The Importance of a Narrative

After a recent trip past Stonehenge I reminded myself that JWM Turner, one of my favourite artists, had once painted the stone circle. I can't say it was one of my favourite pieces. It felt a little washed-out, and I wasn't keen on the sleeping figure in the foreground.

Then I read a little more on the piece, and it has more to it than you first think, or see. The shepherd in the foreground is dead; struck by lightning, which was starting to be reported as a common occurrence around the 1820s, when this painting was created. The storm is passing, and bolts of lighting still crack toward the ground. His faithful dog is howling for his lost master, and the surviving sheep wander free.

Does this change what you feel for the painting? To me, yes, I suppose. Enough to make me spend more time with the painting, and appreciate it more.

All artworks have a narrative of sorts. The story that a painting or drawing tells unfurls another dimension to the work.

You may well have seen Willow Pattern plates and crockery before (below), and unless you know the story that goes with them you might wonder why people still have them (although they are slowly disappearing). The fact that they are steeped in history, and have a full story depicted on them is the reason for their popularity. The story is engaging, and reveals the image like a storybook. If you don't know the story give it a google.

Narratives can be much more subtle than this of course. Your story might just be one of emotion or feeling, but the best works will always have a 'reason'.

So what happens if you don't have a narrative or story?

This:

Don't get me wrong; it's a great painting of a cream cracker. I should know, I painted it, but it has no reason, no imagination, no sense of place, lighting, feel. There's nothing wrong with that, but it says nothing more than its visual.

If we were to compare paintings with books, the cream cracker would be an instruction booklet, where the Willow Pattern would be a fictional novel. It doesn't mean that as a book one is better than the other, just that they say different things. If you want to make purely factual artworks, based around technique, then maybe you don't need a narrative. Style or technique can be a replacement for a narrative, but consider why you are making the art. You may find a narrative there.

My next painting, the chocolate orange, has a little more going on. This is a perfect example of how subtle a narrative can be, and how we can create our own stories from images.

We all know that the chocolate orange has just been tapped to unwrap it. The foil opens to reveal the segments inside. Your mouth waters as you wait to be offered a segment, or maybe it belongs to you and you have the dilemma of having to share...