Abstract Landscape, Cubist Painting: Road Trip
Painting to Print Project:
I will have a photographer create giclee prints of paintings shown on this page if there is interest.
Prices: $40-100 for a high quality giclee on rag paper.
My first Painting Instructor: Oliver Jackson, Abstract Expressionist
“I get tired of people asking me what I think about my work,” he says. “What am I supposed to say? I think it’s great shit – I made it, why wouldn't I say that? But what weight does that have to you? Not very much. You have to experience the work and I don’t want to get in the way by telling you what I think.” So, I’m going to respect that and let you draw your own conclusions." Oliver Jackson.
Jackson was an interesting person as well as a very good art instructor. As an abstract expressionist he had a lot to offer his students. Coming right from high school with all my restrictions, it was a revelation on so many levels. The painting philosophy in the crazy art room was to loosen up, let go, don't take it all so seriously and trash it if it doesn't work. I flew with the careless freedom and thrived.
The crazy art room in a deserted restaurant housed a sculpture by Ernie Trova, an altered door, that the artist had thrown out. One of our students or professors snagged it and it hung at our entry. It was a statement of who we were.
Abstract Cubist Lanscape Painting: Mountain Road Trip
Painting to Print
Cezanne and Hitting the Wall
In my art career there came a time when I hit the wall. I had run out of what I was doing. It was not so much inspiration but rather, direction.
I signed up for a figure drawing class at Meramec Community College in St. Louis. I always get into figure drawing when I'm doing it regularly. In addition, I became friends with the teacher, Bob Lewis who was interested in Cubism. Prior to that I considered myself an expressionist. Bob taught Cubism in with Figure Drawing, asking us to break up the body into planes. This was a new concept for me. Later he directed me toward the artist, Cezanne who does this type of breaking spaces into planes in his paintings.
I started studying Cezanne. Cezanne is the master of still life. His work is amazingly beautiful and full of form. For a few years I did many studies in pencil of forms and cubistic shapes. I still consider this some the my best pencil work that I've ever done.
Later in completion of my art degree I took quite a bit of 3-D work. The advantage of going back to school is that the new learning compliments the old practice with amazing results. Doing clay and sculpture enhanced the cubistic style I was developing which basically is an exploration of form.
Abstract Contemporary Landscape Oil Painting: Tropical Landscape Fun in the Sun
Please ask about a Giclee Print of this painting
Francis Bacon, Art Born of a Violent Past
One of my favorite artists is Francis Bacon, Irish born, English artist. He is very famous for extreme paintings that depict violent, repressed and anxious feelings. The reason I like his work is that it's so personal, so intense and not mainstream. His art has impact born of a terrific talent, scarred past and deep emotion. No, it's not pretty but it is powerful. The paintings come from his soul. There is great painterly quality in Bacon's work, the scrubbing and changing and moving of the paint on the surface of the canvas pulls the viewer into the art. This style works to bring more intensity to the emotional content of the work.
Growing up in Ireland, Francis Bacon experienced violence at an early age. He described an experience of hiding in a ditch and viewing a violent political murder as a small boy. He was forever marked by his insecure an violent childhood. A lot is made of the fact that Bacon was gay. At the time he was alive it was less accepted but also he had wild life, gambling, drinking in London's Soho which was somewhat a reflection on his life choice. He called this lifestyle, "rough trade".
He was born in 1909 and died in 1992. In his last years he settled down and lived a quiet life. I saw photos of his studio with trash piled everywhere. He liked the chaos and felt that was the best soil for his creative life.
An interesting quote by Margaret Thatcher concerning Francis Bacon: "That man who paints those dreadful pictures." Dreadful? Maybe. Life can be dreadful and for Bacon it was his place and his time to give meaning to the feeling of anxiety that a violent past produces.
Links:
Agora Gallery
Avisen-Avk Gallery
The Boulder Art Page
Colorado Magazine
Country Adventures
Denver Artists
Fine Art Gallery
Graw Kunstdrucke
K.C. Benson Watercolors
Keith Garrow
Laurie Dameron
Loft Sofa
Marion Lucka
Monkdogz
Victoria Taylor Gore
|
