Why world-renowned painter Georgi Danevski loves Easter

A little over five years ago, world-renowned Macedonian painter Georgi Danevski completed what may be the largest mural in North America, at an Orthodox church in Markham. This Easter, speaking to Star reporter Verity Stevenson, he reflects on his work and the holiday, which he says is significant for his faith.

Danevski

Georgi Danevski came to Toronto nearly 20 years ago from Macedonia to paint a fresco mural for St. Clement of Ohrid Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral. He stayed — and hasn’t stopped painting. His depiction of Christian history, still lifes and not-so-still lifes (like running horses, including Canadian Triple Crown racehorse Wando) is relentless. Here, he’s pictured with the mural he painted at the St. Dimitrija Solunski Macedonian Orthodox Church in Markham.

Eggs

The fresco in St. Clement depicts the resurrection of Christ, which Danevski says “is the best miracle of my Orthodox faith; (it’s a) victory of Christianity,” he says. That’s why he loves Easter and, found time among his large-scale projects, for a series of colourful Easter-egg paintings.

St. Dimitrija

In 2010, he completed a mural — which could be the largest in North America — at the St. Dimitrija Solunski Macedonian Orthodox Church in Markham, which sprawls 600 square metres and is a vibrant array of 1,000 icons of Christian history.

Easter

On Easter Sunday, Danevski will visit three churches, including St. Clement and St. Dimitrija, in which he would often spend up to 14 hours a day working. Bouncing from one to the other, he will pray and pay his respects in honour of the resurrection. Once he gets home, he will light candles and meditate, he said.

Classical

It all started, Danevski says, at the age of 4, when he would draw and paint after school. His after-school hobby became school. He travelled across Europe, attending different art schools, including a specialization in art at university of Slovenia. “I’m a good historian of art, only with broken English, because this is my Achilles heel,” he joked through a thick Macedonian accent. Pictured, is the ceiling mural Ode to Gladness.

Mother Nature

Danevski is best known in Europe for his Orthodox paintings reminiscent of Spanish and Polish art — and of Middle Ages Byzantine works, which he says are inspirations of his. “My idea is (to) celebrate the life,” through art, Danevski says. And his inspiration? Mother Nature, he says, “from spontaneous, ordinary things of life.”

Love

The motifs and motives behind them, he adds, are “art, faith and love,” the latter of which he says is at the core of his Orthodox faith. “But I respect every piece of faith in the world.” Always, he says, he is “hunting for light” and how it falls.


Resource: http://www.thestar.com

Carlo Russo's paintings at F.A.N. Gallery: Detailed, lifelike, nostalgic

At the F.A.N. Gallery over more than a decade, I've watched the evolution of the work of Philadelphia realist painter Carlo Russo, particularly the stunning still lifes he's known for. He's showing those, along with some figurative and landscape works, at F.A.N. through March 26.

Over the years, one could see Russo - who studied fashion design at the Art Institute and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 2004 – aggressively attack complex subject matter across several paintings. He went through a phase of tackling textiles in myriad ways. Similar obsessions arose: rustic blocks of wood or discarded panel doors, odd bits of brass, glassware, feathers.

Fraidoon Al-Nakib, owner of F.A.N. Gallery, which has shown Russo's work since 2005, says he admires "the way the edges of objects have a very soft focus that makes them really stand out" in Russo's work. He also stresses the artist's painterly approach, which he contrasts with that of "hyperrealists [for whom] it's like they used a microscope to examine an object and reproduce it."

"One thing I love about Carlo's work: It almost seems as if he's playing," says Ali Rigenburg, owner and director of the Sloane Merrill Gallery in Boston, who has shown Russo's work since soon after her gallery opened in 2012. Russo, she says, is always "challenging himself to paint different textures, different surfaces, different lighting arrangements and types of objects."

Earlier in Russo's career, his work stood out for a fine representational quality with beauty beyond anything approaching photographic exactness.

"Back when I started looking at his paintings, there was a definite influence of [Chilean hyperrealist painter] Claudio Bravo in them," says art collector Ken Wenberg, who bought his first four Russo paintings four years ago. Though Wenberg says Russo's work is "definitely realistic," he, too, values the work's painterly qualities.

"He can do detail in incredible ways," Rigenburg says. "His paintings are very evocative. He's doing all these incredible textures and colors. But his paintings, it seems to me, always have a softness to them even though they are so detailed."

Russo traces a major shift in his evolution as an artist to 2008, when he started going for what he calls a "higher degree of precision and finish." Seeing himself as a set designer, he began to do line drawings of his arrangements before painting. With the added confidence from his experience and a refined approach, he says, he took on more and more dynamic compositions.

This shift is what imbues his paintings with an ever-growing warmth and nostalgia as he makes the viewer feel connected to the objects he holds sacred, while expertly guiding the eye through the painting.

Al-Nakib calls Russo equally good at still life, as well as figurative and landscape painting - "but his still lifes are what people seem to gravitate toward. Each one has a force of its own that is emanating from these paintings. It connects the viewer as well as the artist with objects in the painting."

It's not surprising to learn Russo's life has been filled with sacred objects, from items found on travels that end up in his work to the dead birds that have called upon his empathy for a continuing series of paintings.

"Really, underneath things, I'm a collector," Russo says. "When I was a kid, I collected my toys and I treasured them. I took such amazing care of them.

"And then, one day when I outgrew them, I gave them to my brother, and he promptly destroyed them all in a short amount of time, all these things I treasured and took care of."

