Nancy Depew - Artists on Art - Fall 2004

01 The authorship of painting By C.W. Mundy

08 Quixotic efforts By Nancy Depew

13 Art is freedom By Michael Alan

16 finding my voice By Gregory Manchess

22 adopting art By Mary Linda Strotkamp

25 I believe in beauty By Joshua Clare

30 analyzing creative responses By Christopher Groves

35 learning curve By Bryce Cameron Lisont

43 Change is here to stay By Lori Woodward

48 converge By Allison Malafronte

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Artists, art aficionados and art collectors could greatly benefit from an understanding of the technical aspects

of painting—what I call the “foundational truths.” For the artist, an understanding of these truths builds the foundation or structure for a great painting. For the art collector, this understanding helps clarify why a painting is considered “good” or “beautiful,” and gives him or her an ability to look at, appreciate, and articulate art, rather than shy away from discussion through lack of confidence in their art knowledge.

Science A proper definition for painting starts with the understanding and clarification that painting is a science. It’s based on historical,

researched facts. Red is the complementary color of green. Blue is the complementary color of orange, yellow is the complementary color of purple, and so on. There are also innumerable scientific elements of design and composition, such as the golden mean, the Fibonacci sequence, perspective, and vanishing point. I could go on and on, but I think we would all agree: “Painting has its disciplines.”

I have chosen to narrow the disciplines down to these, the Seven Foundational Truths: (1) squinting to “simplify,” (2) design, (3) drawing, (4) value, (5) color, (6) edges, and (7) paint manipulation—with variety and unity in their correct proportions in each discipline.

Red Striped Umbrellas, Santa Margherita Ligure (Italy Light & Color 1996 Collection)16 x 20 inches, oil on linen, painted en plein air

©C.W. Mundy, Private Collection

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The art of painting is placed high on the list of creative sciences, along with drawing, sculpture, music, dance, theatre, cinema, and sports. Having been an athlete, and a professional musician, as well as an artist, I understand that one must learn, study, and practice (and practice and practice) the basic foundations and technical aspects of his or her craft—over and over again!

Experimentation / Creativity Having begun to understand the basic foundational truths and continuing daily to learn and grow in these disciplines, an artist can now add his own voice. The artist’s voice will evolve naturally by searching and working through the seven foundational truths. You need not force your voice—it’s who you are, based on all of your life experiences.

This is the time to experiment and try new ideas. I’ve often said, “I’m a child trapped in an adult body.” Children don’t usually get bored and can continually re-invent themselves and their focus, often on the spot! It’s like being the explorers Lewis and Clark—always on an expedition of adventure and discovery. Quang Ho, an artist friend of mine, has been quoted as saying about me, “C.W. seems to be constantly searching and challenging himself with a fearless attitude. You can see it in the paint application,” Quang said, “which comes across in the expressive quality of his paintings.”

I’ve been known to tell my students, “You’ll never know how far left is or how far right is until you hang out on a limb.” In other words, try new things in all directions, such as the expressionistic and the realistic. This is how you find your “sweet spot,” or where you are most comfortable. Your sweet spot will also continually change as you grow and press forward in the issues of experimentation. On the down side, experimentation will always bring in a host of failures, but on the up side, the benefits of greater study and experience will bring in exciting results, maturity and higher level of authorship.

Experimental Challenges With all the seven foundational truths—squinting, drawing, design, value, color, edges, paint manipulation—there can be a multitude of challenges to explore.

For example, it has often proven beneficial and productive in the history of art to paint a series of paintings of the identical subject or similar subject, but with different conditions or styles, or with different visual ideas. Monet is a great example of this approach. When he painted his “Poplar,” “Haystack,” “Rouen Cathedral,” and “Lily pond” series, Monet took on the task of exploring the possibilities—the effects of light and atmosphere, color, times of day and weather changes, palette color, paint manipulation, and so on. The search produced some of his greatest work. It’s often about the process and learning, more than the completion. But the completion can also be very rewarding!

The Rehearsal (Ballet Collection 2008)36 x 24 inches, oil on linen


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With my series of beach paintings this past winter while in Florida, my goal was to try many methods of “paint manipulation” of similar subject matter, and not necessarily focus so much on the subject matter. I asked myself: “What can I get away with?” “How much can I push the envelope?”

Several years ago, I did a series of 15 still life paintings, all the same size—9×12—but with entirely different subject matter in each one. I explored the “golden section” by moving it to a different area of the canvas, just to see which design and composition ideas worked. (E.g., this golden section rotated from the top left (what I call “station #1” in painting #1), to the top right (station #2/painting #2), to the bottom left (station #3/painting #3) to the bottom right (station #4/painting #4) and so forth.) The process really schooled me,

was interesting, exciting, and successful. A recent series of still lifes explored a similar theme, but used the same objects. I explored color changes and color harmonies, and design and composition changes.

My “Toy” series was done based on a theme or narrative for each painting. I pulled my toys off the shelf, and then set them up in scenes to create a “story-line,” similar to a child pulling toys out of his toy box and creating an imaginary story. I veered away from impressionism to paint all of these paintings in a realistic manner “from life” without the use of photography. I’m not against photography as a starting point for a painting, but part of the purpose here was to work on and improve my drawing skills.

Anne and Jake With Pond Yacht, 201212 x 19 inches, oil on linen ©C.W. Mundy, Private Collection

Jake and Natalie, Tender Moment At The Beach, 201212 x 9 inches, oil on panel (Raymar)


Jake and Natalie, Tender Moment At The Beach, 201212 x 9 inches, Oil on panel (Raymar)


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Road Kill (Toy Romanticism 2008 Collection)16 x 20 inches, oil on linen, painted from life


Brass Teapot, Pomegranates, Flow Blue Pitcher and Pear, 20119 x 12 inches, oil on linen, painted from life

©C.W. Mundy, Collection the Artist

Identity Theft (Toy Romanticism 2008 Collection) 16 x 20 inches, oil on linen, painted from life

©C.W. Mundy, Collection The Artist

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Another experiment, in years past, involved an “unorthodox” method of paint manipulation—using Kleenex to scumble and manipulate the paint. Another technique I have investigated is “marbleizing the paint.” I load up the paintbrush with “pot color” (mixed mother color) on my palette, then dip it into the pure chroma of the tube colors on the sides of the palette, then without mixing, directly apply the paint to the canvas and mix it there. (In many cases, I’ve noticed that artists’ palettes are more interesting and exciting than their paintings. Sad but true!)

“Reinventing yourself will always, metaphorically speaking, break off the dead branches and sprout new shoots.”

The Creative Process The creative possibilities in painting are endless. Don’t be a copycat artist! The art market is always looking for something new. As fellow artist Carolyn Anderson said, “I’ve seen that before—show me something different!”

Your ability to “experiment” and create is based on your solid understanding of the science of painting. The more experience you have working out the science, the braver you become with experimenting. Express your own attitude and voice! It will naturally evolve with a solid work ethic. I tell my students: “Mileage!” This was one of my great lessons, among many, that I learned while studying under the tutelage of Donald “Putt” Putman.

The science of painting is the starting point, after which you need to be willing to step out and experiment and develop your voice and personality. Learn your craft as a painter, and then personalize it—as an artist! That’s the highest level of execution. You’re only as strong as your weakest link! •

Kinderdyke (The European Collection 2002)24 x 36, oil on linen

Provenance- Award of Excellence, OPA National 2003©C.W. Mundy, Private Collection

Brass Teapot and Pears, 201116 x 20 inches, oil on linen, painted from life

©C.W. Mundy

Mother color is the assessed color and value of large

shapes or passages, i.e. sky, mountains, and foreground.

