Book

Foreword M.I. Byrne

After years of contemplation and study, Blanks distilled his personal insights into a compelling book that offers a fresh perspective on the art world - 'The Facts of Art'.

His analysis cuts through the dense fog of artistic debate that has accumulated over the years, providing clarity and simplicity to what has become an overwhelmingly complex issue for art students and enthusiasts alike.

But Blanks' book is more than just a philosophical thesis on art, it's also a practical guide designed to empower individuals.

In the tutorial it shares an array of tips, tricks, and methodologies that promise to supercharge the reader's inherent artistic capabilities.

Whether you're a novice artist or a seasoned practitioner, Blanks' revelations promise to enrich your understanding and practice of art, making this book a valuable resource for anyone looking to embark upon an artistic journey of discovery.

Tour Guide

To do justice to explaining the subject of art, I believe it is necessary to go back to the very beginning - the roots. This is something I am pretty sure people don't normally do when writing a book on art but here goes.

Let me describe a situation:

 A person is commissioned to write not a history of art, but a descriptive piece for a tour guide, specifically, a coach journey from Rome to London.

Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, the coach has already left Rome and reached Calais when they receive notification of the assignment in the post – and they only manage to board it at Dover.

Still a bit flustered by the rush they now make themselves comfortable and settle back in their seat making notes and taking in the scenery between Dover and Canterbury (looking at art as it is perceived today) and whilst trying to take in the experience, they are also mentally addressing the problem they have in deciding what to write about the journey from Rome to Dover (the history and roots of art).

In the event, they base the piece on their journey from Dover to London but also conversations they've had with passengers who joined the train earlier (previous writings of others), but, unfortunately for them, at Brussels and Lille. Thus, their piece is incomplete.

Distorted Reality

Sometimes life feels more manageable when seen through a lens of altered, or distorted, reality.

This can take many forms: embracing a skewed perspective on a situation, harbouring illusions of grandeur, indulging in alcohol or drugs, viewing the world through rose-colored glasses, or holding an inflated sense of one's abilities.

During the nineteenth century,  whilst being reality based, art flirted with distorted reality and drifted into the 'make-believe' - generally with good and pleasing effect.

Artists pushing the boundaries included Turner, Cezanne, Monet, Pissarro, Van Gogh, Lautrec, Goya, Renoir, Manet, Picasso Degas and more.

Undoubtedly, these artists made great and lasting contributions to the world of art as we know it, but were also, key protagonists in the contribution they made to the 'modern confusion' as art underwent significant transformations during the modern era.

It is funny, for me, to remember that when I was a child and first started noticing art, I assumed these artists knew roughly how to paint but weren't very good at it, they struggled to make things look real! The colours were all wrong and, in the case of Picasso, had great trouble in getting things in the right place!