"I have no physical attachment to any of these objects in this painting, but it pulls at me," Rigenburg says. "It calls to me."

Resource: http://articles.philly.com

Tonja Torgerson goes from street art to still-life riffs for "Free Radicals"

For her Vanitas series, Minnesota artist Tonja Torgerson references the historical vanitas tradition, where artists would paint beautiful still-life works with one element that was somehow off or wrong: a piece of fruit would be rotten, a mouse would eat away at the cheese, the glasses were broken.

“It’s a moral religious tale that says that all this material wealth won’t last,” Torgerson says. The style grew popular during the Protestant Reformation, a time when iconography went away and religious messages were imbedded in heavily symbolic paintings.
“I love symbolism and layering,” Torgerson says. While she aims to create work that is laden with content, narrative, and messages, it’s not overt. “They are really layered and sometimes hidden and sometimes obscure,” she says. “The whole story is not easy to comprehend.”

Torgerson, who hails from northern Minnesota and is currently based in Kansas City, will be returning to the Twin Cities this week, exhibiting her pieces in “Free Radicals: Remixing History Through the Power of Print,” a group exhibition at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery featuring artists who utilize historical references in their art. As part of her visit, Torgerson will be giving a talk with Jenny Schmid, who co-curated the show with Howard Oransky.

While she mostly exhibits in galleries and museums these days, Torgerson has spent some time creating art on the streets. “[Street art] is a practice that I’m still really interested in and influenced by,” she says.

Torgerson especially found street art to be a fit during her time living in upstate New York, where she earned her masters at Syracuse University. “There was something about living in a very decaying environment that I felt I really belonged in,” she says.
The piece she’ll be showing at the Nash Gallery employs the same techniques Torgerson uses in her street art, though for an indoor installation piece she gets to spend more time composing it. “Most street pieces are single figures,” she explains.

At the Nash, Torgerson’s installation will be made of screen prints and pieces of paper that were laser cut and wheat pasted on the wall. She references a painting of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, as well as work by Dutch still life painter Rachel Ruysch.

At tonight's talk, Torgerson will delve into her processes creating her street art and vanitas pieces, and how imagery in history is a huge influence in her work.


Resource: http://www.citypages.com

From Van Gogh To Jeff Koons, Here’s a History of Flowers in Art

 Even if you aren’t a visual artist, there’s no way you can evade the emotive inspiration that comes from flowers. For centuries, humans have exchanged flowers as an expression of the entire emotional range, from “I love you” to “I’m so sorry.” Putting a vase of them in a stale room makes your lungs breathe easier and is proven to lift your mood and reduce stress significantly. They act as signals of changing seasons, a homeopathic cure to most maladies, and they’re the nucleus of a family dinner. And, of course, flowers bloom everywhere in all types of art.

This week in San Diego, the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library is celebrating the rich history of garden art in their examination of works of from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods via the lens of landscape architecture. Most of the early still life paintings used bouquets as their subject, such as Jahn Brueghel the Elder’s Bouquet from 1603. At first blush, Bouquet appears lively and spirited, but upon closer look, several of the flowers are shriveling and bending away from light, reminding the viewer of mortality, the brevity of beauty, and that ‘still life’ is not really still at all.

Still life continued to play with the concept of life and death through the metaphor of flowers (think Van Gogh’s Sunflowers) until a few centuries later, when flowers were back in the public’s eye during American Modernism in the early 20th century. Georgia O’Keeffe’s groundbreaking soft and subdued portraiture of blossoms were unabashedly vaginal, and put the magnified female body into an empowering  perspective. Her work was sexual without at all indulging a pornographic gaze, and she is often referred to as the mother of feminist art due to her work with flowers.

In the summer of 1964, Andy Warhol took a transcendental departure from his work based solely on mass media for a series called Flowers. While the artist had previously been absorbed in the American fascination with celebrity, consumerism, and counterculture, the silhouettes of flowers offered a refreshing deviation from the plastic world he displayed. Other contemporary artists of the time used flowers as a foil to the industrial, commercial world their art reflected. Alexander Calder’s iconic moving sculpture, also called a mobile, got a floral makeover in 1974 with Crag with white flower and white discs. Robert Mapplethorpe’s iconic photography in the 1980’s series Flowers depicted the pert grace of Calla lilies and poppies with the same frankness that he captured more controversial subject matters.

Today, in whatever period of art you want to call it, the still life of flowers is still very much moving with the times. In 1997, Jeff Koons’ triumph Puppy, a 43 foot-tall topiary dog made of only blossoms, fascinated viewers because of its excessive take on landscape design. Puppy was also the hinge of a terrorist plot at Spain’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in which three members of the Basque Nationalist Separatist movement, ETA, disguised themselves as gardeners and planted bombs in the flower pots surrounding Puppy. The attack was ultimately thwarted and no explosives went off, however the legacy surrounding the cheeky and bright sculpture remains sinister.

 Taryn Simon also combined the lightness of floral art with the weight of political tension in her 2015 piece, Agreement Establishing the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, Al-Bayan Palace, Kuwait City, Kuwait, May 30, 2006, Paperwork and the Will of Capital. The project is half sculpture and half prints, but all incorporate flowers that have been either pressed into dehydrated death or stuck in time in a disturbingly fleshy and rich bouquet, taxidermied out of their ephemeral nature.

The most futuristic flower art we’ve yet seen is Azuma Makoto’s undertaking to launch a bare bouquet and bonsai tree out of our atmosphere and 90,000 feet directly up into the stratosphere. The project felt hopeful and buoyant during the age of space exploration.

