Archive for December, 2010
Christmas Vacation
Tomorrow, Saturday, I’m off to San Francisco, one of my favorite cities. Two of my children and a grandson live south of there.
One of the highlights of the season for me will be when our family goes to see the Rockettes on Sunday. I saw them once many years ago when I lived in New York, but seeing their show again will be a treat.
Then on Thursday, I’ll be in Solvang, near Santa Barbara. My son has a time-share there and he invited me to spend Christmas there with him and his family. I’m looking forward to being in that beautiful area for a week and hope to visit some galleries and do some oil painting. I was in Santa Barbara once, also, but that was many years ago. It will be a joy to return.
Writing about Your Work (Part 3)
(Continued from yesterday)
4. Your Personal Life. Who are you? What do you believe? Do you have a family, a cat, a dog? Where do you live? What is your studio like? How long is your workday? These are personal biographical questions and usually only come up in longer conversations, such as at a gallery exhibition or with collectors at dinner. Write the information in third person.
Start now. Get a notebook and jot down things when you think of something that might be suitable to use. Take a look at what you have occasionally. Before you send out something be sure it is an accurate reflection of how you want to be known. Giving people good information about yourself and about how and why you create your oil paintings, will go a long way toward supporting and expanding their understanding and appreciation of your work.
Writing about Your Work (Part 2)
(Continued from yesterday)
2. Your Reasons for Creating. Why do you do all those oil paintings ? What are you thinking about when you work? Where do your ideas come from? What inspires you? Empathetic people are most interested in this internal aspect of your work. Often called the artist’s statement, this is usually written in the first person. Update this whenever you develop a new body of work or head in a different direction. Review annually.
3. Your Credentials. How did you learn? How long have you been working in this field? Where did you go to school? Do you have a degree? Who did you study with? What museums have your work in their collection? What important commissions have you done? Educators and graduates with degrees are interested in these things. This section would be included in your resume, or, in an academic setting, your C. V. Write this in the third person and monitor it frequently. Keep a careful record of all your important shows and projects, workshops, openings or other events you attend or that happen to you. You need a detailed base of information so that you can draw exactly the right set of data for the group with which you want to create a favorable impression. (Continued tomorrow).
Writing about Your Work (Part 1)
Milon Townsend wrote this article in the Dec. 2010/Jan. 2011 issue of Art Calendar and I would like to share it with you.
Providing access to written information about you and your work is one of the necessary elements of being a working artist. You must be able to provide gallery directors, the press, collectors, fans, jurors and grant committees with clear descriptions of what you do, why you do it and how you do it.
There are four key areas of interest that people want to know about an artist: your process, your reasons for creating, your credentials and your personal life. Once you clarify these areas, you can use them whenever you need to speak or write about your work. You will also need to update them from time to time. Here are some questions to think about in each category.
1. Your Process. How do you do it? How long does it take? What special tools are required? Is it dangerous: Is there a risk of failure during any of the steps? A sculptor or one who works with metals or glass would have much more to say in this area than a landscape painter. People who work with their hands will be very interested in your technique. This should be written in the third person and updated as frequently as needed. (Continued tomorrow)
My Abstract Art Lesson
Bonita Springs, FL, has a wonderful Art program. I discovered this by talking with a lady at a show a couple of months ago. She comes to Naples, FL, each winter and takes art classes all the while she is here. I checked the web site http://www.artcenterbonita.org and there are a great variety of classes and a variety of subjects in all those time slots. I chose a 2 day workshop that met only in the mornings and the subject was abstract art. Until now I had not ever heard of a class in abstract art, and often wondered how artists learned to paint abstractly.
The instructor brought in books of abstract paintings and showed us paintings by several famous abstract artists. He showed us that there is depth in abstract paintings made by a sharp line or dark line, and that there is height in the painting made by thick paint. An abstract painting doesn’t just look like wall paper, it appears to be 3-dimensional.
Then he told us to put a mark on the canvas. What kind and where was up to each of us. As the time passed and we made our marks, he came around and made suggestions, always telling us why we should do as he mentioned, and what to do next. It was a wonderful experience to see my painting change, but also the change in the paintings of the other members of the class..
Friends
I have two of the most wonderful friends – Betty and Suzanne. We all love to paint in oils, and do landscape paintings en plein air.
