Change is Good for an Artist

The Backyard, 18x24, acrylic on linen, Jan Blencowe, copyright 2012

So here we are in the spring of 2012 and I feel like my journey as an artist has twisted and turned and looped back on itself. Approximately seven years ago, I painted subject matter like this, in a similar style, but the execution was not as skilled. My frustration in depicting architecture led me to spend about a year painting a lot of buildings trying to improve. I never was satisfied with my progress, though I did pull off several really good pieces that featured buildings, I still wasn't happy overall with what I was producing.

In 2007 I re-evaluated what I was doing and decided that I would concentrate on pure landscape, eliminating buildings and most man made structures. Occasionally, a bridge or fence would sneak in but generally I went with what really inspired me and what I painted best, land, water, marsh, and sky.

Then I made the switch to part time plein air painter, full time studio painter, using acrylics, and I discovered tonalism. That exploration and mode of painting lasted a little over three years. Last summer, my trip to Maine shook things up and brought big changes. My associations with new artist friends, including Claudia Post my daughter's mentor, both inspired and challenged me.

Now I seem to be back to something closer to what I was doing back in 2005/06 but with greater proficiency, confidence and skill.

So what does it all mean? 

I believe that I'm now entering a new stage of artistic growth, a new period, like Picasso's Blue Period, if you will. I'm pushing out old subject matter, old color combinations, familiar compositional arrangements, and prior levels of what I considered "my standard". I know I can do more and do it better.

I think I was becoming bored and was in danger of falling into a creative rut.

Four Compositional Studies

Spring is a pretty time of the year. Too pretty. Pink cherry trees, yellow forsythia, crimson maples, pink and white dogwoods, purple lilacs, bright green grass, splashes of  yellow sunshine on the ground. It's all so pretty that paintings of spring run the risk of looking too sweet and sentimental, too unreal, as if there should be ponies and unicorns prancing though them, or they begin to look to nostalgic.

Don't get me wrong, I love pink trees and I'm determined to plant a cherry tree in our front yard next spring (or maybe this fall), and I have several dogwoods, a lilac and a crab apple. It's just that it's tough to paint them while keeping the painting, beautiful, powerful and authentic to the season without it becoming cliched and syrupy.

The scene I'm working with is the backyard of an historic home on Main Street in our downtown, with a gorgeous pink cherry tree and some other twisty trees full of character and strength. I decided to do these small compositional studies in my sketchbook to play around with the composition to see if I could come up with a strategy that would help me capture the feel of spring without falling into the pony-land trap.

Here's what my notes say about each sketch. Upper Left: A safe composition, but very predictable, plus I have a house ":face" (windows and door that look like a face) staring out from the center of the picture. Lower Left: The simplest of all the compositions, but perhaps too boring. Lower Right: Shadow and light pattern on the building in the lower right corner must be played up to balance the pink tree diagonally across from it and that may create a conflict of focal points. Upper Right: Has the most complexity and variety and keeps the amount of pink to a minimum so it doesn't take over the painting. I also think that one has the most potential for creating an interesting break up of and sense of space. With a few modifications (like extending the foreground) I chose to go with that composition.

 

Here's the modified composition sketched on linen with a raw sienna aquarelle crayon, sealed with acrylic spray and then glazed over with a pale yellow to eliminate the white if the canvas.

I'm actually thinking that the twisty fruit tree against the white buildings in the upper right is going to be the focal point (though it's not in the sketch) and the pink tree is going to be held down in intensity to play a supporting role, yet give that really spring-y feel to the painting. That's the plan any way. We'll see. These things sometimes take on a life of their own!

A couple of newsworthy items to share with you. 

My painting Experience is an Arch was accepted into the 4th Annual  International Society of Acrylic Painters On Line Exhibit.  

The Sea Runs Back was juried into the Academic Artists Association 62nd National Exhibit in Springfield MA. Opening reception is Sunday Apr. 29, 1-4pm stop in if you're in the area and say "hi" and see the beautiful paintings. 

Gray and Tender Rain was accepted by the jury of selection for the annual National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic Exhibition" Show opens May14th at the Salmagundi Club, NYC

The View from Blueberry Hill I was juried into the Connecticut Plein Air Painters Invitational Spring Exhibit at the Lyme Art Assoc. Opening reception Friday, May 4th, 6-8pm, Old Lyme CT

Hidden Marsh, Acadia

Hidden Marsh, Acadia, 18x24, acrylic on linen panel, Jan Blencowe, copyright 2012


After weeks of work, this is finally complete! On last summer's trip to Acadia National Park in Maine I was looking for new subject matter, crashing surf, cliffs, islands, fishing villages etc. but I was also on the look out for more familiar subjects like marshes, knowing that marshes in Maine would be different from marshes in Connecticut.