There would be a mother color/value of sky, a mother

color/value for the mountains, and a mother color/

value for the foreground. By using mother color pots

of paint, it expedites the process in painting and keeps

you from having to re-mix large masses of paint.

Having to continually mix colors while trying to paint

can take you “out of the zone” from the continuity of

the creative right side of the brain to the analytical left

side of the brain.

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This is a fascinating time to be involved with art. Today, as artists, we are essentially self-governed. We choose

between almost limitless options – a multitude of possibilities face us every time we make a work of art. But the choices carry such weight, determining our future and even our financial success or failure. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I offer up here some of my own story and a few of the conclusions I’ve come to that may be helpful to any who are attempting to find their own path or to develop their own voice.

Like all gardeners in the Northeast, I spend the whole winter imagining the flowers that will bloom in my garden in the spring. I dream of them. I stare for hours out at the bare ground anticipating their arrival. This past spring, when they finally bloomed, I went out to cut my first beautiful peony of the season and yes, it was lovely, but the realization hit me the moment I touched the flower, it was just a flower. All the

depth and the weight that I had waited for endlessly were not there. I was momentarily disoriented and even disheartened. But from years of experience, I knew what I needed to do. I took the flower into the studio and worked with it for hours until I coerced the image I was looking for from it. Only then could that flower turn into a work of art. The flower itself was very beautiful, but unremarkable. I wasn’t interested in documenting the flower for its own sake. I was interested in a collaboration between myself and that flower. The flower was a vehicle, loaded with all the implications a living organism embodies. It provided me with a means for channeling something internal. I feel the same about every subject. The mindless depiction of a subject is of little interest to me. It’s the artist that makes the art, not the subject matter. Technique is just another variable, not the end-all or the be-all of a real work of art. It’s the artist behind the paint that speaks to us, not the paint itself.

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My earliest memories are of painting and drawing. I have always been astounded by the process of turning a two-dimensional surface into a three-dimensional illusion. As a kid, I spent long hours drawing and gradually accumulated skills, more by accident than by intention. I didn’t study art formally until I signed up for a required art course in college in the early 1970s. I studied under an abstract expressionist painter and sculptor who believed that drawing the figure was an invaluable experience for any artist. I took to it wholeheartedly. I had free rein when it came to painting so I experimented with all sorts of materials and approaches, but I was always aware of something internal that I needed to express. Sometimes it would materialize in my work, but I had no control over it. Many years of concerted effort would pass before I could piece together all the variables that would let me make the work I really wanted to make, a painting that I

considered to be a real work of art, a painting through which I had knowingly orchestrated the expression of my intentions and gave form to that internal voice.

Early on, before I knew any better, I believed that I simply lacked the technical knowledge to execute a work of art. I felt fairly certain that the majority of my problems would be solved if I could just find out the right secrets, the right stuff. It was merely a simple matter of some technical knowledge that separated me from the art I hoped to make. I began accumulating every book I could get my hands on that dealt with the technical aspects of painting. I quickly learned a lot, and practice led to understanding, but it soon became very clear that the more one learns, the more there is to know. Although I began to make technically proficient paintings, I wasn’t necessarily making good art.

Drift40 x 60 inches, oil on canvas

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It didn’t take long to realize that everything I could learn about, everything I experienced added to my ability to make a work of art. Having once been a horrible student, I found myself developing a real hunger for knowledge. I started taking art history seriously and began to study the work of artists outside of my comfort zone. But I also started developing an appetite for knowledge from a whole array of other fields, an appetite that hasn’t lapsed in all these years. I eventually found my way to graduate school, and it was there that I began to make serious progress sorting out all of the conflicting information, the wants and desires, the hopes, fears, agonizing uncertainty and downright confusion that were preventing me from moving on a path that felt right, my own path, using my own voice. I took many missteps along the way, and have learned many painful lessons, but they have all made me a better artist.

One difficulty I’ve had to struggle with comes from my real love of paint. I am thoroughly fascinated with the stuff and when I see the work of great painters, I am easily filled with

Sweet Talk40 x 40 inches, oil on canvas

Weight36 x 55 inches, oil on canvas

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Treasure54 x 38 inches, oil on canvas

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lust for the techniques and approaches they use. But I found real danger in the desire to emulate other painters, and falling under their influence has often distracted me from my own story. It was an important lesson for me to learn – that I can appreciate the work of other artists, empathize and connect deeply with their work and their choices, but not necessarily work in that same manner. I am always fascinated to learn about how they approach their work, but I have placed my own voice and my own identity at the core of my work. I make the stylistic choices that best fit my intentions.

I try to avoid a formulaic approach to painting. I don’t have a set method that I repeat each time I work. I think of art-making as a process, where the experience of working leads to insight, revelation and discovery. It’s an adventure filled with perils and surprises. I try to respond to the artwork as it forms, choosing options that will lead me to learning the most I can from and about the work. This is often not the fastest way to make a painting. But it is the best way I have found for making art I’m happy with. There are thousands of options every time you pick up a brush. What will guide the decisions you make and what priorities will be revealed by those decisions? Those are the questions that fascinate me. My paintings are done only after I’ve resolved every question.

So much of the conversation in the art world today revolves around the idea of good art exhibiting something new. I choose rather to focus on the idea of the work being honest, believing that honesty will unavoidably lead to originality. I’ll leave judgement as to the significance of the art I make to others. I focus my efforts on learning as much as I can, making the best work and the most honest work I can.

I still put a lot of emphasis on the technical aspect of my paintings, but I have come to think of technique in fluid terms, a tool I use to work for me. There are certain constants that I choose to work with again and again. I use the best materials I can get my hands on, simply because I find the results to be that much easier and better. I stick to a simple palette, mostly relying on primary colors so that I have to mix all the colors I use. I take mixing very seriously and use it as a way to learn everything I can about color.

When I start a painting, I begin with subject matter that I connect with deeply. While focusing on the intuitive aspects of the subject, I look for a visual, rather than a verbal idea. I find the words that eventually become titles during the process of painting. In my most recent work, I combine traditional layered painting techniques with more contemporary approaches to create a highly realized, three-dimensionally believable image, but I am not interested in documenting reality. I take many liberties with my subject matter. I use still life, landscape and the figure as a vehicle for a highly orchestrated exploration of a metaphysical terrain. I dig into the nature of experience.

Over the years I’ve continued to challenge myself and so I’ve made successful work and unsuccessful work. I’ve taken risks, so I’ve spent as much time stumbling as I have moving forward. The good news for me is that I have learned from all of it. I know others have taken more direct and safer routes, but I’m content with all my wanderings. If I’m lucky, I’ll spend many more years indulging in the quixotic effort of pursuing the elusive ideas that turn into art. •

Persistence44 x 58 inches, oil on canvas

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artisfreedomEndless lines, spaces splashing!

Overlapping multiple viewing positions!

The center where all people can enter and come and go as they want.

Art is freedom!

With its vocation in breaking down separation barriers.

Channeling happiness, releasing all forms of emotion, creating all forms of emotion.

Channeling the mind to go beyond the impulse need.

The paper/canvas/poem/song/sculpture/show and on is the emotional reader.

The space where man and woman leave for moments in time to return again and again and again.

Art is freedom!

