Process

What makes a good subject choice for a painting? Sometimes one's artistic process holds the answer to this age old question.

After more than a decade of painting, I'm still not always certain what will be a good subject. Sometimes the things that draw my interest fall flat with my audience. Nonetheless, I've deciphered a few clues over these years and I'll share some of them with you here.

First, if I'm on a "photo safari" in a city, there are often fleeting moments of light and shadow that just take my breath away. In an era of digital photography, I may return home from an expedition with hundreds of shots. I'm old enough to have begun my career with film (and slides for juried show applications - yuck!) and being able to work with infinite electronic files is liberating. Many of these are multiples of the same motif, taken with different exposures and slightly different angles. But the compositions that really arrested me for the moment while I captured them become the reference photos that I look at first when I offload my photographs.

Follow My Gaze 16 x 30 oil on linen.

 

One such example of something that attracted my immediate interest was the photo for this new piece, "Follow My Gaze." I originally caught this subject in the heart of Copenhagen, Denmark while visiting there a couple of years ago. I never forgot this moment, this play of light and shadow. But it didn't immediately resolve in my mind's eye, so I sat on the source material until just recently.

What makes a good subject choice for a painting? Well, another clue is that you have to be able to pre-visualize the final result of where you're going with a piece. And that was the challenge here. I didn't see the final resolution of this subject in my mind. It didn't come easily to me, like some subjects do. The only remedy for this is to discipline oneself and to take time to execute some initial studies before diving into the actual piece.

What makes a good subject for a painting? Sometimes the answer to this lies in the initial studies. When I taught classes for the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania, I used to tell my students, "If it ain't working small, then don't bother making it big." Small, thumbnail studies are a great way to jot out your thoughts and to solve any composition problems before committing to something larger and more intimidating.

Study 1 on oil painting paper.

 

Here, you see a couple of initial studies for "Follow My Gaze." These studies were done on small pieces of Arches Oil Painting Paper. I began my artistic career with watercolor, and the feel of this product is very familiar and comfortable to me. It lends itself well to playing around with an initial study without any pressure. And if things don't work out? On to the next! It's a tiny commitment of time and resources that is well spent if it translates into a better finished piece.

Study 2 on oil painting paper.

 

Finally, it's worth noting that what makes a good subject is what makes your heart sing. As I admitted earlier, some of the ideas that draw my interest don't always translate when I take the finished pieces to art shows. But it's crucial to remain true to oneself and to paint the ideas and subjects that are most meaningful to you. Even though it took me years to resolve this subject in my mind's eye, I never forgot it, and by trusting in my artistic process I was able to create it.

An Artist's New Year's Resolutions

It's a new year, and like many other people, I'm thinking about the resolutions that I want to realize during 2016. My brother-in-law, who runs a successful insurance business out on the West Coast, scoffs at the idea of resolutions, saying that if there's something he knows he should be doing, then he's probably already doing it. Why wait until January 1 to start?

But I like to take this time of year as an opportunity to plan for the year ahead. As I've written in the past, I regard winter as a quiet season of restoration and reflection. When I'm not so busy at this time of year, I like to pause and consider perhaps not resolutions so much as professional and personal goals. Believe it or not, many of my professional goals as an artist are closely linked to an important personal goal of good physical fitness. Because I travel throughout the eastern half of the United States each summer and fall to exhibit my artwork at outdoor art shows, I have to be in reasonably good shape to get through those events because they are very physically demanding, especially during the hot summer months.

Photo Credit: Nabil K. Mark, Centre Daily Times.

So far, I'm off to a good start. Earlier this week, our local newspaper caught me working with my trainer, Gbolohan, at my local gym, One on One Fitness, in State College. I'm convinced that I was born with hamstrings about a foot too short for my body, so you see me here doing a warm up stretch.

Photo: My "cross bike" with bright orange panniers for carrying my plein air kit during a summer evening painting session near Boalsburg, Pennsylvania.

Although this may seem unrelated to the artwork that I create, it's actually pretty integral. I discover many of my landscape subjects either during road bike rides through the rolling hills of Centre County, or by hiking through some of the rugged state parks of Pennsylvania. On many occasions, I carry my plein air painting kit on my bike panniers or in a backpack on the trail so that I can set up and work on location. If I don't work at my fitness, then I won't be able to enjoy the spoils of gorgeous scenery hidden off the beaten paths of civilization. And it's those hidden gems, those moments of fleeting light, that make my work as an artist most rewarding.

