A Still Life Personality Type?

Is it the quiet studiousness?

A love of solitude?

Or a passion for distilling beauty into its purest forms?

Last time, I talked about how the perception of still life has evolved. A friend sent me an interesting response, where she talked about some common personality traits of still life painters she knew.

This got me to thinking about whether there is a certain personality type that is drawn to this genre of painting – both making it and appreciating it.

I take big generalizations with a grain of salt. Also, there’s always a big difference between the work of art and the artist who created it.

But, I think there’s something to the idea.

The Mechanics of Appearances

Still Life painters immerse themselves in the mechanics of appearances – exploring the nature of reality through its outward manifestations in the world we see around us.

We make a patient study of what happens to the color of an orange as the rind curves away from us and into the shadow.

We delight in the way a highlight on a silver bowl is really a burst of different colors – much like a prism.

We spend countless hours capturing the precise texture of an Oriental rug, so that it seems we can nearly feel the softness of the wool.

In other words, our art is studying the very nature of perceived reality.

Of course, this doesn’t just apply to still life paintings. Portrait and landscape painters also think about edges, textures, and curves.

But, I think there’s something different about the way still life painters approach these building blocks of art. They aren’t means to an end, like they might be for the portrait painter. Instead, they become ends themselves. Still Life painters take these basic elements of perception and build them up – exalt them – glorify them – that brilliant highlight on the rim of a glass might be the whole point of the painting.

Poetic Comparison

It made me think about making comparisons between still life painters and other activities – say playing chess, or math, maybe even reading mysteries. There is something about all of those things that resonates with the mindset of creating and appreciating still life.

But I think there’s an even better comparison.

In a way, Still Life painters are the poets of the art world.

Poetry is the oldest form of literature – and also the purest, since it boils experience down to its essense.

In the same way, Still Life makes a deep study of the world, distills it to its purest building blocks, and from that creates pure, shining gemstones, reflecting the beauty that the artist percieves all around.