Using my Wolf Kahn lesson as inspiration for painting with adults

In my book club, a different person picks a book each month and hosts the group for food, beverages, and discussion.  When we read The Art Forger this past month (which I told you about in my previous blog post, HERE), the host thought the book didn't have a lot of 'meat' for discussion.  Her artist daughter suggested she host the book club as a paint-and-sip.  I'm the only artist in our group of 10 women, so she contacted me, wondering if I thought we could 'forge' the Degas painting that was central to the book.  I said no.

I've never presented at a paint-and-sip, but I've attended one, grudgingly, and I really despised the concept of a group of people all painting matching schlocky paintings.  And I looked closely at Degas paintings, and his layers of subtle color glazes, and I knew that these non-artist ladies would never feel successful trying to imitate his colors, or trying to draw a nude, or a ballerina, or a horse.

So I suggested another approach, and the host agreed, purchased paints and canvases with my guidance, and provided paper plates, rags, and a place to paint.  I provided easels, paintbrushes, and my presumed expertise.  And of course there was wine.

I showed the ladies the paintings of Wolf Kahn, that I had recently used for inspiration for a lesson with my DragonWing Arts students that I posted about HERE.  I explained that we would be loosely using his paintings for our inspiration, to create (or 'forge') our own 'missing masterpieces'.

I explained that they'd begin with big brushes, creating layers of colors for sky, background, middle ground, and foreground.  Each layer would be created by brushing together two or more colors, plus white if desired.  We quickly reviewed the color wheel and I recommended mixing analogous colors but not complementary colors, unless they wanted to create browns and grays.  The color choices were totally up to them.  I explained my Wipe Wash Wipe method for keeping their brushes clean, and they went right to work. 

Their color choices and brush strokes were sometimes bold, sometimes gentle; some color mixes and textures were intentional, and others were a complete surprise.

We took a break for some dessert, and let the paint dry a bit, and then returned to paint some trees as desired.  I gave the choice of painting trees with brushes, or using strips of corrugated cardboard with paint on the edges to stamp textured trees, and demonstrated both. We talked about size of the trees to create perspective - smaller for further away, larger for close, and then I totally left it up to them.  And they each approached their trees in a totally unique way.  Nobody tried to copy!!!

Some chose to be very symmetrical, others were not.  Again, the decision was their own.  Do trees grow in rocks on the beach?  Not usually, but why not, for the purpose of the painting below?

The painting below was a view of a local golf course.  The trees are not there, but were added in and I think really make the painting pop!

The ladies were so incredibly successful!  And not only that, they also had a fabulous time, are proud of their paintings (which are each unique), and want to paint again!  Success!

*Just realized, I'm missing photos of a couple of finished paintings.   Oops...  It was not intentional.  :(

An art education conundrum

For the first 9 years of my teaching career, I taught high school, including an advanced Drawing and Painting class.  I don't think I  could do that any more.  I've seen a lot of  high school artwork over recent years, and as I look at my own personal artwork, and how I approach it, what I'm realizing is that I am philosophically light years away from what high school art programs have become. 

When I completed the painting in my previous post (detail shown above), I got a compliment from another art teacher, mentioning the vibrant colors, and referring to it as 'painterly'.  This, to me, was the ultimate of compliments, and what I aspire to.  I've always loved rich color, energetic paint strokes, and a sense of movement and energy in my artwork. It is, ultimately, my reason for painting.  Sometimes I'm more successful than other times, but it's definitely my thing.  The painting below, by the way, is a painting of my son when he was a college student (he's 29 now).  It includes collage of broken glass, weird rubber toys, yarn, and cutouts from magazine pages, and was developed from a photo I took of him, since he wasn't willing to sit for a portrait.

I think I've probably previously shared most of the paintings in today's post, but anyhow, they are here to back up my point.  And actually, this topic is something I've discussed here on the blog before.  Check out this post from March 2016.  I'm probably repeating many of the same thoughts today.

So what exactly is my point?  A lot of the high school artwork I see nowadays is derived from photographs, particularly making use of phones.  (That is not necessarily a criticism, though I'd love to see more high school work from life.)  As with the 2 paintings above, I've certainly worked from photos too (I use only my own photos), but I use them as a reference point, as a basis for my personal expression.  My goal isn't an exact replication of the photograph.  When possible, I prefer to work from life, as with the still life below, at least until the flowers started to wilt.

The high school artwork I am referring to is usually impeccably rendered, meticulous in detail.  I look at it and say "Wow, I'm impressed.  I can't do that", and then I think "but I don't even want to do that!".  It impresses me to see this work, but it doesn't EXCITE me, doesn't MOVE me.  And the thought of making this meticulous artwork leaves me cold.  It isn't artwork I'd be excited to create.

I've seen high school art shows where the work shows extensive talent, sure, and a lot of impressive skill, but the pieces seem to be more graphic design than expressive artwork.  Where are the visible brush strokes, the emotive color, the energy, and the personality?  I miss these things.  They are the reason I am particularly moved by paintings by Kandinsky, or Matisse, or Kokoschka, or Chagall, or Kirchner, for example.  Again, let me refer you to this old post.  I've said it all before, and maybe better!