Photo: The Guardians, 10 x 14 original oil painting on paper. This piece will be available for purchase through the Clearwater Conservancy's "For the Love of Art and Chocolate" fundraising auction on January 29, 2016.

Beyond the basic foundation of physical fitness, I like to look at the year ahead and break it up into (hopefully) manageable exhibition opportunities. I know I'll be busiest in the summer as I travel to outdoor art shows, so during the winter months I focus on creating new artwork and on local exhibition opportunities. For example, later this month you can meet me at the Clearwater Conservancy's "For the Love of Art and Chocolate" annual fundraising event for local environmental conservation efforts. I'm donating an original oil painting called "The Guardians," a subject that I caught while riding my bike along Old Gatesburg Road during a summer evening last year. See? There's that whole physical fitness thing again...Anyways, I've ridden my bike along this route for many years, and there are these two old pine trees that keep watch over the farm fields. I love their windswept nature, and when I noticed them with this beautiful sky as a backdrop, I was smitten.

In February and March, you can see my newest landscapes and cityscapes at the Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College, Pennsylvania. And later this spring, I'll exhibit my recent oil cityscapes at the Yellow Springs Art Show in southeastern Pennsylvania. Keep an eye on my web site schedule page for more information about my 2016 events throughout this year.

The reality is that I don't have a ton of control over my schedule because each year I apply to various shows and events, and then I wait to see where my artwork gets accepted. It's an arbitrary process. Really. And sometimes, this makes the notion of planning or goal setting difficult. But each year, the fundamentals remain the same for me: Spend as much time painting in my studio as possible, read broadly and visit art exhibitions to keep my creativity flowing, and exercise to keep Pennsylvania's delightful scenery within my reach.

Thank You

Yippee! Another outdoor art show season is in the books and I'm looking forward to a quiet winter with less travel and more studio time in the months ahead.

I'm already sending out show applications for 2016, but as I look back at this past season I want to say thank you to everyone who came out to my events and who helped make this another successful year of traveling and exhibiting my artwork in locations ranging from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with many other stops in between. It's a tough grind sometimes because I never know how the weather will shake out or even how world geopolitical events can affect consumer sentiment. I can get so busy with the minute details (Do my van tires have enough air? Do I have labels for everything? Did I remember to bring picture hanging hooks?) that I sometimes lose sight of what I have right here in my local area.

Nonetheless, I got a pleasant reminder that there's no place like home last week when it was brought to my attention that readers of State College Magazine voted and helped me take the Bronze Award for "Best Local Artist" in their Best of 2015 reader survey. That was a fantastic surprise for me and I really appreciate your votes and your support of my artwork.

It only makes sense then that with the conclusion of my outdoor art show season this past month, I'm sticking closer to home with my remaining exhibitions for 2015. This month and throughout the upcoming holiday season, you can find my recent oil and pastel paintings at several venues around the State College area. When I don't need "all hands on deck" for an out-of-state show, I enjoy sharing my artwork at both traditional and unconventional venues in my hometown.

Study, Lower Manhattan 6 x 12 original pastel.

First, I've partnered with Moyer Jewelers in downtown State College to share my recent pastel landscapes and cityscapes in the gorgeous storefront display windows at the corner of Allen Street and College Avenue. Due to the window sizes, this exhibition features small format pieces. These are fun, colorful works that I sometimes use as initial studies to work out ideas for larger format pieces in the future. I like creating these works because it's kind of liberating: there's no pressure to "get it all right" with a large format, and I can take some risks with color and composition that might be harder to pull off in a large, in-your-face format.

Winter Pines, Indigo 8 x 12 original pastel.

Unfortunately, due to a boneheaded digital camera maneuver on my part, I deleted my studio photos of these new works, so I can only share them with you right now as they appear in the display window. Once this exhibition concludes, I'll get them properly photographed and onto my web site. In the meantime, you'll just have to swing by the shop in downtown and check them out for yourself.

Study, Moshannon Reflections 8 x 12 original pastel.

The next local exhibition features my original oil landscapes and cityscapes at National Penn Bank at 2541 East College Avenue in State College through the end of November. This show features works of varying sizes as well as some of my limited edition prints.

Study, 6th Avenue Rain 6 x 12 original pastel.

Finally, you can see my recent original oil landscape paintings at the State College Framing Company and Gallery in the Hills Shopping Plaza. These works will be on display through the end of this year. For more information, please call the gallery at (814) 234-7336.