2024 Updates

Plein Air, Night series and others (2024)

Other drawings and studies (2024)

Notes, process and rambling (2024)

I spent most of 2024 teaching, in order to stabilize my life a little after returning from Russia. Just as I expected, after my successful solo exhibition in the beginning of the year, I would not be able to pull off anything substantial because of my working schedule. However, I am really thankful for the opportunity to teach and earn an income at the same time. Met (and trained) a few really talented students who made all the time and effort worthwhile- one of these days I should post their works here. When one teaches really seriously, one is also training oneself, and completing one's education (this isn't just my opinion, many great artists said something to this effect). I felt that this year, even though there was a bit of a creative drought, technically I am getting much more confident. I revised perspective, anatomy, colour theory, to name a few things. As the year draws close to the end, I am a little worn out, but also hopeful for the coming year. Currently I'm working on improving my technique in pencil drawing- I usually sketch just well enough for making paintings from, but now as a teacher, I have to be a bit more rigorous in my technical ability, even more than before. Everything hinges on Drawing (or Line)- it is like how Ingres put it, the "probity of Art", and it is indeed the beginning, the middle, and the end, of Art.

The main achievement this year was the ability to paint (pretty) effectively from drawings, and not directly from photo references. Of course, in the construction of unfamiliar forms, one should, and must consult reference, whether it be from life, photos, or other artworks. But as my old Prof back in the Academy taught me (which few heeded this advice): never to paint from a photo reference directly, especially from a smartphone screen. One should always sketch it out at least, in as linear a form as possible, in order to feel the plasticity* of it, and how the forms relate to each other. Then during the creative stage of sketching the "cartoon" and painting the actual piece, one already knows exactly how to relate the forms, and the effect is much more livelier. The main goal is to eventually paint from drawings completely, much like how masters of old, like Holbein all the way to the 19th century masters (think of Repin, Matjeko, etc.) painted.

I think I rambled on too long as usual, but I would say that this year's harvest wasn't shabby, and a few of the most useful things I did was: to stay off social media (unhealthy af), to focus 90% of my time on Drawing, and to relook at many false assumptions about colour and the way it was taught. The road ahead for me is still very long, but I think that month by month I am getting closer to the goal, which is to be able to compose something more substantial than just head studies or still-life. Everything now hinges on the Art and Science of Drawing, and the more I push myself to teach well, so do my good students push me, and this dialectical process leads to greater improvement for everyone, which I hope, one day, will also lead to a richer (and more visually literate) art public in the future.

Samuel Chen

2024 late November, Singapore

*P.S. Realised 3 months later that I didn't add the footnote for the asterix mark above, about what plasticity is in Art:

Пластичность (от греч. plastikуs - годный для лепки, податливый, пластичный) - качество, присущее скульптуре, художественная выразительность объёмной формы, гармоничное соотношение выразительности моделировки с весомостью, внутренней наполненностью, динамичностью формы. В самом широком значении пластичность - скульптурность, выпуклость, отчётливость объёмной формы во всех искусствах пластических - архитектуре, живописи, графике, декоративно-прикладном искусстве.

(Источник: «Популярная художественная энциклопедия.» Под ред. Полевого В.М.; М.: Издательство "Советская энциклопедия", 1986)

CN:

可塑性（源自希腊语 plastikуs——适合雕刻、柔韧、可塑）是雕塑固有的品质、体积形式的艺术表现力、造型表现力与重量、内在丰满度和形式活力之间的和谐关系。从最广泛的意义上来说，可塑性是指所有造型艺术（建筑、绘画、图形、装饰和应用艺术）中的雕塑性、凸度和体积形式的清晰度。

（来源：《大众艺术百科全书》。V.M. Polevoy 编；M.：《苏联百科全书》出版社，1986 年）

Plasticity (from the Greek plastikуs - suitable for modeling, pliable, plastic) is a quality inherent in sculpture, artistic expressiveness of volumetric form, harmonious relationship of expressiveness of modeling with weight, internal fullness, dynamism of form. In its broadest sense, plasticity is sculpturality, convexity, distinctness of volumetric form in all plastic arts - architecture, painting, graphics, decorative and applied art.

(Source: "Popular Art Encyclopedia." Ed. by V.M. Polevoy; Moscow: Publishing House "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1986)

CN:

可塑性（源自希腊语 plastikуs - 适合造型、柔韧、可塑）是雕塑固有的品质，是体积形式的艺术表现力，造型表现力与重量的和谐关系，内部丰满，形式活力。从最广泛的意义上讲，可塑性是所有造型艺术（建筑、绘画、图形、装饰和应用艺术）中的雕塑性、凸度、体积形式的鲜明性。

（来源：《大众艺术百科全书》。V.M. Polevoy 编辑；莫斯科：《苏联百科全书》出版社，1986 年）