I like marshes and painting marshes because they bring water into the midst of the land. Along the coast you have a very sharp meeting of the elements land and water. The land abruptly ends and the water crashes into it. There's a very definite and exciting collision and a definite delineation of land and water. But in the marsh there is more of an intermingling, a saturation and seeping of the cyclical tides. 

The marsh habitat is very complex and is filled with a web of relationships between grasses, scrubby shrubs, trees, and aquatic plants, all of which I find fascinating.

This was such a lovely little place to paint and I have a small plein air study of it along with quite a few good photos. This piece captures the place and the day I painted it on location. I remember it was very hot that day and this was our second painting of the morning and so by the time we were done it was getting close to noon and the sun was overhead. We sat on the edge of the road at the top of a culvert that allowed the water to run under the road and flow into the rest of the marsh behind us on the other side of the road. I remember how cool and lush the green of the marsh seemed compared to how hot it was. Every once in a while there was a breeze that stirred everything in the marsh and reinforced in my mind the aliveness of the place.

This lovely little marsh seems like a bit of paradise to me.

When Influence Becomes Imitation

The Lyman House, 8x10, acrylic, Jan Blencowe, copyright 2012


The first true plein air painting of the year! Aside from sketching, I have not been outside to paint until this past week-end.  Snow is lovely to paint, but your toes get really, really cold. Other than snow the winter in Connecticut is pretty dull to paint and hardly worth the effort of dragging all your gear outside.

But a lovely, sunny, 70 degree Sunday in March was too good to pass up.  The landscape itself is still bare and dull but architecture, boats, and other structural elements, like bridges and barns make great early spring subjects, particularly if one side of the building is catching some good strong light.

Architecture is not my favorite subject but I knew it was a good choice for the day. I learned from artists who really love painting buildings and structures that spending the time up front getting the drawing done is very helpful. I still have a few wobbly walls in this but it's pretty much correct.  The only unfortunate thing for me is that if I do spend a lot of time getting a pencil drawing done, it tends to tighten up my painting.Which is exactly what happened in this piece. I would have liked it more painterly and loose.

Some years ago I took a few workshops with the late Charles Sovek. He had such a knack for loosely painting buildings, without doing any drawing first, yet the buildings always seemed perfectly believable.

Here's an example of Charles Sovek's work... www.sovek.com

"Cottage Street, Provincetown" Charles Sovek
11 x 14 inches         acrylic/board              Private Collection

Wonderfully done, fresh, loose and capturing all the essentials perfectly. After a few workshops I transformed my painting style and switched to acrylics. This was before the slow dry acrylics existed. Here are a few examples of my paintings from that time which was probably 2006 or 2007.

 Ed's Place, 9x12, acrylic, Jan Blencowe

 Scully's, 9x12, acrylic, Jan Blencowe

It's easy to see the influence!  Ultimately, this very bright, chromatic, loose way of painitng was not exactly what I wanted to say. But I still retain some of this influence even today, particularly when I paint outdoors.  Take a look at two from last year's trip to Maine.

 Blueberry Hill I, 6x16, acrylic, Jan Blencowe

Blueberry Hill II, 6x16, acrylic, Jan Blencowe

Also take a look at this small garden scene from last summer....

Arts Center of Tolland garden, 6x8, acrylic, SOLD, Jan Blencowe

I'm sharing all this because I think it's important to know that you should never, ever, be a copy of someone else. It should never be your goal when studying with someone to paint exactly like them. Listen, learn, practice their methods, take it all in and glean as much as you possibly can from them. In the end you will have to throw out some of the things you learned, keep others and add to it all, your own discoveries, ways of working and vision. 

I see way too many copy-cat artists out there today. One look at their work and I can tell you exactly who they studied with and who they are emulating. Nothing will kill your unique originality faster than trying too hard to paint another artist's way of seeing the world and handling their tools and materials.

In fact I often think that the most important things you will learn from a teacher (and the things they should truly be trying to pass on) are not recipes for mixing colors, brushwork techniques or strategies for composition or lighting but rather ideas and ideals about what it means to be an artist, to nurture the art spirit and encouragement to develop a work ethic and standard of excellence for yourself.

