Natural Abstract Art

Natural Abstract Art Photographing Ideas

BARRIE DALE AGSA wildhaven.co.uk

In The Early Days We Were At One With Nature The history of the Stone age tells that as soon as humans started to become civilised

they also started to produce great art; accomplished renditions of the world around them, based entirely on visual memory, done under conditions of great privation. The graphic art is impressive; the sculpture even more so, done before we had learnt to make tools, to cook, to make cloth, or to write.

A confident, fluent, economical line drawing of a rhinoceros (Chalet Cave),

Sculpture of a Flying Bird (that actually looks as if its flying). Russia, about 30,000 yrs BC

Barrie Dale

wildhaven.co.uk

The level of accomplishment could have been achieved only through a deep involvement with and understanding of the Natural world. Human beings were then of Nature, not beside or outside it.

Then We Moved Away, Got Clever, And Lost The Plot Since that time we have become dis-engaged from the Natural world; so much so that we are in danger of destroying it, our only life-support system. To name but three examples, we would have extreme difficulty surviving the loss of the pollinators, the plankton, or the scavengers, all of which are under threat. This is to say nothing of surviving climate change or the acidification of the sea.

We Are All Responsible Artists, musicians and technologists began to dis-engage from Nature at more or less the same time. Compare the work of Claude with that of Cezanne; of Bach with that of Beethoven; of the horse-powered communal harvest with the combine harvester. For our own sakes, and not from some high-minded ideal, we have to reverse this trend; and quickly. The ‘environment’ is where we live.

We Need To Move Back; Fast; But How? We all need to change our ways; urgently. One of the underlying problems is the disconnect between the Arts and the Sciences. Scientists know that the human situation is deeply serious; many Arts and Humanities graduates and members of the public remain to be convinced, often because they either misunderstand or mistrust science. I am both a scientist and an artist; I need to mediate

Artists Should Take A Lead Artists were well to the fore in the move away from Nature. Their contribution was to stop painting the Natural world and instead to paint ideas. This was initiated by Turner, then swept along by Cezanne and Picasso, and was a great intellectual achievement. But it allowed vested interests to conclude that, since not even artists venerated Nature, Nature was of no value, and could be exploited to exhaustion. Perhaps artists should now be well to the fore in inducing humans to return to their productive, sustainable origins. We should be doing everything we can to get our fellows to re-engage with Nature.

Many artists would testify that it is no longer easy to achieve traction with Natural representational art; it is becoming increasingly difficult to find anything new to say. (There are honourable exceptions; and anyway, given the magnitude of the issue, the level of difficulty should not be a barrier.) It might be easier to say something new in Abstract art, but would this be seen as taking us any closer to Nature? (Here there is a problem of perception; many ‘abstract artists’ would maintain that their aesthetics derive from Nature.

The difficulty is that the general public, or the vested interests, contemplating, say a Rothko, would have difficulty in seeing a connection to the natural world.)

Is There An Untried Alternative?

Can we, instead, advocate Natural Abstract art? This seems to be an area not yet explored extensively, offering opportunities to be original, challenging and distinctive.

Barrie Dale

wildhaven.co.uk

Some Examples The accompany images are straightforward photographs of the Orchid Phalaenopsis at high magnification. They are completely Natural: no artificial lighting, no gadgets, no computer manipulation. They do not resemble the subject matter, but they each convey an idea; this is to impose discipline, avoiding mere ‘flights of fancy’, or images that are simply ‘pleasing’. I hope you like them.

Dawn in the Mountains (Petals of Phalaenopsis)

Somewhere There Is Purity (Petals of Phalaenopsis) Barrie Dale

wildhaven.co.uk

Treasure Trove (Petals of Phalaenopsis)

Desert Morning. (Petals of Phalaenopsis)

Mountain Morning (Petals of Phalaenopsis)

Barrie Dale

wildhaven.co.uk

Is ‘Natural Abstract Art’ is an idea whose time has come?

Eternal Flame (Petals of Phalaenopsis)

Barrie Dale

wildhaven.co.uk

Barrie Dale

wildhaven.co.uk