New Paintings, Watercolor on Panels

I am happily exhausted. And the studio is a raging mess. I delivered a solo show Monday and yesterday … a show with 44 pieces.

Lately I have posted images of the quick sketches … wash and brush drawings and quite a few of the watercolor and pencil pieces too.

Creekside Ferns
Watercolor on Panel, 12×12

But I have been working on some paintings as well. Each of these pieces are aqueous media on (Ampersand) panels. As with the two images below, most of the pieces for this show are done in traditional transparent watercolor. I will admit though that a few also have a touch or two of gouache; what the English waterclourists referred to as “body color.”

(Actually, using body color IS the older traditional method, but it had fallen out of favor for many painters during the last 100 years or so. For me, if it was good enough for Richard Parks Bonnington and Winslow Homer … I can use it too.)

Misty Mountains, Crozet
Watercolor on Panel, 12×12

Asian Dogwood Pods
Watercolor on Panel, 12×12

As is usual for me of late, there is also a little bit of a twist. In some of the paintings I have employed the strategy of including blocks of color; color passage that both obscure parts of the subject matter in the painting … and which actually set up some type of color harmony within the composition. Those pieces are single panel images (like the Creekside Fern one at the start of this blog) and also multi-panel works. These paintings are actually mixed aqueous media; making use of watercolor, gouache, acrylic and even a latex based paint.

The show is open today and  I have just seen the installation. Quite pleased is an understatement; I think it is really well done. The front gallery, where all the paintings on panel are displayed, is a large, open, and airy space. Most of the smaller watercolor studies and sketches are displayed is an intimate little gallery, a space flooded with soft light. In this smaller space about 20 works are arranged and clustered rather pleasingly. And in the transition space between the two galleries there hangs two very large watercolors on paper and a grouping several of my small works too.

The exhibition runs through November 9th at the Staunton Augusta Art Center. For those of you who are local, the opening reception is Friday, September 14th, from 5-7.

Now, about that messy studio …

Quick Color …

While I often draw and paint monochromatically outside, I also like to do small color studies. Many have a full range of color. Others, like the first and last one below, have just a few hints of hue … not enough to carry the full weight of the original scene … but just enough to give me a hint when I take it back to the studio. Or maybe enough to send me back to the location later to work up a painting on site!

For my color sketches, the work is done with pencil and watercolor. In some sketches, I rely mostly on the watercolor, in others the pencil work is more important. Usually though, I let them play pretty much equal roles. That isn’t the “accepted” way to work with watercolor. But it is the way I like to work.

This, of course, this is just a preview of a few pieces that will be in my upcoming exhibit in Staunton, Virginia. Let me know if you liked one of these. It is great to get a little feedback.

This, of course, this is just a preview of a few pieces that will be in my upcoming exhibit in Staunton, Virginia. Let me know if you liked one of these. It is great to get a little feedback.

More than twenty of these sketches (and to be sure … the larger paintings too) will be viewable from September 14th (reception 5-7 p.m.) at the Staunton Augusta Art Center. I hope you can come … I would certainly love to see you there!

For more exhibit info … check out:  http://saartcenter.org

“Landscape Revelations: Watermedia Paintings & Watercolor Sketches”, (John A. Hancock, Watermedia Paintings and Drawings)

Sketches, for Painting’s Sake?

Well, not always.

Artists have been drawing pretty much ever since humans made their first marks in the sand or on rock walls. After the discovery of pigments to create a wide range of colors with … some artists relegated drawing to the preparatory phase of painting or for designing other forms of art. It was as if color had completely trumped monochromatic art work of all kinds. (Sort of like how color TVs eventually replaced almost all the B&W sets.)

Throughout the Classical and Medieval periods European and Middle-Eastern artists used drawing in just that way. And while China and Japan had a tradition of monochromatic ink painting that stretched back for centuries, drawing was mostly ignored by non-artists. (Well, I am an artist!)

