Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2020 i Artists Magazine

As we prepare to send this issue to the printer, we’re just beginning to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak in the U.S. It’s hard to imagine, but when we planned and prepared these articles, the novel coronavirus wasn’t anywhere on our minds. At the time, a theme tied to travel—and the creative benefits of taking our art on the road—seemed like a great idea. Writing now, in the final week of March, however, we understand that planning for travel has become complicated and uncertain. It brings to mind the expression that surely every traveler has learned on a journey: “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” We have no way of knowing what the situation will be when this issue is delivered, but…

In Coastal Mist and Flora (bottom), I used a foggy background to help present and clarify the target element—the more sharply defined flora. I also used brightness and color contrasts to direct the viewer’s eye. 1 In this stage, there’s not yet a clear separation of figures from the ground. 2 In the completed painting, the sharp-edged information pulls away from the blurry background atmosphere, directing the eye to the foreground. Intermediate zones have less pronounced edge information; the edges in those areas are only partly dissolved.…

Seasons of Denali (dyed, painted and quilted fabric with stamping, silk-screening and stenciling; 84x144) by Ree Nancarrow represents the view from the front windows at the Eielson Visitors Center in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve, where the quilt is displayed. The panels progress from late winter on the left through spring, summer, fall and early winter—with flora and fauna appropriate to the region and time of year. On her website Nancarrow remarks, “This commission took almost every moment of my life for one year, becoming a labor of love.”…

Valerio D’Ospina (valeriodospina.com), of Philadelphia, was born and raised in Taranto, Italy. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence, the oldest art academy in the world. There, he was granted private access to the Palazzo Pitti Museum, where he studied the techniques of the Masters. Since 2009, he has lived and worked in the United States. His artwork has been exhibited widely nationally and internationally. He’s represented by Stanek Gallery, in Philadelphia; Principle Gallery, in Alexandria, Va.; Gallery 1261, in Denver; and The Haen Gallery, in Asheville, N.C., where he has a show scheduled for this summer, featuring his work along with that of his sister, Angela D’Ospina.…

artist residencies serve many purposes, and finding the right one is key to getting the experience and creative development you want. Some residencies provide quiet escape to focus on a project. Others are more social and encourage networking, leaving less time to work on a project. Some residencies have a mission or an annual theme while others focus on a particular medium. Some last two weeks and others a year. Some require travel to a remote location while others provide studio space close to home. Recognizing that not all residencies are the same and coming to terms with your own aspirations for such an experience helps focus your selection and application process. WHERE TO LOOK There are numerous residency listings online that will help you find possibilities beyond those offered…

The Tabiat Bridge gets its name from the Persian word for “nature.” For my overview painting (top), I wanted to capture the idea of the bridge’s organic form, immersed in a natural setting between two parks. To do this, I used the green tones of the landscape to define the tubular struts rather than actually painting or drawing them in. This also conveys the idea of transparency that the structure possesses. My close-up view (above) reveals the multiple levels of the bridge, including an open observation deck at the top.…

In the previous lesson (page ••), I used sharp edges to draw attention to the foreground and then dissolved those edges in the distance. Blue Shadows further demonstrates how the feeling of distance can be accelerated with the onset of misty atmosphere. 1 For my substrate, I used an older painting featuring sharp crisscrossing patterns as a starting point. 2 Beginning at the top, I began overpainting using chrome yellow. 3 From the bottom I introduced ultramarine blue—a chromatically opposite color from yellow. 4 Using brushes and squeegees, I deleted portions of the overpainting to reveal colors and patterns from the underlying substrate. The painting reverses some of the rules of perception. Here, the atmospheric space is created not only by reducing the relative size of shapes over distance and…

Know the Difference A painting knife is an art knife with an offset blade designed to keep your fingers out of the way when you’re painting. A palette knife is flat knife with a rounded tip, used to mix colors on a palette or mixing surface. Key Characteristics ● MATERIALS: Stainless steel blades come with a polished or a brushed finish and usually have a no-rust guarantee. Silicone is flexible and heat resistant—great for encaustics. Plastic knives are often molded as one piece, so the blade won’t separate from its handle or come loose over time. ● SHAPE & SIZE: There are tons of blade types to choose from. Short blades produce sharp strokes. Long blades can make more sweeping applications. Tall spatula-like tools are perfect for large artworks or for…

