The Portrait Artist Who Replaced Sargent

This is a fascinating article on Philip Alexius de Laszlo who arrived in England Just as Sargent was refusing to do anymore portraits.

Caleb O' Connor to Hold Workshop in Italy

Portion of Tuscaloosa Mural

Artist Caleb O' Connor

Artist Caleb O' Conner has spent the last three years completing the murals at the new Tuscaloosa Federal Courthouse.  I'm hoping to do a full scale article on the project sometime this month. In the process of arranging an interview, I was excited to learn from Caleb that he is teaching a summer workshop  in Tuscany. If you are interested in learning how to paint in the same atmosphere that stimulated the likes of Michael and Leonardo you should check this out. Caleb is not only a great painter and teacher, he has the added bonus of having lived and studied in Italy for many years.

Tuscany

Look Here For More Information

Look Here For a Brochure on The Workshop.

By Far, One of My Favorite Illustrators

American Painting Video Magazine (winter preview)

Artist Daniel Adel 1.4.12

"Phantome III" by artist Daniel Adel

The new year has brought some time consuming new projects so my analysis of the paintings will be fairly brief until I get caught up.

I have no knowledge of engines but I assume that this is one. Abstraction is all around us. Knowledge and context are the only things that keep anything in the visual field in the realm of the realistic. When there is knowledge and context the artist can communicate with the viewer on more than one level. To someone who knows engines this work by Daniel Adel may seem odd as opposed to visually pleasing. For me the lack of context and knowledge allows me to enjoy it only by the elements of skill and visual appeal. Adel's work centers on this type of approach... almost a hyper-realistic abstraction.

You can see his work at his website and at the Arcadia Gallery.

I Want to Screw up Christmas Dinner

In a world of 7 billion people, writing a small blog about the greatest living artists is like having a conversation with yourself in a hall closet.  Occasionally a passer by will hear you mumbling and acknowledge your presence..... but with that exception, the only real value of this ambition is knowing that you have seen light and that you did your best to let the rest of the world in on it.  It's a bit like shouting into a stiff wind.

In western culture our grid for evaluating life and art is predominately existential in nature. I found this out the hard way when I posted  Scott Burdick's "Banishment of Beauty" and Roger Scruton's "Why Beauty Matters".  I had expected some disagreement but had no idea that it would be so emotionally charged. Art, it seems, can be very divisive when you begin to discuss it using ideas like "truth", "value", "Good and Bad". These words are offensive in a culture that has thrown antithesis on the ash heap of history.


So maybe the old adage, "Don't discuss politics, religion or sex during Christmas dinner" should be changed.  Talking about politics remains an endless debate about which evil man will do the better job, a topic which brings feelings of "comfort and joy" to an abrupt halt... It must stay on the list. Religion is a no brainer, even though Christmas is "technically" about the "Christ Mass", we don't want to spoil dessert. We can throw sex out because our mating habits are now a matter of cultural pride and no longer on the list of things you don't discuss at the table. I would propose that "art" would nicely fill the spot left vacant by our moral decline because it should and does produce arguments of every kind.


Despite the cultural niceties of treating the discussion of art as we would a discussion about hair color, the museums, art critics, and art buyers  of the world do not go about it this way.  They make JUDGEMENTS on a daily basis about which art is great, which art is mediocre and which art is worth investing their limited resources in. To their great delight, objectivity in these matters was entirely removed when DuChamps toilet flushed artistic skill down the drain and made them the soul determiners of all that is art. Artists were eliminated from the  discussion because they're skill was no longer a part of the equation unless they also happen to be skilled social commentators. For the most part, these high art judges now make or break an artist with motivations that have little or nothing to do with the actual work itself. You really can't blame these chosen few for this turn of events. After all artist do create a non-essential luxury in a free market environment and P.T. Barnum's proverb remains the center of capitalistic reality.


So let me screw up Christmas dinner  and interrupt our existential self-love by suggesting that the museums and art critics of the world are missing out on the greatest renaissance of art in the history of western culture. When the impressionist and the post-impressionist began to move the art world away from "skill and content" to "novelty and discontent" the art world became a different ballgame.  What is not commonly discussed is that the old ball game, of skilled artist creating powerful realistic works of art, never went away. It couldn't go away because people continued to be born with the desire to create works of art that where a translation of how they saw the world with their physical eyes. These artist were forced to sit at the back of the bus, but their desire to skillfully display the beauty, anger, grief, and injustice as observed in the world has never abated. Unfortunately their displacement by men who were good at dripping sherwin williams from a can caused many of them to retreat for their financial lives to the illustration industry, thus diminishing the power of their content while they enhanced the power of their skill. The artists in this family tree have continued to add knowledge about technique, procedures, composition and visual abstractions to their repertoire and today the orphaned children of the Modern Art Movement are creating some of the most highly skilled, emotionally moving, thought provoking works of art to ever grace the hollowed vice of the easel. Michelangelo would stand in slack-jawed awe at the sheer abundance of art that has gone far beyond what he ever dreamed of doing. 