By Michael Alan

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It’s this part of life that I understand. This unexplainable, screaming, over-ignored, oddly unattainable, key ingredient

that connects our whole entire existence. Some people try to call it Jesus, or robots. I just draw it, paint it, walk in it. It’s the biggest part of life. Everything else is just mundane or some form of activity. The whole meaning of life is unexplainable and this is actually what I understand and feel connected to. It can make you feel that you’re “alone” because you feel you are connected to something so unreal. Everything else is so systematic and you feel so removed, so far from it, you might just see the present.

Art Is Freedom!

A gift just appeared in my studio. I looked down at my floor and there appeared to be a really stern, iconic painting, fully formed by me randomly. Unconsciously piling cut-ups of old drawings on top of each other. I didn’t plan on this being a work. I just looked down and Boom! These random five different drawings lined up on their own to create this super strong, transgendered, transnational, super model. It all started today. The pile included varied parts from a bunch of different years of work from 2007 to last night.

Time = delete

Alive Now, 201112 x 9 inches, collage, ink, paint on colored paper

Collection of Raymond Pettibon, courtesy the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc.

Saving Grace, 201211 x 9 inches, collage, ink, paint on colored paper

Courtesy of the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc.

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Then They Were, 201116 x 14 inches, collage, ink, paint on colored paper

Courtesy of the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc.

The Argument, 201048 x 32 inches, watercolor, ink, pen, paint on board Courtesy of the artist and Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc.

Art Is Freedom

Our minds are so random I wish we could see the captions and cartoons of our fellow commuters. There’s a part of my mind that I’m able to access daily. Usually during the second hour of working in the studio or sometimes it’ll just be at home. It’s not a zone, I have zones but it’s like I’m able to enter this other place. It almost feels like the place not before death but the place on the edge of everything. It’s a place where through my body “I” am able to turn everything into anything. “I’m” able to problem solve. I see moves before they happen. I can just see everything. It’s not just a clarity, or speed, it’s because the “I” is gone and all is the now. The watcher sees things that don’t really exist at normal times when the ego can push them away. The watcher has to pre-plan, plan, triple plan and quadruple plan at the same time. I have planned the rest of my work and research to get to this place as a major part of my work process, leaving the “world” the actor on the stage, the “Michael Alan” to float next to my body.

Art is Freedom! •

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“Painting and drawing are dead. We don’t teach that anymore.”

I was 18, selecting classes at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, when my enthusiasm was destroyed by an instructor who verbalized the school’s attitude toward painting and drawing. Tuition wasn’t cheap, either, just like today. So began my distrust of art education.

I drew pretty well because I had worked at it through grade school, and I pushed hard to get better in high school. I thought that going to an art college would be the place to really hone those skills. What I had yet to realize was that I was about to become self-taught, out of desperation.

With the conceptual art movement gaining a foothold in education, my classes were one disappointment after another. Instructors came in for two minutes, said, “draw from the model” and left—or worse, never showed up at all. “Forget how you see, paint from your soul.” “Look past the model and capture her spirit.” “The best way to become famous is to have an idea and repeat it over and over again.”

These were the statements I was supposed to learn from.

I was passionate to learn painting, especially of the figure, and I felt I could get good at it if I worked hard enough. I knew I didn’t have talent and I didn’t think of myself as gifted. Talent is built, not possessed. But if that’s what people thought I needed, then I was just going to have to learn it so well that I’d look like I had it.

I was fairly sure I didn’t know how to change the world of art. I wasn’t interested in abstracting it, or modifying it, because I first knew I had to get a grasp of how it worked. I was fairly certain that the instructor that told me painting was dead knew it was dead for him. He may have given up, but the dream of painting was alive and well and living deep within me. I wasn’t about to give up. I was just getting started.

My real training began when I got out of art school. Based on the drawings in my portfolio, I got a job at an illustration studio. At Hellman Design Associates in Iowa, I absorbed everything I could from the six other artists around me who were much more skilled than I. I watched and listened, I

Magellan in the Strait18 x 30 inches, oil on linen

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studied everything they did. It wasn’t easy. I failed in front of them, in miserable ways, but I couldn’t give up. Each mistake was meticulously studied and not repeated. I learned on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.

After two years, I left the studio to freelance. I had to push myself out, but I was young, aggressive, and ready to show off. Constantly changing, I studied and developed multiple styles. I often reinvented myself to stay viable in the illustration market, which kept me moving, learning to see. I wasted ten years of work until two agents in New York City, flipping through my very versatile portfolio filled with printed samples, shoved my book back in front of me and said, “you do so much, we’ve forgotten what you do already.”

That’s the moment I realized, I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do the most: oil painting. Over the next year, I emptied my book of everything except oil paintings. My reps told me I wouldn’t get work. But I had been told “no” since my first day at art school.

It was quite a list of things people didn’t believe I could do: I couldn’t get a full-time job, couldn’t freelance, couldn’t use oil paint in the illustration field, couldn’t live where I wanted and still get work, would never get into the Society of Illustrators shows (let alone win medals), never get into CA Magazine. Over my 35-year career, I managed to do all of them.

And I survive this business by being self-taught.

I discovered a lot about painting in the process, but not what I expected. Painting is not an either/or endeavor for

me. It’s both/and. I paint from life, I paint from photos, and I paint from my head. These all complement each other. Photos should not be off limits to a painter—you need to do whatever it takes to get the vision to the surface. Everything I see and experience is material for my work.

Michelle’s Thoughts24 x 20 inches, oil on linen

Equus26 x 64 inches, oil on linen

19Astronaut 5

16 x 12 inches, oil on linen

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The martial arts taught me a lot about painting as well. Oddly, a fight is a creative endeavor. The martial artist trains to make his actions automatic so his mind can stay aware in the midst of danger, and anticipate what will happen next. We don’t point and say, “Look at those two people fighting.” Instead, we describe one effort: “Look, there’s a fight.” One energy, dynamic and evolving toward an outcome.

So, too, are my efforts to improve in painting. It is the training that finally allowed me to “see past the model.” It is the practice that allows me the freedom to paint while my mind dwells on the concepts of what I’m saying with the paint. Knowing my subject well is what allows me to make the next decision, reach the next plateau in my work. With time, I developed a singular voice: My voice. Once I could recognize it, I had to keep developing it, as I do even now. My work is always in the dynamic flux of growth.

I found that creating is not about being “ahead of your time.” It’s about being a part of your time, about being so clued in to your time that the work will transcend the moment and not only speak to your contemporaries, but also to future generations. The effort is to make pictures compelling, whether narrative or abstract, realistic or enigmatic. To me, trying to be original is a soulless endeavor. Instead, I strive to be authentic, to create for my experience, which ironically allows for more originality in my personal work. It isn’t complicated. It is simple and elegant.

I push my work to speak the language of the human condition. Only then can I be successful at communicating a thought, an impression, or an idea. •

Back Study

Nanuk: Dog Attack20 x 14 inches, oil on linen

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It’s hard to imagine a more enjoyable and satisfying avocation than collecting fine art. More than an avocation,

really, it is a passion that can quickly become an obsession. Having said that, I must admit that we never purchased artwork with the intent of building a collection. Each painting was acquired for one reason: because we love it.

The collection began twenty-five years ago, and was jump-started with the purchase of three paintings by Richard Schmid. I was fortunate enough to meet Richard, and become friends with him, after his amazing 1986 Rendezvous Show at Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Nanette, by Richard Schmid I was drawn to the same quiet beauty, grace, and introspective quality that I have found in many of Richard’s paintings. Nanette was a ballet dancer who often posed for studies at the Palette & Chisel in Chicago, and paintings of her have become well-known.

