James Whistler and the Memory Color Sketch

James Whistler (1870's) was famous for his memory work - particularly his nocturnes.  He used to have a friend row him in a boat out on the Thames and he would sit for hours looking and memorizing the scene.  It was too dark to draw or make notes so he would speak out loud to his companion and ask him to verify what he was seeing.  When he returned to the studio he would rush in and slap thin coats of paint on the canvas as fast as he could before the memory faded.

I've been working up at Rattlesnake Lake on a couple of motifs.  This one caught my eye right off the bat and I sat down to draw - immediately - before the light changed.  Instead of snapping a picture (which would be a whole heck of a lot faster and easier) I sat and drew the scene before me.  A couple of days later I sat down at the easel in my studio to do this color sketch.  Having drawn the image already I was familiar with it and it didn't take much to conjure up the scene in my mind's eye.  As I put down my impression on canvas the painting began to appear - looking much like the drawing, but in color.   Soon enough the painting began to make its own aesthetic demands.  There is an "alchemy" that takes place when I swing back and forth between the memory and the image on canvas.

 

Painting From Visual Memory and Imagination

Have you ever looked at something for a long time and then closed your eyes and tried to see the image in your mind's eye?  That's your visual memory.  It's a muscle that can be developed to aide in the creation of paintings! 

Athletes use it all the time when they try to "imagine" themselves performing a trick or move with precision.  If they can see themselves doing it in their imagination, chances are they can execute it when they try it for real. 

I use my visual memory all the time when I create thumbnail sketches for future paintings and sometimes to create a whole new painting - like this one!

I haven't named it yet.  It's part of a series I'm doing of the Pacific Northwest.  It's about 16"x12"