I will begin my column today, June 3, 2007, with a brief summary of my purpose and a short
introduction to a new book I am writing. The purpose of these articles, which I will submit on a regular
basis, will be to share personal experiences, revelations, concepts and break throughs I feel
would be of interest to some of you. They will come from my personal studies, classroom experiences,
fellow artists and any other source deemed profitable.
The new book will be titled "Musings Of An Artist" and will consist of at least 50 drawings and paintings.
The parallel page will deal with the origin of the idea for a painting, rather than the execution. It will
feature many of my latest works as well as past works. The forward will explain this better.....
Foreword...
"During the past 36 years of my life I have had the privilege of teaching over 13,000 people my interpretation of the Classical or Old Masters approach to drawing and painting. Most of this has included the basics of drawing, shading, composition, and color theory. The results of this and the personal rewards, are beyond my wildest dreams when I started this journey.
The thoughts expressed in this book will be devoted to the questions that have excited me and many others throughout my entire career. It is what I call the spiritual side of art. Where did an idea come from, what motivates us to pursue these idealistic pursuits that others question and consider a waste of time, with few material rewards. What is this passion that drives us to pick up a brush or a pencil and become totally absorbed in our pursuit of recording this moment, first for ourselves, and hopefully to share with others.
Each of the following paintings and drawings will be shared from intimate experiences I, like others, have had in pursuing a particular piece of art. The origin rather than the execution will be emphasized. I will share with you personal reasons that have kept me doing this for nearly 50 years. The reward you will receive, if you persevere, will be an understanding of many of the mysteries associated with this pursuit of what we call art. You will at some point have enough experience that you will begin to draw from this reservoir of creatively and become lost in things that will unknowingly come from your brush as you get lost in painting, many times not even remembering what you did.
This is the point where I believe the spiritual and material meet. Some call it inspiration, others hear voices. I call it " artsplosion". You simply reach a point where you let go, draw from that reservoir of experiences and enter a creative zone that will take you to levels you never dreamed........enjoy."
I hope you have enjoyed these few thoughts and will profit from them now and in the future.
The photo above is from our recent trip to Grand Coteau. I hope some of you can join us in the near
future. I would appreciate hearing from you.
Effective October 21, 2007 all additiions to this column will start with
the latest addition first and proceed backwards fo former pages.
August 21, 2008
Stop and Prop
I recently had an experience, returning from Mandeville to Baton Rouge
after a late afternoon class, that I would like to share with you.
I was driving towards Madisonville and noticed a group of oak trees, on
a ridge to the left across from the state park. The sun was cascading
under them illuminating the area in a way I had never seen before.
The next morning I called my associate Joe Lackie, who was working
at his gallery in St. Francisville, and invited him to do a workshop
after work and try to capture what I had experienced the night before.
There is a group of about eight of us that like to get together on the spur of the moment and
go sketching known as the elite eight. Sometimes
it’s only the final four and this time it was the terrible three, Kitty Mcgarr,
Joe and me.
We had one major obstacle to overcome. We set out to do a late
evening sunset and it rained all day getting worse towards evening.
We met at 5:00 p.m. and determined to carry on in the rain. We
were allowed to use the porch of the St. Francisville Bed and
Breakfast. It was not the greatest situation but we were determined
to go on the porch, find a place to work, stop on the spot and prop up
our easels and start painting whatever we saw. The lesson here is that when you
passionately commit to paint just do it. The end result was that we left,
after accomplishing our goal, with three attractive sketches in about an hour,
lots of inspiration and produced several nice paintings from these
sketches. The results are shown below
KITTY AND JOE
October 21, 2007
Lorenzos Frame
Painting composition simply chooses one area to be the center of interest and subordinates
or eliminates whatever is superfluous. Nature is the master artist upon whose designs
our composition must be based. Anything not based upon her designs and contrary to
her patterns is neither esthetically appealing or graceful. We have not nor will not
improve upon her beautiful creations. As important as this subject might be, I don't
think anything in art is more misunderstood than this one.
To understand this subject fully we must first recognize the limitations we have in seeing
or perceiving. There is a natural frame that we look into each time we observe nature.
