Pat Walker at Brown's

I went last week to check out the Pat Walker show at Brown's gallery in Fondren.  She is primarily known for her traditional still life paintings, but there were a couple of landscapes and figure pieces as well.   She employs in most of her pieces a classic technique of applying think layers of paint (aka "impasto") in the light masses of the composition, while the shadows remain very thin.  By doing this, the physical light of the room reflects off of the impasto areas making them brighter.  See the detail of "Onions and Blue" below to see Pat doing this to the extreme.  You can tell that she really has fun with it.  


I have heard Pat's name come up several times over the past year, not in reference to her paintings, but concerning the destination she is creating at her home in Rolling Fork, MS.  After losing her home and studio in Bay St. Louis to Hurricane Katrina, she relocated to the Mississippi Delta.  There she is hosting painting workshops by nationally known realist painters/instructors.   It's quite an impressive line-up for this year which you can see here.  It is an impressive opportunity that she is bringing to this area and I hope that people really take advantage of it.   


Here's some of the work...

Peaches

Onions and Blue

Detail of Onions and Blue

Copper and Flowers

1937 MS Delta - Sharky County

Bounty of Color

Lambert and Blankenstein show at Bryant's

Bryant Galleries in Jackson is not a place that one would likely happen upon if searching for art galleries.  It is hidden in a non-descript shopping center off of Lakeland Drive.  But then again nowhere in Jackson is a hotbed of an art market.  The largest concentration of galleries in Jackson is in Fondren, and I believe that there are only about five.  Jackson isn't known for its art offerings which is why I was interested in doing this blog... to attempt to have one more opportunity for artists' work to be viewed.  So Bryant's may not be the easiest to find, but it is definitely worth the search.  They have a very unique offering of some Mississippi artists and some international artists, and they appear to be very particular about the quality of work that they show.  It's a large space, but divided nicely into more intimate areas.  

Hanging right now is a duo show of separate work by husband and wife David Lambert and Vidal Blankenstein.  David actually runs the gallery.  It's interesting to see their work hanging together because living together they must influence each other.  They both work in acrylic on panels, but their approaches are quite different.  David is also showing some of his airplane sculptures which were included in the Invitational at the Mississippi Museum of Art this year.  The Invitational show just came down so I hope you didn't miss it.  There was a long article in the national magazine, Art in America, about the Invitational written by guest curator Peter Plagens that was less than flattering but just short of condescending.  His arrogant and pompous tone did no credit to the work, but the work didn't need him.  It was obviously art of a high caliber that can stand on its own.  

When I first saw David's planes in a show at Belhaven they struck me by their witty concept and construction, and yet they were so simply assembled with disregard for attempted craftsmanship.  I was pleased to see that this visual language carries over into his paintings as well.  The consistency gives credit to the work.  David told me that he had not painted in awhile because his focus has been on the airplanes.  He looked through some old sketches and found some designs that appealed to him that he developed into paintings.  Many of the sketches are displayed next to the final pieces.  

Vidal's psychological images are much more layered and painterly.  There are recurring symbols of trees and birds and hands and ladders and almond shaped patches that seem to transition between leaves and the all seeing eye.  Vidal is a graphic designer, but I think that it is interesting that David's work is the more graphic, illustrational, and cartoon influenced work.  I think that artists who have full time jobs aside from their art often produce work that is a contrasting response to what they do all day.  Either way, it's just great that they are reserving the energy to produce the work.  

Man in Striped Shirt (Lambert)

Soup and Grits (Lambert)

War (Lambert)

Planes (Lambert)

Sanctuary (Blankenstein)

Where are you going? (Blankenstein)

Morning (Blankenstein)

Open (Blankenstein)

Kelso at Fischer

I get excited when December rolls around every year.  It's not because of the cooler weather or because of the upcoming Christmas Holiday.  I had grown tired of the mass materialistic holiday until four years ago when my wife and I had our first child.  There is a renewed sense of magic seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child.  No, the reason I get excited when December comes around is that I know there will be a show of Richard Kelso's work hanging in Jackson that month.  It is an annual event to look forward to and it is hanging right now at Fischer Galleries in Fondren.  Kelso was mentioned in my last post about color theory and the influences of Henry Hensche.  

Richard Kelso is a landscape painter.  He has produced an incalculable number of landscape paintings through the years.  You might think that this would cause someone to become stagnate in his work, producing Bob Ross like symbols for trees that are comfortable and familiar, but I continue to be amazed at the experimentation and variety he shows.  And the work is simply gorgeous.  Anyone can appreciate the beauty of the scenes in his work,  but if you are a painter you will marvel at the way he uses paint.  Every stroke is deliberate, and every color of every stroke looks as though it were mixed uniquely for that one spot.  His colors are never chalky or muddy but rich from the vibrant sunlit treetops to the deepest shadows.  Kelso holds to a standard of quality that is both inspiring and daunting to me as a painter.  

There actually are two paintings in the show that are not landscapes.  Many times in his shows there will be a small selection of paintings of his studio or things in his studio.  I always love these pieces but not only because of their masterful execution.  If you ever visit Kelso's studio which is above Hal and Mal's you will recognize the light.  There is a single window that he paints by, and from what I've seen he never uses artificial light.  The cold indirect light that comes through the window casts soft warm shadows, and he absolutely nails the atmosphere that it creates.  

