My annual trip to Jackson Hole is, as noted, a wintercount of sorts for me. One of the most important parts of the trip is the afternoon I spend cruising the top galleries in Jackson, both representational and contemporary. Every time I do this I’m convinced anew that EVERY artist has to renew herself regularly, preferably through Seeing Others’ Artwork - whether through visits to galleries, museums, other artists’ studios, whatever. I’ve come away from visits to fine-craft shops all fired up with color and texture and the desire to mess with same.
Here are some of the notes I made in my sketchbook after Fall Arts Festival:
- Zhaoming Wu: beautiful, luminous, dissolving lights/shadows
- Rocky Hawkins: texture, abstraction
- Tom Gilleon, John Nieto: big negative areas worked with color and texture
- Jeff Ham: giant, bold, colorful work (Jeff had 8′x10′ canvases in progress - drips, spills, color everywhere - on the walls at Mountain Trails Gallery)
- September Vhay: daring, clean compositions (September is a good friend and she’s been carving her own path and voice for a while, and I admire her for it)
- The thrill and satisfaction of color that is not tied to reality
The first thing I painted after this trip:
Entries (RSS)
October 3rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Isn’t it wonderful to be inspired by others’ work? I felt the same way when I visited the galleries and the Museum. The painting is wonderful, BTW!
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:50 pm
“The thrill and satisfaction of color that is not tied to reality”
I can relate to that only with me, being a sculptor, it would be texture instead of color.
I can feel the moment in your painting….I can feel the sun beating down. Got a title yet?
October 6th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Thank you Lori and Christy! It’s just so important to go see other artists’ work regularly, and sometimes I forget that. Title of the piece is “Redheads”, BTW. And even though I’m shooting for color not tied to reality, obviously there’s still a lot of reality in my color…more to explore…
October 7th, 2009 at 6:06 am
Wow — great painting Julie. It leaps off the screen! And thanks for the virtual tour of the artists — a nice way to spend a rainy early morning way over here in NH!
October 7th, 2009 at 6:14 am
“The thrill and satisfaction of color that is not tied to reality”
Since color is not really a quality of the object itself so much as the result of the interaction between the illuminating light, the object (and even physical state of that object, eg wet or dry) and the person perceiving it, it strikes me that for an artist to really use colors that were not “tied to reality”, they would actually have to select them completely at random.
October 7th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Let me be more specific: “color not tied to perception”.
Thanks for the kind words, Rosemary!
October 11th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Your work is very inspiring to me. I also love to paint horse in motion and often take reference photos from rodeos. My question is this: How do you determine the color and shapes of the background for your pieces? I love the motion and color of the rodeo horse, but often have distracting backgrounds in the photos. How do you deal with this? Please shed any insight you can on this topic.
October 13th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Holly, um…that’s a huge question, and probably one better dealt with in a workshop setting. I would struggle to write anything less than a thesis here, and this is probably a topic best explored through interactive discussion. My apologies for the cop-out…
October 14th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I can offer one quick tip: Look at the solutions other artists have come up with and try them out on some small studies. I’ve referred to Bob Kuhn, Guy Coholeach, Velasquez, Sargent, Edgar Payne and Maurice Braun, among others, over the years.
One caution: be careful that you don’t end up with your area of highest contrast in a area of minimal interest. I see that fairly often.
I play with combinations of value and color temperature and visual texture until I have something that I think works. Sometimes I’ve done a background 6 or 7 times until it’s right.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Holly, in addition to the good info Susan offered, it might be worth your while to study the abstract works of modern / contemporary artists. I find many of these fascinating and inspiring for my own art.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:56 am
I love this painting. Having a redheaded mother, daughter and having raised a sorrel & white colt from a black & white mare, I appreciate your coloring here. Your title is right on. Thanks for sharing.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Jean, thank you!
:-)
January 18th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
HI
I just discovered you through Rita Kiss. We were talking about our mutual “friend” Christopher. I too have had a couple experiences with him though I realized what he was all about and kept my distance. Others were not so lucky.
Anyway I love your work. It is bright, happy and anatomically correct.
Good luck.
Diane M Anderson
January 24th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Diane, I’m so glad you didn’t get into any kind of problematic situation with Christopher. Good to hear, and good for you. Thank you for the kind comments on my work!