Around 1500, some folks began to think that drawing, even unfinished sketches, were actually interesting in their own right. If a drawing was a sort of “first edition” of a visual idea … a pre-painted image … then it might be fascinating to see the image at it’s very earliest stage. Fresh off the press as it were … straight from the mind of the artist. Tentative, quick, bold, or intimate visions … even incomplete images, began to be seen as having valuable qualities.

As this “novel view” of the 16th and 17th centuries became more wide spread, drawings even began to be thought of as independent works of art. And as artists became more interested in exploring drawing, materials with extended ranges of hue and texture became available. It was possible to draw with rich hues, subtle tones, and deep values that rivaled paintings. At the same time, many artists and viewers were intrigued by the profound beauty of simplicity that drawing could achieve. (Just like my love for the classics of the B&W film noir movie era … or the rich value range of the best black and white photographic prints.)

Well, here you go …  a few of my sketches; ones that I have been working on during the past few months. Some were completed with no intent of ever painting the subject. Most, however, were part of the preparatory process. For me, all are just as complete as the paintings they helped me create. Different, yes … but complete in their own way.

Here I am showing you the B&W ones; the sketches using pencil, ink and/or ink washes. I also sometimes make monochromatic sketches. You can see one of those on an earlier post (It has been a bit SKETCHY, so far, from July 25th). While I was working on that one outside, the extra color information seemed to provide a little better clarity. Hey, anything to help jog my memory if I decide to use it in the studio! (Besides, for me it has the same sort of appeal as a sepia-toned or cyanotype photographic print!)

I hope you enjoy getting a preview of them here. Let me know which ones you like, which ones intrigue you.

More of these sketches (and paintings too) will be part of my upcoming exhibit at the Staunton Augusta Art Center in Staunton, Virginia. Exhibit info at:  http://saartcenter.org

“Landscape Revelations: Watermedia Paintings & Sketches”, (John A. Hancock, Watermedia Paintings and Drawings)

Color, like water, comes sprinkling down

Summer’s end; it may be fast approaching but the heat hasn’t broken yet. To refresh yourself when you were a kid, did you like running through a sprinkler to cool off ?

I loved it.

I loved it so, so much … it was the perfect antidote to growing up in the intense sunshine, heat, and humidity of Florida’s seemingly endless summers.

Now, sometimes as a grown up, I get a kick out of racing past a sprinkler trying NOT to get wet. And, admittedly, as a grown-up kid … I sometimes like to race past a sprinkler secretly hoping to get soaked!

Well, in that vein … the vein of secret and maybe silly passions … I have an artist I would like you to get to know. (Ok, it is NO secret that I have passions for: 1) Color, 2) Water based paint/aqueous media art, 3) Performance, Kinetic, or Installation art. [#3 might surprise some of you actually.]

Edwin Deen is a Belgian artist with a wonderfully simple idea: combine watercolor, a common yard sprinkler device, some water, a paintable space and a little time. It lacks the utter seriousness of the early sixties works of Jean Tinguely. (Remember his automatic kinetic sculpture/drawing machines?) For one, this work is much to colorful. It is more like the work of Tinguely’s wife and artistic partner Niki de Saint Phalle. (Perhaps you might remember her riotously colorful “shooting” based performance/kinetic art-paintings?)

And this idea may not appear to be highly significant or profound in the traditional, historic, conservative, or the neo-academic art sense. (But they don’t like much art after William-Adolphe Bouguereau … well, OK. maybe Edgar Degas and Andrew Wyeth. PS: I like those guys too.) So they wouldn’t be interested that this work has an echo of the Fallen Painting series of Linda Bengalis.

 But Deen’s idea, and the work he creates with it, is so physically playful, so visually refreshing. It makes some beautiful and joyful spaces. It might even remind you of delightful moments in your childhood … colors puddling, dripping, and running during elementary school art classes … or running through sprinklers in the summer.

Wait a moment. Feeling our joy … through water and through color. That IS profound.

