DAS Member Interview - Trevor Noble

14 Feb

Hairline to nose is two thirds of the face!

Trevor, how did you become interested in painting?

I retired in 2013 after having spent a considerable swathe of my life as a technical illustrator creating pen & ink drawings to assist the comprehension and attractiveness of dull training manuals. It was the perfect way to earn a living; doing what I loved and getting paid for it.

Years later, time and technology helped management decide it was cheaper to take a few digital photo than to wait for a drawing. That coupled with Microsoft Word supplanting the all female typing pool finally drove me to seek other employment. I left behind engineers fumbling with a word processor trying to force it to “do desktop publishing” like Adobe PageMaker used to.

Retirement gifted me a vast space for idleness which for sanity’s sake had to be filled. I decided to step up from black & white imagery and try colour. I toyed with watercolour but found it frustrating and unforgiving. Line and wash though was nearly my chosen medium until someone said oils would suit my temperament better. They were correct.

So there I boldly go - my easel is a ship on the ocean of possibility. The sails, oars and rudder are at hand - if only I can learn how to use them properly. I looked towards instruction from the current crop of art teachers but found they have all freed themselves from the knowledge of five hundred years of picture-craft.

Do you have any art training?

Thirty years ago my employer paid for a short “Commercial Art” course in Rathmines College. Karl Uhlmann was the instructor. I spent my time learning calligraphy and creating spot-colour separations by hand. It was dull and tedious and did little for my development.

In retirement I finally attempted to correct my lack of formal art training. After discarding the offerings of those who would help unleash my “inner creative child” with an ongoing subscription, I signed up for courses with Michael John Angel and his Academy based in Florence. This proved to me that old techniques and principles are far from irrelevant. I learned control and accuracy in drawing the Bargue Plates, monochrome composition and value control with charcoal. Cast drawing and painting and finally painting still life and the portrait with hands in colour. Along the way I learned to stretch my own canvas, prime, undercoat and prepare it with an imprimatura. Finally, I found some stability for self development.

Since the onset of the Pandemic I have largely left oil painting and returned to the study of the very foundation of all art, namely drawing. For the time being, many instruction books from the last century are in the public domain on the internet archive. But, there is a concerted effort by publishers to remove this free resource through legal attacks with the goal of monetizing it. Communist countries however maintained the old style instruction, for example in the Repin Academy of St. Petersburg and thanks to Google Translate their books and information I can comprehend. I dived in and soaked it up.

I am not particularly interested in exhibiting my creations. I do not need anointing by the Art Establishment. I care little whether people like my images and wish to purchase them. I study and create for the satisfaction of continued personal development - at seventy years it is better late than never.

What other artists do you enjoy?

Aside from the historical greats whom we have no hope of ever emulating, I am very impressed by the work of young people in the field of Concept Art for cinema and the game design industries. The work of Sasha Beliaev and Karla Ortiz is typical of this genre. I understand their techniques involve the use of technology and what is known as photo-chopping, but it is still good solid art. The “artsy artist” however will denigrate such work as mere illustration but this does not detract from the fact these people have a deep knowledge of drawing, perspective, composition and design - all of which the other has just a tentative grasp.

In pure line-drawing one cannot but stand in awe of Gustav Doré. Also, the work of the amazing and unfairly forgotten, Fortunino Matania. Of the “modern traditionalist painters” I appreciate the work of Cesar Santos (who also studied with Angel) and of course the great Italian, Roberto Ferri. In Ireland, we have Francis O’Toole (Angel Academy) and Conor Walton (Charles Cecil Studios) producing contemporary masterpieces.

Does creativity run in the family?

By creativity I assume the question is “. . an artist in the lineage.” Not to my knowledge. But then, most of the old people in my line had practical skills to “make-and-mend” coupled with creative solutions to life’s little drudgeries. So in a broader context maybe the answer should be yes.

Can you describe your artistic process?

I do not subscribe to the mass-media standard of art practice and method. Productions such as the Sky Artist competitions disseminate the winning formula. The process goes like this: Step one pose the model, step two photograph the model. Step three copy the iPad image to the canvas (with the help of a Grid-app). The model may head to the coffee shop for the duration! The vast majority of art today is a mindless replication of a photo in paint - but you must do it fast (alla prima) and with Attitude.

