Imagination in Realism

People always ask about artists methods, and/or where a particular scene is in a landscape painting.  And it’s always a little funny answering them regarding Donald Jurney‘s works because most times his landscapes are a combination of his travel memories, and imagination supported by referencing old sketches (and a lifetime of observation and painting).  People sometimes seem disappointed to find out that a painted scene does not represent an exact place.  This is actually quite absurd considering that a painting will always be a painting (colored mud on canvas), never the subject it portrays.  This is perhaps most famously and directly expressed by Magritte’s La trahison des images, aka the ‘this is not a pipe’ pipe (right).

In any case, Jurney seems to get this concept and does not let himself be slave to exact representation.  This freedom is essential to making successful paintings.   What’s important about his process is that as a work develops he is fully willing to abandon accuracy and modify the scene for the betterment of the overall composition, responding to it, and letting the painting determine its final form.  This idea may best be understood by looking at an extreme example (he did for teaching purposes) in his blog post ‘A Landscape from the Cupboard’ in which a kitchen still life is the visual springboard for a landscape. (and part 2)  It’s a great look into part of his process, and a reminder that there is plenty of room for imagination in representational/realist art.