Influence but not imitation. Be yourself, everyone else is already taken. ~Oscar Wilde

Painting Skies with David Dunlop

Today the blog is morphing into a Home Shopping Network for Artists with  an art infomercial of sorts!  Actually, I consider it a pubic service announcement for artists. I'm not getting paid and I don't get any benefit from this except the opportunity to buy and own a great series of DVD's on Painitng Skies from David Dunlop.

 Many of you will be familiar with David's Emmy Award winning PBS program Landscapes Through Time. If not check them out here. David is a wonderful painter,and currently has a solo show at the Susan Powell Gallery, Madison, CT which is only 10 minutes from my own home and studio. But more than being an accomplished painter David is a superb teacher, a teacher's teacher of sorts. His energy and entertaining style weave together art history, geo-political history, philosophy, aesthetics, psychology and a host of other natural, physical and social sciences. I've heard David speak numerous times and I always come away enriched and looking at art and so much more in a fresh new way. David's painting instruction is also spot on. Clear, understandable, insightful and different than the same old same old you find in every workshop, art mag or class. I own the entire Landscapes Through Time series on DVD as well as his DVD's for watercolor and acrylic painting. I go back to them again and again and always find something inspiring each time I watch.

David and his producer Connie tried to get this series off the ground last year and had trouble meeting their financial goals, but admirably they are trying again and they've almost raised the money they need. In a nutshell they ask you to commit to purchasing the series up front so they can go ahead with the production knowing that they will cover their costs. Your credit card won't be charged unless they raise the needed amount and move forward with the project. Then you'll receive your DVD's and any other perks you get based on the amount you've pledged.

They're really, really close and I would LOVE to have this series on Painting Skies become a reality, simply because I think I will benefit from it. Please click over to the Painting Skies Page and sign up for the DVD's. I'm more than willing to help a fellow Connecticut artist, especially one whose talks, classes and programs have been so enjoyable and educational for me. Thanks!

Gray and Tender Rain, a new painting of a marsh in Maine

Gray and Tender Rain, 16x20 acrylic on linen panel, Jan Blencowe, copyright, 2012

I love a silvery, gray, rainy day, when you can feel the moist air against your skin, the damp earth beneath your feet. Leaves turn emerald and grass lime green. The sky shimmers like a pearl. Ancient rocks lay carelessly scattered about and pines wizened and twisted by wind and weather are silhouettes, angular and sharp.  There's something forbidding about this place. The sense that perhaps we hapless city-folk, too used to comfort and convenience, wouldn't last a mere forty-eight hours if we lost our way wandering through the marsh. What if we couldn't get a signal and the compass app on our iPhone didn't work? What then? Better not risk it. Best to stand on the edge of the road, peer in, enjoy the grandeur from a safe distance then retreat to our car when we've had our fill of rugged, primeval beauty. But would we have enjoyed it at all, or must we come back again and again and venture in a little further each time? Would we not enjoy it more and understand it better if we gave ourselves over to it and strode in courageous and unafraid? Would not the spirit of the wild marsh then be our spirit too?

Spring Paintings and Sketches

Prat Reed Reservoir, Stillman & Birn, Epsilon sketchbook, and markers,(Copic, Prismacolor, Utrecht Design, Uniball Vision pen)

I absolutely LOVE sketching. It's a passion and something I do for myself. I've never sold a sketch and probably never will. I have stacks of sketchbooks filled with colorful, fun drawings. I used to have a blog where I just shared my sketches. After a while it got to be too time consuming to write for two blogs and for a while I posted everything to one blog and eventually when I changed the blog name to The Poetic Landscape I pretty much stopped posting sketches.

Recently, I decided to re-activate my sketching blog Pen, Pencil, Paper so if you're interested in seeing more sketches I encourage you to go visit.

Meanwhile, the second Spring Auction at Salmagundi Club is going on and my painting Queen Anne's Lace, 16x20, oil, below has a bid on it already.

SOLD To view the bidding page click HERE

If you're looking for a burst of spring (btw the peepers are singing in my marsh tonight a sure sign of spring!) look no further than the Salmagundi Club Third Annual Sylvia Maria Glesmann Floral Exhibit.  Both of my painting were juried into the exhibit.

Miss Florence's Garden, 8x10, acrylic, a beautiful little plein air study

Pansy Pandemonium, 10x10, acrylic, It doesn't get more colorful and spring-y than this! Happy to report that this painting won the Salmagundi Club 2nd prize in the exhibit.

