Page 3 - The Art of Memory by Terry DeLapp

Although his paintings are mostly forgotten, the magnificently named French artist, Horace

Lecoq de Boisbaudran, remains relevant today as a brilliant teacher of art whose methods ultimately

spawned the likes of Fantin-Latour, Auguste Rodin, Whistler and George Inness.

In three short articles first published in 1849, Lecoq explains his teaching method, the crux of

which is the use and training of an artist's memory, schooling him to such a point that the painter could

observe and then, at a later time, accurately depict on canvas what he had seen, or more importantly,

what needed to be seen.

As a landscape painter I found Lecoq's ideas, even a hundred-plus years later, to be enormously

useful, even inspirational, giving me a way to access and transfer my visual memory to painted vistas

of color, mood, and topographical calmliness.

The following pages are the results of this process, beginning with a black and white photo of

the actual locale, the California San Joaquin Valley, and then on the opposite page, the finished

painting, filtered by a selective memory that shows essence over the trivia, clarity over the ill-defined.

Each work is an interesting journey, from seeing to thinking, from remembering to doing; a

creative road I hope you will enjoy following and one not too soon forgotten.