Resource: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com

East Bay floral designers ready for annual Bouquets to Art in S.F.

By Maggie Sharpe

Correspondent

OAKLAND -- More than 125 Bay Area floral designers will demonstrate their artistry April 5-10 at the 32nd Annual Bouquets to Art at the de Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

Every year, florists draw inspiration from the museum's eclectic collection of paintings to create unique floral arrangements, from simple to sophisticated.

"With the Oscar de la Renta retrospective running simultaneously with Bouquets de Art, we are expecting between 50,000 and 70,000 visitors to this year's exhibit," said Suzanne Vuko, co-chair of the event, which is produced by the all-volunteer San Francisco Auxiliary of the Fine Arts Museums.

"New this year, we have a French-style flower cart," Vuko said. "After seeing the exhibit, visitors can purchase a beautiful bouquet of flowers to take home for themselves. We also have a fabulous lineup of speakers and cutting-edge designers. It's very exciting and a stunning way to start spring -- and there are still tickets available for the gorgeous opening night gala."

Proceeds from Bouquets to Art, which has netted nearly $6 million and has attracted approximately 750,000 visitors since its inception, support special exhibits, art restoration and educational programs at both the de Young and Legion of Honor museums.
This is the 17th year that Valerie Lee Ow, whose family has owned J. Miller Flowers and Gifts, 4416 Piedmont Ave. for 45 years, has taken part in the event. She was thrilled when Bouquets to Art chose her 2015 entry -- "Rhapsody" (Richard Mayhew, 2002) -- for its 2016 promotional brochure.

This year, Ow and her team -- sister Robbin Lee and assistant Morgan Carpenter -- are interpreting "Banner in the Sky." The 1861 Civil War-era oil painting by Frederic Edwin Church depicts a tattered Stars and Stripes blowing in the wind at sunset.

"What struck me about the painting was its simplicity with the dark gloomy sky and the colors of the sunset reflected through the stripes on the flag," Ow said. "I think it's even more special that we get to interpret this painting in an election year."

Ow and her team plan to use burgundy succulents, as well as such exotics as anthurium from Hawaii and white orchids from Thailand -- and a deep red rose, aptly called "Freedom."

Other attractions this year include a large installation in Wilsey Court by Oakland's Sharpstick Studios, which is celebrating its seventh year as a participant. Floral designers will also mirror pieces from "Oscar de la Renta: The Retrospective," the world premiere of the late clothing designer's work, which includes fashions from private collections -- as well as his wife's wardrobe. The respective is on view at the de Young through May 30.

This is the ninth year that Lafayette resident Jean David has participated in Bouquets to Art.

"My painting this year is 'Sacramento Railroad Station' (William Hahn, 1874)," David said. "It's a lovely painting illustrating a detailed scene of life at the Central Pacific Railroad Station. Hahn was known for his paintings of early California life."

David hopes to reflect Hahn's depiction of the ethnic and economic diversity in California at the time "with a confusion and variety of flowers."

"It takes me several attempts to decide how best to make my arrangement reflect my vision of the painting ... whether it is the style of my arrangement, the container or the flowers I'm using."

David said that by the opening night preview gala she's ready to celebrate. This year's gala opening features floral fashions by City College of San Francisco students, gourmet food, cocktails and live entertainment.

"It is a wonderful week of stimulating classes and a singular chance to see all the beautiful and exciting arrangements by the other designers," David said. "There is such incredible talent in the Bay Area and I feel very honored to participate in Bouquets to Art."

The 2016 event continues the popular guest speaker series, with demonstrations and panel discussions.

Just two of the many attractions include author and adventurer India Hicks who will present "Island Style: A Combination of Traditional British Past and Richly Flavored Caribbean Present." Danielle Hahn and her husband Bill opened Rose Story Farm in Santa Barbara nearly 20 years ago. She will talk on "Roses, Roses, Roses," a history of the flower and how to care for it.

"Hahn and her husband grow heritage roses that smell just like your grandma's did," said Vuko, who is also looking forward to a panel discussion led by Alisa Carroll, editor-in-chief of "San Francisco Cottages and Gardens," entitled "Conversation and Floral Display: The New Bloom."

On the panel will be Allison Futeral, co-founder of Crimson Horticultural Rarities in Oakland, and Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers in San Francisco. The panel will explore "how trendsetters and new techniques are redefining the future of floral design."

"This should be a very interesting conversation with these leading-edge contemporary floral designers," Vuko said.

Ow said it's a challenge to participate in Bouquets to Art each year -- for one thing, entrants have to refresh their flowers daily, either before or after the show, necessitating an early morning or late evening trip to San Francisco for her or one of her team members.

"It's a lot of work, but so exciting for us to not only showcase our creativity, but to give back to the community with these beautiful flowers," Lee said.

Resource: http://www.contracostatimes.com

Floral Paintings Exhibit Planned

WASHINGTON — Nine artists will welcome spring with a collection of floral paintings from April 9 to May 2 at the Gunn Memorial Library Stairwell Gallery, 5 Wykeham Rd.

An opening reception will take place from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 9.

The artists have been painting together for years and call themselves The Painting Partners.

The group includes Diana Swoyer, Bethlehem; Nancy Rainsford Pistone, Roxbury; Roz Benedetto, Torrington; Jan Grody, Warren; Sandy Dolinsky, West Cornwall; Carol O’Toole, Washington Depot; Maryellen Furse, Warren; Hitchy Rahilly, Northfield; and Kit Sagendorf, Roxbury.

