Thursday, June 25, 2020

DPW Spotlight Interview: Virginia Macintosh

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings. To enter to win Virginia's painting "Lemon Slices" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Virginia's DPW Gallery Page:

I found my place in the arts early in life, from doodles, and sand drawings on the playground to first paintings in kindergarten. To earn a living, after studying painting and ceramics in college, I pursued what was then known as "commercial art", and ultimately became a graphic designer, first in New York then California - pre- and post-computer. For several years I enjoyed creating and selling pottery, but my true love has always been oil painting. Now living in Northern California, I have enjoyed showing and selling my work in a local gallery. I hope to continue growing and experimenting and learning as an artist, and sharing my journey here with you.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I grew up in Southern California and had a painting class in what must have been Kindergarten where we painted standing with easels. I remember putting extra thought into a painting of a snowy mountain, when several teachers came over to admire it. It was an ego booster, and that certainly helps. Also about that time, maybe age six or seven, (long story short) I chanced to meet an old Hollywood character, a self-declared prophet, known in those parts as “Peter the Hermit”, who looked me in the eye and said, “You will be an artist!” Experiences like that stay lodged in your brain. How did he know anything about me? Did I become a painter because he told me that? That incident was strange and memorable, but more important to me at the time was the love and encouragement of two family friends I called aunts. They were both artists, and I was inspired by their work and their dedication to it.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

I did a lot of painting in college, much of it experimental and abstract, then the need to earn a living intervened. I started working in the advertising department of a Beverley Hills department store illustrating shoes and handbags. In New York City, I worked as a production artist in a Graphics studio, later becoming a designer myself. Because Graphic Arts is a unique art form whose goal is selling products, I think I was a little conflicted about painting at the same time. I felt freer creatively when I retired, and started to paint more seriously.

Lemon Slices
(click to view)

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the DPW home page announcing Virginia's interview.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

Aside from doing graphics, and maybe as a contrast to it, I was a potter for several years.  I worked in a small studio in New York at the beginning of my graphics career, then spent a summer at the Anderson Ranch in Colorado, learning from some excellent potters. Later after returning to California, I had access to kilns and wheels through classes at Walnut Creek’s excellent Civic Arts Education. My work combined slab and thrown pieces, and I specialized in table-top fountains which I exhibited there and at in a local gallery. I have tried watercolor, etching, and even played with marble painting, but oil painting was on my mind through it all.

Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

It takes a lot of room to be a potter: lots of equipment and lots of storage space. When I retired, we moved and downsized. The long and short of it is, I gave up pottery, and started painting again. I love oil painting more than any other art form, and that is what I want to keep doing.

Paddling the Whitefish
(click to view)

Who or what inspires you most?

In college I was in love with with Fauvism, especially Matisse paintings of that period. Think of “The Green Stripe.” Then l was into Abstract Expressionism, but more as an intellectual exercise than practice. Carol says, and she is right, that you learn by doing, and that drawing is central when it comes to painting. The teachers I had before and through college were well established, and certainly charismatic, but mostly wanted you to paint like they did, and they didn’t inspire me. After I graduated I took a drawing class at the then Chouinard Art Institute in L.A. taught by a man named Don Graham who had come from Disney. He was just a wonderful teacher whose methods caused me to approach drawing with brand new eyes - brand new understanding. He wrote a book, which I have, but being right there, learning from him in person, was game changer for me. I still spend time reading about and studying artists such as John Singer Sargent, and Anders Zorn, and am inspired by the figurative work of Diebenkorn, Thiebaud, and a long list of others. I am also inspired by painters whose work I have discovered through DPW. But I often think of Don, now long gone, and like to think he would approve of my work.

Bright Garden
(click to view)

What does procrastination look like for you?

I paint every chance I get; most days, in fact. But there are lots of distractions, and I’m often sidetracked. I have chores: meals, gardening, etc. and I have to make myself get off the computer. I am also an avid birder, very distracting, not to mention wanting to spend time with my husband canoeing, hiking. Then there’s the dog, the cat. Being sheltered in place certainly helps remove distractions, and I am lucky to be retired with work no longer being an issue. I don’t think I’m really that much of a procrastinator. I’m more apt to worry if I have enough time left in my life to do all the painting I want to do, especially when I feel there is still so much to learn.

Bike Rack Abstract
(click to view)

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

It took many years before I could have the time to paint, and now I really want to paint. I want to paint right now and stop writing.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I have subjects: water, boats, flowers; and I keep lots of photos (only use those I’ve taken) as candidates. But I read somewhere that Picasso said, “I don’t seek, I find.” But finding is also an art. You have to be alert. I tend to be “in my head,” and have to remember to focus when there is something visually interesting right in front of me  - usually something about light - then stop, see, and capture it. I also like using local subjects such as farmers markets. And I happen to live in a beautiful place by a river. There are subjects all around me.

