadow side of the individual is seen as the side which is not seen but more hidden. The conscious self is more known and the subconscious difficult to acknowledge.
The light of the sun creates shadows and the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. Perhaps this could apply to the individual int terms of knowledge? The more one learns and understands, the more one realises how little is known.
It is not possible to just have light and no shadow. They are different sides of the same coin and just like the performer and the audience. Both are joined together.
Without shadow, it would be very difficult to see the forms of anything as all objects would appear flat.
Water is transparent but it is the light and shadow which gives it form. A wave would not be seen if there were no shadow to give it shape. The ripples of the wind would not give water it's wateriness without light and shadow.
A face would have no form without light and dark.
These things are as negative space. If only the object is seen, it has no sense of relationship with anything around it. Without shadows, only part of the world is seen. Perhaps by examining the shadows more, the object becomes more real and the relationship between them more intense.
All these things seem so obvious but if I am trying to draw and paint, and find what really interests me, it is this. How the simplest things in life are the subject for the profound and through them, the way to explore what matters most to me.
The more I learn, the less I know.
Sunday 15 September 2013
Day 2 at Leith
Today was spent at Port Seton, first hour mooching around, eating bacon rolls and getting a feel for the place.
I decided that I could not resist being as near to the sea as possible. Rocks galore, pools, gulls and sea.
The weather was grey but rain stopped by 11am. sunnier as the day progressed.
The formation and angles of rocks was intriguing and the sense of time, solidity of rocks compared to the transparency of water, was something I never tire of.
The brief is to get rough ideas this week, think about it for a week and come back next week to get more information and solidify any thoughts.
I decided to put as many of my sketches a possible onto this page. Two five minute sketches a day come to a lot. Some were rubbish, some slightly better. However, this is for the record not to be judged!
This sketch was done with my left hand ( less dominant) and in three minutes.
Sketch done in fifteen minutes.
Same sketch but done in 5 minutes.
One minute looking at the subject. Two minutes drawing from memory. Three times..
Sketch of the other side of the muslin.
Margaret, working in the dark!
Lynne trying my Viol. Three minutes.
Prayer flags in my garden.
Clothes and my glasses. Three minutes
Empty bottle. Five minutes.
Day out at Port Seton.
First attempt at the rocks and it got rather fiddly.
This time I tried to get the over all direction and movement of the formation.
Got down to the rocks, sat on one, tried to get more information but found it too much to see and kept losing my place.
More of the angles of rocks from higher up plus attempts at sketching the gulls.
More detail of rocks closer to me.
I decided that I could not resist being as near to the sea as possible. Rocks galore, pools, gulls and sea.
The weather was grey but rain stopped by 11am. sunnier as the day progressed.
The formation and angles of rocks was intriguing and the sense of time, solidity of rocks compared to the transparency of water, was something I never tire of.
The brief is to get rough ideas this week, think about it for a week and come back next week to get more information and solidify any thoughts.
I decided to put as many of my sketches a possible onto this page. Two five minute sketches a day come to a lot. Some were rubbish, some slightly better. However, this is for the record not to be judged!
Sketch done in fifteen minutes.
One minute looking at the subject. Two minutes drawing from memory. Three times..
Sketch of the other side of the muslin.
Margaret, working in the dark!
Lynne trying my Viol. Three minutes.
Prayer flags in my garden.
Clothes and my glasses. Three minutes
Empty bottle. Five minutes.
Day out at Port Seton.
First attempt at the rocks and it got rather fiddly.
Got down to the rocks, sat on one, tried to get more information but found it too much to see and kept losing my place.
More of the angles of rocks from higher up plus attempts at sketching the gulls.
More detail of rocks closer to me.
Sunday 8 September 2013
First day at Leith. Painting Course
Today was the first day with Matt and it was an initiation from the start.
Firstly, I had severe problems with my hearing, ( Hyperacusis? ) and was feeling very unwell.
The first thing Matt did was to go through the rules and his expectations. Punctuality was vital. Homework to be done. No chatting in the studio.
Then a series of slides of sketches by various artists. That was to be our task for the day and the next three weeks. Sketching, observation and more and more looking. Practise every day until drawing and seeing were a habit.
His way of teaching is inspirational and difficult to explain. If I could learn by osmosis I would but I feel as though I have only just started to take it all seriously enough to learn. His energy is immense and enthusiasm for seeing the world phenomenal. No drawing or painting from photographs. Face the real thing!
The reason is that we see differently from the camera. His example of looking at a still life of old cans of paint was that we see with memories of other things. Memories of paint tins rusting through lack of use, walls and doors being painted in the past. Associations with the memories. All these things come into play when doing a drawing. Seeing life as it is with the whole of ourselves not just the mundane is the aim.
His aim is to allow us to find what is important to us and let it grow organically. We are all different and it is not the subject which is important but our feelings about certain things ( colour, light, movement, detail, etc..) which is what he wants to see.
The morning was spent doing blind sketching, sketching from memory, using the left hand, continual line drawing and looking more and more intently at what we were seeing. ( Still life) And then spending time later in examining every aspect of what we were seeing.
I got confused and tired! Temporary muddled thinking and went off at a tangent doing sketches of the other students. He came to my rescue and I think I understand more of what is needed.
Apparently my reaction was very common!
Firstly, I had severe problems with my hearing, ( Hyperacusis? ) and was feeling very unwell.
The first thing Matt did was to go through the rules and his expectations. Punctuality was vital. Homework to be done. No chatting in the studio.
Then a series of slides of sketches by various artists. That was to be our task for the day and the next three weeks. Sketching, observation and more and more looking. Practise every day until drawing and seeing were a habit.
His way of teaching is inspirational and difficult to explain. If I could learn by osmosis I would but I feel as though I have only just started to take it all seriously enough to learn. His energy is immense and enthusiasm for seeing the world phenomenal. No drawing or painting from photographs. Face the real thing!
The reason is that we see differently from the camera. His example of looking at a still life of old cans of paint was that we see with memories of other things. Memories of paint tins rusting through lack of use, walls and doors being painted in the past. Associations with the memories. All these things come into play when doing a drawing. Seeing life as it is with the whole of ourselves not just the mundane is the aim.
His aim is to allow us to find what is important to us and let it grow organically. We are all different and it is not the subject which is important but our feelings about certain things ( colour, light, movement, detail, etc..) which is what he wants to see.
The morning was spent doing blind sketching, sketching from memory, using the left hand, continual line drawing and looking more and more intently at what we were seeing. ( Still life) And then spending time later in examining every aspect of what we were seeing.
I got confused and tired! Temporary muddled thinking and went off at a tangent doing sketches of the other students. He came to my rescue and I think I understand more of what is needed.
Apparently my reaction was very common!
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