They met in a class taught by noted watercolorist Marija McCarthy at the Washington Art Association and, after her retirement, continued painting together weekly at the Litchfield Community Center.

Ms. Swoyer said, “Marija impressed upon us the need to look at our paintings objectively giving positive feedback and also offering careful constructive criticism. At the end of our sessions during critique of work, we are not easy in our comments.”

Although their styles vary greatly, they have mutual respect and a common goal: support, while learning and growing artistically.

“I always go home with an uplifted feeling, ready to paint some more.” commented Ms. O’Toole.

She added, “I seek out honest criticism from my colleagues and come away with a heightened appreciation of the various approaches among us and a greater understanding of where I need to go with my own work.

“Painting is a solitary endeavor but to find friends to paint with can be very stimulating and helpful. The mutual celebration of each of our talents and abilities is what it is all about.”

Resource: http://www.primepublishers.com

Creativity for all!

By SARA ARTHURS
Staff Writer
Creativity can transform people — and it’s accessible to anyone.
“It’s not something special, for only a few people,” said Philip Sugden, chairman of Bluffton University’s art department and an artist with a studio in Findlay. “It’s just a matter of finding out what your interest is.”
And sometimes those who explore creativity reluctantly find they love it. Attendees at one Awakening Minds Art corporate event last year were grumbling audibly. Afterward, they requested the nonprofit organization’s director, Sarah Crisp, for future events.
“They hung up their paintings in their office,” Crisp said.
She said “a lot of positivity” comes from making art. One client with dementia always believed she was painting for the first time. Each time, she would say something like, “Oh my gosh, I finally did something right.”
It’s something Crisp commonly hears from new painters. There is a sense of pride, although “art was confusing for them before,” Crisp said.
Sugden said creativity forces a person into the present moment, so the brain cannot process baggage from the past or anxiety about the future.
He draws a lot while traveling, and has sketched monks at monasteries in Nepal. He is with the monks and becomes a part of their process. This forces him to be in the present moment, “and your nervous system just unravels and relaxes,” he said.
Sugden taught art classes in a prison for 10 years. He found art was therapeutic for inmates, who would spend weeks perfecting a picture of a loved one they missed.
Dave Morrow, the photographer behind the “Humans of Findlay” Facebook page and the book of the same name, has found creativity improves his health. Morrow has chronic depression and said if he is not doing something creative, “then it’s very easy to slide back into the darkness.”
Melissa Friesen, professor of theater and communication at Bluffton University, often experiences creativity as a collaborative process.
A student-actor may interpret a role differently than Friesen had anticipated, which inspires another cast member. Friesen said the “spark of discovery” can make it a particularly joyful process.
Also important, Friesen said, is “looking for humor. That’s another thing that I find really helpful in creativity, is looking for joy, looking for humor, looking for the offbeat.” She said even a funny facial expression, or someone doing “something quirky,” may open up a creative space between people, who may become open to “playing together.”
Friesen is also department chairwoman, and she said this, too, requires creativity. She said being open to ideas may affect how to approach something as mundane as a business meeting.
“You can see that other opportunities exist, if you look for them,” she said.
Creativity at work
Longtime local entrepreneur Terry Terhark, founder of the Right Thing and now CEO of Randrr, said creativity is “essential for all types,” but especially in business. Those who can think outside the traditional norms will differentiate themselves from others, which he said is particularly important with changing technology.
“You have to be able to move very, very quickly,” Terhark said.
Terhark has not generally thought of himself as a creative person, but has found he does have “adaptability” and can change quickly, which allows him to solve problems.
Some people are more predisposed to creativity as they are “open to change,” he said. But, he feels anyone can be creative. “I believe that we all have creativity in our bones,” Terhark said.
Kristie Pohlman uses creativity both in her work and in her personal life. She is a marketing specialist at the University of Findlay, where she has designed outfits for Derrick the Oiler, the school mascot, including a cowboy outfit, a birthday hat and a full tuxedo. She also converted a plush “Elf on the Shelf” into a mini-Derrick for a Christmas video.
Pohlman creates crafts for friends, such as sleeping bags that look like mermaid tails, or a mobile for a baby. And she’s an avid photographer — particularly outdoors, which allows her to feel connected to nature. She said creative work can be a way to solve problems, but can also bring about relaxation and better self-expression.
“It’s a good outlet and a nice stress reliever,” she said.
‘Meant to be shared’
University of Findlay music professor Jack Taylor, a longtime professional performing and recording artist who composes and arranges music, said in an email to The Courier that he tries to find creative ways of teaching, as well as improvising and writing music. Even changing daily tasks, such as taking a different route to work or shaving and brushing his teeth in a different sequence, helps him to avoid the “same old, same old,” he said.
Taylor has found that creativity provides “an inward feeling of accomplishment and the hope that perhaps the object of my creativity (whether a solo on my saxophone or a musical composition) might touch another.”
He said inspiration is everywhere, and getting enough sleep, eating a nutritious diet and reducing stress makes him more open to it.
He sees the Duke Ellington song “East Saint Louis Toodle-oo,” which was inspired by a billboard slogan, as “a reminder that inspiration can come from the least expected places.”
Celia Stockton, who directs S2O: Seniors Singing Out at 50 North, said creativity “is meant to be shared.” One singer, retired music teacher Emily Cronenwett, a retired music teacher, said it’s something anyone can do.
“If you can talk, you can sing,” she said.
And Anita Montgomery said singing “just kind of uplifts you.”
Poet and artist Sharon Hammer Baker said too often when people hear “creativity” they think of “the product, like a painting or a sculpture.” But sometimes it isn’t a tangible product. The verb “to create” means “to make,” but this could be making a product or could be making a way to express oneself or a solution to a problem, she said.
Hammer Baker said an important part of it is “observation. Really paying attention. What do you see?”
Poet, photographer and University of Findlay professor Marianna Hofer has found that art in one medium inspires another. She used to take photographs of old farmhouses, which led to writing a series of poems in which an “apprentice photographer” took similar photos.
Both Morrow and Crisp said creativity is about stepping outside of one’s comfort zone. And, Crisp said, doing this with art may make it possible in other areas.
Being creative may mean having to let go of perfectionism, which Crisp said is hard in modern society.
“We have the Internet at our fingertips and that’s a good thing and a bad thing,” she said. All kinds of inspiration are available online, which is great, she said. But it is also easy to compare your own first draft to someone else’s finished masterpiece. Don’t compare, just create, Crisp advised.
Pohlman said it’s easy to bring more creativity into one’s life by just trying something new, such as cooking or building furniture. Today, videos are available to teach a person how to do anything, she said.
Crisp said adding more creativity doesn’t have to be difficult. “Don’t be afraid to doodle on your notes at work,” she said.
Arthurs: 419-427-8494 Send an E-mail to Sara Arthurs