Port Townsend Harbor
(click to view)

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

Tough issue. It’s hard to know when you are in the “investment trap” and need to let an old dog go. I admit that sometimes I will work a painting to death. If I catch myself at it, I wipe or sand it all off and start over or give up on that subject. For me, keeping work vibrant often means simplifying it. For my way of working, too much detail kills freshness. On the other hand, I’ve painted over several paintings I later wish I had kept, and that is another trap.

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

I am continuously working on drawing within painting, letting paint flow more easily, staying “in the zone." I want subjects to be located in space, and for the paint to have a sort of linear movement; a hard task. I also try to be patient. I certainly am not in a place where I can do a painting a day.

Noyo Harbor
(click to view)

What makes you happiest about your art?

I am not a message painter. For me it is all about the paint. There is a sort of balance of line, color, space and tone that goes “Wham,” when it all comes together, and I breathe an inner “aaah.” Getting that makes me happy. Striving for that makes me happy.

Thanks, Virginia!

© 2020 Sophie Marine

Thursday, June 18, 2020

DPW Spotlight Interview: Yi Blondel

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings. To enter to win Yi's painting "Blood Orange Wedges" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Yi's DPW Gallery Page:

I feel like I am at the start of my artistic journey and thankful to these days of quarantine for getting me to see and do things a little differently. What inspires and fascinates me is light, color, shadows and people. Light, color and shadows are easier to capture in stillness.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I have always loved drawing, painting, and making things and grew up in a home with a very creative and hard working single mother. When I was young I used to also like making up worlds with images, but somewhere along the way I stopped. It was only about three years ago that I tried, and fell in love, with oil painting and since then I can’t seem to get enough.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

About what feels like a hundred years ago, I did two years of art school / college. I at the time felt pressure that I had to do something more ‘serious’ or ‘meaningful’ for my career and stopped drawing and painting for a long time until I started again a few years ago.

Blood Orange Wedges
(click to view)

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the DPW home page announcing Yi's interview.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

While at art school I tried many different mediums and enjoyed printmaking even though it is quite technical. When I think back I didn’t really enjoy painting, so I was surprised when I started painting again and instantly felt connected to it but maybe it was because back then acrylic was the only option.

Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

I love painting with oils and would like to try doing printmaking and collage again but my space and access to a press is limited at the moment. Also I feel I have just begun to understand a little about color and light, which is fascinating, and oils produce the most vibrant colors. There is also something seductive about the texture and smell of oil paint and mediums.

Lemon Reflecitons
(click to view)

Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

Mixed media and also being able to do larger works would be great fun. I have also always had a fascination for movement and a sense of space so any medium, combined with painting, that could convey those things would be fun to explore.

Who or what inspires you most?

What inspires me most is just looking at things, and people. I love observing colors and light…..and also people, but haven’t manage to integrate the people watching into my paintings yet. I have also had a couple of great teachers who have taught me a lot about how to use those observations and translate them into colors and strokes on canvas. There are so many awe inspiring painters and artists to learn from but I also feel it can be overwhelming and want to figure out my own visual language.

Shadow Life of a Leaf
(click to view)

What does procrastination look like for you?

This is a great question! Procrastination for me is simply not painting or not pushing yourself to get out of your comfort zone. I can easily get stuck in the world of ideas and thoughts and perceptions of how something should be perfect. Thankfully, I have realized that I learn more by doing and perfection doesn’t exist.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I remind myself that it is a priority even if there are lots of other things that need to be done and also make sure to have my materials ready and easily at hand. I also don’t pressure myself to get a specific result, the most important thing is to do a little something everyday.

Leggy Nude
(click to view)

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

At this stage I have so many ideas I tend to try and keep it simple so I am sure I actually paint something. Also, there is poetry and whole universes in simple things and I like to see if I can capture part of that.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

To be honest, I think it is the other way around, painting has kept me from ‘life burnout’ so I haven’t experienced that so far.

Breakfast Shadows
(click to view)

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

I feel I need to put myself out there and learn how to make painting something more or less sustainable so I can keep doing it. I am at a double cross-roads where I am learning the process of finding my own visual voice, including figuring out if and what I want to share with my paintings, and also the marketing part of it.

What makes you happiest about your art?

That I can do it. It is a gift that I took for granted for too long. Every time, even when I am not completely satisfied with the result, I am still a little in awe that I somehow pull it off. It feels a bit like magic; especially those times when I am not in the mood or tired and sure I won’t be able to make something decent but still do.

