Tools of the Trade

Oil on Canvas, 24 x 32 inches

Clayton Lewis, 2001

I don't often produce paintings targeted for particular shows, but this is an exception. The show is the 2001 Art & Technology juried show sponsored by Polk. The theme of how art is effected by technology is one that artists talk about constantly. The invention of oil paints, metalurgy, printing, photography, new paint pigments are just a few of the technical developments artists have absorbed over the centuries. Today of course, the question is about the value and the role of digital technology for visual artists. As an avid computer user, I welcome the chance to comment on this with this painting.

This series of photos shows the same painting developing from start to finish. It begain with the painting table in my studio as it normally appears. I then removed objects and added a few that I felt would represent the technologies that I have used in my work.

Digital technology was a part of this process from the beginning in that I used a digital camera as a viewfinder to help choose the composition of the painting and save the image.I then worked in a traditional painting process. Digital technology is of course here at the end of the process as I upload this project to the website.

The point about Art & Technology? My feeling is that digital technology is not a threat to painting (yet) because no media can produce and manipulate an image with more efficiency and accuracy than drawing and painting with traditional tools. Digital technology is usful but has not replaced my paints.

In the 19th century, photography was considered to be the end of painting. Not only did the camera quickly become a painters tool, but it can be argued that the invention of journalistic and moving picture photography freed painting from the need to produce strict academic images of historical events and places and helped allow Impressionism and Modern Art to occur. I wonder what the long term creative results of todays technology will be?

The setup in my studio

Drawing it in with charcoal

Blocking in the large areas in acrylic paint

Going over the acrylics in oil paint

Changed a few things in the setup

Almost done