I'm working very, very hard on a new painting, that in mood and color is inspired by George Inness painting A Gray Lowery Day. I hope to be done in about a week and then I will share it with you.

The Salmagundi Club Spring Auction

Jan Blencowe Fine Art

Just 2 Days Left! Bid on my painting August Wildflowers, 12x24, acrylic on linen, gold frame. Click HERE to bid It's very exciting to be part of the Salmagundi Club's first Spring Auction of 2012. Founded in 1871, the Salmagundi Club is one of the oldest art organizations in the United States. It is housed in an historic brownstone mansion in Greenwich Village, New York City. I was recently elected to membership in this wonderful organization and am honored to be a part of this group of fine artists. I've recently been juried into three exhibits at the club since late fall of last year and I am getting to know my fellow artists there. I especially enjoy the sketch group that meets in their historic library for sketching, drawing and fellowship. As I get settled in my new art home I would greatly appreciate your support in the auction which supports the Salmagundi Club's mission to offer programs including art classes, exhibitions, painting demonstrations, and art auctions throughout the year for members and the general public. The Club owns a collection of over 1,500 works of art spanning its 140 year history and has a membership of nearly 850 artists and patrons. Its members have included important American artists such as Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase, Louis Comfort Tiffany, N.C. Wyeth and Childe Hassam. Today the Club builds on this legacy by providing a center for the resurgence of representational art in America. The Salmagundi Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so your auction purchase is tax deductible. The market value for August Wildflowers $900-$1200, the opening bid is set at a very attractive price and there are no reserves. This is an extraordinary opportunity to purchase an original painting in an economy that might otherwise make it impossible to do so. Don't settle for a print or wall art from a box store. Remember if it has a bar code it has no soul, buy original and handmade! Your support means the world to me! I hope you will take a look at the auction listing and share it via fabecook, LinkedIn, and twitter, too. If you're near New York City you can see the auction and bid live on Friday, March 2nd, at 8pm at the Salmagundi Club, 47 5th Ave, NYC. There are two more spring auctions in March. SOLD Second Spring Auction painting, Queen Anne's Lace. View the listing HERE Third Spring Auction painting, July Pastoral view the auction listing HERE www.janblencowe.com Bidding Ends March, 2nd 5:00pm Bid On-Line! LiveAuctioneers.com Salmagundi Club, NYC For more details CALL: 212.255.7740 ext 200

Contact Us: jan.blencowe@comcast.net

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The Mystery Painting Revealed

Marshland, approx. 22x32, pastel on Herman Margulies Board. Jan Blencowe, copyright, 2012
Click on the image to see it larger.

From 2000-2005, I worked exclusively in pastel,  My first award,  in a national show, an honorable mention, was for a pastel of Chamard Vineyards, a winery near my home. That was back in 2002.  From there I journeyed to water soluble oils for a very brief time (Yuck! Though I understand they're better now.), then back to what I was trained in, oils. In late 2007, early 2008 I switched to acrylics. Love them. However, with my daughter working in pastel for almost two years now and my current obsession with drawing I have been slowly pulled back into the world of pastels.

I gave my daughter all my pastels. I have been slowly over the last year purchasing very specialized sets of pastels that match the poetic and tonal sensibilities of my current working aesthetic.

I have most of the Elizabeth Mowry, pastel set. Mowry's books and work were a huge influence on my early pastel work. I have select Nu-Pastels and Cretacolors, several Pan Pastel sets, and just today I purchased the Sennelier Plein Air Landscape set.

 A Moment Till Twilight, Elizabeth Mowry

During my five years of working in pastels I worked on many, many different surfaces from good old Canson paper to Pastelbord, ColourFix Paper, Wallis, LeCarte, velour, and a number of home made surfaces.

This piece is a departure from my old pastel style and it is 100% based on the surface I am working on and it represents an entirely new and exciting direction for my work.

The board is very unique. It was created by Herman Margulies, (1922-2004) a brilliant pastelist whose work I first saw in 2003 the year before he passed.  Margulies is a Holocaust survivor and his work was filled with passion and pathos. 

 Herman Margulies, Winter Impressions, 2001

This board is black and I also have dark gray. The surface is incredible for layering and texture. When I posted the details here and on Facebook I asked people to guess what the medium was and several people guessed wax, like in an encaustic painting. I was glad to see that because that what the pastel looked like to me on this surface.

