Any attempt to define naïve painting seems only to add to
the confusion so don’t be surprised if you are none the wiser after these few
words.
Untutored a true naïve painter can never be “professionally”
trained, however there are professional painters amongst the Naïves. The true
naïve also have a talent that separates them from those who paint as a pastime
or merely for fun. There are artist who could be said to paint in a
pseudo-naive manner and in France they are referred to as “Les Pompiers”, not
as firemen but in stylistic terms as being pretentious or pompous.
All naïve painter have their own vision of the world which
in some way is uniquely different from that of any other. As children attempt
to interoperate their surroundings for the first time their viewpoint can be
regarded as uniquely theirs, and it is that very naivety which the mature
viewer finds so appealing. Naïve art
cannot be taught and as such is a reflection on our own years of innocence.
The necessity to express is much stronger than the artist
himself or as Rouseau put it “Ce n’est pas moi qui dessiner c’est ce truc au
bout de ma main”. (It is not I that am
drawing, it’s the thing at the end of my hand”.) The naïve painter could be
said to be like a person possessed in the grip of a “thing” the nature of which
he cannot “logically” understand. Naïve painting is timeless, the artist being
continuously in search of “paradise lost”, a reconfiguration of all that life
has robbed them of, a creation of “paradise regained”. It has been said that
naïve painting is that painted with the “eyes of the soul”, a term used by
Shakespeare and of biblical origin; “I have pondered upon all things with the
eyes of my soul”
As folk art and traditional craftsmanship gave way to
industrial methods of production so man ventured into the unknown. It is hardly
surprising that from the melting pot of races that went into creating America
came a long history of naïve art. The strength and charm of the naïve image is
often one that transposes well into the stitched form and with that in mind
this week I ran a short evening introductory stitching workshop for the Tolsta
Youth Club. We started with a game of head body and tail to produce a wonderful
array of strange beasts and then transferred these to calico either reproducing
the entire image or simply the head. Although stitching can be seen a process
of travelling up and down with a needle it is never easy to start with and a
tangled and knotted mess can ensue which in itself can still be regarded as
stitching. In order not to stifle creativity it is important that child don’t
take on the adult trait of thinking they might get some wrong. The children were
aged from 7 to 11 and learnt fast and managed to produce some delightful images.