The Logician versus The Emotive

As a painter I have the benefit of two personalities; the dominant logical detail painter and emotionless computer programmer, and the wild and passionate psychotic who is best kept under control but can be unleashed when needed for dramatic painting and music. This gives me an advantage as a painter because most painters tend to fall into one category or the other.

So there are only two different ways to paint, and this can be seen in the work of all painters:
1. The logicians. These like flat and smooth surfaces, smooth colour gradients, muted colours, lots of detail even to photorealistic standards.
2. The emotives. These like to work quickly, use big lumps of paint, bright colours, big brushes, paint directly onto the canvas, and paint rough objects with not much detail.

Of course, some rare painters are a mix of the two at one time (Velázquez and Caravaggio come to mind) but it more common to have a painter who is one or the other. A few painters evolve from a logician to an emotive, fine painters such as Rembrandt and Turner became less logical and more emotional in their work over the years.

Mark Sheeky, 28 Jan 2007