Pink Aluminum Fruit
(click to view)

Thanks, Yi!

© 2020 Sophie Marine

Friday, June 12, 2020

DPW Spotlight Interview: Catherine A.

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings. To enter to win Catherine's painting "Sketch #30" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Catherine's DPW Gallery Page:

Hello! I'm Catherine from St.Petersburg, Russia. 29 y.o.

I'm really happy you are reading this text because it's the first of this sort. I have never written my own biography, my way to painting, I have never described my years of education. There is something to tell you about my years of education and the way to painting.

The fact is that while I'm reading somebody's biography, his history, while I'm meeting his presented image I do it all the same through the prism of my own perception of life. I see the person by the description as I wish to see him, as my imagination has created him after reading his biography.

But the trick is all my paintings I create is my biography. Just imagine a white canvas in front of you. You take some paint and a brush and after a while something unique appears that can be created only by one person. It looks like a fingerprint. And even if you try to do the same it may show resemblance, but it is another picture.

Every painting is more than just a canvas and some paint on it. It is the way, every day that was spent by me, all my experience in every brush stroke. That doesn't mean that I'm thinking about my way while I'm creating. It means that all I have seen in my life, all I have felt - everything is in front of you.

What can be the most reliable biography than this!

With Love, Catherine A.

Sketch #30
(click to view)

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the DPW home page announcing Catherine's interview.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I belong to those artists who started painting since they learned how to hold a pencil and a brush in their hands. But in my mind there’s different attitude to art: conscious and unconscious. So, starting period can be called my unconscious art when I just painted as all enthusiastic children do. I found interesting materials, techniques for me. This period can be considered as an acquaintance with the world of art. I tried arts and crafts where my creations were more than a page of paper and became volumetric.

This is unique experience that gives courage, excitement in what we, artists, do. And even when I entered the art school that was time of cognition and search.

Then I had a period when I painted practically nothing, but I took pictures a lot, I found new music and I expressed myself by my clothes and hairstyle. You must have guessed that it was the age of teenage.

And after that when I entered the university I came to the world of art consciously where I have been creating for twelve years.

The Day of Dreams
(click to view)

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

The career of an artist exactly I began not long ago, three years ago. This period is the same with the birth of my son. When he was born I magically felt the birth of a certain creative personality inside me.

I have seen exactly what I want and how. This way everyday painting has come to my life from big canvases. But paintings of large format demand energy contribution a lot, thoughts, thinking over the plot and forces for concentration, courage.

It required a lot of time and several periods of pause to come to small format to feel what I really want. And nowadays I’m here, in everyday painting of small format.

Who or what inspires you most?

Inspiration can come from very sudden sources, may be cooking delicious food in the kitchen or even walking in my favorite park. So even the process of creating of the painting inspires me a lot, while I’m creating or I’m looking how another artist is painting if I’m interested in his creation.

One moment the key of inspiration has become my conscious; it shouldn’t be waited for, you should create it. Just make yourself inspired. Every person has got something special he likes most, what makes him happy and what makes necessary mood for life at all, not only for creativity on canvas.

Small Street to the Sea
(click to view)

What does procrastination look like for you?

Procrastination is a condition whose reason is some internal unresolved, the problem that wasn’t resolved in the mind. It is very important to catch by tail that feeling or situation that was the reason of my being in the condition of procrastination. Just paying attention to this matter frees a lot of energy for creativity. But this self examination needs energy. But it’s worth it because as a result I become awakened, inspired, able to give my creativity to the world.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

When creativity becomes your lifestyle and profession then your attitude to it also changes. The degree of the responsibility to grow as a professional I have also change. That means the key here is discipline and balance between the process and rest. If this balanced is achieved, energy for creativity is always enough. And the best time for creativity for me is morning when a day is just beginning, when I’m in tight and clean contact with my soul.

Street Food
(click to view)

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

While I’m painting a new idea of the next painting often comes to me. It can be a desire to express in a new way what I have done before. Or just a desire to try, to depict, to create. And also, when I even don’t think about new ideas at all. While you are walking, doing something habitual or something new. But meantime my observer always works, he watches the life as it is. The idea can be brought by watching some interesting colours, textures, weather condition, forms. It just needs to relax and observe. But if an idea has come it needs to be written down. The idea is alive it can escape.

How do you keep art "fresh"? What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging? 

I think it’s the most difficult question for an artist. There is no universal recipe. But it can be created for yourself. When you find your own business it’s generally interesting and limitless. Art is our reflection of what we feel and see. It’s important to be fresh for perception of life. To live enthusiastically and enjoy your life. The same will be your art. Just allow to have all feelings, to be alive. As for me, I’m awakened by cooking special food, time with my family, walking outdoors, reading books. It may be called a completeness of life that fills me and makes me alive, open, fills my feelings. To express it on canvas.

