Comments on: Painting from Death: Bodner on creating from photographs

By: amber lounder

amber lounder — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 20:53:00 +0000

we do not see the photograph, we see the artist interpretation of an image. Be it breathing or in a 2 dimension state when created makes no difference when you can capture a definite emotion like Mr Bodner can
I feel blessed to have seen these works Thank you
Canadian artist Amber Lounder

By: Angela Ferreira

Angela Ferreira — Mon, 15 May 2006 16:01:00 +0000

I think nowadays photographs are an easy available way of helping the images out of our imagination to take shape. When lack of models is a problem, we have to resource to photographs. However, if I am looking for an exotic and intriguing picture of a woman for example I do not go to magazine models or stars but I use myself as a model surrounded by the photograph landscape that I want to portrait. Of course if I was able to travel freely every time and had these looking models available and it would also be a very interesting experience and the outcome would probably be far different. There are no words to express how the living experience can be more relevant to painting than a photograph. Paul Gaugin who has travelled to different countries to pursuit exotic different paintings has once said: “I love Brittany; here I find savage, primitive quality. When my clogs echo on this granite ground, I hear a dull , muted, powerful sound I am looking for in a painting…I live like a peasant and am know as a savage”
Photographs cannot smell or sound or give a whole experience to the inspiring mind of an artist. Paul Gaugin also wrote “Life (in Madagascar) doesn’t cost a thing for a person who wants to live like the natives. Hunting suffices to supply you easily with food. Consequently, if I can close a deal, I am going to…live free and create art (…) out there, having a woman is compulsory, so to speak, which will give me a model every day.”

By: Bekka Teerlink

Bekka Teerlink — Mon, 15 May 2006 14:26:00 +0000

The idea and ownership of an image by painting it intrigues me. I think there is a basic human desire to own things and make a mark on them– from a person scratching their initials into a tree to lusting after the girl next door. I think artists use their work to own what either cannot be owned, that which is fleeting, that which doesn’t exist, or that which doesn’t fit into acceptable rules of society.

By: Lisa Hunter

Lisa Hunter — Mon, 15 May 2006 08:28:00 +0000

Interesting topic for a post. I’m always surprised by how many paintings depict dead loved ones, and are based on a combination of memory and photographs. Looking forward to the next installment.