About this piece.
Well here we are, I have to write something about Dialogues! What on earth could an artist and a math teacher talk about? Is that the exercise of a sitter and a portrait artist? Sitters by tradition used to sit there, no over there, don’t move. Hey, stop talking, don’t move your head you change the angle, the light moved. Or did they?
How can anyone sit still for so long? So began the liaison between the artist and his 13th sitter. What to expect? Why did we consent? What am I doing here? First time inside a working artist’s studio after a day’s work for both of us. Cuppa tea dear? Just what I need. I can just relax, the artist has to work.
To get into the mood I wear a colour that I feel confident in. Bright pink. Oops! Not got that colour in his palette. Oh well all he sees is purple and yellow, who needs pink. After an amazing half hour the first impressions were made. Well that was easy. Is that it? All I had to do was to relax and let the artist talk.
Could I get a word in edge ways? Why use yellow and purple? That’s what I see when the sun steams in behind. It lights up everything in front of it and sends a glow of colour. Wow! Next week same time same place?
I loved that first impression and that is what has stayed with me.
The sittings continued and it was amazing what art and math has in common. Many mathematicians were philosophers, many artists were philosophers. Both observe the world about them. Mathematicians see the beauty in symmetry, in patterns, in light, in chaos and colour and find a need to record what they see. They use the beauty of number and order to express what they see. Artists see beauty in colour, in shape, in light and in chaos.
They use the beauty of putting paint on canvas for all to see, for all to interpret. What one person sees is not exactly what the next person sees, that’s what makes life interesting.
Thank you Alan for giving me time to think, to listen to your thoughts, agreeing to disagree but never judgemental.
Jennie Nolten
Portfolio / Dialogues / Jennie Nolten
