Many years ago I found a job in the manufacturing department of a company. My job was in turn both very boring and very stressful, but the worst part was the commuting. I spent a total of six hours traveling by bus every day. At first, I looked out of the window to see whether there were any interesting landmarks but soon got tired of the scenery.
Soon I was so tired of commuting that it made me sick. I started reading the newspapers but found that they mostly contained the feats of one great politician or another. It seemed some people were doing really well in this world, unfortunately, I was not one of them. In despair I wondered what I could do, then it struck me - I would read novels.
I visited second-hand book shops and found that some of the better books were unreadable because they crumbled in my hand page by page as I read them. There were many books but to find a good book in that untidy mess you had to be very lucky. Among the gems I found were – 1984 by George Orwell, Collection of short stories by W. Somerset Maugham, War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, and Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. While reading these strange stories I also became interested in reading about the authors themselves and found that their life stories were even stranger than the fiction they wrote. So many of them had mood disorders that I wondered whether this in fact helped them write better. Sadly most of them died young and some of their lives like Virginia Woolf’s for example ended in tragedy. For a while, I toiled with the idea of writing a book called “The Strange and tragic lives of Great Writers” but found it too depressing to write. It is a thankless job to write ill about the dead, especially those who have given many months of reading enjoyment.
I visited second-hand book shops and found that some of the better books were unreadable because they crumbled in my hand page by page as I read them. There were many books but to find a good book in that untidy mess you had to be very lucky. Among the gems I found were – 1984 by George Orwell, Collection of short stories by W. Somerset Maugham, War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, and Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. While reading these strange stories I also became interested in reading about the authors themselves and found that their life stories were even stranger than the fiction they wrote. So many of them had mood disorders that I wondered whether this in fact helped them write better. Sadly most of them died young and some of their lives like Virginia Woolf’s for example ended in tragedy. For a while, I toiled with the idea of writing a book called “The Strange and tragic lives of Great Writers” but found it too depressing to write. It is a thankless job to write ill about the dead, especially those who have given many months of reading enjoyment.
It was during this time that I borrowed an Art Book almost by mistake, but it turned out to be one of the most useful books I have ever read. In it was the following advice:
“…………..Composition (the way the different elements are arranged) plays such an important part in the painting of a successful picture in oils that it has been placed by many artists above both drawing and color. And I think this is true, because although the drawing may be impeccable and the color of the highest quality, if the composition is at fault, it will fail to satisfy the eye…….the painter must lead the eye of the beholder into the painting and not across it……..into the picture, may I repeat, does not mean into the center of the picture, but towards the center, to some focal point where the eye can rest and be content to remain…….......”
This was followed by some excellent drawings, that made you understand the importance of composition. This gave me an idea. I wondered whether I could sketch on the bus looking at the scenery outside. Unfortunately, the bus moved too fast for me to do this and there weren’t many interesting landmarks I could sketch. Then it struck me - why not inconspicuously sketch interesting elements from different parts of the journey in my small blank notebook and put it all together in one composition back home. So I sketched a tree from one part of my journey, a vegetable seller in another, and a building from another area and put them all in one picture. This presented problems of scale, perspective, and logic but when it comes off right it looks spectacular. Many people asked me where in Sri Lanka there was such unusual scenery and my answer was always “everywhere”.
Written by: RJX
No comments:
Post a Comment