You can access more information about Deen’s work via: http://en.paperblog.com/edwin-deen-rainbow-sprinkler-275827/ http://www.dezeen.com/2012/08/06/liquid-rainbow-by-edwin-deen/

EXHIBIT GIVES RARE GLIMPSE OF MUGHAL ART

Reblogged from The Jolly Good News:

The Mughal Emperor Akbar probably would be pleased with the curators at Washington’s Sackler Gallery.  The exhibit "Worlds Within Worlds: Imperial Paintings from India and Iran” shows the gallery’s love of painting, particularly the finely-detailed works commissioned by Akbar, his son Jahangir, and his grandson Shah Jahan – the builder of the Taj Mahal.

Read more… 684 more words

I have a real love for what most of us call Persian miniatures. Whether we are talking about are Mughal, Timurid, or Safavid paintings ... I am intriqued. Opaque watercolors that, besides their sumptuous surfaces, rich patterns and intricate naturalistic details ... show glorious hints of both European and Chinese visual culture. There is always a wonderful exhibition of these works in London (especially at the Victoria and Albert Museums), but only for the next 5 weeks, Washington DC's Sackler Gallery has one too!

....

[caption id="attachment_638" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Detail, a representation of the allegorical meeting of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and Shah Abbas of Persia[/caption]

Un-timely changes, delicious delays

There times when I am in the studio almost a day, almost all evening. And of course, there are times when I can barely break away from other concerns and get into the studio. We all know how hard it can be to balance all of life’s “stuff” in a way we feel comfortable. But every once in a while it all feels quite natural … that it flows so smoothly. That is a most glorious feeling.

Right now isn’t one of those times. Hold on … and please don’t get me wrong … I absolutely am not kvetching. Actually, I am in the studio pretty continuously. The work is going … and going well, just not smoothly in the normal sense.

Instead, it feels a bit like what I imagine a decathlon athlete experiences. They have to think about strategies and performance for SO many events, so many competitions. It seems to me though that their hardest work must be to focus on each completely while  never loosing sight of the overall picture. Me too. I am trying to focus on so many strands of activity right now … as the next exhibition is getting closer and closer. There are so many lovely details: making sure all the matting, framing, plexiglass and all the other display supplies are lined up in the studio … not to mention prepping tags, insurance info, and P.R. stuff too. That is a major job and each detail deserves my attention to quality AND timeliness.

But I am also continuing to make art, and that is keeping my head jumping from task to task. True, I have done all this before. And I made a good list this time around too. So all the practical parts are running according to good schedule.

The image creation process is not running along on anything like a smooth, predictable timetable. I have already completed the sketching, planning, and even much of the painting on many works for the upcoming show. Other pieces though are lagging behind. You see, the work keeps shifting, changing, coming to completion in quite unexpected ways.

If I was running a restaurant and the food was inconsistent, that would be bad. (The chef’s creativity would be happy, the chef’s customers and the bottom line might be put off though.) And many artists I know would recoil from that situation too. But Oh how I do love the tentative, shifting qualities I am seeing. It tells me something is really going on up there in my head! That isn’t a bad thing … but it might be better if it would just wait until I have a few more pieces completed and ready to exhibit.

            

Above are some snippets from the first three phases of an image that I am working on right now. It is based on a budding flower, known as Queen Anne’s Lace. As I work with the lines and the layers of color, I am seeing a need for a few touches of opaque watercolor or gouache to help me finish the piece … to make the opening bud seem to have just a bit more solidity … for it’s stems to have some more substance.

I am also sensing that this image, or one very similar to it, might be destined for a really large format … one of my mylar drawings. Perhaps one about “me mum.” See what I mean, I am already thinking about and planning work for next year! Frankly, if I weren’t an old hand at this I might be really scared, even frantic.

Instead, I am intrigued … deliciously so. And that is why I do this … to be intrigued and challenged; even when it is inconvenient.

It has been a bit SKETCHY, so far.

It is a tad more than half over and it has already been a busy, busy summer in the studio! Yes, I taught a small drawing class, I took a break and judged art out in Utah, and there was that wonderful working vacation to look at galleries in Atlanta (see my previous posts about the Atlanta galleries and especially about Kevin Cole’s work). But making and prepping art work for two shows this fall is really keeping me hopping … and happy.