ERWIN LIAN BECAME INTERESTED IN TRAVEL SKETCHING because it allowed him to observe the nuances of nature and the subtleties that contribute to a sense of place. Traveling around the world with his watercolors, pen and ink, and sketchbook in hand, he uses his art-making as a tool to increase his appreciation for the architecture, culture and people that he might have otherwise overlooked. LEADING THE WAY Lian started combining travel and sketching about seven years ago when he was sightseeing by himself. “One day I instinctively started sketching the temples of Borobudur [Buddhist temple compound in central Java, Indonesia]. It was just a natural response to the grandeur of what I was seeing. I haven’t stopped travel-sketching since. Unlike photography, sketching and painting on location while sightseeing allows me…

D’Ospina’s painting, The Ship, shows a view of the hull of the S.S. United States, the largest ocean liner ever built and the fastest ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean in both directions. Built in 1952 and retired in 1969, it has since had its interior stripped and sits docked in Philadelphia. “I’d wanted to paint it ever since I moved to Philadelphia,” says the artist, “but it’s moored in a restricted area, and I couldn’t get close. Then, my wife had the brilliant idea of writing to the conservation group that’s trying to raise money to save it and to show them images of my shipyard series. They replied immediately and offered a guided tour.” The artist plans future paintings based on his photography of the gutted interior of…

On September 4, 2018, Kadin Goldberg, a plein air painter, and Heather Spontak, a potter, hitched their camper to an old pickup truck, took one last look at the Beartooth Mountains, climbed into the cab and pulled onto the open road. This was no test run; there was no Plan B. They’d quit their part-time jobs and whittled down their possessions to what would fit on board. They had the radical plan to pursue their respective art careers untethered to a permanent address. The future was somewhere out there on the open road. They made it 20 miles before the first breakdown. AN OPEN INVITATION On a cool March evening, I drive down a dusty desert two-track dirt road toward a lonely cluster of RVs. A latent red glow varnished…

Online Art Tours ENJOY THE WORLD’S GREAT MUSEUMS WITHOUT EVER LEAVING HOME Although nothing can duplicate the impact of an in-person encounter with a work of art, the virtual art tours offered by many great art museums are a viable and welcome substitute at times when you can’t make a personal visit. The workforces behind these cultural institutions have used an abundance of creative ingenuity to create all kinds of opportunities for new art experiences—even from the confines of home. At last count, more than 2,500 museums worldwide have digitized all or part of their collections and made them accessible online. Here are just a few of the exciting options available: THE LOUVRE—PARIS, FRANCE The Louvre invites visitors to take a virtual walk-through tour of some of its most popular…

Tom Christopher was walking down an ordinary street in Manhattan on an overcast day in the late 1980s when he experienced an epiphany. As he describes it, “The sun came out from behind the clouds, and you could see everything: homeless guys in stairwells, lurkers in doorways, women with high-heeled shoes, clowns, deliverymen pushing dollies, taxis and buses inching their way along, the bright lights of Broadway. I thought, ‘I’ve got to paint this!’” In fact, Christopher decided that scenes like this were all he ever wanted to paint again. More than 30 years later, he’s still painting New York City’s street life—large-scale works (5x5 feet or larger) with lots of color and splashy brushstrokes that straddle the line between abstract and representational—but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The…

What I most enjoy about sketching or painting food is that it produces an effect much closer to my memory than the photo. What remains salient is not every pixel, but a few powerful color sensations: the blue chill of the ice, the red tang of the sauce, the fragrant squirt of the yellow lemon. The limited colors and the simply drawn forms preserve a moment that was fleeting in life but lingers as art. 1 I worked from a photo I took while seated at the counter of the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station in New York City. I couldn’t decide how much of the restaurant’s distinctive counter to include in the composition, so I sketched a series of 2x3 thumbnail variations. To save time, I used tracing…