Sometimes we do things individually: Suzanne had a solo show at a frame shop in the fall, Betty had a solo show in the Foyer Gallery of the Art Institute and Gallery in Salisbury in November, and I was in a show at Chesapeake College in October.
Sometimes we do things together: We have been in the Ocean City Library show both last year and this year. Betty just called me a day or two ago and because of her solo show and the corresponding article in the newspaper, she was asked to show at the Ocean Pines Library from January 15 to February 28. She said that we all would show! So the two of them will get it together and hang the paintings because I am in Florida, and when Suzanne goes on vacation in February, Betty will take the whole thing down herself! Now, I call that true friendship!
Fighting the Blues – Part 2
Three cures for fighting the blues from Canadian painter, Robert Genn:
The sherbet cure. Like sherbet after the main course, take a couple of days of de-briefing. Intense influence has scrambled your cerebral neurons. You need to re-boot. I’d take a long walk in the heather and top it off with a few single malts. Near Inverness, I know just the places.
The solitary confinement cure. While any sort of intensity and learning is great, an artist also needs a private vacuum in which to gather thoughts and re-unite with personal processes. In the words of the writer Annie Dillard, “You need a room with no view so memory can meet imagination in the dark.” Leaving your intense experience and exciting environment behind, your work must now come out of you.
The forced beginning cure. This is where you puff yourself up, squeeze paint and dig in. Awkward at first, the processes that sustained you before, augmented by what you have recently learned, will gradually take over and you’ll be your old self again. You must know that people have risen again in their studios after a bout of major trauma. It’s been done before.
Fact is, the pursuit of art is a delicate balance between influence and self-assertiveness. As self-realized artists we all have different levels of tolerance for this mystery. Influence is like Scotch; it’s good to know your personal limit.
Fighting the Blues – Part 1
Yesterday Brian Crawford Young of Inverness, Scotland, wrote to Robert Genn, Canadian artist, “I’ve been having a crisis since I got back from a wonderful residency at the Art Students’ League, in Rockland County, New York. The ambience was great, the staff helpful, the scenery brilliant, and the quick access to Manhattan exciting. But when I got home to the Highlands of Scotland everything crunched to a halt. All my fears and self-doubts emerged and creativity stopped. Any thoughts on this sort of blues?”
Robert Genn replies: “Thanks, Brian. You can get it after a residency, a show, a workshop, an art museum, or even going to a high-energy art center. Just living in New York has put many fine [oil] painters into gridlock. The ‘What’s the use?’ attitude can come from too much excitement, influence, competitive talent, or the disorientation of commerce. One is confused, disheartened and jaded.”
“The good news is that artists can come out of this if they really want to. There are cures. Here are three:” which I will include in tomorrow’s blog.
Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Adele Bloch-Bauer I is done in Klimt’s famous gold style which he developed after visiting Venice and Ravenna in 1903. The fold-encrusted ceiling of St. Mark’s in Venice, the glittering Justinian and the Theodora mosaics in Ravenna, and Byzantine icons in general deeply inspired him. Klimt mixed the Byzantine style with his other influences, in particular Art Nouveau and Symbolism, creating a new jewel-like manner of oil painting.
In Klimt’s greatest gold style painting, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, he flattened the woman’s dress so that it shares the same picture plane as the background. Then he blended them together by merging the decorative dress with the equally decorative background. Yet the dress is still distinguishable from the background. Actually, the painting has two backgrounds: a flat gold wall, and a golden membrane or ornamental cocoon wrapped around Ms. Bloch-Bauer. Sinuous lines, swirls, and large and tiny squares distinguish the membrane from the dress, which is comprised of silver arrowheads, and gold pyramids with eyes in them. The latter give the impression that the dress is watching us . But the woman’s face, neckline, hands, and forearms are classically modeled, so that she emerges from the background and her own flattened body as a three-dimensional woman.
On My Way
By the time you read this, I will already be on my way. The plan is to fly to Durham, NC, on Sunday, December 5, back to Diane’s house. I’ll stay a day, rest, and Diane will show me around the area.
Then I’ll be headed south toward Fort Myers, FL, staying with my brother in Spring Hill, a little town north of Tampa and close to the Gulf of Mexico. I need to arrive in Fort Myers by Wednesday afternoon because I want to attend a workshop in Bonita Springs on Thursday and Friday mornings. Then – on to the serious business of landscape painting!