I have been told that one of the ingredients in the surface coating literally explodes the pastel, shatters it as it adheres to the surface creating many times more facets of pastel pigment to reflect the light. I believe it. This piece is incredibly vibrant yet it was done with a very limited palette of basically earth colors, all  very dull and muted and yet the resulting painting literally glows.

The secret recipe for making this surface went to the grave with Herman Margulies. There are a limited number of boards still in existence and I have a source for getting them, but there are not many left. That alone I find very exciting. I will be working on more pastels using this very special board and hope to have a strong body of work when I am done. This is a kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity and I consider myself very fortunate to be able to do this!

Looking at Inness and Twatchman

A Gray Lowery day, George Inness, 1877

This is a photo I took in Maine last summer. This place immediately made me think of Inness' painting above. Can you see the resemblance?

I'm hesitant to paint this because it's soooooo green! Inness does an amazing job creating many subtle shades of green that are modified by the gray atmosphere of the day. It's the atmosphere in the Inness that I love so much. The restless brooding of the sky and the close humid feeling in the air around you brings you right to that place. When I look at this painting I know that the rain is about to fall, in fact you can hear the raindrops hitting the tree foliage over to the right. The wind hasn't picked up yet but it will momentarily and then the trees will begin to toss. The grass is already damp from an earlier shower and the bird song is dying down as the birds retreat to their roosts to weather  the storm. 

It's the naturalness of Inness' greens that is partly responsible for this vivid believability. Look at the greens in the painting compared to the photo, really quite amazing. I have yet to find a green that seems this natural either from a tube or something I've mixed myself.

Chromium oxide green when used in a mix has come close but I'm still searching for that perfect summer green. I think that greens in summer are much cooler in temperature than we realize. Yet, they are not a true blue-green either, they retain some yellow, yet never give away their blue completely. I've been accustomed to neutralizing my greens with reds (which I'm now beginning to think keeps the green to warm), I'm pondering whether a touch of black or Paynes Gray is a better way to go. Ideally, I'd like to figure this out before the summer plein air season is here, but I'd settle for figuring it out sometime before I die which is a more likely scenario. LOL.

John Henry Twachtman, Horseneck Falls, Greenwich, Connecticut, c. 1890-1900
Twachtman knew at first look that a farm on Round Hill Road in Greenwich was for him. By 1889, this Cincinnati native had given up his New York studio and was living in Connecticut year-round and commuting to teach at the Art Students League in New York. He remodeled the house, planted gardens, and, happily for American art, painted his property again and again.

Though completely different in style this Twatchman was painted  just a thirteen years after Inness' Gray Lowery Day. I think that Twatchman also shows a good command of green. But that's not what I find so arresting about this painting, which I have seen many times in person. It's the square format with the tree smack in the middle and growing out of the stream! I'm going to suppose that it's spring and the little falls is over flowing with snow melt and spring rain and that the little sapling tree isn't usually standing in the water. This is a simple, very charming piece and because of all it's unconventional elements it becomes very memorable.

 July Pastoral, Killingworth, Connecticut, c. 2009, 24x24, acrylic on canvas, Jan Blencowe


When I saw this scene and took photos I was reminded of the Twatchman, and I decided to follow his lead and position my tree right in the center of my square canvas. Twatchman's central tree is anchored compositionally by an "S" curve and so is my central tree. Follow the winding path to just beyond the tree and then up and over the crown of the tree and along the curve of the distant tree tops. 


This painting is going to be auctioned off at the Salmagundi Club Annual Spring Auction in March. You can bid live, in person or on-line. If you find this painting memorable, as I find Twatchman's, be sure to check out the auction because the starting bid is going to be very, very attractive! Plus you're auction purchase is tax deductible since Salmagundi Club is a 501C3, non-profit organization. To top it all off you'll be supporting one of the country's oldest art clubs begun in 1871 just six years before Inness painter A Gray Lowery Day, in fact George Inness' palette and brushes are in a glass case in the Salmagundi Club!!! And you'll be supporting me and helping me support an organization I am both humbled and proud to belong to.


I will have more auction information as it becomes available.

Mystery Art and Art Fun

Detail #1

I'm working on something new and exciting. Can you guess the subject?

Detail #2

Can you guess what medium I'm working in? Aren't the colors amazing??

Detail #3

Can you guess what kind of surface I'm working on???