I continue to post about these men and women because many of their artworks belong in museums and it is a historic tragedy that the curators have yet to fully see the extent of their oversight. These incredible works of human genius demand and deserve to be seen by the greater public and not just become the personal treasures of the affluent few. Maybe at some point a brave curator will turn around and see what many have been observing for years.


Merry Christmas!

Artist Adrian Gottlieb 12.16.11

"Danni" 16x20
Oil on Belgian Linen
by  artist Adrian Gottlieb

Classic. Everything about the work of Adrian Gottlieb brings the word to mind. His biography is rife with the praise of many of the top voices in the world of contemporary realism. The acclimation is well deserved.

What I Like about "Danni" by artist Adran Gottlieb

• A Contemporary Classic - Gottliebs debt to the old masters is evident as soon as you click on one of his online galleries.  You feel like you've just walked into one of the finest museums in the world. His classical approach is evident in that he displays some wonderful piambura pieces that are left in their initial stage of development. The painting "Danni" has an old world feel due to the use of this process and because of the timeless nature of her wardrobe. I love the way her ear lets us know she is very much apart of our current day.

• Luminosity - You can't really see this in the digital image (the enlargement does a better job) but when artists patiently glaze in this manner the flesh develops a transparency that makes it look very real. In another since you could say that it goes beyond reality by giving the skin a very pleasing glow.

• Soft edges - At first glance you might consider this to be a very tight realistic painting but it is actually has a very soft finish to all of the areas. The transitions between the values or so subtle that they too enhance this quality. 

Look and Enjoy!

Artist Adrian Gottlieb's website

Artist Jeremy Geddes 12.13.11

"Warmer Air" 37x58cm
by Artist Jeremy Geddes

Jeremy Geddes oil paintings are to be experienced.  Though I have not read anything about his art philosophy, his paintings are undeniably for the viewer. They are a visual feast and much of what I experience in Geddes work is what the contemporary realist movement is in desperate need of....... content. Spending an hour or so on his site is well worth the time.


What I like about "Warmer Air" by artist Jeremy Geddes

• Subdued Color - If you read this blog for awhile there is no need to go over this again. It's just something that takes a lot of skill to do well and I find it to be extremely powerful in communicating a quiet, thoughtful, emotional atmosphere.

• I Really Need to Edit My Opening Paragraph - This is because I have come across an interview where Geddes does talk about an "art philosophy" of sorts. The interview also is one of the most down to earth approaches to art and painting that I've heard expounded by a painter.

• Music - This idea is confirmed in the interview. His paintings just feel like music or poetry.  I have no way of knowing if that experience is the same for everyone but it comes across very strongly to me.

Look and Enjoy!

Interview with Jeremy Geddes
Artist Jeremy Geddes - Website
Artist Jeremy Geddes - Blog

Christmas Time! Artist Tom Browning 12.9.11

We are taking a break today from my normal approach in order to bring you good old Saint Nick.  These wonderful paintings were done by the artist Tom Browning who I did a post on earlier. Click on the link below to get more information on cards and prints of Brownings paintings of Santa.

Spirit of Santa 

Artist Marc R. Hanson 12.8.11

"Sunny Bottoms",  30" x 36"
OIl on Linen by artist Marc R. Hanson

I feel like I could gaze into this painting for a lifetime. It may be that it is particularly suited to the music I am listening to (the album Piano and Cello Duet by Brian Cain). It could also be that Hanson has taken two very difficult painting problems and pulled them off without any apparent effort.....I'm sure Hanson would say otherwise.

What I like about "Sunny Bottoms" by artist Marc R. Hanson

Green - Those of you who do not paint will have to trust me on this.... when you have green in the background and green in the foreground and green in the middle ground you have presented yourself with an impossible situation. How do you communicate any depth or form when all you see is green? Well there are ways to do it and Hanson has mastered it. Well balanced without the green being an overwhelming presence. I encourage you to enlarge this to see just how beautifully this painting is.

Forest - My studio is in a forest and I often come across scenes like this that I would love to translate into a painting but I always think "it's impossible, there is just to much complication". Hanson skillfully reduces the information to it's essence and directs our eye through what would most often be a dizzying array of confusing information.

Brushwork - All in just the right places and well balanced with areas of soft relief. When you look through Hanson's portfolio of work you will realize this is a very skilled painter who is producing gem after gem.


Look and Enjoy!

Artist Marc R. Hanson's Website