The Official BLOG of the Dublin Painting and Sketching Club: Traditional Painting in Oil - Advanced Techniques and Concepts from the Renaissance to the Present

The author of this handsome book is Virgil Elliott. He’s one of those invaluable folk who devote themselves fully to their art, yet find time for extensive technical research and experimentation. Given that he is also an accomplished musician, it’s easy to think here of “renaissance man”.

In his opening section, “Aesthetic Considerations”, Elliot says... “The failing of so many art instructors in recent years is the overemphasis on expressiveness and under-emphasis on any method by which the expression may be executed. Without technique the inspiration is trapped inside”. This repeats the by-now standard complaint against an Art Education system that abandoned physical reality in favour of philosophical “concepts”. Elliot stands firmly with those who believe that all surviving knowledge about the correct application of paint must be treasured... and then passed on to coming generations... So he fills his 200 pages with advice and technical information that should truly facilitate artistic expression.

From the outset a stress is put on the importance of drawing. He discusses the principles of visual reality and the uses of perspective and selective focus. The section on colour is well structured and informative. His longest chapter deals with oil-painting technique, a subject on which he is deeply knowledgeable and passionate. His is among the best concise accounts of the craft I have read.

From all of this one might conclude that Traditional Painting in Oil is an attractive, valuable book... And it is. Yet, within days of buying it, I felt unsure. The feeling was that of an optimistic home-hunter visiting a House-for-Sale, when it offers everything asked for... every-thing the Estate Agent promised... but an emotional sense of “belonging” refuses to ignite.

So what’s my problem with Elliot’s book? He writes that it was his original intention to use only Old Master reproductions as illustrations. Later, his publishers persuaded him to include examples of his own work... Now, there are more than a dozen of Elliott’s paintings set side by side with Titians, Van Eycks, Rembrandts, Vermeers and Caravaggios... (In fairness, the author does acknowledge the recklessness of this!) Inevitably, in such company, the modern paintings can lay no claims to greatness... What’s unsettling, however, is to see that they have no real claim to “modernity” either! These are not 21^st century paintings struggling to maintain the great tradition of European art. Everything about them... subject matter, style and spirit... is of the 19th century.

This is the trap that most frightens painters who dream of a revival of the great tradition... Representational painting – to be relevant – must find ways to marry the artistic mastery of earlier times with the zeitgeist of our own. So, it’s alarming when a man as erudite and talented as Elliott contentedly settles for the past. How can he write so well about Art while painting pictures that might be from the studios of J.W. Waterhouse or William Bouguereau?