While preparing the material
for my upcoming book The Art of Petar
Meseldzija I came across the files of many old paintings. Because the paintings have been sold, I haven't seen them for many years. Nor have I looked at the hi-res files for quite some time. Therefore it's been nice to
see all these images again and to recollect the memories attached to their making and their
subsequent life. Below you can see one of the oldies. The book is
progressing well, in fact much of it is already finished, and it is now
definite that it will come out in august.
Here are two little paintings
that I recently finished. First is my MicroVisionspiece which I call “Frightened
Monster”. The second painting, named “Night Knight”, was done for a quilt
project. Both paintings will be auctioned (the Knight painting as a part of the
quilt) and the money will go to the student scholarships.
Sometimes I wish these kind of scholarship projects existed when I was a
student, so that I could at least buy a proper oil paint, instead of having to
use the cheap little tubes of oil color manufactured in China, that I used to
buy in Prague, Czech Republic. But on the other hand, I often wonder if better
circumstances and more stimulating surroundings would help me become a better
artist…well, maybe…I don’t know. It’s also true that when things get tough, we
get to know our deeper Self and often get better and tougher, for if you are
not tough enough and always need somebody or something to lean on, despite of
all your great talents, you might not make it as an artist. In my opinion
talent and skill need to be accompanied by a set of other qualities within the
personality that have nothing to do directly with the artistic abilities,
things like perseverance, courage, a certain amount of boldness and even
stubbornness. One does not develop these qualities if the surroundings are too
supportive. On the other side, the lack of support can have a devastating
impact on the psyche, as we all know.
Anyway, that Chinese oil paint from Czech Republic was not that bad after
all. At least it had a very pleasant and natural smell that stayed with me
forever, and that I still associate with good old days marked by happy
enthusiasm, blessed lack of life and professional experience and above all my
burning love affair with painting.
One evening, after a long, tiring day of "serious" painting, I wanted to relax a bit, so I took a pencil and a piece
of paper and drew this silly figure. After it was finished, I went downstairs to
watch the TV with my wife.
Perhaps some of you would like to get a little more insight into the
stages of development of my Death Dealer:
Homage to Frazetta piece. Here are a few progress shots.
Death Dealer: Homage to Frazetta, Oil on board, 55 X 72 cm (21 1/2 X 28 1/4 inch), 2012/2013
My homage to Frazetta is finally finished and although it has often been
said that a good painting does not need the explanation, I do feel compelled to
say something about one particular aspect of this piece. My intention was not
to make a copy of Frazetta’s character. My intention was to do a homage to the
master by projecting his famous character onto my world and let it go through
the prism of my own vision. The essence of my interpretation has been most
correctly expressed by a good friend of mine and a fellow artist who, upon
seeing the painting, commented:“ Ah,
you are on their side as well…!” Another spot-on remark I heard from another
person was: “This is perhaps the lightest Death Dealer painting I have ever
seen, butstill the darkest Death Dealer,
for it appears to me that HE is the bad guy!”
The Death Dealer series, as it is the case with much of Frazetta’s art,
reflect a typical black-and-white approach to the relationship between good and
evil, and it is presented in a simplified and rather straightforward manner. Death
Dealer’s foes are evil savages who are here to be slain (punished for whatever they
stand for), while Death Dealer’s job is to make sure it is properly and
thoroughly done. Generally speaking, I think this aspect of Frazetta’s art is
not only connected to the certain archetypes and the stereotypes of his time,
but it also reflects something of the preconceptions, general aspirations, prevailing ideologies, the
impact of major conflicts, etc. of the 20st century.
The times have changed, as we know . We don’t live anymore in a
black-and-white world (we never did, by the way, this is one of many misconceptions
man has to deal with). We now live in a Grey, more complex world, a global village, where the division
line between the good guys and the bad guys seem to be fairly blurred. In a way
we have become more realistic (I still avoid to use the word “wise” because of
the obvious reasons). It has been said that the most popular character from Peter
Jackson’s movie trilogy The Lord of the
Rings is not Frodo, or Sam, or Gandalf, or Aragorn but Gollum! I think this
is a very interesting indication, although a tiny one, and I guess relatively
insignificant, for there are much better and more relevant examples. Never the
less, this testifies to the shift in the approach of the general public
(popular culture) to the concept of good and bad, which apparently has become
more flexible.
The underlying notion of my Death Dealer interpretation is supposed to
reflect this “new” point of view. The rest of the elements, mostly technical in
nature, are derived from this concept.
