Painting # 5 / STILL LIFE with STACKED BOOKS

Still Life with Stacked Books

James Aponovich

20 x 16, oil on canvas, 2011

THE THEME SHOW

Late in 2010 Beth and I were asked to submit paintings for a June 2011 exhibition

at Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA. The theme for this invitational would be books as subject matter. The title for the show is Picture Books and will run from June 7th through the month of July.

I guess the good thing about a book theme is that it narrows the focus to...books. However, painting book titles is like putting bumper sticker on cars; it can broadcast .a lot about you in a few words. But when asked to do something, you try.

My first sketches failed, they were more like illustrations, so I was stuck. Then, during a phone conversation my eyes happened to fall on a bookcase in the studio. There sat a stack of old black books ( Thomas Mann) with an Italian greeting card sitting on top. Bingo, the found assemblage as still life. It was a light bulb moment, although not without pitfalls.

THE GREETING CARD or PLATO'S DILEMMA

Detail: Still Life with Stacked Books, James Aponovich

from

Detail: The Virgin and Child with St. John the Baptist

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)

Musee du Louvre

An image of a painting ( by me) of a reproduction of a detail of a painting ( by Botticelli).

Whew! It's enough to make Plato walk around the Agora rubbing his forehead. According to Book X of Plato's Republic, all painting is more or less bogus because all things are a mere reflection or imitation of the "ideal". In other words, all things are once removed from reality. The artist comes along and paints things and therefore is twice removed. I paint a reproduction

( 3 times removed) and I am consequently 4 times removed. No wonder I am confused.

As ever hidden, look at its inner essence

As ever manifest, look at its outer aspects

Lao Tzu

I avoided painting titles on the books but instead painted the letters H, O and NE, along with some decorative gold bindings. One book has a Chinese ideogram, another a compass rose. In front sits the Clementine from Clementine with Tissue (week 4), with the tissue now acting a leaves of paper, the pages we do not see in the books. The cloth is a fragment of a Japanese kimono with a pattern of clouds and rain. The rain is a clue to what theme ties all these elements together. (answer next week)

THE SOURCE

Whatever the theme may be, the composition has, in my mind, a direct relationship to many

15th Century Italian Madonna and Child paintings.

Madonna col Bambino

Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469)

Florence, Palazzo Medici Riccardi

The child stands on a parapet, a standard horizontal railing or wall (notice the crude cast shadow from the feet). The composition builds with beautiful surface detail to the insanely sweet embrace and the faces touching, all set in a shallow field of focus, the niche.

By the way, when you are in Florence, it is imperative to visit the Palazzo Medici- Riccardi to see the frescos in the Chapel of The Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli.

It it well worth a visit and then follow it with lunch at Trattoria Sergio Gozzi (aka.Da Sergio),

in the nearby San Lorenzo market.

copyright James Aponovich, 2011

all Aponovich paintings and text are copyright J.Aponovich

Painting #4 / Clementine in Tissue

Clementine with Tissue

James Aponovich

6 " x 8", oil on canvas, 2011

Another in the series of "Black Paintings" ( see below).

Often I am drawn to paint individual fruits, among my favorites are peeled clementines. These fruits are available in December and January, but now due to a prolonged growing season in Morocco and California they are still in our local market.

Although this painting is small, the fruit is life size. I am most comfortable painting objects their actual size. The previous painting, Parrot Tulips in Black Vase, would have normally been a canvas at least twice the size and subsequently I had to struggle with the proportions.

The painting Clementine in Tissue is a study for

Still Life with Stacked Books (next week's painting.....I hope). My wife Elizabeth likened it to a theme of gradual opening and unfolding of layers. I was happy with that comment.

ABOUT THE "BLACK PAINTINGS"

PAINTINGS HAVE MANY COMPONENTS, TWO OF WHICH ARE COLOR AND VALUE. SIMLPY STATED, VALUE IS THE VARIOUS GREYS ONE WOULD GET A IF A COLOR PAINTING WAS PHOTOGRAPHED IN BLACK AND WHITE. I REFER TO THESE AS VALUE CHORDS. GENERALLY THERE ARE THREE BSAIC CHORDS, LOW. HIGH AND INTERMEDIATE.

Low Value (DARK)

VERY DARK VALUES PUNCTUATED WITH WHITE . THIS IS THE VALUE CHORD OF THE

"BLACK PAINTINGS". IT IS DEEP AND MYSTERIOUS. IN A STRING QUARTET IT WOULD BE THE SOUND OF THE CELLO OR VIOLA.

High Value (LIGHT)

MOSTLY LIGHT, AIRY VALUES WITH THE ADDITION OF WHITE AND BLACK DETAILS. THINK OF A RENOIR PAINTING OR THE SOUND OF A VIOLIN IN THE STRING QUARTET.

Intermediate Value ( MID)

HERE ALL THE VALUES ARE BALANCED WITH OVERALL MID VALUE PUNCTUATED WITH WHITE AND BLACK ( light and dark). MOST OF MY PAINTINGS ( Parrot Tulips in Black Vase,for example) ARE IN THIS CHORD.

IT IS THE ENTIRE STRING QUARTET.

PARROT TULIPS in BLACK VASE

Parrot Tulips in Black Vase

Aponovich, 2011

oil on canvas, 16 x 12

(painting no.3)

This painting is an example of one of my Italian based still lifes. It contains the recurring theme of flowers, objects and fabric set into an Italian landscape. It is hard to beat the Italian landscape for visual interest. Originally my still lifes were all set against a neutral white wall. They were getting tired and I was getting bored. I gradually fell into a deep creative slump. It was at this time I was commissioned to travel to Italy to do a painting. I don't remember what I painted but I do recall finding myself in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence looking at a painting of a guy with a strange nose.

Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro

Duke of Urbino, 1465

Piero della Francesca

oil on panel, 18 x 13

I was transfixed by the simple profile portrait set in what seemed to be an imaginary Italian landscape, pretty much the same landscape that I had just stepped out of. Visually, in many ways, Italy has not changed much in 500 years. It was the clarity of the atmosphere that struck me. Piero was painting the actual air. I realized that in order for me to paint any object I must

also paint the air in front, around and behind, in other words the atmosphere, what the Italians call"sfumato".

I returned to the studio and began to introduce the landscape (Italian) into my compositions.

However, I would find that this transformation comes with it's own limitations. More on that later.

Copyright James Aponovich 2011

All Aponovich images and content copyright of J.Aponovich

STILL LIFE with PEARS, PLUMS and RASPBERRIES

Still Life with Pears, Plums and Raspberries

12 x 16, oil on canvas, 2011

(painting no. 2)

The pears I painted last week as studies are now placed in a more complex composition.

This painting is part of the "Black Painting Series".

The background is eliminated so that the focus is only on the objects and their reflections.

It is a study of contrasts in color and value, white tissue and black background.

Thematically it refers to a 19th Century Philadelphia painter, William John McCloskey, who was a student of Thomas Eakins.

McCloskey is now known as the "wrapped fruit painter".

William John McCloskey

Lemons

10 x 17, c.1890

Both McCloskey's and my painting are very much in the Western painting tradition with articulated form, perspective and surface detail. However, I went to an earlier source for inspiration, the Southern Sung Dynasty of China.

Mu-ch'i

Six Persimmons

ink on paper, c.1269

The painting is a brilliant example of intuitive composition.

The placement of the fruit is perfect.