When a person observes a vista, the brain directs the eye where to look and what to look for, taking in the environment’s reflective patterns of light with expectations. The brain and eye are engineered to extract individual elements from the background, separating the two by relying on edge contrast as well as differentiation in color and brightness. We see this play out in the natural world, where animals use this ability to search for a mate and identify prey and predators. In art, we refer to this ability as a recognition of the figure/ground relationship. When we paint, we further exaggerate and simplify the contrast between the two. Blurry, misty backgrounds don’t provide edge information; instead, they create a feeling of space—an airy context—and can serve as a backdrop…

When the weather is warm and sunny, the urge to paint out-of-doors beckons the painter. This activity, however, often comes with certain risks, or at least, inconveniences. Bothersome insects, lack of shade, distance from civilization and its amenities are only a few. The British painter John Millais even made a satirical self-portrait sketch of his landscape painting being swept away by a gust of wind—easel and all. Mobility issues or other health challenges also may prevent some painters from spending an extended time outside painting. But in nice weather, working indoors when the sun is shining so invitingly is no fun. What to do? One solution is to locate a spot in between indoors and outdoors. A covered balcony; a shaded, open-air space; or a screened porch provides a perfect…

Viewing the paintings of native Tennessee artist Kathie Odom is like taking a drive through rural America, passing by family farms that have been handed down from generation to generation. An organic messiness has affected the farms: old barns display sun-warped siding and tin roofs starting to peel back; log cabins show wide bands of chinking in need of repair; and weed-thick gardens are strewn with a few wire tomato baskets left behind after the final harvest. Odom paints these scenes using a loose brush, art imitating nature in all its organic energy. Look longer at her paintings, and you’ll start to feel a wistful hankering for times gone by. STEPPING INTO THE PAST Odom refers to her style of painting as “nostalgic impressionism.” It’s a fitting phrase, since many…

Artists paved the way to the 1872 founding of Yellowstone, America’s first national park. They continued to play a pivotal role when President Woodrow Wilson established the National Park Service in 1916 in order to consolidate the management of the nation’s expanding federal parklands under one agency. Today, artists remain an essential force for communicating to the general public the beauty, scientific and strategic environmental importance of the 84 million acres that comprise the United States’ national parks. TRAILBLAZERS Transcendentalism, a nature-based philosophical movement embraced by 19th-century writers such as Henry David Thoreau (1817–62), and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82), as well as visual artists, including Thomas Cole (1801–48) and Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902), contributed to the idea that America’s natural beauty was sublime, inherent to our nation’s identity and in need…

The paintings of Valerio D’Ospina project a stark and energetic splendor. His views of industrial scenes, shipyards, docks, trains and factories embrace spectacular, wide-angle perspectives, barren imagery and the gritty textures of rust and concrete. Painted in bravura fashion with speedy brushing and a range of marks that stretch from huge swatches of paint to slender, skittering lines, his pictures shimmer with life. Every millimeter of the surface is activated and alive, giving the viewer a sense of all-over intensity. Largely tonal, the paintings relish the drama of high contrast while deploying only minimal color, a strategy that yields a brooding, moody atmosphere and conveys a kind of documentary sense of truth. “I’m attracted to these immense structures and scenes of thriving industry that have been, or seem to be,…

D’Ospina’s series of forest paintings represent something of a departure from his urban and industrial scenes. The speedy brushwork that he applies to bring energy to his vision of static shipyards and factories is now used to show movement itself. The artist, who is himself a cyclist, uses a Go-Pro camera set on a slow shutter speed to collect the blurred images during rides. He paints the work at a high speed, too, sometimes completing one in as little as 30 minutes. The finished paintings balance well-comprehended perspective and tonality with a wild and dizzying sense of speed.…

Kadin and Heather started their journey with a pickup truck but soon learned that they needed a setup with easier access to supplies, so they switched to a van with a topper. “We put everything we could in containers of the same size; labeled everything; and then built shelves around it,” Heather says. “There’s a designated spot for my craft show tent and customized drawers for Kadin’s paintings.” Everything else—picture frame molding, flat panel storage, glaze materials, a cat litter box—is all accessible from the center aisle.…