At Home
(click to view)

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist? What makes you happiest about your art?

I feel freedom, absence of any limits and conventions. I feel a new horizon behind the previous. I feel that the way of creativity is limitless. That makes me happy, really passionated by life. I don’t divided art and life by different parts, I see a common system of my values, with constant growth, my rhythm and thin concentration with myself.

Thanks, Catherine!

© 2020 Sophie Marine

Thursday, June 4, 2020

DPW Spotlight Interview: Patricia Tomes

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings. To enter to win Patricia's painting "Cloud Spectacle" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Patricia's DPW Gallery Page:

I make small oil paintings of big spaces focused on the rural landscape. I strive to interpret the broad skies and far horizons surrounding me with hope that the viewer may renew their own sense of place in the world.

I paint with oils, primarily on panels using painting knives and mark-making to parallel the texture of the land and sky. I began painting in a small format several years ago, mainly out of a desire to simplify and found working small is not only conducive to maintaining a daily painting practice but it also affords me a greater opportunity to achieve my goal to provide a quiet, intimate interpretation of the land. (click to read more)

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting?

When I was just a child, my mother had enrolled in a correspondence painting course. I suppose it was a 1950’s version of today’s on-line courses. She had assignments that she mailed in and they were returned with handwritten critiques by a handful of working artists. She worked in oils at a tripod easel and often told the story of how as toddlers, my sister and I ruined one of her pieces by using it for a finger painting. I don’t have an actual memory of that but I do remember her fascinating course books that covered everything from anatomy to still life and I used them for years as my introduction to oil painting. Later, as a young teen, I enrolled in my first formal courses at a local arts academy where we had models and I created my first color charts. My mother also introduced us to Plein Air painting at an early age. In the summer we had favorite places to stop with a picnic lunch and watercolors.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career? 

Though I can’t remember a time I didn’t paint, I certainly explored a lot of other avenues in the process of finding my way to the daily painting practice that I enjoy today. I received a Fine Arts degree with a focus on sculpture and at the time, I don’t believe I even considered how I was going to make a living as an artist. Most of my life, I worked in an administrative career with non-profit organizations and painted intermittently in my spare time. I have always given myself a space/place to paint and a bench to tinker at but it wasn’t until my retirement that I finally made a commitment to paint every day and I finally allowed myself to earnestly work toward and achieve the goals of showing and selling my work.

Today, I am happy to say, most of my house is studio space.

Cloud Spectacle
(click to view)

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the DPW home page announcing Patricia's interview.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

For a long time, probably half my life, I painted figurative work or still life focused on things like clothing, individual figures and even over-sized fruit. Acrylics have never been a go-to for me though I have used them for special project pieces.

I use a few different underpainting techniques and sometimes use refillable acrylic markers as well as oil sticks. I like to experiment with thick heavy textures. I rarely, rarely use a brush. Most all my works are done with painting knives and silicone spatulas, so I can go thick and use textures that follow the shapes in the landscape. That’s a sculptural connection for me.

I started painting small pieces about the same time I committed to a daily painting routine, the two go hand in hand. I live in a small house, I can easily carry pieces outside to work on a landscape and I’m not tripping all over my work here.

Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

I still love charcoal and leads. I can’t imagine that will ever leave me. There are times when a painting just isn’t happening so I take a break from it by sitting quietly with my sketch pad. Sometimes I just focus on an element or texture right in front of me. That’s a very relaxing meditation for me. When I lived in New Mexico I used oil pigment sticks on hardwood panels quite a lot. Like watercolor, it was a convenient medium to go camping with.

Oils of course are my first choice for doing finished works. I try to maintain a solvent free studio and rarely use any additional paint mediums. There was a time when I didn’t paint without some toxic additive, it’s nice to not be bothered with that anymore. Thick paint and painting knives are another good pairing and also less reason to have to rely on any additives.

April Showers
(click to view)

Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

Gouache is on my list of “wants”. I think it will translate well in the small format paintings that I do. I also like the idea of using it in a sketch book. I think it will force me to bring more discipline to my marks. I just got a new bicycle and I’m thinking of rigging it with a little Plein Air set that will be a far less intrusive way to access special places. I really hope I can make it work because I just don’t enjoy dragging oil paints and wet panels around anymore. And I'm enjoying being out on my bike.