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Through Richard, I met a small group of talented young artists, fresh out the American Academy of Art in Chicago, all of whom were destined to become masters in their own right: Scott Burdick, Susan Lyon, Rose Frantzen, Dan Gerhartz, Clayton Beck, Romel de la Torre, and Nancy Guzik. For over twenty years, I have followed their careers and attended their shows and events whenever possible, and have felt a close friendship with all of them. Scott Burdick has been very helpful in advising and guiding me in the selection of fine art.

In 2000, the scope of our collection broadened considerably, when Jay and I were married and chose to settle in Laguna Beach, where we both had grown up. Jay had not been an art collector, but had a keen interest in the legacy of the early California Impressionist painters who had lived and painted in Laguna in the first half of the twentieth century. We soon became actively involved with the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (www.LPAPA.org), whose goal is to promote and carry on this legacy. Through LPAPA, we have met and become friends with plein air painters throughout the country, and our collection reflects this focus.

While a small part of our collection consists of paintings by deceased masters, the majority of the paintings are by contemporary representational painters. We attend art shows and events around the country, and enjoy developing

friendships with the artists whose works we purchase. We make our selections jointly, and the selection must be one that we both would love to have on our walls. We also have a few favorite galleries through which we make purchases and keep updated on their artists.

What draws us to a painting is not the subject matter, but what the artist has to say about that subject. There is a sense

Rose Frantzen’s Peonies. Scott pointed this piece out to me at the Talisman Gallery in Bartlesville, OK, more than 20 years ago. It was there that I met the amazing group of artists from The Palette & Chisel Academy in Chicago, where Richard Schmid was serving as president.

Above Lily Lake by Matt SmithScott and Matt painted together at Lake Tahoe for the 2004 PAPA Show.

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Getting Ready, 1933, painting by George Brandriff (1890-1936)

of beauty in every piece, and a personal connection to the artist; a piece of his or her soul remains on the canvas. Every acquisition feels more like an adoption than a purchase. We bring it home with the pride of new parents, and Jay ensures its legacy by placing on the back of the painting a bio of the artist and a personal record of how, when, where, and why we bought it.

Although our home is small and our wall space limited, we take advantage of every free space, and feel joy at the abundance of beauty. Looking around our rooms, it is impossible to feel sad or lonely, because we are always surrounded by friends—and family. •

Chioggia Boats by Edgar Payne (1883-1947)

Orphan Girl, one of Scott Burdick’s amazing paintings from his first one-man show at the Palette & Chisel Academy in Chicago.

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Everyone has encountered beauty, whether they know it or not. Not everything is beautiful, but there is beauty

in everything; beauty waiting to be discovered—waiting to be received. Mankind’s experience with beauty is so universal that the simple assertion that beauty exists can hardly be debated. But how do we know that beauty exists? How do we know that it’s real? It’s in the answer to those questions that I believe beauty is trying to teach us something about ourselves and about our search for truth and meaning in life.

So how do we come to know, for ourselves, that beauty exists, and that a particular painting or person or song is beautiful? By experience. For beauty to be perceived it must be felt. The personal experience by which we are convinced of

something’s beauty happens internally, deep down in that part of us frequently called the heart or the spirit—the part of us that loves, and desires, and dreams, and feels. We don’t know beauty when we see it; we know it when we feel it—and that knowledge can come to us in no other way.

Think back on your own encounters with the beautiful. Was it in a spirit of pure reason, or cold calculated logic that you approached that painting or listened to that solo? Your logic, your reason, your training, education, background and knowledge may have all factored into the experience, but all of those things together could never have convinced you, worlds without end, that the painting, or the solo, was beautiful—you knew it was beautiful because you felt it.

Teton Pass, 30 x 40 inches, oil on linen

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Docked, 24 x 36 inches, oil on linen

Naomi24 x 18 inches, charcoal on paper

I don’t mean to ignorantly suggest that science and logic are not valid means for discovering truth. Instead, at least in the case of beauty, I believe science is simply not enough. No man who limits his experiments to the purely scientific will ever arrive at “That is beautiful,” or come anywhere near it.

Because a belief in beauty is not deductive we cannot argue anyone into agreeing with our own judgments of beauty. I was reminded of this on a trip to the San Diego Museum of Art a couple of years ago when I was enraptured by Nicolai Fechin’s painting, “Indian Maid Seated,” and my wife wasn’t. I tried hard to explain to her why I was in such ecstasies over that painting, but I couldn’t argue her into feeling it. She understood everything I said about color temperature and variety of edge and drawing and values and tonal arrangement, but the feeling of beauty that had flooded my soul just wouldn’t flood hers. I realized then that whoever it is that pours beauty into souls, it’s certainly not me. We don’t know beauty when we see it; we know it when we feel it.

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This belief in something real that can’t be seen or proven is faith. Every time you say, “That’s beautiful,” you declare your faith in beauty—faith based upon personal experience that cannot be shared or even explained. If you’re unwilling to give up believing in beauty you admit that reality includes more than just that which can be observed, measured, and calculated. You admit that there’s another path to truth, apart from science, and that this path leads to empirical evidence as sure and undeniable as that yielded by the most rigid scientific experiment.

That’s one of the lessons that beauty is trying to teach us: that the most important things in life can be known only by those who are willing to go beyond believing what they see, and who have the courage to trust in what they feel.

I believe in beauty, not because someone convinced me of it, or because it’s logical, or reasonable, or widely accepted—I believe in it because I’ve felt it. I’ve experienced beauty for myself, and it’s real. I know it. Beauty matters because it’s real, because it’s true. Beauty matters because it brings us a joy far more pure and far more lasting than the feeble gratification of self-fulfillment and self-indulgence so glorified by the world in which we live. Thank God for beauty and for the joy that it brings us. Thank God for eyes that can be taught to see and hands that can be taught to create. And thank God for those among us who, having learned to see, are selfless enough to share their vision of things as they really are. •

Partly Sunny10 x 8 inches, oil on linen

The Least of These30 x 24 inches, oil on linen

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I am here; not necessarily to solve a problem, but to create a piece of art that is a direct response to a set of intricacies; based on my current proficiency and understanding of materials, in addition to the comprehension of that which has been created before me.

Question: Can I come up with a logical (left brain) equation that would define a creative (right brain) response?

With painting, I like to think in terms of opposites. Warm to cool, big to small, lost to found, the list is endless. So in looking at “creativity,” I want to try to use an opposing language to help define such a limitless subject. Specifically I’m trying to answer some important questions: Can I narrow down key elements artists must possess in order to create on a high level? What is necessary in order to create an “original” piece of art? How does one continually improve or grow?

To develop an equation for the creative process, we must first determine what our answer will be. Our answer is the finished painting, but what does that piece represent or communicate? Does it communicate a solution to a problem? We must remember that art is not an end-all solution, but merely one artist’s own “response” to something. That response is not necessarily correct or incorrect, but is instead merely a personal view or appraisal of something. So we must not say we are trying to solve a problem, but only that we are “responding” to something.

I can start to develop the equation as, x + y + z + . . . = A creative response to a problem

What are the basic elements that go into making art? Physically, we have the raw materials, the tools of the trade, charcoal, canvas, oil, brushes, etc. Yet, without the understanding and the skills to apply, the materials are useless.

Ingredient one - Skill (competence and experience) with materials and all things associated with their use, giving us:

x + y + Skill = A creative response to a problem

Skills are obtained through many avenues: self teaching, art institutions, ateliers, instructors, etc. But it is the constant, repetitive, and long-term dedication of the artist that is required for these skills to be truly obtained.