Last Saturday I attended a convention in the nearby town of Beverwijk in
North Holland. My publisher Dark Dragon Books presented there a little book
titled Petar Meseldzija Dossier Preview (a
12 pages book, limited to 50 copies only). The book includes a number of recent
sketches and drawings and it is in fact an announcement of a bigger book that will
be published in June this year.
During this rather chilly convention (our booth was quite close to the
entrance and it was a cold day), I did a number of drawings in Dossier Preview book as well as in my Tarzan book. In order to forget about
the cold and to have some extra fun, I decided todo a little game. Most of the sketches, that you can see below, were created in the
following way: I would take a fine liner, close my eyes and do a very quick uncontrolled
scribble, or I would ask the publisher to do the scribble, or my wife. Then I would
let this scribble guide me while I try to “squeeze” a shape out of it, mostly a
head of a grotesque character. None of these characters are premeditated, they
just happened, they popped-up from the scribble J
A scribble and the finished drawing
and two regular sketches (below)
Here are some
recent sketchesfrom my Tarzan book. The
paper from this book is not very suitable for drawing with graphite because it
is too smooth and plastic-like. Because of that I have to adjust my approach to this disobedient surface (it makes it harder to achieve the usual results), but when after that I do my drawings
on a proper paper, it becomes much easier to control
the drawing process and to achieve the desired results. Sounds quite logical,
right!? So, people, I guess the conclusion is: use bad art materials and tools to
practice with for a certain period of time, in order to enhance your skills :)
A frame from the movie Endrei
Rublev by Andrei Tarkovsky
Some of you
have probably noticed that my posts have become short and somewhat meager
lately. One of the main reasons is that, for some time now, my mind has been
tormented by my own present artistic infertility and a feeling that I have lost
my direction, my compass. Well, this is nothing unusual because all of us
experience similar kind of problems at the certain moment in our life. This
often marks a turning point, approaching of the crossroads, a transition from one
stage, or level, to another. Such a situation inevitably creates a certain
amount of turbulence and disorder, since the fundamental and established
thoughts, desires and dreams, that have powered our system and allowed it to be
stable and to function optimally, for a certain reason start to move and shake.
I have
reached the place in my artistic career which I was longing for to arrive at
for many preceding years. This kind of longing of mine does not exists anymore,
it has fulfilled its function by bringing me to the desired spot. No longing,
no motivation. No motivation, no creative vitality. However uncomfortable and
disturbing, this turbulence and the mental pain and disorientation that goes
with it, has forced me to reconsider the very motifs for becoming an artist and
for spending the biggest portion of my life on making art.
As a result
of this struggle I came up with a statement that is supposed to help me find a
new sense of direction and purpose, and therefore revitalize the creative
spirit in me. It is expressed through the following words:
- If my work (art) keeps me from doing a backbreaking physical work, or a
mind numbing monotonous kind of work, and helps me feed myself and my family,
it’s good!
- If it helps
me express my mental and emotional issues, it’s excellent.
- If it helps others to get closer to their own heart, it’s useful.
- If it helps
me get famous and rich, it’s seductive and tricky.
- If it guides me through my inner Dark Forest, helps me slain dragons and
demons, or make them my friends and allies, and shows me the way out of it to a
sunny meadow, it’s wondrous, it fulfills its holy purpose and justifies itself.
One of the
reasons I am revealing this rather intimate issue to you is that I know that
there are many souls out there who are having, or will have in the future, the
same kind of issues with themselves and their art. My confession will not solve
your problem, but it might help a little by showing you that you are not alone
in this struggle, that even the accomplished and “successful” among us have to
deal with these things sooner or later, in one or another way. It might help
you realize thatperhaps you too have to come up with some kind of statement
that will calm down your psyche and help you regain the balance and peace of mind.
As it has always been, the ways of the World are often seductive and
misleading, and there is always a price tag attached to it.
In that
respect, I was delighted to discover that a much bigger artist and a greater
mind than myself has defined art and its purpose in a similar way. Below you
can find out what Andrei Tarkovsky (1932 Zavrazhye, Soviet Union –
1986 Paris, France), one of the greatest Russian movie directors, said about
ART. The films of Andrei Tarkovsky have been revered as ranking on a par with
the masterpieces of Russia's novelists and composers. His work, from films such
as Ivan's Childhood , Andrei Rublev , Solaris, Stalker, has had an enormous influence on the style
of contemporary European film.