Resource: http://thecourier.com

Paul Huxley Makes Paintings That Sing in a Higher Key

By the dissonance of the brilliant yellow of the pillow against the rich, somber colors in the rest of smiles as he recalls the first time he saw Paul Gaugin’s 1897 painting Nevermore; he was struck by the dissonance of the brilliant yellow of the composition: “I always remember that painting with great fondness. I loved the idea of being able to use a color that didn’t belong with the other colors. To this day, I love putting a bright lemon yellow into a painting where you wouldn’t expect it.” Huxley’s abstract works, in which flat, geometric forms converse across the canvas, modifying and repeating one another, performing a tumbling gymnastics in an illusory perspectival plane, are known for their bold hues pitched against one another, defying expectation. “It’s a funny thing, isn’t it,” he says, “talking about ‘wouldn’t expect it’? Literature and music are art forms that move in time, and so you can bring in surprises because the audience is witnessing something developing, and they carry an expectation of what comes next. But how do you make a surprise in a painting when you see it all at once?”

“As an artist, there are no rules; you can do whatever you damn well please,” continues Huxley, who embarked on his professional career in the early 1960s, having trained first at Harrow School of Art and then the Royal Academy Schools in London. “We create our own rules and systems. Otherwise, we’d be totally at sea. I’m as guilty as anyone, but I also like to disrupt the system.” His paintings, which gallerist Benjamin Rhodes describes as “on the road to a quietist balance expressed through form, line, and color— an architecture that nods to the human and avoids brutalism,” tease viewers with their contradictions and conundrums.
Sitting in the airy living room of his west London home-cum-studio complex, shared with his artist-curator wife, Susie Allen, Huxley, now 77 and as prolific as ever, smiles puckishly as 
he explains his so-called “Key” paintings, the series for which he
is best known, in which he developed the format of the divided canvas, with internal cross-references between the parts: “I wanted to make paintings that had an outside element that I could bring
 in so that you could read alternative ideas into them. My hope 
is that the observer will see these two things and ask, ‘Why are they there next to each other? What do they have to do with one another?’ By posing that question and trying to see if there is an answer or not, I hope that is the beginning of an engagement.”

Initially, Huxley would paint his brightly colored, geometric shapes on one half of the canvas, before painting over them in black and providing the “key” to the original color in the second half. “Then it occurred to me I didn’t have to be honest,” Huxley says. “I think you can lie in paintings, and that’s fair game. You can make private jokes, and they can be amusing.”

Busy sending off works for his forthcoming exhibition at David Richard Gallery in Santa Fe, Huxley reflects on his career. Although this will be his first solo show in the United States
in nearly 40 years, his work is firmly rooted in the American tradition. After having his first show in 1963 at the Rowan Gallery in London—something he describes as “a slightly modest and clumsy affair,” noting “I didn’t sell a damn thing!”—he was selected by Bryan Robertson, then director of the Whitechapel Gallery, to appear alongside the likes of David Hockney, Bridget Riley, John Hoyland, and Derek Boshier in “The New Generation: 1964.” Not only did this bring Huxley to the attention of the British public, he also won a trip, sponsored by the Stuyvesant Travel Awards, to the United States. The following year he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship, which enabled him to return to live
and work in New York for two more years. This proved to be a formative time, and, thanks to introductions forged by Robertson, Huxley mixed with some of the foremost artists of the New York School—in particular, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Jasper Johns, and Helen Frankenthaler.

“When I first went to America,” Huxley recalls, “Bryan introduced me to a lot of the leading artists of the time, who I admired greatly but never dreamed I would meet face-to-face. It wasn’t so much the style of their painting that influenced me as entering into their world and seeing how they lived and worked. I hardly knew anyone who had been to America, as it was still very expensive. The American culture was with us, but not the reality of it. This trip made the mythology real.” In particular, Huxley remembers Krasner as “a lovely lady and a terrific artist in her own right.” He knew the Motherwells too. A little embarrassed by the mention of so many stellar names, Huxley quickly adds, “I’m not suggesting I’m a groupie, though—if I meet someone who’s very well-known, I’m actually very shy. But they were all warm and welcoming people, and you bumped into them at openings and artists’ parties. If anything, I probably didn’t take enough advantage of it all—I was in my early 20s and a bit blasé.”