A word on motivation: People are always striving to be in balance, to have things in a position of understanding and comfort. (both shoes tied, clothes cleaned, emails returned). It is human nature. When things are out of balance, we work hard to get them back into equilibrium, or into a place that

Italian Roses18 x 24 inches, oil on linen

32Autumn Gesture21 x 17 inches, oil on linen

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makes us feel complete. This effort to get things back on track is what I see as “motivation.” Hard work being fueled by motivation is a primary element to becoming a successful artist. When I analyze the variable of “skill,” without motivation, one can only go so far. By making ourselves learn a new skill, or a new technique, we are thrown “out-of-balance,” and we will feel balanced once again only when we have a good grasp of that particular technique or skill. The more we challenge ourselves to new ways of “doing,” the more we learn, the more we improve, and the more we lean on “motivation” to get us through to the next level.

We have skills and some materials, now what? We need to tell our brain how to combine these materials in a way that will create something that we don’t already have. A mark on a canvas, a color mixed, a form, a shape, something “new.” Again, these are all useless unless we have an idea or thought behind this collaboration of materials. Most importantly, that

thought or idea must be something new, something that has not been done before, or it will not be considered creating—it will merely be a copy, an imitation, or a reproduction of an original thought.

How can an idea that is “new” come into being? An artist’s skill must become automatic and second nature in order for him to infuse his own imagination, and only then will he be able to achieve his own voice. But ideas don’t just hit you on the head, and it’s useless to wait around for “inspiration” to come to you. For me, everything comes out of constant work. Every time I paint for a show, and even after I have already planned out every piece that will go into that show, I come up with other ideas of pieces I could have painted. The thoughts and ideas that come out during “focused” work are tenfold those that came before. Ideas create ideas, but you have to put yourself in that position for that to happen, by the process of constant, focused work.

At a Peaceful Pace24 x 36 inches, oil on linen

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Ingredient Two – A Concept. Concept is defined as a “thought” that seems complete, individual (original), recent, or somewhat intricate, giving us:

x + Idea (concept) + Skill = A creative response to a problem

I now have an original idea, and skill with materials. What else? Can I just go ahead and respond to a problem with what I have? How do I know it’s original? How have others responded to a problem similar to the one I am dealing with? Do I have to reinvent the wheel? Can I use what others know, and expand on that knowledge to get to my own response? Do I agree in part or in whole, with the response of others? Can I formulate my own response in support, or opposition to what others have done?

Ingredient Three – Creative responses, ideas, and skills presented to us by those that came before.

Now the equation reads: What has come before + Idea (concept) + Skill = Creative response

Or, to put it more personally: What I know of “All that has come before me” + “my” current skill set + “my” idea = “my” creative response to a problem

I can now look at this equation and see what an artist can do to continually improve or grow. By developing the first two variables (understanding what has come before and my skill set), the final response should improve. When your abilities exceed your knowledge, you stop progressing. There is really no reason for you to stop learning about any aspect of art, because of the endless information that exists of past (and present) artists.

When I began to paint, my instructor asked me to pick one living and one deceased artist I liked, and about whom I wanted to learn more. I bought a book about each artist. Not only did this start my collection of books, but it also began my art research. I found that one artist leads to the next, whether it was that artist’s friend, his instructor, his student, or someone who used a similar palette. My research revealed an incredible, endless linear connection. This, of course, led me to not only see their art in books, but to see it in person

at museums, galleries, and exhibitions all over the world. This endless consumption of knowledge is bigger than all of us. I think that the visual connection at museums is one of the strongest reasons for improvement in my painting. The past holds the key to what we do in the future.

This equation is a starting point to help answer only a tiny segment of what I want and need to understand as an artist. I am constantly asking myself questions, and I rarely have the immediate answers, but the questions always send me down a road that ends in a deeper understanding of what I am doing with this profession.

Artists should always ask themselves, “What is the purpose of creating art? What is the purpose of this particular piece of art I am trying to create?” Too many artists get into the routine of creating for the purpose of selling and painting to the market. They paint what they think will sell, with no real purpose behind their efforts. As someone has said, “Don’t paint to sell, sell to paint.”

I think one of the reasons for creating art is to satisfy our need to communicate. The other reason is to evoke an emotion, or spark a response, as well as give the viewer an experience. I can’t predict what that response will be from any particular viewer, and chances are it will be different from everyone. Just as long as there is some kind of response, the communication will have begun. •

Interior16 x 24 inches, oil on linen

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Painting, at least for me, is a very demanding discipline. It’s difficult and exhausting, but at the same time very

exhilarating—and certainly rewarding. It’s been a lifetime endeavor of constant striving and learning. When I first began to paint I was sure it would get easier the more I did it. I could envision myself sitting back with ease just painting away, no stress, no anxieties, painting a masterpiece with one hand tied behind my back—so to speak. Okay, granted I’m still mid-career so who knows . . . maybe someday. But as a wise man once said “Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.”

This thought completely fits my philosophy of art. I don’t really want it to get easier—I just want to get better. That is my drive, my obsession and my torment. It’s rewarding because it’s so difficult. Edgar Degas said, “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” It took many years before I truly understood what Degas meant by that statement, but how profound it is to me now.

Okay, so that’s me. I place a lot of expectations on myself. I really think it’s very different for everyone out there; we’re not all after the same goals. Art means something different to everyone. So maybe it doesn’t have to be that difficult for you. Perhaps you only want to do it as a hobby—if so, that’s fantastic. However, at whatever stage you are in your journey, learning is an essential part of it. Everyone wants to improve to some degree, and in order to improve it really does come down to the mileage that you cover. Time spent sketching and painting all adds up to a lifetime of experience. It takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of practicing a specific task to become proficient at it. But also remember it’s not a race. Find your patience and realize you are learning with every stroke. The essence of the art spirit is to grow and learn and to push yourself to expand your knowledge base and skill set.

With that said, you can only take in and truly comprehend information that corresponds with your current level of understanding. For example, imagine you are sitting in a workshop working away, when the instructor mentions

something specific about color temperature. And then it hits you; it’s that genuine A-ha! moment. Things are so clear now! You’ve been working with color temperature so hard for the last year, and maybe you even read the exact same thing that the instructor just said, but before it just didn’t sink in. Why is it that you now understand it so clearly? It’s simply because you are now ready for the information. It fits in with your current level of understanding. It’s like a puzzle piece that you can’t place until you have the surrounding area filled in. I like to think of learning as being like the spiral of a spring. As you go up the spiral, around the spring, you come back to the same spot but on the next level up, and you understand more deeply what you learned at that same spot the last time around.

We’re all familiar with the elements of art. They’ve been presented to us since the very beginning of our education. Over the years I have developed a list of ten elements that are essential to my work.

Invitation to the Dance20 x 20 inches, Oil on linen

And Everything Nice24 x 16 inches,

Oil on linen

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• Composition (design) • Value (mass tone) • Shapes • Color • Edge • Perspective (linear and atmospheric) • Texture (implied and actual) • Paint handling • Anatomy • Intent/Content (the “why” of painting)

Each year I focus on two specific elements and work to improve them above all others. If I feel I haven’t made enough progress in an area I will just leave it on my “Improve” list and work on it for another six months or a year.

Value For example, this past year I put value and shapes on my “Improve” list. (Image 1, 2, 3). I see value and shapes as being close friends on the elements list so it makes sense to work on them together. Because of its importance, let’s first talk about value. The term value is basically a simple scale of gradations of gray between black and white. But in painting terms there is also the effect of massing your values for a stronger and more unified painting. Howard Pyle once explained it like this: “Put your white against white, middle tones (groups) against grays, black against black, then black and white where you want your center of interest.”

