Maine and the Visual Imagination

Judith Reeve, “Immense Sea”, 2018, 20″x30″.

“The Artist is engaged in a spiritual activity whose essence consists in the precise delineation of reality, which is revealed to the visionary Imagination.”

Rockwell Kent taken from William Blake

This quote hangs on the wall of my studio and it clearly expresses my approach to painting. Kent, who traveled and painted the Arctic landscape, exemplifies Blake’s concept. Kent’s landscapes go beyond merely depicting the vast open spaces of the Arctic but embody an imaginal element that speaks to the viewer about our own existential place on earth. He places humanity in the realm of Zarathustra (see Kent’s, Wilderness).

But Kent’s paintings do not negate in any way what rose up before him. He places man precisely in reality and is true to his experience of the moment. But what makes the work remarkable, is that Kent allows freedom for the imagination to occupy that same place as the visual reality before him.  Both can exist simultaneously and each can have a voice in the image. Kent’s passion for the North, particularly Greenland, comes from the immensity and expansiveness of that place unmarred by man. It is a place of solitude where the imagination can easily find expression.

Judith Reeve, “Great Head”, 2018, 20″x30″.

Is it even possible to find that balance of isolation and imaginative freedom now? I think every artist has that place somewhere where they feel the expressive possibilities of both worlds- the depiction of reality within the natural world and a place of visitation for the imagination. In my own experience, the sea provides that space of immensity, expansiveness and acts as a portal of an imaginal vision seeking it’s imprint upon reality. It is the very reason I travel to the coast of Maine as much as I can. It is a retreat from my normal, harried existence and an immersion into another realm removed and yet a more concentrated experience of reality.

Judith Reeve, “Surf”, 2018, 20″x30″.

The sea is a symbol that has effected painters and writers of America. They have qualified the sea as a medium in which we see our true existence amplified. I often think of Melville’s, Moby Dick, and how the whale symbolizes those deep, unconscious realities that we only have a mere intuition and feeling of. But it is these realities, the spindrift surfacing deep from the sea floor (Rumi), that gives meaning to our existence, creates a longing to know our place in the world, that cannot be suppressed. Ishmael needs to get to sea because he has lost touch with his inner self and if he remains on land his longing will be too great to bear. His inner life will be annihilated under the superficiality that consumes much of our daily existence.

Judith Reeve, “Approaching Storm”, 2018, 16″x22″.

So, this year, I present to you my Maine coast paintings as a way to meditate on the beauty of the sea amid an imaginal vision seeking to call us back to ourselves, back from the brink of forgetfulness.

Judith Reeve, “Rocks Before Great Head”, 2018, 16″x22″.
Judith Reeve, “In the Mist”, 2018, 16″x22″.
Judith Reeve, “Wave Shadow”, 2018, 6″x8″.

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Experience and Validation

The surprise of an artistic journey when commitment breaks the bounds of all preconceived expectation.

East Wind, a painting buy Judith Reeve
East Wind, oil on linen

Often times artists search deeply within themselves to find the very reason why they create what they create. We seem to yearn for some kind of validation that what one creates is of significance. This idea of significance is central to the artist because the artist does not just create for oneself but acts as a vehicle for the manifestation of images that are independent, to a certain extent, of the artist. Images certainly are part of the personal nature of the artist and spring from the well of his imagination, and they also speak of his time and culture. But an image also must express deeply the human condition and simultaneously tap into what is presently needed by modern man to effectively awaken him to his spiritual needs. William Blake states, “The artist is engaged in a spiritual activity whose essence consists in the precise delineation of reality, which is revealed to the visionary imagination.”

This struggle with validation is the artist’s struggle with himself as well. It is tied to self-confidence. When it is validated, the artist feels compelled to expend the necessary energy and internal forces of the imagination on the manifestation of the image. Without this there is no possibility of being able to complete anything. There is no built up force that will allow it to gush forth.

Delacroix constantly struggled with his own personal choices. He states that as an individual, his experience is a unique experience so therefore, it is singular and new in itself, and therefore should be made manifest. “You can add one more to the number of those who have seen nature in their own way. What they portrayed was made new through their vision and you will renew these things once more…Newness is in the mind of the artist who creates, and not in the object he portrays…You who know that there is always something new, show it to others in the things that they have hitherto failed to appreciate…If you cultivate your soul it will find the means to express itself.” (Journal of Eugene Delacroix, May 14, 1824)

If you cultivate your soul it will find the means to express itself. The following video that I found on the web deeply expresses this idea. I felt this artist’s experience was so powerful that I wanted to share it with you.