The main thing that came out of Huxley’s time in New York was the chance to paint on a much larger scale. “I had a wonderful loft conversion—100 foot long, 30 foot wide, with high ceilings. Prior to that, I’d been living in an Edwardian terraced house, where I could get back only about 6 feet from my paintings. In New York, I did a series that were 9 feet square, allowing me to flex my muscles as a painter. I’ve never painted bigger than that. In fact, subsequently I’ve always painted smaller. That was realizing an ambition.”

These days, Huxley’s painting is a lot more precise than in those early years. He uses masking tape to ensure sharp edges. “I was using tape then, too,” he says, “but I didn’t care if the paint crept underneath. I almost relished that looseness. But now I’m a bit fanatical because the sharper the edge where two colors meet, the more of an impact generated between them.” Although his finished works are still large—especially in the case of his wall paintings, such as his commission for the official Azerbaijan Pavilion at last year’s Venice Biennale, for which he painted the walls of the 15th- century Palazzo Garzoni, overlooking the Grand Canal and housing the very window from which Canaletto painted his largest view of the Rialto Bridge—Huxley always begins small, working with pen on paper, in notebooks. Tracing the images through from page to page, much as a graphic designer might, he makes adjustments. Next, he scales up these sketches very precisely onto paper, two foot square. “I paint them very carefully, sitting in a chair, working out the colors, making mistakes, painting them over, rejecting them, and so on. It’s a bit like a sculptor making a maquette.”

Sculpture is, in fact, a new interest for Huxley, who began experimenting with painted steel about five years ago. It wasn’t much of a leap for him to start thinking in 3-D, as his paintings have always had 3-D implications, playing around with shapes that balance and nearly—but don’t quite—touch. The leap, he says, was to break his prejudice that he wanted to work only with implied illusion, not reality. Three of his sculptures will be on view, alongside 12 canvases, in Santa Fe. The canvases come 
full circle by reintroducing Huxley’s early use of the ellipse as, he says, “an illusion of a circle seen in perspective.” Once again, creating a collision of expectations, Huxley juxtaposes this implication of perspective with an area of flatness, making a painting with a sense of space, but “done with my foot on the brake, so that it doesn’t turn into an illusion of a landscape.”

“Huxley has observed that cubism and Surrealism are the two cardinal moments of 20th-century art, and his painting refers
to them consistently,” notes independent curator David Thorp. “It is placed within the spectra that contain the pedigree of European modernism and the global cross-fertilization of postmodernism.”
A defender of abstract art’s right to subject matter, Huxley also challenges Minimalism’s mantra, “What you see is what you 
see.” “It’s a rather doubtful tenet,” he declares. “It becomes a bit of a yoke. I think it’s in human nature to interpret—it’s part
of our mechanism of perception.” His belief, noted as early as 
his statement for “The New Generation: 1964” catalogue, is that painting should be about “question-making, not storytelling.”
But does he himself have answers to the questions he raises? “To 
a certain extent, yes,” he says, “but I hate to explain away paintings too much because that can lead people to assume that what they’re being told is the truth. If a painting’s any good, it’s got many explanations to it.”

Resource: http://www.blouinartinfo.com

How Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios might change amusement parks forever

The highly anticipated Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood hasn't officially opened yet, but thousands of visitors have already passed through the halls of Hogwarts Castle and walked in wonder down the cobblestone streets of Hogsmeade Village.

Since mid-February, the park has been letting guests into the six-acre "immersive land" on the former Gibson Amphitheater site for technical rehearsals, or a soft opening.

More than five years in the making -- and after almost half of that time in construction -- the West Coast version of author J.K. Rowling's magical world officially opens in the heart of the movie industry April 7.

Two days earlier, legendary composer John Williams will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in selections from the films at a kickoff event attended by A-listers from the cast.
Even though the land has just two rides and another interactive attraction, the latest Wizarding World is expected to be a smash hit that has already raised the stakes of competition across Southern California's theme park landscape.

WHAT THE MAGICAL LAND HAS TO OFFER

Passing through a stone archway, muggles -- we non-magical folks -- can see the highest towers of Hogwarts Castle peeking in the distance above the centuries-old, snow-capped rooftops of Hogsmeade.

A stationary Hogwarts Express train awaits guests entering the Scottish village, where music from the films fills the air.

The Flight of the Hippogriff, a family-friendly roller coaster, offers views of the land as it zips past Hagrid's Hut.

Guests can go for a wand fitting behind a hidden door at Ollivanders and purchase a wand of their own, as well as special character editions or enhanced versions that can move objects behind 11 windows throughout the land.

Carts offer traditional and frozen varieties of quintessential Butterbeer, bottled Gillywater, Pumpkin Juice and other refreshments. Savory British fare and brews are served at the Three Broomsticks tavern and Hog's Head pub.

Visitors can stock up on Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans and other beloved sweets at Honeydukes, shop for house robes and apparel at Gladrags Wizardwear, buy novelty items at Zonko's Joke Shop and even mail letters postmarked from Hogsmeade at the Owl Post.

Fans might actually enjoy waiting in line for the land's signature 3D-HD ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, because the queue winds through familiar stone passageways, classrooms and scenes from Hogwarts Castle, encountering gossiping paintings and holograms of the series' lead characters along the way.