A Winter’s Tale24 x 30 inches, Oil on linen

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Fig-A: I many times start off with a drawing of the figure. To have a separate drawing is a little like having a safety net. I can refer back to it when I’m working on the painting. The drawing is not very fancy as I really only do it as a reference. It’s just done on a white type of news print so it doesn’t take the dark very well, which is okay because I was only after a linear drawing.

Fig-C: I then begin to wash in the figure. I keep the values simple, just focusing on the light side and the dark side. For the flesh tones I start with a mixture of white, cad yellow lt. and perylene red.

Fig-B: On a lightly toned linen I put down some thin washes of paint and develop the basic position and shape of the figure. I’m not concerned about edges or being exact, I’m just looking at the overall composition—this is a particular enjoyable part of the painting, no stress.

Fig-D: I just continue to refine the shapes and values, keeping the color thin and subdued.

Demonstration

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Fig-E: In this stage I focus on refining a few of the areas. I add a few simple folds to define the drapery and a little definition in the face. I end the session and let the painting dry.

Fig-G: You can see here I have spent most of my time with the face. I have also simplified and darkened some of the areas in the periphery to keep the focus toward the head.

Fig-F: Starting the next day I put the paint down thicker and with more of the local colors. I typically work on the entire painting to some degree trying to keep everything moving, but I spend most of my time working the anatomy and the drapery. I build up the paint layer thick in the lights, particularly in the light side of the slip.

Fig-H: (The completed painting) I believe it was two days later before I returned to the painting. By then it was good and dry. My primary focus again is the face; I want the values and colors to be refined. After all, it is the subject matter. As someone who loves anatomy it was hard for me not to go back into the feet and hands and refine them more. I really want the viewer’s attention to go to the face.

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Image 1: In this example I reduced an image of my painting Repose down to two values only. Notice the tight grouping of these values—all the lights are grouped together in the center of the painting. It makes for some interesting abstract shapes, but I feel it is well balanced.

Image 2: In this example I have done the same thing with the image but now in three values. It takes on a little more reality, but again the painting holds together quite well.

Image 3: This is the same painting in black and white. With all of the color removed, it still makes a strong painting because the shapes and value masses are well grouped.

Simple, right? It’s harder than you think, but I’m working on it. There are also other very important aspects to value. Using as few as possible is definitely one of my goals this year. Again Howard Pyle said it so eloquently: “If you can make a picture with two values only, you have a strong and powerful picture. If you use three values, it is still good, but if you use four or more, throw it away.”

Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh, but it’s a good goal!

One last thought on value. It certainly can be easy to lose oneself in color. But remember that every color you put down has a corresponding value on the black and white value scale. It has been said that if you lay down the right color and temperature you will have the proper value. I guess I don’t quite see it that way. I learned that if you get your value correct you can put down any color. I think it might just be the way we are each wired. But I believe color is very arbitrary and seen very differently by everyone. It is influenced by our perceptions, our current moods, even our genetics. But values are a plain and simple gradation between white and black.

Shapes I guess shapes are pretty straightforward. Just remember to pay close attention to any object’s inherent shape and try to keep it simple. Think circles, rectangles and triangles. Also, try not to think of what a specific object is, instead think, “What shape is it?” Remember, shapes play an extremely important role when it comes to working with the figure. An arm is not an arm, but a cylinder. There are two other aspects to shapes that I should mention as well. Be sure to give shapes a little variety and at the same time pay attention to the negative spaces—which are shapes too.

So what I want to impart is that no matter how far we’ve come or how far we have to go, we’re all still learning. Even the contemporary masters of today are still learning. And when you think they make it look so easy, it is only because they have made the same mistake a thousand times, before they finally got it right. One of my favorite quotes is from a past master who understood this clearly. On his death bed the great Edgar Degas realized that only one thing could end his learning as an artist. As the final hours of his life slipped past, and he sensed death approaching, he is reported to have said, “Damn and just when I was starting to get it.” •

changechangechange

Harmony in all things30 x 20 inches, Oil on linen

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changechangechange

Harmony in all things30 x 20 inches, Oil on linen

Change is here to stay

Unless you’re already a top-selling artist, you’re going to need to learn how to promote your work, build a following, and run your business on your own – whether you work with galleries or not.

By Lori Woodward

The History of Galleries Forty years ago, there were only a fraction of the number of existing commercial galleries, compared to the number that have proliferated in the last twenty years. For example, when Clark Hulings, a young artist at the time, approached Grand Central Gallery in New York City for representation, he was turned down multiple times, until one day when he took new work in for the owner to evaluate. His paintings were propped against the wall, and the owner was about to give him the typical “You’re not ready yet” speech. Then a collector happened in and wanted to buy one of his paintings. Well, that did it! Hulings began to be represented by that gallery.

In the 1950s and ’60s, there were very few galleries in the United States, and they were difficult to “get into.” I believe that the closure of a large percentage of galleries in the last five years indicates that the consignment system is returning to a few stable galleries, more like the situation as it was in from the 1950s through the ’70s.

The Art-buying Bubble Since the 1990s, not only was there a proliferation of galleries, but also of capable artists. Access to quality art education has never been easier to obtain. Hundreds of workshops and art schools have popped up since the mid-1990s, giving aspiring artists access to art education for any medium or style they want to learn. In addition to art workshops and classes, publication of art instruction books became commonplace.

Because quality art education has been easier to obtain in recent decades, today we have a proliferation of excellent artists, and the “bar of excellence” is constantly rising. Recently, I judged a national competition, and I was astounded by the number of highly professional paintings. On first pass, I selected 162 out of 800 submissions that I thought had merit. It was extremely difficult to narrow the finalists down to 11 winners.

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Supply and Demand Just as a major correction occasionally occurs in the stock market, the art market had its own correction after 2008. When money was flowing and the housing market flourished, art sales reached an all-time high, and the art buying bubble enabled many more artists to make a living than in past decades. I personally know artists who sold entire walls of their art at gallery openings; some sold works right out of the box before they even reached the gallery wall.

For many artists, that spending spree ended by the summer of 2010. I’ve heard of some artists who regularly sold enough of their art to make annual six figure incomes during the boom. These same artists experienced such a drop in sales at their galleries, that they were lucky to sell more than ten thousand dollars’ worth of paintings in 2011.

Even worse, during the art-buying boom, many galleries quadrupled the prices of emerging artists because their sales flourished no matter how many times the prices were raised. In some cases the higher priced work sold more quickly, but when the buying bubble burst, painting prices that rose too quickly began to fall, and collectors started asking for discounts. A ten percent discount at galleries has become the norm.

But there’s good news. By the spring of 2012, many artists working with galleries were reporting that sales had picked up, especially for their larger works. However, because art galleries continue to close, it’s important that artists create multiple streams of income. I advise making a plan that will work even if all your galleries close. Some of that plan might include some form of passive income, through the sales of books, e-books, or reproductions. All the most famous artists have passive income. In a way it’s an insurance policy—it’s always there in case you reach the point where for some reason you can no longer paint. Plus, someone else can take over a business that includes passive income.

Standing Out in the Crowd As more and more artists work on building a following for their work, it becomes increasingly difficult to make that work stand out in the crowd. The trick is to find your “peeps,” or more explicitly, your potential collectors. If you’re just

getting started selling your work, start with prices that are high enough to allow for a profit after all your expenses and/or gallery commissions are paid. As your collector base grows, you can safely raise your prices by 10 percent or so each year that you sell more than 75 percent of your works.