I’ve also been doing a small amount of digital work with a tablet and pen, nothing that’s ready for prime time but I could see doing more color field work in a digital format. I do use a digital tablet to work out questions of color and sometimes composition which is very convenient.

Who or what inspires you most?

The inspirational ‘what’ is easy to answer: the colors of the day, the morning sunrise, the cloud formations rising and changing in a few moments of time, the deep shadowed spaces with just a bit of light filtering through. Maybe more than anything else, some dynamic clouds will cause me to drop what I’m doing and grab the paints - or my camera!

There are so many artists who I have found because of the internet and a few I would go out of my way to see in a gallery or museum. I think the artists that inspire me the most do two things: they leave a lot of mystery in their work and they get a color/light in a canvas like I have never seen captured.

These are at the top of my list: Michael Workman can capture the atmosphere of big western space using loose, nearly abstracted mark making like few others. When I came across the work of Brad Teare a few years ago, I was instantly inspired to try some thick paint techniques. He is on a totally different level and his disciplined process is amazing. Brian Rutenberg is a hugely dynamic artist whose large, bright, thickly painted abstracted landscapes bring me great joy not to mention his many videos. If Rutenberg doesn’t get you excited about color, nothing will! He is the reason I bought my first tube of Cobalt Teal - wow!

And a few others that I find truly inspirational: Shushana Rucker from Philadelphia (and Idaho), Marcus Bohne from Massachusetts, John Felsing from Michigan, William Hawkins from Arizona, Clifford How from Australia, Stephanie Hartshorne from Colorado and Harley Manifold from Australia.

I began following Mary Bentz Gilkerson several years ago (about the same time I found DPW) and credit her videos as the original inspiration for me to make a commitment to a daily painting practice. Her message, that as artists we have a responsibility to show our work, continues to provide me with encouragement.

Heading to Town
(click to view)

What does procrastination look like for you?

Procrastination for me is having a deadline to get frames completed and waiting until the week or even night before. I think my pieces show better in frames and I’m not yet at the place where I can afford to have them made so for now I make them myself. I can enjoy the process but it takes time and I tend to put it off until the last moment.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I count myself fortunate that I’m able to get up in the morning and go right to my easel, if I have good energy going with a piece, I might not even bother with the coffee. A good painting day is four hours in the morning and another two or three hours in late evening or the reverse of that. A lot depends on the weather but I do like to start my mornings at the easel. I just recently gave myself permission to not paint for a day or even two - like a weekend break. My biggest challenge happens if I get in a rut of too many bad paintings in a row, like nothing seems to go smoothly, I think all of us have those phases. That’s when I try to get to a museum or gallery, look at something other than my own work.

Making Our Way
(click to view)

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I think I’m just constantly looking at the light, the shapes, the color of the landscape. In good weather I take a walk through the fields or ride my bike. I sometimes take my sketch book but not always and I’ve gotten away from doing plein air paintings much beyond my own back yard. There is still so much for me to see right outside my door. If I see something I really want to capture away from the house, I’ll take photos and work out some thumbnail sketches later and maybe revisit the location after I have done some sketches.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

Though I live in the country, it’s an easy day trip for me to visit Philadelphia or the Baltimore - DC area, so a lot of museums and galleries are normally accessible. Without being able to actually visit I rely on social media but that’s not the same. I’m really missing that access now because of the Covid-19 shut down.

You know, the smallest things can excite me, new mark-making, new adjacent colors that I hadn’t tried before. I think experimenting with process or looking at the little secret spots in a landscape keep me engaged. I have been experimenting taking my landscapes to an abstracted level that keeps me excited. I’m trying to focus on shapes and colors found in the shadows of the landscape both distant and close. Lately I’ve been looking at the shadows in the landscape and trying to force myself to look at the smaller elements. That’s not so easy for me since I always want to paint big sky.

Anticipation
(click to view)

What do you feel you are learning about right now as an artist?

In my paintings, I’ve been trying to focus on the impact that edges and deep shadows have on the atmosphere of a piece, there’s a balance I feel like I’m searching for. I’m also trying to relax more about a piece that just isn’t working the way I want it to and let it go, move on to another piece.

This has certainly been a challenging year for showing work and even though I’ve had two scheduled solo shows completely canceled, the Covid-19 quarantine has given me a chance to focus on building my presence on-line, particularly here at DPW. The business end of maintaining a painting practice can be very demanding and quite a challenge. I’m really glad that DPW exists for artists.

What makes you happiest about your art?

I think what feels especially good is when a viewer gets excited enough to want to own a painting and they share with me how they have connected to it on a very personal level. That means a lot to me, that I can create an image that touches the heart of someone. That, I think, can be called success.

Thanks, Patricia!

© 2020 Sophie Marine