The ride -- which comes with a motion sickness warning -- takes passengers on an exhilarating, spiraling flight over Hogwarts with Harry and Ron.

AN 'ARMAMENT RACE' BUILDS

Experts estimate $500 million has gone into the latest Wizarding World after successes in Orlando, Florida and Tokyo, Japan.

NBCUniversal has invested $1.6 billion into the West Coast property that also includes the theme park, which has "reimagined" of over 75 percent of Universal Studios Hollywood, according to spokesperson Audrey Eig.

"As part of this epic transformation, Universal Studios Hollywood has created over 3,000 job opportunities," she said in an email.

Last week, the park announced plans for a year-round "The Walking Dead" attraction slated to open this summer.

Dennis Speigel, a leading theme park industry expert based in Cincinnati, Ohio, believes the Wizarding World will be the biggest attraction in Southern California since the opening of Disneyland's California Adventure 15 years ago.

Look no further than Orlando for an idea of how the West Coast Wizarding World could make local and regional impacts, Speigel said.

Attendance at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure shot up 36 percent when the first Wizarding World opened there in 2010.

"And more importantly, it's sustained, it's carried forward to today," said Speigel, whose International Theme Park Services firm studies the economic impacts of amusement parks around the world.

He projects the increase in attendance at Universal Studios Hollywood will be at least 15 to 20 percent in its first year alone.

"It not only creates additional attendance, but it creates an incredible internal spend," said Speigel. "People are buying all of the merchandise that's associated with the Harry Potter license, they're eating the food, drinking the Butterbeer -- Orlando sold over 1 million Butterbeers in 6 months."

Surrounding hotels, restaurants, retailers and gas stations will feel the boost, too.

"It'll have an enormous what we call 'multiplier effect' on the local economy," Spegiel said. "We think the Wizarding World in California is going to be very, very dramatic and very successful just like it has been in Japan and Orlando."

He pointed to Disney World's expansion of Fantasyland and Disneyland's plans for a Star Wars land as examples of competing parks stepping up their game in response to the power of Potter and said consumers can expect to see competitors start offering more discounts by the fall.

The amusement park industry -- which Speigel estimates is worth several billion dollars annually in Southern California alone -- is experiencing what he called a "critical armament race."

So how does a comparatively small land have such command over the market?

THE POWER OF MAGIC

For starters, the Harry Potter series is one of the greatest literary successes in history, enjoyed by millions of readers around the world.

The high level of artistry and sensory detail that goes into making the Wizarding Worlds has a powerful ability to bring these loyal fans face-to-face with a place that has only existed in print, their minds and on screen -- to make the imaginary real.

Supervising Art Director Alan Gilmore, who worked on two of the Harry Potter films, has been tasked with achieving that goal at each new park. He must ensure the lands would get the thumbs up from Rowling herself.

"It's almost like a storyboard. Every view is a scene, or a moment, with a beautiful composition," he said. "We designed this like a movie."

That meant adding age and character to even the tiniest of surfaces to achieve the centuries-old aesthetic found both in Rowling's wizarding world and Great Britain.

"This level of patina is quite different than how it's done at other theme parks. Harry Potter is a very old place, its medieval and ancient," Gilmore said. "In the wizarding world, nothing is thrown out, it's used forever."

Artists did such a convincing job, some spots even play magic tricks on the cleaning staff, who get confused by artificial dust and cobwebs, Gilmore said.

POTTERHEADS

If you want to gauge how real the Wizarding World feels, ask a Potterhead purist.

During a soft opening this month, Chad Engel and Michael Thompson strode through Hogsmeade in their Gryffindor and Slytherin house robes, respectively, complete with Head Boy and Prefect pins.

The 26-year-old Toluca Lake residents had already been to the land a few times -- it's where they bought their $109.95 robes -- and each time, they appreciate new details.

"I love the Dragon's Scale beer," Thompson said. "It's just like the actual beer described in the books."

Fans who haven't memorized the books, but know the movies, can also appreciate subtle touches, such as the sound of Moaning Myrtle coming from the restrooms.

"We anticipate this is going to have the biggest impact that any Universal Hollywood attraction introduction has had since the park opening," Speigel said. "I'm talking about Earthquake and Jaws -- all of that."

Resource: http://www.montereyherald.com

Esteemed artist in Airstream show

SIDNEY — As Len Chmiel talks by phone from his home in Hotchkiss, Colorado, it’s an easy-going conversation, punctuated with laughter and off-the-cuff observations.

“There are 30 mule deer out the kitchen window,” he casually mentions. It’s for moments like that the landscape painter, known as one of the best in the country, packed up and moved lock, stock and pallet to Colorado from Los Angeles more than 45 years ago. He ended his career as a designer and illustrator and began life as a full-time painter in one abrupt leap.

“I’m good at jumping into the deep end of the pool,” he laughed. “I’m a clean break kind of guy. Oozing into things doesn’t make it.”

Chmiel is one of some 30 artists whose work will be shown in the first Airstream Fine Art Invitational exhibit in Jackson Center, May 31-June 5.

The Steamboat Art Museum in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, has been exhibiting a retrospective of his art since early December. It will close April 9.

When asked by the Sidney Daily News why the museum chose to present the retrospective, Curator Shirley Stocks had a quick answer: “Because he’s so well respected by all the other painters in the country. It’s amazing,” she said. His resume reflects his estate.

The Autry Museum of the American West, the Denver Art Museum and the National Museum of Wildlife Art have added his paintings to their permanent collections and Chmiel is invited to exhibit and has won countless awards in the top art shows in the country. His work is featured in major art publications and in two books on oil painting.