Just because the number of professional artists selling their work has grown exponentially, that shouldn’t, and doesn’t, mean that you can’t make a living from the sale of your work. In fact, there are many more artists making a decent living from the sale of their art then ever before, but these sales are not necessarily by working with galleries. With websites, social media, and blogs, artists are cultivating collectors in droves.

Remember, there are many levels of collectors who shop in a variety of price ranges, styles, and for different reasons. It’s your job as a small business owner to find which crowd of collectors has a taste for your work, and at what price point. Then make a plan to reach those collectors on a regular basis with images of your work. Fortunately, with the advent of internet sales, reaching and cultivating collectors is easier than ever.

Cowboy at Heart by Lori Woodward20 x 16 inches, Watercolor on paper

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Enter the internet The internet has changed the way the world buys and sells most everything. Big box stores for books, music, even small appliances and cameras have closed their doors for good. I heard a statistic that said for each item purchased today, 97 percent of those purchases began with an online search. Online stores, such as Amazon, also have the advantage of listing reviews for any item.

Today, storefronts are digital, and while it might seem that original artwork needs to be seen in real life, it isn’t actually working that way. Have you gone to an art opening lately? The participating artists show up to the reception, but most of the collectors use their phone to buy a painting they saw online or in a magazine advertisement. The majority of art is acquired with a phone call or email. Afterward, the art is shipped to the collector. That is, unless the show’s paintings are sold “by draw” or the event is an auction where collectors need to be physically present to bid on artwork.

Art is a Do-it-Yourself business Unless you’re already a top-selling artist, you’re going to need to learn how to promote your work, build a following, and run your business on your own—whether you work with galleries or not. As galleries across the nation continue to close, those still in business are reluctant to take on additional artists. Even good artists with excellent resumes are finding it difficult to get gallery representation. I’ve heard about several artists who have abandoned the gallery system after several of their galleries closed. They are now selling work on their own.

It’s sort of a Catch-22, in that artists need to have a consistent body of work, a strong following and sales history for a gallery to take them on. That’s why many artists are skipping the “middleman” and running their businesses completely on their own. With easy and inexpensive access to website development, blogging, eBay, Facebook, and now Pinterest, artists have many avenues to reach collectors, and believe me, hundreds of artists are using these to make a living.

Even art galleries are changing the way they sell to collectors. Some, like Brigham Galleries in Massachusetts have moved their business model to online shows. Other gallery owners have closed their arts district locations and store inventory at their homes.

Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale has had growing success with a new model of sales, where collectors browse over a database containing images from their juried artists. When the collector selects a piece, the artist ships the work directly to the collector, and the gallery takes a reduced commission, say 20 percent. Jason Horejs, Xanadu Gallery’s owner said this new model has grown slowly but steadily each year. He began online sales in 2009. Yes, Jason still has a brick-and-mortar location in Scottsdale, but his online database of artworks provides a way for collectors to choose from a larger offering than just what the gallery walls alone can hold. This is a plus for the artist as well–the painting only needs to be shipped once, from their studio directly to the collector.

Real Life Examples Adele Earnshaw has had a successful career selling her large oil paintings at galleries in the Southwest. When the economy dwindled, her gallery sales did as well, so she decided that instead of getting a non-art job to “pay the bills,” she offered small 4×4, unframed paintings of birds from her website for a reasonable price. While some of her artist friends found part-time work at non-art businesses to make ends meet, Adele found that with two hours of painting, she could make as much as her friends did by working all day. She reported that she sold 100 percent of these small paintings—allowing her to easily make ends meet until gallery sales picked up.

Likewise, Qiang Huang, an artist who sells larger paintings through brick-and-mortar galleries, began selling smaller, unframed works through an organization called Daily Paintworks (www.dailypaintworks.com), headed by Carol Marine. In the depth of the recession, Qiang sold 100 percent of his small paintings, thereby allowing him to quit his full-time job as a physicist. Interestingly, some avid collectors who bought his smaller paintings then purchased his larger works from his galleries. These collectors bought his small works so that they could experience Qiang’s work in real life, and then they called the gallery for his larger paintings.

Commissions Another way that artists supplement their gallery sales is by offering commissioned work. Landscape artists offer larger versions of their studies and small paintings—perhaps at a custom size and format to fit in a client’s home or office.

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Others offer wall murals. One artist friend of mine is now involved in art for the city of Tucson. Her designs are seen on bridges and downtown walkways. She previously taught art in the school system and worked with galleries in the Southwest.

There are plenty of opportunities to work as an artist, but these require some creativity in marketing, and sometimes flexibility in attitude. Artists who get along well with people have the easiest time selling directly. For those of you who are shy or don’t want to work directly with clients, you might consider hiring an assistant to meet with collectors, update your website and bio, submit press releases, or even write your email newsletters or blogs.

Social Media I have experienced exponential growth in my visibility as an artist, teacher and consultant, as a result of using social media. Online exhibits of my work, with links to my writing and art instruction tutorials, have given me amazing results. For example, one of the blogs I wrote in 2009 about pricing artwork is still the number one most-read blog post for that online community.

By 2004, I stopped selling through galleries and began to sell my work directly. Many of those sales came from my “artist in residence” stays at a luxury B&B in Tucson. I have also sold work directly from my website. And yes, most of these sales were to previous buyers.

The best way for me to reach collectors and get them to buy my work has been through my email newsletter. It takes several years to build a following online, but it can and has been done. I see a handful of artists selling by using links on Facebook, Twitter, their blog, and now Pinterest. The key is to have a direct link from these social networks to where the paintings reside. This can be a link to the page where your work is at a commercial gallery, or to your blog or website. Some artists use eBay auctions to sell their work with links from Facebook and Twitter.

The exciting news: Just because your galleries close and you feel abandoned, doesn’t mean that you can’t make a living as an artist. If you teach, that is a huge plus—this gives you the

opportunity to live-stream “pay-for” tutorials and to create e-books. Every six months, it seems that there is a new way to inexpensively post your content online. Again, you will need to build a sufficient following to get folks to hit the “Buy now” button.

On top of that, with PayPal and now Square (www.squareup.com), artists can take credit card payment without having to pay for a vendor’s account with a bank. I use PayPal for buyers from my website, and many artists have the same option from their blogs. At outdoor art fairs, artists can attach a Square device to their 3G iPhone or iPad/tablet and slide a credit card through it. Once the purchase has been made, a receipt is automatically emailed to the buyer. I recently heard a story about how a jewelry artist sold a pair of earrings she was wearing at a restaurant to someone sitting at the next table. She took out her phone and Square, slid the buyer’s card through, and sold the earrings right off her ears!

Portrait of Linda by Lori Woodward14 x 11 inches, Watercolor on paper

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Avoiding Overwhelm I completely understand how overwhelming these new changes in technology can be. Just work at becoming accustomed to the fact that the ways you market your work will continually change. Embrace these changes; they actually make it easier to make a living by the sale of your artwork.

Don’t expect to learn how to use Facebook, YouTube, or Pinterest in a day. There are online tutorials that can be

purchased. And yes, there are free webinars. However, I’ve begun buying online modules from the experts so that I can teach myself in a shorter period of time and keep up with new developments.

I suspect that in five years I will use completely new ways of reaching my collectors and students. After all, ten years ago, I would never have believed I’d be writing for an online art magazine. •

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ConvergeWhere classical & contemporary art collide

A GROUP EXHIBITION AND SALE ON VIEW THIS NOVEMBER AT 25CPW GALLERY IN NEW YORK CITY SHOWCASES A SELECTION OF EMERGING AND ESTABLISHED ARTISTS WHO EMBODY THE BEST OF CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY ART WORLDS.