When I taught high school art, my students spent a lot of time working from life, whether a still life setup, or using a mirror, or having someone model.  It was the days long before cell phones, so nobody was taking a picture of the still life or  model for reference.  It meant there was much more exploration involved with figuring out how to represent and interpret what they saw, rather than depending on a version of what a camera lens sees. 

I realize a lot of my personal feelings about this were developed in my college painting classes  in the 70's.  We worked from life probably 90% of the time, and expressive interpretations were encouraged.  We drew and painted extensively, working with gesture, and contour, and "endless articulating cube studies" to develop our perception.  I do not recall ever being asked to reproduce a photograph as a painting or drawing, though I do recall assignments to re-create works from other artists, as an exercise, not as a pieces for exhibition (I chose a Gauguin, and a Hans Hofmann).  It was a valuable learning experience, discovering the layers of color, the arrangement of the composition, and how the artist interpreted form.  We also did self-portraits in the the style/technique of an old artist.  (Somewhere I still have my multilayered Rouault-style painting of myself.) It was a valuable exercise.

 

So anyhow, I'm thinking that I'm a bit of a throw-back.  Yet maybe that's not a bad thing.  I'm eliciting positive responses to my most colorful recent painting, so maybe I'm on the right track?  When someone gets excited by my use of color, and calls my work 'painterly', I'm thinking they aren't seeing enough color or loose brush strokes in other art, because I'm sure there should be many who could do it so much better than me.  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Re-committing to making Art

It's pretty easy to get swept up into the day-to-day stuff of life.  I was feeling grumpy last week, for reasons unimportant to share here, but I started cleaning through a box of stuff and found a photo I took and printed FIVE YEARS AGO, intending at that time to paint it.  I was embarrassed that it took me five years to actually act on this, but I was glad I had saved the photo.  So I immediately grabbed an 18"x 24" canvas, primed it with some black gesso.  When the gesso was dry, I used chalk to graph out the photo because I felt that it needed to be pretty accurate due to the abstractness of the image.

I started painting it the next day.

Here it is, a week later, and it is done, and I'm already starting another! 

 This, below, is another photo of mine, also from about 5 years ago, being used for a painting resource.  This is a smaller canvas, I think 15"x 19".  I started it yesterday! 

Meanwhile, it's another week until my DragonWing Arts are back in session, so I'm going to squeeze in as much painting time as possible! They were supposed to start last week, but I was having a medical procedure and needed to reschedule.  Good thing I did, because the weather here has been bitter, and there was a problem with the heat in the building where I have my classroom.  Yikes!   Luckily, it's been fixed, and will be fine for our first class next week. 

 

Here's my easel in my overcrowded little studio 

My very own art show!

The library in the little community where I taught has a hallway gallery when you enter.  Artists are invited to sign up to exhibit for one month.  For many years, I hung my elementary students' artwork in this gallery for the month of March, to celebrate Youth Art Month, and the teacher who replaced me  has continued this tradition.  The high school art teacher also takes a turn of a month for her student work!  During my final year of teaching, and her first year, she and I did a joint exhibit of our personal work in this gallery; I blogged about that show in a post you can find HERE.   Fast-forward a few years to now, and I'm back exhibiting in the library, this time with just my own artwork, including the paintings above and below.

This past summer, I attended an immersive plein air painting class on the campus of Bennington College, and wrote about it in a blog post HERE.  I recently refined the two paintings directly above that were painted during this time (on the Bennington College library patio, and a statue found in a garden on the grounds of historic Park McCullough House).  I wanted the opportunity to share these paintings, as well as the other work from the summer, and also some acrylic textural paintings I had recently completed.  So I jumped at the chance to show this work for the first time, at this gallery, where my work will be seen by many of my former students!  Here's a few views of most of the gallery, each wall from both directions. First, here's the wall with the oil paintings (and some photos and doodles not visible in these pics).

And here's the other, shorter wall...

I should note that due to the size of the hallway and lighting, I struggled to get decent photos.  I didn't want to use a flash and get glare on the artwork, either.  So these imperfect photos will have to suffice.  Anyhow, here are some close-ups of the work on exhibit. Directly below, four of the oil paintings completed during my Bennington week - trees at dusk outside the painting studio, a brick wall at the faculty village, an interior of the greenhouse at the Park McCullough Historic House, and a campus view. (There's another campus view at the top of this post.) 

Also on display are two recent acrylic textural abstractions.  Directly below is a piece titled 'Elements', and below it is the larger 'Marsh Dreams', which incorporates a lot of fabric collage and beads, as well as the use of various textural acrylic mediums. 

And there's a selection of 8 of my photos.  Choosing just 8 was an insane challenge, but I only had 8 frames and I wasn't ready to buy more or cut more mats...

I am also displaying my doodles, many of which you saw in my prior post.

There's a small oil painting that I did looking out at the lake from our 'camp', where we spend much of our summer and fall.  I keep changing this painting - unfortunately the light was different each time I worked on it plein air, so I gave up and just had fun with it at home in the studio.  Not terrific, but better than it was!

 And a stand of bright flowers painted on the Bennington campus

 And that's the entire show, pretty much!  Thanks for stopping in for a look!