Thinking of Patrick Heron…
It was Terry Greene’s blog post the day before yesterday that got me thinking about Patrick Heron saying that the flavour of words is anti-visual, and recalling that I saw a good gouache on paper by him recently, entitled Ultramarine With Lime, almost as if ultramarine were fruit you could eat. The flavour of colour, however, is entirely visual.
Patrick Heron, Ultramarine with Lime, 1976, Gouache on Paper, Courtaulds Gallery
unfortunately, the dim lighting and the reflection on the glass lean towards the anti-visual.
I saw it too…Heron never did quite get the attention he deserved…I think it was the British distaste for people who are good at more than one thing – perhaps he should have steered clear of the writing! Then again I also tend to think that the UK art world shies away from colourists…one could evidence Matthew Smith and Sean Scully who had to go off to the US to make his initial breakthrough as a major figure. But I do recall Heron coming to my art school in 1973 and proudly telling us how he had covered a twelve by eight foot canvas with a dazzling vermillion with a number two watercolour brush…dedication or bonkers!
David Manley
April 20, 2012 at 8:01 am
David, what a wonderful anecdote and definitely wonderfully bonkers!
Terry Greene
April 20, 2012 at 10:39 am
Great Story! it reminds me of a time when I was in my first few days at art school and I was priming a rather large canvas with a rather small brush and it was taking me ages. A tutor came over and said in a telling-off kind of tone “why don’t you use a bigger brush?” (I hadn’t got one and I couldn’t afford to buy one but I diidn’t tell him that). I wish I had known about the vermillion. (Vermillion brushstrokes maybe?)
Andy Parkinson
April 20, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Tate has a web page with 40 of Scully’s paintings…http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sean-scully-1917
Molecules of Emotion
April 20, 2012 at 8:34 am
Thanks for the link, they have updated it since I last visited and good to see all those images of the Scullys (a painter I like a lot).
Andy Parkinson
April 20, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Thanks for the pointer Andy , I wasn’t aware of his work.Thank you.
Molecules of Emotion
April 20, 2012 at 12:48 pm
[...] Thinking of Patrick Heron [...]
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April 21, 2012 at 5:10 pm
[...] know I said something similar the other day about ultramarine in a painting by him. It’s been a Patrick Heron week for me. [...]
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April 22, 2012 at 8:34 am