These are small approx. 1x2 in details from a new large piece I am working on. This is a departure from my usual soft edged, atmospheric, acrylic paintings.  This new direction is the fruit of my Wednesday Art Studies. Whenever you push out of your routine, and out of your comfort zone and give yourself the gift of time to explore without judging the outcome, but instead savor the process, creativity is unleashed and good things happen.

I'll unveil this mystery painting here on the blog in a few days. Meanwhile, I'd like to turn your attention to the side bar where I have added a nifty timeline of art history and a graphic of art careers. Just scroll down and look for both towards the bottom of the side bar.

And now for the FUN!!!

If you've been a long time reader of The Poetic Landscape you know that I love to find art in unexpected places out in the world, in the pop culture at large. Check out this blog post  I wrote back in  Dec. 2009 on this subject.

Having said that I was grinning from ear to ear when I found this video on YouTube....






Isn't that great? Art infiltrating the pop music scene! If these videos educate and inspire I'll be thrilled. If you couldn't identify all the paintings there are several videos on YouTube that show all the original paintings set to the song 70 Million. Just search on 70 Million Paintings.Given the abysmal failure of the public school system to teach even the most rudimentary knowledge of art history I applaud this.  If it gets even a few people into an art museum or looking up some of the paintings on Google, it will have made more of a contribution to art education than your local high school !

Enjoy, and remember, Live with Art, It's Good for You!

Who Can Afford to Collect Art?

August Wildflowers, 12x24 acrylic on linen, Jan Blencowe

This week I went to an interesting talk at the New Britain Museum of American Art.  Barbara Belgrade Sprago, a local art collector, has loaned a portion of her collection to the museum for an exhibit called Facets of Modernity: 1900-1950. The collection includes paintings, drawings, and prints. It includes works by John French Sloan, William Glackens, Robert, Henri, and Everett Shinn: all influential founders of the Ashcan School movement, as well as many other well known artists. Barbara spoke about her very first art purchase in 1976. She told us she knew little to nothing about art but had seen a show and fell in love with the paintings. She thought to herself  "I have to have one!" She tells how she was moved by the brush strokes. She tracked down a gallery that carried the artist's work and went with her husband to the gallery. She found a piece she wanted and then asked the price without knowing anything about the price of art, but knowing that she really had to have the painting. When she was told the price she whispered to her husband "Now what am I going to do?" He told her to take out a car loan and buy the painting and that's what she did!!!!

I found it very interesting to listen to Barbara Sprago speak as an art collector. She talked about her love of drawings. She loves them because one, they are more affordable by also because drawings are intimate and spontaneous. They show the artist's first thought and remain a record of what the artist does. Since she is not an artist she finds the artist's ability to capture in a drawing the essence of a thing enviable. By owning the drawing she owns a piece of what an artist can do.

She owns a number of two sided drawings from artist's sketchbooks. She loves those because they document an intimate look into how an artist works.

Once she learned more about art she talked about the thrill of recognizing an artist's work from across the room. She spoke about the excitement of bidding on a painting at an auction. Once she placed a bid it felt like the painting was hers. Once, when she was out bid she was so dismayed she eventually tracked down the purchaser and bought the painting from him for more than he paid at auction.

Brushwork, line, energy, the build up of paint and the arrangement of colors draws her to a work. All those things are visual clues as to how the artist created the work and draw her into the painting, helping her understand what an artist does and in some way enter into that process herself.

Ernest Lawson, Aspens, 1928 from the Barbara Belgrade Sprago Collection

Barbara Sprago says "Art is like a circle of friends. Art is an emotion. Anybody can be a collector". She also said that it's not uncommon to be paying for a work of art over years.

Reynolds Beal, 1894, Wm. Merritt Chase's 10th Street Studio, from the Barbara Belgrade Sprago Collection


I truly admire this woman. She has entered into the adventure of a lifetime: collecting art.


I'd like to reiterate that anyone can be an art collector. You could take out a car loan to purchase something, or you could find more affordable pieces like drawings, you could bid at an auction or you could arrange to pay off a piece over time. 


You could also collect the work of emerging artists and become part of the excitement of being an artist and creating art by visiting their studio, talking with the artist, going to their openings, and following their work on websites, blogs, Facebook etc.. Original art can be surprisingly affordable IF you make it a priority to collect and look for art that you fall in love with and just have to have, as Barbara Sprago did.


Here is examples of a collecting opportunity that is happening very soon. 

