Above: Bob Brighton working at his small flat in Worthing. Photo by Karen Venis.

Below: Despite being unable to step back more than a few feet from his canvas, Brighton's larger works have visual integrity and drama in a gallery.

Above: A portrait of a colour. The artist considers his monochromatic works to be amongst his finest pieces.

Whole Vision

by Bob Brighton

I have always considered my development as an artist and my development as a human being as a unified process - a single journey. More than 40 years ago, in my mid-twenties, I had a grand experience when everything came together as a complete whole. As a consequence, there no longer appeared to be a difference between my inner and outer life. I gather this is a common human experience, but over the years I found it profound.

Also at this time, I realised my own personal palette, which consisted of ALL known colours produced. This I considered to be the most significant aesthetic outcome of my personality. I now had at my fingertips a formidable, universal language that could be applied to any form of experience or subject matter that I might care to choose. Cosmology, philosophy and science all inspired my early work, but my fascination was the use of colour, pure and simple.

Summing up those days, there were three things that evolved as a consequence. I found I was essentially interested in wholeness, the woven nature of life and a universal construct of time. Wholeness resulted in my monochromatic works. The first piece, my 'Opus One', was a six foot white square surrounded by a six inch white frame. At that time, I thought I was the first who had ever conceived such a work. Since then I have discovered that there were various minor attempts to do so - so called 'negative attempts at nothingness'. The woven aspect inspired my polychromatic works and the construct of time was the theme behind my ambitious compositions, which were usually made up of twelve paintings. In an aesthetic sense, I was learning to structure my work, to paint and to achieve greater depth.

On Colour

Even though I am active in creating works of art, my basic stance is passive and one of learning. Colour is not something I use for effect, but more to enjoy a profound relationship with it. For me there is no other language quite so eloquent. This is the excitement of it all - I am still trying to understand what colour is and has to say. It is my personal adventure.

My greatest challenges are my monochromes wherein I try to do a portrait of a colour. It is still incredibly difficult.

In order to explain how my work evolves I need to speak about my palette which is very rare, especially today. We are initially taught that there are three primary colours and then we have non-colours, etc. - the same philosophy that persisted in our attitude to men, with women being secondary - and also white men, with all other colours being secondary. This is of course ignorance and nonsense.

I discovered that we have three primary colours, that's true, but we also have three other primary colours that are synonymous with the first three. They are black, brown and white. The structures one uses for the first three can equally be used for the second three. Just as green (yellow + blue) is the complementary of red, so grey (black + white) is the complementary of brown. So, in that way, as we arrive at orange, green and purple from blue, red and yellow - we arrive at ochre, grey and dark brown from black, brown and white.

Over the years I have realised that blue and black, red and brown, yellow and white, orange and ochre, green and grey, purple and dark brown are interchangeable - which on a social, philosophical, human level is very exciting. These are just the primaries and secondaries, but you can apply the same approach to finding the complementaries of green, orange and purple - and grey, ochre and dark brown. These I could call tertiaries.

As there is a quite large palette of acrylic colours produced, I can mix the colour I want in my mind and pick a ready-made colour. When I proceed further with the tertiaries, to find their complementaries I have to resort to mixtures, which funnily enough seem to be very good complementaries of the original primaries. I call these procedures - for my own use - 'progressive complementaries', which eventually create their own complete universe, or whole vision, or all-embracing aesthetic.

Of course, the way people see my paintings is up to them. I certainly wouldn't tell them what they should be experiencing. That would be the same as thinking I could run their lives. At the end of the day, the viewer is equal to the creator. They must do as I do - fend for themselves.

On being a World Artist

I am a world artist. As this is an original and new entity, I feel I have to define it in some way. For a start it is different from an international artist who is known on the world circuit. This person can still essentially be a nationalistic artist who simply has an affinity with other cultures. This is shown in their selective, tolerant attitudes and their somewhat abstract inclinations. This does not make them a world artist. At the moment, there is a trend for artists to be eclectic, politely shocking and experimental. This is not what it is all about either.

A world artist is someone who absorbs ALL cultures into their own way of understanding. A world artist, a world person, a world human has to feel truly responsible for what is - and realise that all peoples and all attitudes have a relevant and meaningful place in the total scheme of things. This is essentially what I have been talking about in my attitude to colour. The art of it all is proportion - equal representation of all parts to complete the whole. All colours are colours and as such are of equal value in the world view. In this way, I am proud to say that I am a world artist.

I have tried many times with curators and lecturers to talk about this aspect of 21st century life, but generally get a blank look. At the moment, modern galleries seem to have selections of art from around the world that represents or supports their own national and prejudiced viewpoints. They are all busy trying to be tolerant, but it usually adds up to something cosmetic. There should be world galleries in major cities around the globe. These galleries should have world committees to ensure that they contain a true representation of world art.

 

Bob Brighton
Worthing, England
August 9, 2002

 

Brighton feels that Johannes Itten has written the finest definition of his genre. He is talking about different attitudes towards problems of colour. Itten writes:

"The third group is that of the universalists - artists who compose from inclusive, objective considerations. Each of their compositions, according to the subject to be developed, has a different colour treatment. That there should be but few painters in this group is understandable, for their subjective timbre must comprehend the entire colour circle and this happens rarely. Besides, they must possess high intelligence, admitting of a comprehensive philosophy. However painting may evolve, colour will remain it's prime material"