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« Steering Clear AKA Warning: Artist on Board | Main | The Big Melt AKA Kaputski »
Unseen Paintings AKA Thank you Dick Francis
by Jill Peckelun on 2/24/2010 9:51:59 AM
(I'm) Just a Man
I really enjoy reading fiction. It's my preferred way to end each day. And, naturally, being an artist, I always enjoy reading an author's take on characters who are artists. It's impressive when the author gets the technical stuff right, funny when they don't.
Many authors give their artist characters superhuman artistic abilities. It's annoying. Who can compete with that? If they are a portrait painter, why their portraits are epiphanies of illumination into a sitter's soul. Overcome with emotion and stunned with the shock of such incisive character revelation, people weep when they view these paintings. Right. If the artist is a landscape painter, why then every other piece gets accepted into the National Gallery. Of course. They are forever prettily getting smudges of paint on their dainty noses. Their hair is artfully tousled with their efforts. What they can do with a cheap piece of charcoal and some inexpensive paper is amazing- having only had a glimpse of a dastardly criminal, they can dash off a portrait that gives no hiding place to the wanted for he is now known to everyone.
Obviously, fictional characters have a tremendous advantage over real life artists in that no one will ever see their work. The books aren't illustrated with their paintings, no reader can judge for themselves what these pieces look like. I can only hope that readers aren't disappointed when they look at real artwork by real artists and find themselves less than gobsmacked. (Of course, real paintings can move a viewer to tears. I confess that I did weep when I saw Bastien LePage's Joan of Arc at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first time. It is such a painting... I can't even describe its presence.)
Mystery author Dick Francis died this past week. I will miss his presence on this earth. And, I want to say for the record that I think he got it right. He wrote two books with artist characters. To the Hilt about an acrylic painter, and In the Frame about an equine painter. Mr. Francis's artists were solid working artists with full lives who in the course of the novels did have a peak painting experience that was completely believable. And inspiring for those of us who are artists.
I'll think I'll re-read these both to celebrate his life and his life's work. Thanks, Mr. Francis.
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| All images are copyright Jill Peckelun ....... Telephone: 484-350-3310...... Friend me on Facebook |
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