The Salmagundi Club on 5th Ave. in New York will be having its spring auctions on March 2nd, 11th and 16th.  The Salmagundi Club has been a center for American Art since 1871 and is a 501c3 non-profit. I will have a few pieces in the auction, (most likely August Wildflowers above and two other pieces) and it will be an excellent opportunity to acquire original art (including mine!) at extraordinarily affordable prices. I guarantee you will not have to take out a car loan!

This year for the first time you will be able to bid either in person or on line, so no matter where you are you can be part of the excitement. I'll have more about the auction in the next few weeks as more details become available.

Once you begin buying original art you will never regret it and you will always want to buy more! It's amazing how enriching it is to live with paintings on your walls. (See my recent post Don't Die Without Paintings on Your Walls). As both an artist and a collector I can attest to that. It's also amazing how good you feel when you buy that piece you just have to have, it is indeed like adding to your circle of friends.

A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company, comforts and inspires. ~
Hedy Lamarr

Here's a link to an article I wrote some time ago about collecting art, Owning a One of a Kind, it also includes a video about the importance of art collectors.

I hope you feel inspired to buy original art!

Drawing Nature Morte

Nature Morte, means literally, nature dead and that is the subject of our weekly art study. We have some wonderful tree branches with dried leaves stubbornly clinging to them and a small bonsai (which is actually alive).

You might not think tree branches would be very inspiring to draw but they're actually quite a fascinating subject. The bark on the branches is quite intricate in texture, pattern and color. The branches themselves, like all things in nature are especially graceful and their growth patterns are created by the sun and wind. So the record of years of weather is preserved in the twists and elegant turns of a tree's branches.

Claudia and I have once again each followed our instinctive way of working. Claudia focusing on line using pencil and markers and I am using charcoal and approaching the subject through value masses.

How amazing that nature and art are so diverse!

We both felt such a peaceful, relaxed atmosphere in the studio as we concentrated on these very ordinary oak branches, explored them and really looked at them in an effort to see them and know them through drawing.

The act of drawing is the heart and soul, the core, of being an artist. Drawing, not just seeing. Artists know and understand the world not just by observing it but by drawing it. They know and understand themselves not just through introspection but through drawing. This is why keeping a sketchbook and drawing throughout their lives is such an obsession for artists.

Painting is a whole other enterprise. Drawing is our first, most basic language as an artist. Drawing is a journey and an exploration. A drawing is not meant to be a finished product but an action, a process, a record of our artist mind working.

Next week we will continue on with our tree branches and our journey to see, know and understand them through drawing.

Vermeer: An Artist that Influences

Norman Rockwell's ad for Sunmaid Raisins mid 1920's

I recently visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, and one of the delightful surprises I found was this 1920's ad Rockwell did for Sunmaid Raisins. As soon as I walked into the gallery I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye and it looked for all the world like a Vermeer!

Vermeer is one of those artists that captivate and influence across the centuries. Through the skillful use of light, composition and color his work fascinates. All his paintings had moral stories to tell that would have been easily understood by his contemporaries and sometimes political commentary that would not have gone unnoticed as well.

Rockwell borrows the light effect coming through the window from Vermeer's Milkmaid. I wonder if he got the idea to use the Milkmaid for inspiration because the product he was advertising was Sunmaid! LOL

Other similarities are the bowl on the table in the ad, and the bowl the milkmaid pours her milk into, the basket on the wall in the Vermeer correspondes to the light (?) in the upper left of the ad, and the bit of shelf is reminiscent of the windowledge in the Vermeer.

Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, 1658

Though not a exact correspondence of posture the woman in blue from the ad immediately reminded me of  Vermeer's Lacemaker  with her down-turned gaze and busy hands.

Johannes Vermeer, The Lacemaker, 1669

The seated woman in the ad brought to mind Vermeer's Astronomer leaning over the table top. Also notice that Rockwell has artwork on the wall in the ad and a paper poster tacked to the wall as The Astronomer has tacked on his cabinet.

Johannes Vermeer, The Astronomer, 1668

The table top itself, and the bundle of blue cloth to the left in the ad, are borrowed from Woman Holding a Balance,  as well as the Delft blue color or her garment, though brighter and more modern in the ad..

Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, 1664

For just a small taste of the moralistic and religious messages in Vermeer's work notice that the painting on the wall behind the Woman Holding a Balance is a depiction of The Last Judgement. Serene in expression, robed in celestial blue, and pure white, bathed in light that shines in through a golden curtain, the woman holds the scales of judgement in her hands. Earthly riches are scattered on the table, the small frame on the wall opposite her holds a mirror, meant to symbolize the need for inner reflection on the state of one's soul in the face of the brevity of life, the temptation of earthly riches and the certainty of death and judgement.

Vermeer continues to influence with books and movies like The Girl with the Pearl Earring, Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Chasing Vermeer , The Music Lesson, and collections of poems with titles like, Vermeer's Light, Poems 1996-2006 , Like a Vermeer and Other Poems

In Quiet Light: Poems on Vermeer's Women

 

I think it's safe to say that Vermeer's paintings continue to fascinate and inspire.They also have become so well known and iconic that the general public recognizes them and feels a resonance with them because of their incredible light and beauty.

I have my own Vermeer influences too. In art college we had to choose a masterwork and translate it into a paper mosaic using color aid paper. 

I chose Vermeer's Young Woman with a Water Jug, above.  This was essentially an exercise in color and value matching (as well as a test of patience as we were using rubber cement and the very expensive and very easily marred color aid paper!)  I wish I had a photo to show you but the photo is long gone and the piece sold at my senior show to someone who was totally captived by it.

My second piece influenced by Vermeer is more lighthearted and was painted just a few years after the movie,The Girl with the Pearl Earring, thrust Vermeer back into the public consciousness.  This one is sold too, by the way...

The Cow with the Pearl Earring....

Silly and whimsical, yes (this was the era of the Painting a Day craze causing me to pump out all kinds of creative things day after day, ) but the truth is, the  moment I saw the cow with the shiny tag in her ear it immediately reminded me of the title of the Vermeer painting. I think that's a testament to Vermeer's far reaching influence!

Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665-66

So, from Sunmaid Raisin ads, to novels, poetry, movies and whimsical paintings Vermeer exerts influence on artists and viewers alike. I think it is a splendid thing that beautiful art becomes a part of our everyday culture and life. I think that it is important to have artworks of amazing beauty and skill embedded into our cultural awareness so that we are all reminded of the goodness of creating works of art and of acknowledging and applauding a standard of beauty.

Black & White at Salmagundi Club

 I am thrilled to tell you that both these charcoal drawings were accepted into the historic Black & White Exhibit at Salmagundi Club, NYC.  Jan. 23- Feb. 10, 2012. Top right, Northern Marsh , lower right, Snow on Chittenden Hill .

Below is a bit of history about the Black & White Exhibits.

The early exhibitions were called “Black and White”, in reference to the important annual show that the young club held on drawings, graphics and grisaille oils. From 1878 to 1887, the club gained a national and even international reputation for these annual exhibitions, which were open to all artists, passing before a jury of club members. Such international artists as Sargent, Whistler and Eakins submitted entries as well as many prominent women artists. Without a permanent location, the exhibitions were first held at Leavitts Art Gallery on Broadway, moving to Kurtz’s Gallery (American Art Association) and then to the National Academy of Design. A critic for the New York Herald in 1879, reviewing this exhibition, gives praise to Winslow Homer who “sends a frame of very clever and effective outdoor studies in pencil on gray paper with the highlights in Chinese White. In another are grouped three decidedly impressionistic memoranda of scenes of Coney Island and an incisively drawn characterful sketch of a pretty, determined girl standing on the beach.” ~ Excerpt from Alexander W. Katlan’s book The Salmagundi Club Painting Exhibition Records 1889 to 1939: A Guide to the American Exhibition of Oil Paintings and the Annual Exhibition and Auction Sale of Pictures

For more fascinating history books about the Salmagundi Club check out Alexander Katlan Conservator, Inc's website

• Click HERE to see drawings by John Singer Sargent
• Click HERE to see a selection of James Abbot McNeill Whistler's etchings  and HERE for chalk drawings
• Click HERE for a large collection of drawings by Thomas Eakins
• Click HERE for drawings by Winslow Homer

I took this picture at the Salmagundi Club of John Francis Murphy's grisaille oil painting, A Bit of Lowland, which was exhibited in the first Black & White Show in 1878.

Drawing has such a long history, and is so fundamental to the creative process that I grow more inspired by drawing and looking at drawings with each passing year. Whether they are finished works of art in their own right or conceived as studies, preparatory sketches or simply the artist's doodles in a sketchbook, drawing more than anything else, captures the artists own unique mark making and documents their mind and thought process. If you really want to study an artist, study his drawings.