This limits the length and height of our viewing ability. I will call this frame Lorenzo' Frame
after my great-grandfather who came to America in 1859 from Venice. Inside of this
frame innumerable shapes and objects are competing for our attention. The human brain
can only focus on one impression at a time, and the rest is invisible. When we compose
a painting we simply choose one point of interest and magnify it, then re-arrange
or eliminate all of the other elements in the compostion to guide the vision to the
dominant point of interest.
I interpert nature to be the evidence of an orderly creation by a Creator. It was done
logically, systematically and reasonably. It is a true expression of "reality" and
cannot be improved upon or replaced. All creativity is an exageration of truth,
but it can never eliminate it. In it's simplicity, it can be easlly understood and
appreciated. The portrait below illustrates this.
CECILE
PENCIL - SIZE 9 x 12 INCHES
June 6, 2007
Creativity
There are three necessary pre-requisites to becoming a successful artist. They are: Creativity...Imagination...Taking Risks...
Lets talk about creativity today. The act of inventing, making or producing. This is a fine intellectual
explanation but gives little help to struggling artists trying to define themselves. It has no
passion, emotion or quite frankly excitement. The world looks upon life, things and events
on the surface and only reacts to events, many times leaving them cynical, bitter and
hopeless. The artist looks upon life below the surface, and sees inspiration,beauty and hope.
It is as if in those moments of inspiration we see life from the inside, looking out of those things
that grab us. This is why we can see beauty in the simplest things. It is all about seeing.
The following sketch personifies the concepts listed above. It transports me back to that scene,
and I become totally absorbed in the memory of what moved me to do it. Others passed it
every day and saw nothing.
HOMOCHITO ST
NATCHEZ, MS. - PENCIL - 1974 - SIZE: 3 X 5 INCHES
June 24,2007
Imagination
The best way I know of to try to define imagination is to begin with reality. Much popular art exists today,
without a logical starting point, and has no relationship to anything past, present or future. An artist must
begin with something that is real or it will not relate to anything. Imagination and creativity exaggerate
reality to whatever point one wishes to go, and remains true, as long as it never leaves it's
foundation which is truth. As someone once said you cannot create reality and truth better
than the Creator.
An artist creates an image not visible to the senses and never before seen in reality. Imagination.
Meditation, which simply means to muse, is a word almost extinct to the world we live in today.
I heard some statics recently stating that the average person is bombarded with over 3000
commercials daily through the various media we are all exposed to. Thats before all other
stimulants compete for our minds. We all muse occasionally, but most of the time our thoughts
are dreamy abstractions. We very seldom take the time to ponder.
To ponder, we must go beyond musing and focus on our objectives in a quiet, sober, deep,
thoughtful and purposeful manner. Simply stated, to create and imagine, we must spend some
quiet time alone. I believe this word is the single most feared statement in modern society.
Art is a very logical, thoughtful experience, and one must be willing to pay the price to find
their personal dreams and desires fulfilled. Inspiration is everywhere, and should be recorded
in words or sketches for future use as we experience it. Imagination can only be achieved
in isolation and must be thoughtfully and purposefully pursued in an individual manner.
Imagination is not about painting, it is about seeing. What every person sees in an individual
and intimate way should be respected. Those thoughts, however, must reach a conclusion in a
logical and timely manner. Imagination is a dream with a deadline. There are no rules or
limitations. What you have to say is important. Say it. Learn, as the rest of us have had
to learn, say what is in your heart, be immune to what others say or think. The painting below,
photo courtesy of Dr. Helen Hedgemon, is a good example of imagineering. Imagine the original
photo was 11 x 14 inches. I used about 1 square inch of the information, and then only about
50% of that. I saw the dark gondolas linked to the sunlit building and made that the center of interest,
leaving a good part of the other information out. The rest I left to the Imagination.
VENICE CANAL
VENICE, ITALY - WATERCOLOR - 2006 - SIZE: 11 X 15 INCHES
June 30, 2007
Taking Risks
There are three levels one must achieve and strive for in order to find total satisfaction in their art pursuits.
The first I will describe as the discovery level. This is where we pay our dues and learn the terms,
language, concepts and all of the basic knowledge needed to move forward. What is acrylic, oils,
watercolor, burnt umber ? This is a clumsy, awkward period but is necessary to find out about that
wonderful thing called art that we are suddenly attracted to. Lessons with a qualified teacher are a good
place to start. During this period we must reach a point where we make a commitment to continue.
