An Angler at Large/Chapter 11

by William Caine (1873-1925)

XI

Of No Consequence

The professional painter has returned my picture with a first lesson, and the compliments for which I pant. Among other things, he has given me a strong caution against the use of the following colours:—

Italian Pink,Mars Yellow,Scarlet Madder Alizarin,Both Hooker's Greens,Purple Lake,Primrose Aureolin,Constant White,Permanent Mauve,    andIntense Blue.

Oxide of Chromium he admits to the palette. So my instinct was right. He has put me back on Vandyke Brown, Siennas, and other common old things. I expect I am not sufficiently adroit for really interesting paints. But I hanker after my Intense Blue. It cost me two shillings.

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It appears (I quote from my lesson) that trees are not green. They are really Vandyke Brown and Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna and Cobalt Blue. I must verify this.

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There is a thing called the Essential Characteristic which resides in every object and distinguishes it from everything else. Seize that, and nobody can mistake what you have drawn, say a cathedral, for what you have not drawn, say an orange. There is therefore something in a cathedral which is not in an orange, and something in an orange which is not in a cathedral. If these things be discovered and properly drawn there is no chance of your cathedral, however round and yellow, being taken for an orange, nor your orange, let it be as Gothic as it pleases, being admired as a cathedral. The task which I must set myself is to find these Essential Characteristics.

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After trial (upon white poplars and elms) I make this assertion. Oranges and Cathedrals are undistinguishable from each other. It has been well said that the study of art opens the eyes to matters hitherto unsuspected. I can now believe that trees are Vandyke Brown and Cobalt Blue and all the other colours which my master mentions. If only there should be an Intense Blue kind! I must ask him.

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My Vandyke Brown has given out. Query? Am I sufficiently adept to substitute for it my Scarlet Madder Alizarin?

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I had always believed the cow to be a very nearly stationary beast. But a zoetrope is less active.

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Tree roots are better painted, covered with long grass, especially the root of beeches. I wonder with what long grass would be better covered when one paints it.

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It seems that if there is no red harp-string of the required thickness, purple lake applied to a yellow one does the trick.