View S.W. from Old White Bridge Road, 2012

The first show is in Virginia, at the gallery of the Staunton-Augusta Art Center. Since I am hanging work in both their larger gallery and their more intimate small gallery, I decided to divide my show into two separate but similar bodies of work. For that smaller gallery, I figure on hanging about 25 sketches. My thought was that the small size of the works would fit the space and feel of the gallery nicely. These sketches will probably be quieter, simpler and perhaps a little bit more playful than their larger cousins in the main gallery.

For the sketches; I have been using pencil, ink, and wash drawings. A few of the sketches are done in full color. For those, I have worked in watercolor or water-soluble drawing media. When I am feeling visually playful though, I am apt to combine many of those materials in one sketch! There maybe another kind of surprise in this quieter show. I am including some sketches that definitely look like they are E. 20th Century Modern; others feel like they are just out of the 18th or 19th century (think: École des Beaux-Arts or Royal Art Academy). A few have elements of both; makes me a little bit giddy.

To get a nice group of sketches together, this year I have followed my own advice and kept sketchbooks at hand all the time. And I have been scouring the roads on both sides of the mountains … every trip, every errand.  I have been more likely to stop beside the road, wander down a creek bed, or scramble up a ravine than to get home on time. I hope I haven’t been to late to often, but the sketching has been wonderful. Relaxing and challenging all at once. Again, hopping … and completely happy.

I will have to write about the larger works … the paintings that will be in the larger front gallery in Staunton and the drawings in the Calhoun, Georgia show … a little later.  For now, it is time to get back into the studio.  And get another image started …

Only one more week! Have you met Kevin Cole yet?

Have you ever had a colleague that you thought was an incredible professional?  Have you had some friends that you think are really marvelous human beings (I certainly hope so)?

It is a privileged to meet folks that fit into both of those categories. There are some wonderful artists and artist-educators that I have gotten to know over the years. Some I met simply because of their absolutely amazing art work. Others I worked with or met at conferences and professional gatherings. The ones who have proven to be human beings of rare decency and kindness are the best though. And I have been lucky to call a few of them friends.

One of the reasons for this recent trip to Atlanta, was to see one such artist, colleague, and friend … Kevin Cole. Kevin and I met for the first time about six years ago. Since Kevin and I both have serious Atlanta connections … and we already had several mutual artist friends around the country, you would have thought we should have met long before then. Somehow, family and work stuff had just kept our paths from crossing earlier.

Anyway, on our rather impromptu trip to Atlanta, we were able to catch up with Kevin and finally meet his lovely wife and daughter. They graciously showed us around their beautiful place. It is full of art from fellow artists. It was especially nice to see work by artists that we both know … and some I only know of.

A real treat for me as a fellow artist was having Kevin show me around his studios. Like me, Kevin has converted a basement and a garage into workspace. I must admit his studio is a wee bit larger and is a more finished than mine. (No envy, we are all working at getting it right!)

I really like his work. Kevin has done traditional painting, drawing, and murals; he has worked in collage/assemblage with paper and with printmaking. Now Kevin is usually working in sculptural modes; most of his current work is done in painted metal.  The work is exciting on several levels.  On one hand the forms are sinuous and seductive … some of the relief pieces undulate as though they are trying to free themselves from the supporting wall/surface. Other seem to want to really become completely of the wall. And the color, sometime it is a joyful and riotous affair. But every time I slow down and really look at his use of  color, I begin to see networks of relationships, repetitions, and subtle harmonies within the boldness.

Dorothy Gillespie, 1999

There are two artists whose work I think of when I look at Kevin’s painted sculptures. One is Sam Gilliam who made paintings that he presented as three dimensional objects. (I believe Kevin knew Sam pretty well.)

The other artist, Dorothy Gillespie, I ran across in Raleigh, NC … during the 1980s and 90s. She constructed her assembled sculptures with multiple, long, and sinuously curving planes of aluminum. She paint them with joyous and celebratory color. Kevin’s work does not look derivative of these artists … they just explore some related visual territory.