My one disappointment in the show is that there are no drawings.  Drawings are so sincere and personal feeling, and Kelso's Constable-esque pieces are like little treasures.  Maybe I've been a good boy this year and Santa will bring me one.  

Autumn Glory

Evening

Green House on Hwy. 22

November Mist

Pond at Mr. Palmer's

Spring

Studio Corner

Color Theory

A month or so ago I had the opportunity to go to a home out in Madison where there was a reception/showing for California artist Camille Przewodek.  Camille was leading a workshop in town on plein air painting that week.  I recently read that Camille's approach to painting came from her experience at The Cape Cod School of Art where she studied with Henry Hensche.  Charles Hawthorne, who studied under William Merritt Chase, began the school in the late 1800s with a close tie to the American Impressionists.  Hensche was a student of Hawthorne's, and he took over the school when Hawthorne died.  This man's instruction must have been incredibly inspiring because there is an impressive number of artists continuing to follow his approach to painting, particularly in Mississippi.  Sammy Britt, long time Delta State art professor, studied with Hensche as well and really carried the torch influencing hundreds of artists through the years.  Others around the state following to different degrees the color theories taught at Cape Cod are Richard Kelso, Bob Pennebaker, Gerald DeLoach, and George Thurmond.  

It's not easy to clearly define the color theory taught from the Cape Cod School.  It has roots in impressionism, but really stresses the use of color to turn form rather than values.  Masses of colors are laid down as "light keys" to quickly see the relationships of colors at that particular time of that particular day.  Sammy Britt stated to me a few years ago that "Hensche was providing us with a new language, not simply a style or technique.  It is a visual language of light keys where you focus on the changing color on an object not the changing value.  One must choose to paint tonally or in light keys."  Here is where things get a little difficult.  It is very tempting to try to take some of the ideas from this mind set and mix them with some tonal painting.  This can create years of confusion to a painter.  

In my early days of painting I studied with Bob Pennebaker a little, and took a workshop with Sammy giving me some ground in a colorist approach.  Later, in my graduate studies everything was hard core tonal.  I think that I am just now beginning to see how my own approach can pull from both sides, but as Sammy said, this probably means that I am not painting in light keys.  The influence is undeniable though.  

At the Camille Przewodek show I had the pleasure of meeting local artist Ginny Futvoye.  She was taking the workshop while also working on a body of work for a show at Nunnery's Gallery in Fondren.   The show is hanging right now, and I was really curious about how this workshop would influence her work in midstream of a show.  Her work has a real decorative appeal to them.  They tend to be warm in tone and of a nice size that gives them a confident kind of presence.  The "Cows Grazing" painting stood out to me in composition and color approach, and sure enough, according to Ginny, that painting was the first one completed after the workshop.  The show does not feel incongruent though.  Ginny told me that there was some difficulty at first in applying her new found knowledge, but didn't feel that it was that far off from where she already was.  

Here's a selection from the show...

Square Books 1

Alpine Sunset

Cows Grazing

Sunset Zinnias

Lauterbrunnen Valley

Article in Northeast Ledger

This blog is not intended to toot my own horn, but I am very proud of the flattering article in the Northeast Ledger this morning. Scott Albert Johnson, journalist and musician extraordinaire, did an amazing job of weaving the bits of information that he gathered when he visited my studio into a comprehensible story. He mentions the blog as well, so if you are a new reader because of the article please leave me a comment telling me so. Here's the link.... Artist balances art, family.

Rob Cooper's glass work

Currently at Fischer Galleries in Fondren is work by three young Jackson artists, Rob Cooper, Josh Hailey, and Ginger Williams. Rob is doing some particularly intriguing work with glass. Most of the show is made up of wall mounted glass panels, but there are two traditional leaded glass pieces as well. For at least the past 13 years Rob has worked at Pearl River Glass Studios in Jackson which is having their annual exhibition at The Cedars in Fondren next week, I believe. During this time he has been able to develop some very sophisticated and skilled handling of this medium. He is incorporating fused glass, painted glass, and etched glass to create delicately layered images. The subjects run the gamut from mythology and ancient literature to superheroes, but the work really fits together well as sort of mystical narratives. There is an interesting influence from Japanese wood cuts present. In images such as The Dream of the Fisherman the visual connection is obvious. He uses the strong graphic outlines around flat shapes of color, not to mention the Japanese looking figure and architecture. But another interesting connection is the process of painting the glass. Like wood cuts, and unlike most painting it is a subtractive method. You lay on a flat tone of paint and use a brush to lift off the pigment in order to create the gradations and highlights. Then the glass is fired in a kiln to set it. This process can be done multiple times in multiple layers, and I can tell you from experience that it is not easy. Rob has a unique sensitivity to handling this medium that you won't find anywhere else around here. Here is a sampling of the work...

The Dream of the Fisherman

Tales of the Sea I

Tales of the Sea III

Sirens

Aquarian Totem

Flash Gordon and Wonder Woman

A kite too far

death, my love,

is a scary thing

but not so much

compared to responsibility

for things beyond your control

for people you can't make do

what you

in your ultimate wisdom

think they should do

like it's not out of your hands

the string leading

to a kite too far in the sky

like the silent pop

is not a hurt

a hurt in the swirling

farther away tail

that makes death

easy my life

easy my love

a folding and gentle creasing

like with an unbitten

fearless thumbnail

From a collection of poems called the majesty of the past by Jackson poet Bob Hudson. The bound collection can be found at Sneaky Beans coffee shop and One Blu Wall Photography Gallery.