Some Seago decision making

One of the things I like about writing the blog is that it has put me into communication with other artists scattered about the planet. I never really thought about that when I started it, but things grow. Either way I got an e-mail from an artist with whom I had traded mail before. He sent me a couple of very interesting images I want to show you.

As those of you who have read this blog for sometime know, I am very fond of the work of an English painter, Eward Seago (1910-1974). A number of years ago I took my Seago books on a painting trip to Paris. I figured out where he moored his boat on the Seine ( for that is often how he traveled) and worked out from there to his painting sites. I then painted his locations in Paris. I found where he had set up his easel and made my own "takes" of those places.

The artist who contacted me today was doing the same thing, although he didn't know it at the time. He set up on a location on the Norfolk coast but was unhappy with the painting he made. Upon returning home he found a picture in a book of a Seago made on the same site., It is very informative to notice the changes that Seago made. Below is the location as it really is.

Below is the Seago painting. Notice that he has changed the house into an old barn. That's a big improvement, as it is a much more pleasing shape, and dilapidated and weathered buildings often look better than well maintained structures in a painting, they are more interesting from a textural standpoint, have less mechanical lines and they are evocative. Seago has also added a line of trees to the background replacing what my English friend says is an uninteresting view of reeds. A good painter brings a surprising amount of the painting to the landscape with him in the form of experience and invention.

IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE RIGHT, IT JUST HAS TO LOOK GOOD!

© The Estate of Edward Seago, courtesy of Portland Gallery www.portlandgallery.com

Notice all of those left leaning lines in the masts and the posts holding the embankment, even in the barn itself. They are nicely countered by the right hand sweep of the river, the foreground sand and that tree over on the left by the barn. Thank you to our friend across the pond for the photos.