Over the years, Kevin and his work have become a major part of the cultural scene in Atlanta. His work is prominently on display around the city. Currently this includes a show … Kevin Cole: Straight From The Soul, 25 Years In The Making, which is taking place at two venues:  MOCA GA from May 18 – July 28 and Southwest Arts Center (Southwest) from May 19 – July 28. The exhibition, was curated by Dr. Julie McGee.  (PS: There is a book to go with the exhibition too!)

So, if you can … swing by and see his work in Atlanta. Sure, you can see it online to but why not the real deal?. And if you ever get a chance to meet Kevin: you’ll see what I mean about him being such a descent fellow.

PS: If you are in the area, I also recommend you getting to the Sandler Hudson  Gallery which represents Kevin’s work.

   

Even MORE Hot Atlanta Art! … part 2

Yeah, at 9:00 am, and it was approaching 90 already. Muggy too. I did get all around the city in about 36 hours … despite all that heat.  You have heard of a gallery walk, we did the gallerry RUN. Atlanta folks will figure out that I missed some galleries. I did. My list was selective and … because they were setting up new shows and there were a few that were closed for all or part of the month of July. Imagine that a vacation from Atlanta’s hot summer … smart folk those art dealers and artists!

Well, despite not seeing the inside of EVERY gallery on my very selective list., there were some amazing works that we got to look at.

Abandon, by Matt Haffner, at Whitespace

The work by Matt Laffner was arresting in a action movie or a crime novel kind of way; the content was intended to grab hold of the viewer. And the flattened, almost silkscreen layered look of the image was a perfect choice to back this up. It reminded me of comic books and the covers of pulp fiction novels … in a wonderfully sophisticated way though. Laffner is tapping into our memories of pop images and updates them to fit his narrative. If you don’t ” cotton” to the comic book aesthetic,  think Golub without the tortured paint surface.

Another artist that caught my eye was the landscape painter Megan Lightell. Each of her works was square, four feet square. That format isn’t one that is traditional in landscape circles. We all know that; every time we turn on our computer printer we have to tell it if it is supposed to print in landscape format or not (usually not). Well the scale and format worked for Lightell. So did the painting of light. Whether she was giving us a bright clear light day, a thick southern day in the fields or a morning before the mist clears, I could see the light brightening up the and moving through air. In one I could almost taste the thick air of the coastal swamps and tidal rivers I grew up with in Georgia and Florida.  Here were the Southern landscape made anew that I had hoped to find.

Megan Lightell, Morning Creek

A direction that I am always pleased to find is an area that I like to explore, the visually intimate image. The ones with a grace and a charm that isn’t about the subject, ones where it is the artist’s choice of color and tone, or the artist’s material that sets up a sensual response. Something quiet that we can explore slowly and deeply.  I found that in two artists whose work I had never seen before. They were Stephanie Hargrave and Terri Dilling. Hargrave’s images are a delight; a delight in the same way that sweet, ripened fruit and Crème Brûlée make a perfect close to a meal. Each would be a perfect dessert, but if put together well … well you know.

Stephanie Hargrave, Floating series #9, 9×9

Hargraves’s range of opacity to transparency is SO nicely played in these works; there is a deliciousness found as you melt your way through the layers, past the clearly defined lines and shapes and down into a fog and haze of tone. These are not bold or dynamic works. They are delicate visual treats that you want to spend a bit of time enjoying. They really are worth the time, even when they are competing with larger works or 104 degree summer heat.

Terri Dilling, Littoral Zone series #2, cyanotype & gouache

Another artist who plays with images that flirt with fog and haze is Terri Dilling. These works get their complexity from a wonderful and unexpected pairing disparate materials … cyanotype and gouuache. Cyanotype is a old photographic technique. The invention seems to  go all the way back to 1842 for blueprinting, but Anna Atkins made the first photographic prints using the method in 1843. Unlike Anna Atkins, Dilling seems to be using a a layering of exposures to work up her images. And Dilling is also using Gouache? Gouache is of course a version of watercolor most often thought of from the designer world (animation and graphic designers) of the 1940s to 1980s. If you have a world art turn of mind, you also remember that Mughal and Persian miniatures often used a gouache type of watercolor.

