I credit J.M.W. Turner with a great deal of influence in art history. His watercolors and oils fascinate me. Naturally, I am interested in what he had to say about the process of painting. If I were given a brief space in a blog to pass along what I think is his best advice to artists, what would I say? First, I would tell this story. A collector, C. R. Leslie, complained to Turner that a particular painting was too indistinct. Turner brusquely replied, ” Sir, Indistinctness is my forte.” Turner understood that to engage the imagination of the viewer ( and himself), uncertainty needed to be employed. Turner used the word , “Doubt”. If a painting could offer a condition of doubt or uncertainty the viewer would have to guess about it and, in guessing they would discover possibilities generated by the uncertain quality presented in the paint. The viewer would bring their imagination to the painting. This is how we look at the world. We make millions of hypotheses. If Turner too carefully delineates information then, the painting ceases to offer a sense of possibility. It then offers only one solution and, that will never be quite right because, the more precise the transcription the more likely we will find fault with it but, the more uncertain the painting is then the vision, the hypothesis, is supplied by the viewer. Dewey liked to say the painting was completed by the viewer. With uncertainty there will not be error there will only be a quality of possibility, of mystery which can change with each viewing. Turner further advised artists not to make paintings timidly but, with confidence. He advised artists to pursue a sense of impression, the quality of a glimpse, not a record or list. His advice predates the same advice give by Corot to the Impressionists and, later given by Monet to other aspiring painters. In the two Turner watercolor sketches presented here, observe they are rapidly executed( no timidity) probably in just a few minutes. You can look into the paint and project, hypothesize a world. I have found the advice useful and pursue it in my way. Here is an example of mine offering both uncertainty and possibilities for narration suggested with few sharp notes scattered about a textured field of ambiguity.
Fredric Neuwirth
The Yale Center for British Art has several Turners and they are wonderful to look at. What is amazing about them to my eye is to get lost in the image. It makes looking at them each time a joy as you see them with a new eye. It is the fact that you know that he can paint a realistic image that make the impression so remarkable. The watercolor sketches of the Burning of the House of Parliament were done rapidly, very impressionistic & with great control. It is my goal.
Heather
Actually, no.
HTH
Zvonimir Tosic
Actually yes. In that specific case, Turner explains to a new American customer (via the friend) something customer doesn’t understand in the first place (his painting style), and thus ascribes all attributes of the picture in question to his painting ‘faults’. Which are, in fact, Turner’s strengths.
Neither being an exact quote anyway, but a related anecdotal story, using forte instead of fault explains in simpler terms what Turner wanted to say. However, being a Romanticist painter and a poet, even if we take fault as the exact word, reflected his way of creating art — quite indistinct, double meaning and not quite definite in any way.