Throughout history there have been pivotal moments when one art movement or aesthetic gave way to another, either in opposition to or in tandem with that which came before. The practice of representational painting once again finds itself at a crossroads, and there certainly seems to be a collective restlessness and curiosity as we observe where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed. At the turn of the twentieth century, when Post-Impressionism made its logical progression toward Cubism and eventually Abstraction, it birthed Modernism and with it an attendant rejection of realism and traditional thinking. In the decades that followed, those who wanted serious training based on the practices of the past were at a loss, and in the 1960s through the 1990s in particular many representational artists incited a grass-

roots revival by starting their own classical or realist-based academies, ateliers, and apprenticeships.

Flash forward to the present, and we can see that the resurgence of interest in representational painting has had enough time in nascent form to be observed and analyzed in a post-modern context. Now that so many artists have traditional training, what are they doing with it? How does one take the timeless principles of the past and bring it to the present? Is there anything the traditional artists can learn from the avant-garde artists? Anything avant-garde artists can learn from the traditionalists? Is there any longer a need for a division between the two?

By Allison Malafronte

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This November in New York City the group exhibition “Converge: Where Classical & Contemporary Art Collide” will aim to answer these questions by showing what happens when the tradition and skill of the classical world collide with the content and critical thinking of the contemporary world. Rather than looking in confusion or disdain at a particular style or approach, this exhibition aims to open up new levels of appreciation and thought by bringing high-level, skillful, emotive paintings in various styles and subject matter under one roof for mutual acknowledgement.

Although all the exhibiting artists in “Converge” could fit in any of the following three categories, for the sake of this article I have grouped them separately to show some of the similarities in training, subject matter, and thought.

THE CLASSICAL: Tradition, Technique, and Timelessness The word classical by definition refers to Greco-Roman or Renaissance ideals but when applied to today’s painters the word suggests work that embodies a certain timelessness, order, and beauty. Notable artists today began their artistic pursuits by dedicating a significant amount of time to the study and practice of humanist, naturalist, and/or classical painting traditions. Among these are Adam Miller and Jordan Sokol, who both trained at The Florence Academy of Art; Marc Dalessio, Greg Horwitch, and Kevin McEvoy, who studied at Charles Cecil Studios in Florence; Amaya Gurpide, Michael Klein, and Greg Mortensen, who attended The Water Street Atelier/Grand Central Academy of Art in New York City; and James Daga Albinson and Daniel Bilmes, who had similarly extensive atelier training. Now that they have acquired those skills and knowledge, they have a foundational language with which to express various subject matter, concepts, and themes related to their own life experiences. An artist like Adam Miller may paint large-scale, multi-figure murals in the style of Titian and Pontormo but the narratives he conveys offer a timeless message that references everyman’s questioning, decision-making, and fate. Jordan Sokol’s dramatic portraits and interiors speak of his love of the Old Masters while also reflecting a contemporary spirit similar to the legendary Spanish painter Antonio López García, who was one of the first contemporary artists to effectively bridge his academic training with an appreciation of the modernist aesthetic and mindset.

THE BRIDGE: The Best of Both Worlds The artists in this category represent the bridge between the classical and contemporary, in their subject matter, style, and motivation. These painters have earned the respect of both traditional and modern artists because their work embodies and somehow transcends the best of both worlds. Florentine painter Ben Fenske for instance—who studied at The Florence Academy of Art and then pursued independent studies, including training in the Russian tradition and his own research of the French and Russian Impressionists—has a unique style that is built on a strong foundation of excellent draftsmanship but that explodes with his own expressive interpretation of color and light. His paintings cover typical realist territory—everyday people, places, and things—but they are painted with such universal understanding and keen sensitivity that they feel as if they could belong to any moment in time: past, present, or future. Dan McCaw’s powerfully abstract patterns and poetic use of light are reminiscent of the paintings of such contemporary illustrators as Bernie Fuchs and Mark English, while his emotive handling of color and scratchy brushwork reveal the influence of his teacher Sergei Bongart and the long Russian lineage that comes with it. Quang Ho, Danny McCaw, Jeremy Mann, Peter Van Dyck, Tibor Nagy, and Stefán Boulter are others who walk the line between two artistic worlds. All of the painters in this category have the ability to communicate unspoken observations, thoughts, and emotions in a deeply expressive way.

THE CONTEMPORARY: Content, Substance, & Critical Thinking Although all the exhibiting artists in “Converge” are contemporary, the painters in this category create work that is more allegorical, conceptual, or symbolic in nature. Whether working in a representational or experimental manner, these artists bring an approach and philosophy to their work that is thoroughly modern. Artists such as Alex Kanvesky and Geoffrey Johnson, for instance, capture high-contrast, dynamic perspectives and thought-provoking subject matter through a confluence of stylistic influences, while Carolyn Pyfrom, Richard Thomas Scott, and Maria Kreyn offer psychologically charged narratives rich with layers of meaning. Artists such as Rachel Constantine, Alia El-Bermani, and Diane Feissel present a confidently empowered

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THE CLASSICAL

ADAM MILLER AMAYA GURPIDE

JAMES DAGA ALBINSON

GREG MORTENSEN

GREG HORWITCHKEVIN MCEVOY

DANIEL BILMES

MICHAEL KLEIN MARC DALESSIO

JORDON SOKOL

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THE BRIDGE

JEREMY MANN QUANG HO DANNY MCCAW

DAN MCCAWBEN FENSKE

PETER VAN DYCK TIBOR NAGY STEFAN BOULTER

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THE CONTEMPORARY

ALEX KANEVSKY

RACHEL CONSTANTINE

DIANE FEISSEL

CAROLYN PYFROM JOHN MCCAW SANDRA FLOOD

GEOFFREY JOHNSON RICHARD THOMAS SCOTT

MARIA KREYN ALIA EL-BERMANI

KAREN KAAPCKE ALLISON B. COOKE

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female view in their work, and Sandra Flood channels the influence of artists ranging from Degas to Lucian Freud into her contemporary portraits. Showing what can happen when profound contemplations push into abstract realms, Karen Kaapcke, John McCaw, and Allison B. Cooke allow us to enjoy the pure language of colors, patterns, and shapes coalescing in organic environments. Allegory, irony, and intelligent thought define the representational artists in this group, while freedom, imagination, and naturalism describe the experimental artists.

Whether classical or contemporary, representational or experimental, cerebral or emotional, there is a common thread running throughout the work of all the artists chosen for “Converge.” They all have some form of traditional training that they use as their foundation, many through the same academies and ateliers in Florence, New York City, and Philadelphia; all bring intelligent thought and reflective examination to the works they create; they each have a desire to reach beyond surface appearance and paint something of meaning and significance; and all have been given the artistic

freedom to create outside of commercial confines for this exhibition, to display work that is an honest reflection of both themselves and the world and time to which they belong. •

The group exhibition and sale “Converge: Where Classical & Contemporary Art Collide” will be on view at 25CPW Gallery in New York City from November 15-27. There is an opening reception on Thursday, November 15 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and many of the exhibiting artists will be in attendance. For more information, visit www.convergeartnyc.com or email curator Allison Malafronte at [email protected].

Host Gallery: 25CPW 25 Central Park West, at 62nd St. New York, NY 11231 212.203.0250

Nancy Depew - Artists on Art - Fall 2004

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