Artist inspiration and artist influences. No biographies, dates or scholarly research here - this is a personal response to the work of Sydney Long by Australian artist Fiona Morgan.
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| Sydney Long - Spirit of the Plains |
Spirit of the Plains is probably the best known work of Sydney Long.
He spent part of his career striving for "soulful and graceful
evocations of the spirit of the land, as did the Greeks and their
beautiful myths." (thanks Wikipedia). This painting is the zenith of his
work. Seen in real life, it's incredibly compelling.
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| Sydney Long - The West Wind |
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| Sydney Long - Pan |
He seems to be most well known for his symbolism paintings. He did
achieve the poetry and evocation of the spirit he was aiming for, though
it was a very Western spirit transplanted onto the very non-Western,
Australian landscape. It was definitely a product of it's time (Art
Nouveau era). Despite the oddness of ancient Greece myths set in the
Australian bush, I think he achieved some stunningly beautiful work.
Really being able to capture the spirit, or the essence, of a sentiment
is difficult to do visually and something I admire.
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| Sydney Long - Flamingos |
And sometimes, like
Tom Thomson, he uses a decorative, pattern based line that flows. I love this effect.
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| Sydney Long - The Drover |
Less odd was his adaptation of the sinuous dancing lines of Art Nouveau
to the Australian landscape. Hills swirl, sinewy trees are formed into
enveloping patterns and clouds dance. I think his vision of movement in
these objects is inspirational.
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| Sydney Long - Pastoral Landscape |
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| Sydney Long - The Valley |
Once again I notice that Sydney Long's colour is very Australian.
This is definitely something I am drawn to. This attribute is part of
why I also admire the works of
Tom Roberts,
Arthur Streeton and Warwick Fuller. Time to pay closer attention to my own colour mixes.
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| Sydney Long - Evening |
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| Sydney Long - Moonlight Pastoral |
Something that's not mentioned of Sydney Long's
work is it's luminous quality. All of his paintings that I've seen have
this luminous glow to them. Have a quick scan through the examples here
and you will see that many of these are backlit. The sky is a great
colourful light and the foreground is a pattern with deep rich colour.
Gorgeous floating pastels contrasted with dark sumptuous colour. It's a
recipe that works and I am taking note!
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| Sydney Long - Moonlit Pastorale |
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| Sydney Long - Moonlight Pastoral |
Probably because his symbolic paintings grab so much attention, Sydney
Long's nocturnes and moonrises don't seem to get a mention. He did piles
of them (and seemed to name most of them Moonlight or Pastoral or
variations thereof). I think they are beautiful. They capture the quiet
serenity of being out in the open and free. Big relaxing breaths at the
end of the day. Can you feel the magic of the moment of dusk when almost
anything could happen?
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| Sydney Long - Pastoral |
Just to put Art Nouveau in context, this is the sort of imagery that was being created at the time, also full of decorative sinuous linework:
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| Alfonse Mucha - Summer |
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| Aubrey Beardsley - The Peacock Skirt |
About the Creative Cauldron series of posts
The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me.
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