But maybe we should look closer to home to see why Dilling is using gouache. Remember watercolor is usually transparent. Gouache can be too … in thin layers. It can be opaque. So gouache can hide and reveal what is below … it can tease us with glimpses, illuminating or shielding. Just like the layering of the photogram process Terri Dilling is using. Now I see why those material belong together. Evocative and a bit mysterious.

Now I will wrap up. But I have one final thing to mention … one of the biggest reasons I made this trip to Atlanta. To see Kevin and his work which is on display  at several venues in Atlanta … work that I think you will really like. Here is a taste. I’ll post a bit more in a day or so.

Ties? Oh yes!

Atlanta was HOT, so was the Art!

We headed south last week. Pretty far south in fact; Atlanta. And it was HOT … the highs were above 100 every day we were in Georgia.  But hey, it is summer and we were in Hotlanta. And, to be sure Interstates 85, 75, and 20 were, as always, entertaining.

I was reminded pretty quickly about how wonderful a city it is … and not just because I was born there a “few” years ago.  We had really delicious meals with beautifully prepared dishes, local prepared beverages … graciously served at several restaurant and pubs. We enjoyed the rich mélange of old and new architecture and were excited to see such wonderful art in the cities galleries.

We were down on a working vacation. Even if we were only visiting for fun, we would have spent some time looking at art but that was the purpose of this trip. I was also hoping to meet an artist friend and colleague (more about Kevin Cole in a later post!) and looking at the galleries and art centers of the area.

In The Shadows, oil on tin 45×90, by Drew Galloway, at Marcia Woods Gallery

I expected that we would see quite a few landscape paintings. But landscapes in southern art are not always celebrations of the heroic or the pastoral. True, I did expect to see romanticized landscape … but also creepy, silly, and even un-seeable landscape. I figured to see the full range, running between folk, traditional, modern, and post-modern … with artists working the territories between these strategies … amalgamating interior visions with perceptual, scientific, and cultural imagery.

Atlanta’s galleries did not disappoint!

Trudging across hot sidewalks the first afternoon, we happened upon a painting exhibition by Drew Calloway. His show, of beautiful, single and multi-panel pieces painted on tin was wonderful find at Marcia Woods Gallery. While at first blush the work reads as photo-realism, the surfaces and layers of color and tonality are much more sumptuous. Not only was the work in the gallery exquisite, Marcia Woods herself graciously gave me some insights into Atlanta’s art scene.

FS 2137, Collage and acrylic on panel, 22 x 22, by Cecil Touchon, at Emily Amy Gallery

The first day we also stopped by two other west side/Castleberry area galleries, the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery and the Emily Amy Gallery.  At the Emily Amy Gallery there was a good show up but then I walked around a corner. There was a precious and harmonious work by Cecil Touchon. The simple shapes were a perfect balanced orchestration of complexity, suggestiveness, and calmness. It was like architecture. Perfectly put together.

Across the parking lot I was also blown away … but in a totally different manner.

Exploring the Michael J. Marshall photographs in the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, I was astounded. Marshall prints his photograph on oriental paper (it looks like Kozo fiber paper to me) are then infused with wax and layered over images that are created on a wooden surface. His analytical and subjective images merge to create a symbiosis of ethereal beauty. I paint with similar tools and mine the translucency and space between scientific imagery, natural history, and the intuitive image for years. It was as if Marshall had read the images in my head and had leapt to a place I might have wished I had gone to myself. I have to explore his work more.

Ocean Point, Ink Jet Print on oriental paper, waxed and mounted over an image on wood, by Michael J. Marshall, at Jennifer Schwartz Gallery

We wrapped up the day at a local eatery and settled in for the night … the heat, the great food, and the visually exciting art left us tired and sated.

We were anticipating even more the next day; I planned the route to the east side galleries and the trip to see me friend south of town.

(to be continued…)