Cloud over Water by Paterson Ewen - Essay Example

A research essay that responds to the excerpt through an investigation of the Canadian artist Paterson Ewen and his painting called Cloud over Water painted in 1979. William Paterson Ewen was a great painter whose work was mostly based on abstracts. He succeeded to revitalize the landscape of Canadian Art by using his emotionally charged constructions, his intentionally awkward use of colors and handling of the material in exceptionally different way. He was given the National Award by Banff Center in the year 1987 and he also won the prize by Jeans Chalmers in the year 1995 (William Paterson Ewen). In the year 1996, Matthew Teitelbaum wrote that the paintings that have been painted by Paterson Ewen cannot be understood empirically. The work of the Canadian Artist, Paterson Ewen suggests that all his pieces of art have been the landscape of his inspiration. His work does not only comprise of landscape and it is much more than that. His constructions and paintings are considered to be the exploration of how nature is been experienced by human being by using all their senses and imaginations. His paintings are more than landscapes as the physical presence of the painting can be considered both visual as well as tactical, that delivers the experiential details of his constructions. Ewen does not only seem to paint the rough surfaces but he believes in painting the skin of the gravel. He does not paint the form but the weather as his work is not based on shapes but on the blotch of the sky. The sensation created by his magnificently executed creations dramatically conveyed the awe that is felt by human beings in the grandeur of the nature and of the universe that is the earth, its heaven and its waters (Davis). “Cloud over Water”, a striking painting by Paterson Ewen, always succeeds to draw the attention of people. Ewen’s work basically consists of acrylic on gouged plywood and galvanized steel. It has some supernatural qualities presenting a little white cloud placed in a conceptually textured sky present over the multicolored calm sea. On doing the detailed analysis of the “Moon Series” created by Ewen, one can observe that almost all of his created landscapes have moon in it, whereas “Cloud in Water” does not have any moon in it. In the 19th century the landscapes painted by the artists portrayed a tamed sublimity. The art presented by Paterson Ewen took the painting and coloring techniques to new heights. His abstract and his use of vibrant colors made his style more expressive. One of his contributions to the art is his ways through which he creatively exploits his materials and the quality of paints and colors that he uses. His illustrative aspects towards the landscape painting are considered to be some of his contributions towards the history of Landscape paintings. However on analyzing the historical aspects of Canadian Landscape painting one can see that it was categorized by wilderness. The European Landscape painters at the time of Ewen tried to minimize the presence of humans as it was considered one of the national tradition of the English speaking and Canadians, as the absence of a humanly figure was considered to be a pre-requisite for nobility. “Cloud in Water” is a creation of Paterson Ewen which seems to be a bit unpolished in shape and it portrays a dramatic and romantic weather with sky dotted with suns. While observing the “Cloud in Water” we can see that the landscape has been segregated in the quixotic pictorial traditions in different ways. The aspects of nature have been executed in a rather rigorous physical form than the representational ones. The Cloud and Sea for example define the notion of landscape by various technological ways and by using new and innovative use of photography and film. The romanticism inherited from repertoire has been directed by Ewen in a more physical manner. Ewen by choice wanted to portray the uninhabited aspect of the nature, favoring the cloud and water as his subject for revealing the great power possessed by nature and not the brilliance that has been acquired to capture the landscape image by all different astonishing technological ways. Unlike other artists, Ewen does not simply display his humanly achievement of capturing the nature or his intelligent artistic concepts but he rather believes in showing the vision of exquisiteness that the nature holds. He does not paint as if he wants to document and at no cost he attempts to hide the uniqueness of his perceptions. Ewen shows the personal and intense involvement of an artist in producing colorful evidence, which is actually the perpetual representation of the clouds and seas that he had actually been experiencing throughout his life. Ewen’s painting “Cloud on Water” sets him apart from the traditional landscape artist in different ways; however the landscape that he chooses has always been just imaginary. The cloud has been placed like a central image in his paintings representing the illusionistic or the 3-dimensional space present in the landscape genre. It reflects the fact that the beauty of the cloud lies in its distance from the earth and waters and also from the gravity of the earth. Although it is at a distance from the land and water but still it moves along with them. It is clear from his painting that he is not only showing the traditional view of land but of the raw inevitability, power and wonder possessed by it. His clouds are no longer something that float on the roof of the earth, but they are a massive something that expands and fills entirely the whole earth. In order to understand the importance of the term “landscape” while discussing the work of Ewen (Cloud on Water), it is essential to do the survey of the path travelled by this Genre from the very beginning, narrating the socio-political and psychological aspects of contemporary art. A shift is seen in the sense of the transcendent in the last two decades. Belief in the Almighty and in His divine powers has helped many of the artists to take a glance at a place called “Heaven”. The conquest for humanity for nature transformed the human beings into the protectors of Earth and their attention shifted from the invisible place present in the sky to the territory waiting for them on Earth. In 19th century, the nature turned into a laboratory for man for carrying out experimentation, education, exploitation and sometimes entertainment. At that time the nobility and the grandeur of nature redirected an empire’s pride and also the pride of the ability of humanity for harnessing nature. Painting nature can be considered vast and limitless and can reinforce the spirit of achievement in humans by taming the things that were once considered wild (Cloud Over Water). Glenn Adamson explains that the words “Work, practice and cite” are the ones with which the contemporary art has a problem to move along. The artists who practice contemporary art do not really get along with the process that these words represent. They do not really believe in practice and no link can be drawn between their collections of paintings. They usually believe in defining new subjects or coming up with new and innovative things every time they hit a new canvas. This is where they lack in defining the connection between their paintings. Modern artists believe in showing way too many concepts in a single painting, which at times may make things complex and it only succeeds to provide a vague idea to the viewers, rather than providing them with the whole meaning. Criticism still exists about the fact that the work of the artists differ from the things that they practice in their real life. When the work of the artists is different from the things they are practicing then the meaning they are trying to portray to the viewer remains vague. This decreases the effectiveness of the art and the work of the artist is shut down to admirations and applause. Research suggest that if the artist wants to create a strong link between the painting and the audience then it is important that his work must be the examples of the things extracted from real or the places that he visits every day or the things present in the surroundings that have succeeded to draw his attentions towards them (Nobbs). If the artist wants to develop a connection between his creations and the audience, it is better for him to include things that belong to his surroundings or simply the ones that the people come across every day. It is the job of the artists to bring forward the social issues existing in the society through their work and this will also serve as a mean of awakening the people from the deep slumber and introducing them to the problems they are surrounded with. By doing all this, the artist definitely follows the path of “work, practice and site” and brings his work closer to reality. Work Cited Davis, Geraldine. "On Ewens Moons." 2008. Martin, Judy. Cloud Over Water. 2013. http://judys-journal.blogspot.com/2013/12/cloud-over-water.html. 12 March 2014. Nobbs, Michael. Deciding to work through The Artist’s Way. 2013. http://www.sustainablycreative.com/the-artists-way/. 12 March 2014. William Paterson Ewen. 2013. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/william-paterson-ewen/. 11 Febuary 2014. Read More