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Olwen Pen Aur's
Art Page

My Life in Art

I've never lived without art in my life. Both of my parents are very artistic and creative, and my efforts at doing artistic things were always encouraged. My parents also encouraged me in my own methods and styles of art, even when these came into conflict with those that my teachers wanted to impose on me.

Naturally, I took art classes in high school, but these weren't particularly useful. I have great sympathy for high school art teachers, because they know that most of their students have little or no interest in art as such, they merely have to have a suitable elective, and the others available didn't appeal to them. So classes are geared toward keeping these kids interested rather than toward developing the skills and talents of the few who are genuinely interested in pursuing art.

But I did learn a few specific techniques from teachers throughout my school years that I still use today.

My education in art continued past high school. I have a diploma in Fine Arts, which entailed 3 years of classes, 8 hours a day 5 days a week. My art school was structured in the Bauhaus method (pioneered by the Bauhaus in Germany in the 1930s, and still used by many art colleges). We all had to take a Foundation Year, in which we took classes in every area of the school: Drawing, Painting, Anatomy, Art History, Sculpture, Printmaking, Applied Design, and Ceramics. We also got classes in Gallery Management. After that first year, we had to choose one area to Major in. We could also choose one other area as a Minor. My major subject was Applied Design: Weaving, Textile and Fibre Arts, and Jewellery Design. My Minor was Ceramics. After I completed my 3 years, I took a two-month solo trip to England and Wales, then returned for 8 months of Directed Studies.

Following art school, I entered university, and did a bachelor's degree in History in Art at the University of Victoria. Then I did 3 years of Graduate studies in History in Art. As part of work, I was a Teaching Assistant for First Year Art History, responsible for teaching a weekly seminar and and assigning work that was worth 50% of the student's grade.

Today, I make pottery and weave, as well as do calligraphy and other artforms. In my modern life as a volunteer, I'm on two committees for my local Arts Council.

Medieval Art

This is a very brief introduction to the topic of medieval art. I'm not an expert, and if you want to know more, there are plenty of places you can find out more. But to save some people a bit of time and trouble, some general information. And a lot of my opinions thrown in for good measure!

Our modern idea of "art" as something done by artists as a form of self-expression, and intended to be displayed in special rooms or buildings for the purpose, or as "social wallpaper" in the homes of those who can afford art, is a new notion. Art in the Middle Ages was done by artisans, who were craftsmen, and who got paid little more than common labourers. Art in the form of freestanding paintings also did not exist.

Painting was done on walls in Roman times. This continued into the Middle Ages. Some painting was also done on wood panels in the Middle Ages. These were usually part of an altar or shrine. But all art was considered to have a purpose, and was not seen as a form of self-expression, in our sense, by the artist. Artists worked for wealthy patrons, or for the church. They got paid by the piece, and often prices were determined by the value of the materials used. Artists did work on commission, and rarely did work on spec, in hopes of finding a buyer.

A medieval artist could find steady employment as an artisan for a living wage, where a modern artist has more freedom of expression, and is free to starve as an artist, or work at an unrelated job to support their art.

While it may seem that the status of the artist was lower than it is is today, it's also true that art was viewed more an integral part of life. Mass-production did not exist, and even those items that were made on an industrial scale were made by hand. People had fewer possessions, but what they had, had more meaning to them.

Wealthy people demanded individual, even eccentric, monuments for their deceased loved ones, where we must be content with a limited range of markers or headstones (the size and materials often dictated by the cemetery, and the height restricted so it won't interfere with the groundskeepers duties).

In an era where nearly everyone attended church regularly, and where a systematic program of decoration was mandatory, the artists' work was seen by everyone in the community.

Poor people might not have fancy possessions. But for those who could afford to pay or to support the artist, everyday objects would be beautifully crafted. We have examples, such as buckets, combs and weaving tools from the Oseberg burial, of common objects that are well-crafted and finely decorated.

The church, of course, employed artists in many capacities. From making books to illuminating texts to the finely crafted handwriting that filled the books, the work of artists can be seen in many manuscripts such as the Book of Kells, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Echternach Gospels, and many more. Churches, from tiny chapels to enormous cathedrals, were planned by architects and master masons, and decorated by masons and stone carvers, in accordance with programs of decoration planned by the priests and bishops. Altars, choirstalls and other furnishings were made and decorated. Interior spaces were filled with wood and stone carvings and painted walls and ceilings. And churches must also be decorated with altarcloths, banners, carpets, metal chalices and patens, and many other finely crafted objects.

