The Still Life in Art - A Traditional Romance

Still Life ... Nature Morte

The Traditional Romance of Still Life

George A. Rada, Janet Fish, Ken McConney, George Rada, Anna Feld, Jessica Mieles, Robert Casper

New York Art World ® - Themes Listing - Artists - Back - Next

The still life as a subject is the most deliberate in all of art. Still lifes do not exist; they must be arranged by the artist in actuality or in the mind, or through the camera lens.

This act of arranging is indicative of artistic intent.

Making still-life pictures puts artists on a common ground that reveals significantly their individual sensibility.

Some are interested in creating mystery, others are interested in translating the everyday.

Basket of Fruit with Wine Glass © Ken McConney
Watercolor on Paper

Nothing is More Abstract than Reality.

"I believe that nothing can be more abstract, unreal than what we actually see . . . Matter exists, of course, but has no intrinsic meaning of its own, such as the meaning we attach to it. Only we can know that a cup is a cup, that a tree is a tree . . . I have never intended to give the objects in my still-life arrangements any particular meanings."

Georgio Morandi

A Blue Teapot © Ken McConney
Watercolor

Modern Still Life remains a natural choice for artists. The greatest artists of our time have tried their hand at still life, whether sporadically or intensely, producing fresh results from the crossing of styles as well as translating their technical achievements.

Nature Morte

A Still Llife can show beautiful vessels filled with wine and appetizing fruit, perhaps with a vase of flowers, invitingly arranged on lovely china.

Artists can choose the objects they want to paint and arrange them in such a way to express their viewpoint about the world.

Artists paint what's in their heart, whereas the viewer responds to what's beautiful and real.

Imagine how far the still life developed between the Dutch realists of the 1600s and Paul Cezanne, whose still lifes explore the relation of color to modeling.

It is often what is in the artist's intent that makes Still Life enduring.