Author: Francis

Origins of Castelnau de Montmiral

WHY THE NEED FOR A FORTIFIED TOWN IN THE NORTHERN ALBIGEOIS IN THE YEAR 1222?

What I have written below is the result of my efforts to sort out contradictions in the stories concerning the origins of Castelnau de Montmiral that were going the rounds when I first arrived in the town and started teaching at the Painting School of Montmiral in 1988. I cannot claim it to be a definitive history but it represents the best story I have been able cobble together on the basis of the “facts” that I was able unearth. A condensed version appears in the main website on the history page of the main website.

porte de garrics
Porte de Garrics : the ancient entry to the town of Castelnau de Montmiral

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Preamble

It took the inhabitants of Castelnau de Montmiral more than 20 years to complete the now tree-lined esplanade that today runs along its north-east facing side. It was ready in 1622, just in time to impress King Louis XIII who stayed there and, amongst other things, is said to have eaten plums in the street, now known as ‘rue Gambetta’. He was on his way to deal with a Protestant uprising that had occurred further South caused by the failure of the local Catholics to keep faith with the Edict of Nantes, which had legally guaranteed freedom of worship for the Protestants.

A main reason why the new esplanade took so long to put in place was that previously there had been a steep escarpment, sloping precipitously down from the still massive ramparts that encircled the town. It is difficult to imagine the quantity of earth and rocks that must have been moved to raise the ground level to its present height, the original rampart walls are seldom visible, as they are now largely obscured by houses that have been built in front of long stretches of where they were located. Likewise the formidable slopes are hidden by the raised and levelled surfaces that were created when constructing the esplanade and the various roads below. All these necessitated great works made possible by men using buckets, wheelbarrows and oxen-drawn carts to move what must have seemed to them to be mountains of stone and earth.

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Fresh perspectives: “The story of a potato”.

Extracts from  “Understanding Creativity” (1)

My first fresh perspective is an extract from Chapter 10 : “Having Fun with Creativity”. It tells the story of a painting  made by a primary school child with  learning difficulties

The Potato

It is always the case that a great deal of what goes into paintings is hidden and, with it, much of what has been put into them. This point that can be clarified by means of a true story relating to a child with learning difficulties told by his primary school teacher.

George, as I shall call him, was an amiable lad, but never seemed to want to join in what others were doing. One day, during a painting session, the teacher was delighted to see him applying himself with great concentration. She hurried over to see what had caught his imagination and found that he had produced a light-brown oval shape in the middle of an otherwise empty sheet of paper. He was obviously pleased to see her and held up what he had done asking with pride in his voice, “Do you like my potato, Miss?” In itself, George’s production wasn’t very impressive but, sensing an opportunity for a breakthrough in his attitude to school, she enthused about it, suggesting, before leaving him, that he complete the picture.

Continue reading “Fresh perspectives: “The story of a potato”.”

MY VOLUMES ON ART PRACTICES

A main difference between these volumes and others on the same subjects is that they are strongly influenced by the wide ranging and innovative research undertaken by the author and colleagues into how artists use their eyes when drawing and painting. 

CONTENTS LISTS

Below are the contents lists for the four volumes on art practice:

1. Understanding Drawing

  • book 1 -‘Drawing with Feeling’

  • book 2 ‘Drawing with knowledge’

2. Understanding Painting

  • book 1 – ‘Painting with Light’

  • book 2 – ‘Painting with Colour’

3. Understanding Creativity   

4. Related Science

5. Extracts from the Glossary (in process)

6. Miscellaneousspacer______________________________

INTRODUCTORY

VOLUME ONE :

“UNDERSTANDING DRAWING”

BOOK 1 : “DRAWING WITH FEELING”

BOOK 2 : “DRAWING WITH KNOWLEDGE”

The chapters so far loaded:

Other posts on drawing can be found under “miscellaneous”:

VOLUME TWO:

“UNDERSTANDING PAINTING”

BOOK 1 : “PAINTING  WITH LIGHT”

 BOOK 2 : “PAINTING WITH COLOUR”

ADDITIONAL POSTS ON LIGHT AND COLOUR IN PAINTINGS

VOLUME THREE : 

“UNDERSTANDING  CREATIVITY”

          The chapters so far loaded:

  • Chapter 11 – Eight endings
    • The human visual system
    • Creativity
    • Heredity and learning
    • Painting is like writing
    • Serious ambition
    • Living with uncertainty
    • Seeking validation
    • The goose in the bottle

VOLUME FOUR : “UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENCE: Experiments and ideas underpinning my books”

The chapters so far loaded, all of which deal with subjects that feature in the other three volumes

EXTRACTS FROM THE “GLOSSARY”

(other entries on the way)

MISCELLANEOUS

PAINTING SCHOOL MATERIAL FROM FORMER YEARS

Request for comments on the chapters from the books.

I look forward to your comments in the section provided at the bottom of each Post. When you have made them, please leave your email address and tick the box “Notify me of new posts by email.”

Enjoy

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books

 

Horace Lecoq Boisbaudran & Alphonse Legros

by Rodin pupil of Horace Lecoq Boisbaudran
A fast Drawing by Auguste Rodin, a pupil and lifelong admirer of the teaching of Horace Lecoq Boisbaudran

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Drawing by Degas, friend of Alphonse Legros pupil of Horace Lecoq Boisbaudran
Drawing by Edgar Degas, a close friend of Alphonse Legros, star pupil of Horace Lecoq Boisbaudran, who widely shared his understanding of his teacher’s teaching method and ideas.

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Horace Lecoq Boisbaudran came to my notice in 2014. In later posts I will be saying more about him. In brief, I was amazed and gratified to find that the research upon which he based his teaching has more in common with my research than anything else I have come across. Although the exercises he proposed differed in many details from the ones that I suggest in my books, we have in common the idea that training the memory requires rigorous exploration of the unvarying uniqueness in the appearance of every object. Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran’s pupil Alphonse Legros, who actively promoted his teacher’s ideas, became a close friend of Edgar Degas. It may therefore be no coincidence that it was he who provided the best synthesis of Horace Lecoq Boisbaudran’s philosophy that I know:

“It is all very well to copy what you see; it is much better to draw what you only see in memory. There is a transformation during which the imagination works in conjunction with the memory. You only put down what made an impression on you, that is to say the essential. Then your memory and your invention are freed from the dominating influence of nature. That is why pictures made by a man with a trained memory, who knows thoroughly both the masters and his own craft, are almost always remarkable works; for instance Delacroix.

Where my teaching is substantially different from that of Horace Lecoq Boisbaudran is the emphasis I put on training the “feel system“.

Meanwhile here is an extract from the “Glossary”  to “Drawing on Both Sides of the Brain” that provides an introduction to his ideas and his influence. I have also added the entry for Alphonse Legros, described as his star pupil, who had great success in spreading his ideas to both his own generation and the following ones.

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Accuracy versus expression debate

Click below for a contribution to the accuracy versus expression debate. It is the first chapter of my book “Drawing on Both Sides of the Brain” which is made up of two volumes: “Drawing with Feeling” and “Drawing with Knowledge”.  The drawing of Durer’s Mother below is one of the six illustrations in the chapter used to illustrate the expressive potential of the accuracy aspiration. Please enjoy.

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“DRAWING WITH FEELING”-CHAPTER 1 – “ACCURACY V EXPRESSION”

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accuracy versus expression debate
Albrecht Durer: Portrait of his Mother

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Other posts:

Chapters from “Drawing on Both Sides of the Brain”.

Other drawing related Posts

Click here for a full lists of other Posts

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