Beyond the Veil
“Inukshuk”, acrylic © 2006 Michelle Basic Hendry
The Winter is a time of experimentation for me. I slow down my regular production, pick up different media and unlike most of the warmer season, I use the dark hours to read more. I have read books recently on Vermeer and Hammershøi and most recently I have taken another go at William Blake (artist & poet), as well as explore primitive art and painting. I have been immersed in the study of visionary art and shamanic tradition of late. I have great appreciation for those whose imaginations can bring a story told around a fire into the visual world through images. I like to think of visionary art as a kind of ‘remembering’.
When looking for things to paint, I use my camera for creating a reference library. My camera can be a compositional tool and then I play with the light and objects in the paintings. Good reference material is important for realism. For ‘Window Seat‘, I carried a chair out to the house through half a kilometer of overgrown field to set up the composition I wanted. Photographs are a wonderful way to record what I see for when I return to the studio. In my memory I keep the light… But sometimes, in my memory there is more than light, there is a feeling – and imagination.
In a recent dream, I was standing at the side of a bridge, watching an old steamship pass, a steamship I had been stalking with my camera throughout the dream. It was very early spring and most of the snow was gone. Suddenly, the landscape behind the ship became radically interesting. The melting snow caught in the curves of the landscape began to take on strange colours and forms. I lifted my camera to capture what I was seeing, but, in my frustration, the photo would only burn out nearly white! As I struggled with the camera, the landscape began to transform and transform again until it was plain and suddenly the camera was catching the right exposure. My camera had been useless in capturing the vision of this seemingly dull, late winter landscape that had become something only I could see.
After last week’s exploration of the Native American Visionary Landscape artist, I thought I might offer some of my favourite non-native Visionary Artists: Helena Nelson Reed, Susan Seddon Boulet (deceased), Ernst Fuchs and a recent find, A. Andrew Gonzales.
What they all seem to have in common is the unity and flow in the work. Everything seems to connect to everything else and the air swirls and colours are intense. The visionary experience itself is another layer of reality sitting just above or below what we think we see. For me, it was a dream that reminded me of thin the veil is between worlds and that the inspiration for the artists sits in wait just beyond it.
On my easel sits an interior of the Fleger House, an old bedroom. I sometimes wonder when I review reference images of my old houses, what is just beyond the eyes of the camera. Perhaps it’s time to look further.
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January 21st, 2010 at 8:27 am
That’s a fun painting.
I was musing just the other day about how the camera can’t always accurately capture the nuances of light and color that the eye can see.
Not infrequently I download an image that falls far short of the scene I thought I saw.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:17 am
Very nice painting. When I lived in S. Ontario someone had built a couple of those (on a very small scale,) in the front yard of their house. They were very cute.
The digital era is very kind to the artist, allowing for numerous shots of just about anything. I don’t know what kind of camera you’re using, but if shots are coming out too bright, try focusing on something else (roughly the same distance,) in a lighter area (I sometimes use the sky around the sun,) then bring the camera back to your subject & shoot. By adjusting to the lighter area, the camera reduces the amt of light let in & voila–no more washed out/overbright photos.
At an event last year, someone virtually spat at me, “Do you only paint from photos?” The answer was “no,” of course, but I was so taken aback by their tone I was left stammering for a moment. I mean, what’s wrong w/painting from photos, anyway?
January 21st, 2010 at 10:53 am
Lana – I shoot with a digital SLR and I have 100% control over exposures. The burnt exposures were part of the the message in the DREAM that not all things can simply be ’seen’ and captured.
Although the camera is, sometimes, just incapable of capturing some light, as you say Kinsey!
My use of the camera is rarely for anything more than the placement of objects in order to help me draw them more accurately. I use the light and even colour in my memory or imagination!
January 21st, 2010 at 3:30 pm
What an awesome dream; I’m really curious as to where this will take you as it sure sounds like part of you wants to pull you somewhere new. Hmmm…
Love the moonlit inukshuk with it’s hint of magic.
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Wow! This painting is like a living story for me. It could be seemingly simple to some people. But I believe it reeks of intense vital energy, almost as if the painting were about to speak and tell an truly ancient story that humans have forgotten.
I KNOW that may sound weird and not make any sense at all, but that is just what slammed into me when looked at it the other day. What that does to me is this. I find myself wanting to keep looking at it to see if I can hear the story or wisdom that is about to unfold. It’s that same kind of feeling like when you can almost remember something and you can feel it right on the tip of your tongue but you can’t quite catch it. So you keep going back to try to hear it. Very alluring painting.
That is some SERIOUS powerful art, Michelle. I am blown away. I also felt something else in this photo. which was the contrast between dark and light, hopelessness and hope, past and future (with the stones standing right in the present, the dark behind them being the past or hopelessness and the light in front of them being the future or hope. Not in relation to your own life or mine, but maybe in relation to all of humanity.
Anyway, my dear Michelle, it is a POWERFUL painting. I also LOVED your dream. It is amazing. I love when you share your dreams/visions. You are quite a unique and remarkable soul.
Thank you for moving me in such a profound way. I am hugging you this morning. Robin
January 24th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Thank you for sharing this truly mystical work with us. The light, shapes and colour work extremely well and convey a magical aura that captures the viewer. I especially like the perspective.
The “Inukshuk” is a truly amazing and inspiring object d’art and a great subject as you have clearly shown.
I agree, winter is a very good time for Blake, especially on a still night nestled by the fire.
Eso
January 28th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Thank you so much for the feedback, everyone!
I am amazed by the response to such an old painting. Clearly there is some value in my looking back!
February 6th, 2010 at 6:55 am
Yes…It is within the mind’s interpretation that the image and it’s emotional content is seen.
“Inukshuk” – a natural monument or a spiritual being embracing the moon, is full of strange ‘other world’ emotion.
xhenry