A Different Vision

One concept that modern people have trouble with when looking at medieval art is, "why couldn't they draw/paint better?" We look at the lack of perspective and the lack of realism in medieval art, and see it as just that, a lack. It doesn't "look like" the real world. Part of our problem is that we have all grown up in a world filled with photographs, which we see as "realistic." We are also children of the Renaissance, which invented perspective.

But the medieval mind was more abstract, and the medieval artist had a very different sense of what was important in portraying the world. It's very common, for example, to see medieval paintings in which God is huge compared with the angels, and even bigger compared to the tiny little human beings way down at the bottom. This isn't the result of a bad artist. This is called "psychological perspective." The more important figures are depicted as being larger. Which is, in fact, how we see the world. Ever taken a photograph of something that seemed really interesting at the time, and been disappointed when you got the pictures back because the subject you thought was so interesting seemed so small and faraway? That's because your mind made the subject appear to be closer to you than it really was optically. That's "psychological perspective."

Another aspect was that in the early part of the period, there was a dispute about the morality of being too "realistic" in our sense. A statue or painting that "looks just like" the person really only captures the person at one moment in time or for a very brief part of their life. But it does not capture the true essence of that person's heart or soul. To be too realistic in art was to risk mistaking the representation of a thing for the thing itself, and it came perilously close, in the view of some , to worshipping idols. Art that was more abstract could be more intellectual or spiritual, and could depict universal concepts. Realistic art is tied to the material world rather than to the mental and spiritual realm.

We see this in the art of the Byzantine Empire, and later in the icon paintings of the Eastern Orthodox Church. There were strict formulas for showing, for example, the Virgin or Saint Paul, because this made the work "universal." But the painter, rather than worrying about the shape of Paul's nose or the shadows on the Virgin's dress, could concentrate instead on trying to capture something of the essence of the person's soul. This is why Byzantine faces have such large eyes: "the eyes are the windows of the soul."

Similarly, Hiberno-Saxon art,the art of the Irish and Northumbrian monks of the 6th to 9th centuries, was almost entirely abstract. It relied on colour and pattern to try to convey a sense of spirit. One reason that manuscript decoration is referred to as "illumination" is that the artists used colour as a way of capturing a sense of light. We know light to be a form of energy, and the medieval artists and theologians also saw it that way. But they saw it as a visible form of spiritual energy: "you are the Light of the World."

G. K Chesterton wrote of medieval art and Christian spirituality:
"...a characteristic of great saints is their power of levity. Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. This has always been the instinct of Christendom, and especially the instinct of Christian art. Remember how Fra Angelico represented all his angels, not only as birds, but almost as butterflies. Remember how the most earnest medieval art was full of light and fluttering draperies, of quick and capering feet....In the old Christian pictures the sky over every figure is like a blue or gold parachute. Every figure seems ready to fly up and float about in the heavens. The tattered cloak of the beggar will bear him up like the rayed plumes of the angels. But the kings in their heavy gold and the proud in their robes of purple will of their nature sink downwards, for pride cannot rise to levity or levitation....It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity." (Orthodoxy, 1908)

`What makes medieval art so hard for us to understand in its apparent simplicity and ignorance of perspective is that the medieval artist was attempting to portray in visible form things that are, by their nature, invisible Our assumption, unlike theirs, is that the role of the artist is to capture nature. Nature, for them was visible all the time everywhere. It was the life of the mind and of the spirit that they were more interested in

"We have no art. We do everything as well as we can."

Balinese saying

More on Medieval History

Olwen's Pottery Page

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Note on Medieval Art History

Most books on medieval art have been concerned with symbolism, and make for very dense reading. It's not easy to find books that explain the art in its cultural context. Or you'll find books that use the art as a way of illustrating concepts of history, but tell you little about the art and who made it or why. This is the nature of the way certain disciplines develop.

For some of my views on the use of symbols in medieval art, and the pitfalls of thinking you can decipher them easily, go to my Symbolism page.