"A modeled form is less surprising than a form as yet unmodeled. The modeling prevents any surprise and limits movement to visual depth. Without modeling or chiaroscuro, the depth is unlimited: movement can be extended to infinitude"
"A picture had to be right to a millimeter. It had to be in balance to a millimeter. For example in the painting 'The Farmer's Wife,' I found that I had made the cat too large: it threw the picture out of balance. This is the reason for the double circles and the two angular lines in the fore ground. They look symbolic, esoteric: but they are no fantasy, they were put in, to bring the picture into equilibrium."
I think that in this picture there are incredible use of Line. I had not thought about using lines to bring balance, in this way. There are also quite a few triangles in this picture. What do you think that this does for the chemistry of the picture. Does the large feet make the farmer's wife look grounded to the earth? I think so. The white triangle kinda disturbs me....maybe though it represents the spirit of the cat? What do you think? I noticed that the heavy line that angles down to the left would make an x in the v-line of the farmer's wife, if this v-line were extended upward. Did Miro use a long yard stick and see where other lines would intersect?
Is this part of his achieving balance in a picture?
2 comments:
I love reading the thoughts of an artist about his process. The white triangle is SO white; it draws the eye, but seems separate from the rest of the painting, not integrated; deliberately so, no doubt, but wish he'd commented on the reason.
I was reading some notes that I had made about color theory. I was reading this last night and thinking about this white circle and lines.
My notes said the warm colors such as red and orange also appear to come forward. Now if you take your finger or thumb and hold it over the white circle...what do you see. I immediately see those large toe nails. I don't think that cat was the problem as much as the toe nails. I really like the one white toe nail on her right foot and I didn't notice this before I did this exercise...did you?
So when I did this with the white triange I noticed that my eye shifted down to the bottom of the picture ...at those feet. His point so he says was to create balance...so I am thinking that it didn't matter to him what it was...the shape and color didn't have to make sense to the picture as long as the balance made sense. Hold your finger over the white triangle and see where your eyes go. What do you think?
Also if surprise was what he found interesting then certainly that white triangle would work...because it has cause us to question, which I think that maybe this is one of the things art does...create an inquisitive mind. Maybe this is what is going on with the artist and this painting...he is communicating with the painting and it says unbalanced...and so he tries something different, just to see.
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