We soon find that tenacity is more important than talent.
The next level we must move on to is mastering technique. Simply put this is acquiring a method of
accomplishing a desired aim. The best way I know of is copying the masters, not as an end in itself,
but as a means to your desired end which is to find yourself and your personal, original method of sharing
what you see and feel with others. Picasso copied Michelangelo, Sargent copied Tiepolo and the
list could go on and on. Gain this wonderful experience which will build up your confidence and
self-esteem and become a building block on your stepping stones to success. Don't use yourself as
a measurement. The biggest fallacy I know of is "I'm a self-taught artist". We all copy from one
another and sharing is a beautiful, unselfish thing.
The next level of attainment is the ability to see, decide, compose and execute successful, original
compositions. This takes knowledge, experience and confidence. We must follow our emotions
and passions, yet have the confidence to express ourselves clearly, logically and conclusively.
Taking risks is the ultimate pursuit we strive for. This is not gimmicks, new techniques or
controversial subject matter used by so many to draw attention to themselves. It is intelligent,
fearless expressions of what you feel from your heart, truthfully. Truth always proceeds from reality.
Simplicity is the first step. Exiting subjects are everywhere around you. I would love to be a
world traveler and paint those exotic places we dream about. A much greater reward for me
personally would be to consistently paint all the simple beauty right under my nose. Andrew Wyeth
has painted his entire life in the immediate areas surrounding his homes in Chadds Ford and Maine.
Yesterday I found a limb on the ground outside of the school. It had more exotic fungus growing
on it than anything I had ever seen. I kept it and can't wait to put it under the correct lighting
conditions and paint it. Paint your passions, not to please the judge of the next show, or anyone
else. Paint from the heart and be yourself.....take risks.
The following painting was done from the old Bennett Store located just south of Marksville,
Louisiana. Again it is a small portion of the original photo. I concentrated on the cast shadows
and shadow reflections on the windows. I took a risk and emphasized pure abstract designs
to carry the composition. It is one of my all time favorites. Reality with an edge.
BENNETT PORCH - WATERCOLOR - 2005 - SIZE 11 X15 INCHES
July 15, 2007
Negative Space
This is a term that has always been perplexing to me. I presume that it is used to describe white spaces
in a painting and positive spaces must be those that have color. Maybe its describing the effect you
get from a black and white negative, which is quite boring. Please forgive me if I appear to be ignorant
on this subject as I studied under the classical artist John McGrady and never heard these terms
mentioned at his Academy the entire three years I attended. Besides, all of the paintings that I know of
that use this concept all look the same, weak values, no darks and no center of interest.
I could never comprehend any part of a compostion that I planned and executed successfully being
negative. Please do not think that I am trying to be negative and not respect concepts that many
accomplished artists follow. I do not understand them and feel that they are limited in describing
the concepts that most people using these terms are attempting to explain. It is like a book that I
bought once on watercolor portraits. The cover was executed by a well known artist, not
photographically, but in a stylized realism that I found quite exiting and wanted to learn. Can you
imagine my discouragement and disgust to find out as I looked through the book not one face was
complete. Eyes were missing, Noses were distorted and ran down all over the face. Remember,
reality must rule. We can go to the edge, but if we cross the line, and depart too far from whats
real, we only create confusion.
Art is subjective and we all must respect the conclusions of others, even if we disagree. I am
just thankful that I was tutered by a committed, classical realist who expressed truth in his paintings
with a depth that did not use gimmicks or contemporary jargon to be acceptable to the masses.
I learned about the three pillars of painting: center of interest, balance and movement.
Also, lost and found, emphasis and de-emphasis, repetition with variation, and so many other
classical concepts that are lost today. There really is another way of looking at painting.
Think about it.
While on the subject of space lets look at another subject the I will call wasted space.
When you focus on your center of interest, use only the added informaton necessary to support
your main focus. The painting below consists of about 5% of the original photo. The door knob
and lock took me back to a bygone era. I was passionate about remembering the old keys
used to work the locks. The composition is complete with a center of interest, balance and
movement. The rest of the information was wasted and I eliminated it.
SKELETON KEYS - WATERCOLOR - SIZE 8 X 10 INCHES
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