My practice is based on the belief a firm foundation of the visual and constructional fundamentals is the only way to deliver a quality product. If someone insists on offering money for my work, I have a duty to ensure my paintings have the integrity to be still in good condition to be appreciated by the purchaser's great grandchildren. That requires craftsmanship (craftspersonship?) in preparation and archival principles in execution. My pictures are my procreation!

Therefore, I am not an artist - I am an old fashioned painter of pictures.

My “studio” (the long defunct dining-room) is a mixture of library, research facility and atelier (workshop). When I get a germ of an idea for a painting I thumbnail it on a scrap of paper before it evaporates. If it has any merit, I transfer it to a PC using Krita for further development. This allows me a more efficient method of trying out ideas for composition and colour moods than traditional methods. I may produce forty or more variations before I am satisfied.

I also build bozzetto or maquettes. I have a family of little silicone figurines with articulated metal skeletons that can be posed and lit in various arrangements. I move things around and play with compositional possibilities. From this I draw sketches to capture gesture. This can go for what seems an eternity!

Sometimes I abandon a project at the computer stage, though I may later revive it when time has done its work. It’s frustrating having done such meticulous preparation that a project fails to satisfy me when on the canvas. I really dislike peeling a canvas from its stretcher and consigning it to the bin!

Regarding materials. Years ago I followed the herd mentality with a paintbox laden with tubes of every hue. The wisdom of the crowd is; don’t blend, keep your colours pure and vibrant, one stroke of the brush is enough, eschew “mud” by buying the colour you need rather than mixing. It has helped commerce but not art!

Enlightenment finally dawned! The “Knowledge” was staring me in the face all along. Your beautiful pictures from Instagram are delivered using just three colours! Your Irish Arts Review magazine is printed with four colours. I embraced the palette of Anders Zorn. He of course borrowed it from Titian, who borrowed it from Apelles of Kos, a lad who figured out economy of means in 4th Century B.C.E. With it you get a straightforward and adaptable work method, inbuilt colour harmony and an absence of mud. Whats not to like!

Regarding hardware; I am always on the look-out for ways to make life simpler and more comfortable. I adapted my average-priced easel to be counterbalanced with a cord, some pulleys from B&Q and a 5Kg weight from Lidl. I stopped holding a wood palette on my arm long ago and made a disposable lightweight replica from foam-core board. I later exchanged that one for toughened glass; the type that comes as the chopping board that kills the edge of your kitchen knives! This I backed with a mid-grey card and mounted on a swivel shelf above an Ikea drawer unit on wheels. Everything I need is now in one place and can be pushed aside when I need some space. Finally, with a flat LED colour corrected (CRI-90) photographic light on an arm above my easel, my studio is complete!

Tell us about your medium and why you chose it?

My medium is of course oil paint. But, my medium is also a mix of Liquin + OMS + Linseed oil. The oil I refine myself and I sun-thicken some as a glazing medium (when we get sun).

Was it always painting or did you have another pursuit/job/career?

I qualified as an electrician but drawing little pictures on a semi-state salary paid the mortgage and put food on the table.

What inspires you to paint?

Sometimes an image sparks an idea that I can combine with something I sketched years ago to create a composite. Most times though it is a happy accident, as Bob Ross used to say. I read something and imagine it and think, this is worth developing further. Then, a series of drawings may lead to a series of colour studies, which may never lead to an actual painting. But maybe . . who knows.

What does a perfect day painting look like for you?

I never spend too long at the easel. Because I paint faces en grisaille, I work in layers and each has to dry before the next stage is embarked upon. Working too long dulls the critical eye as does working too close. We all need to step back and evaluate progress with respect to the entire canvas. It can be difficult to evaluate value as separate from chroma. So to be certain, I sometimes photograph a work in progress and convert to black & white to double-check my intuition. We all possess a Claude Glass to evaluate value masses reflected on the black screen of a sleeping phone. It is better though to go for a walk and come back to the easel with burnt calories, a refreshed eye and a clear mind.

Any DAS memories?

Oh yes! My second exposure was where I was tasked with blowing up balloons. It was not a children’s party of course but an art exhibition. I over inflated most of the balloons and they reacted aggressively by random self destruction. Many people were stirred but none shaken - I however have not returned!