For Chmiel, the Steamboat show was an opportunity to see how his work has changed, how his ability has grown throughout his career.

“I hopefully have become a better painter,” he said. “I developed a need to see a good composition and an abstract design very early on. Having a full palette of skills and ideas as you age gives you a lot of choices. I’ve simplified my palette and still get what I want from it.”

As a child, although Chmiel liked to draw, the idea of being a full-time artist did not occur to him. No one he knew was an artist. It was a foreign concept. Following high school, he got a job as a technical illustrator trainee in the aerospace industry. That was followed by a stint as the assistant art director of a North American aviation trade publication. Eventually, he landed in the art department of Hughes Aircraft.

“I wanted to improve my position at Hughes,” he said. So he signed up for classes in drawing, graphic design, advertising design and illustration at ArtCenter in California. A teacher there, Don Putman, encouraged the fledgling artist to broaden his outlook.

“I did freelance illustration and design for a few years. Then I decided I wanted to paint,” Chmiel said. So, at 28, he left California and moved to the mountains.

“I went from sea level to 8,000 feet,” he laughed some more. “It seemed like a logical choice for me because I was interested in Indian lore. I wanted to get away from L.A., from the city. I thought, ‘I guess this is what retirement is like.’ I’ve been gainfully unemployed for a very, very long time.”

He settled in Denver and then moved to Lafayette, near Boulder, where he stayed for 25 years. But, when he turned 60 almost 15 years ago, he wanted even more space, so he settled in Hotchkiss, where those mule deer roam the back yard and the mountains beckon him to immortalize their ever-changing beauty on canvas.

“I paint what excites me visually,” he said. “I love painting cars from my design days. I painted portraits of the governor’s kids in Colorado. I’ve done many portraits and figures.” But it is the great outdoors that gets most of his attention these days.

“I identify with the natural world and visual world, so I try to push that in my paintings,” he said. Although his canvases are of recognizable subjects, they begin as abstacts.

“I break up the space. I like the contrast of textures and shapes. I did a lot of watercolor and I still love the medium, but I work outside. Oils are very versatile. You can’t paint with watercolor in winter. It freezes. I love the texture of the (oil) paint, that gushy quality. I don’t thin my paint much at all. I use a lot of paint,” he said. The goal is to engage viewers, to make the paintings interesting enough that viewers see something different every time they look at them.

“I want viewers to discover different brush strokes, difference in surface, whether smoothly painted or roughly painted,” Chmiel said. “I like to elicit a response. I stop when there isn’t anything I can do to get the point across any better. I don’t want to give the viewer every detail. I want the viewer to fill in with his imagination. I love it when people say, ‘I know where that is,’ and it’s nowhere (that’s an actual place). My collectors will always be expecting a surprise,” he laughed again.

When Chmiel works outside — he refuses to say he works “en plein air,” a French term used by artists to connote their onsite work. “I call my paintings, ‘on-the-spotters,’ he said — he completes the piece before leaving the site. Larger works done in the studio might be representations or composites of impressions Chmiel has collected from a number of places.

“I have a good idea of where I’m going (as I start a new work), but I’m always open to the painting’s evolving,” he said.

The artists that have most influenced him are Gustav Klimt, Andrew Wyeth and Richard Diebenkorn, but asked what one piece of art he would own if he could, he doesn’t choose something by any of them.

Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” would grace his walls.

“I admire the sensibility of that painting, the facility and skill and insight and depth of feeling — everything about that piece impresses me,” he said, somewhat wistfully. “That one for a very, very long time has been special.”

Resource: http://sidneydailynews.com

Review: Lloyd Rees, Painting with Pencil

This weekend sees the launch of the 20th Biennale of Sydney, the most high-profile event in the Australian art calendar. As usual I'll devote two columns to this mega-exhibition, but in the meantime there is one very different show that has waited a little too long for attention.

Lloyd Rees: Painting with Pencil 1930-36, at the Museum of Sydney (MoS), celebrates a unique moment in local art history, and a crucial period in the oeuvre of one of Australia's best-loved artists. In a long sequence of landscape drawings, Lloyd Rees produced a vision of Sydney and surrounds that can be compared only with the works of the Old Masters.
Many will remember Rees (1895-1988) as the very image of an Old Master – with sparse grey hair, failing eyesight and trademark beret. By the 1980s he not only looked the part, he even sounded like an elderly sage, full of worldly wisdom and good humour. As his body aged, Rees became Australian art's spiritual father figure. While his sight clouded, his paintings were flooded with light. These late pictures, so reminiscent of J. M. W.Turner's last paintings, are very moving, but they are only the final flourishes of a long and varied career.

The MoS show looks at five to six years when Rees committed himself exclusively to drawing. It was a voyage of self-discovery that enabled him to find his way as a painter. When he had so thoroughly internalised the lessons of drawing that it seemed he was "painting with a pencil", he returned to his brushes with renewed confidence and energy.
Although he would live to be a grand old man, Rees experienced many serious health problems. In his early 20s he came down with Bright's disease and thought he was going to die. This thought returned throughout his life, precipitating attacks of nervous debility and depression. In 1926 he married Dulcie Metcalfe, only to lose her the following year when she contracted septicaemia following the birth of a stillborn child.

Rees' grief would eventually lead to a nervous breakdown. The two linchpins of his recovery were Marjory Pollard, whom he would wed in 1931, and the act of drawing. He was able to date the beginning of his "drawing period" to one day in 1930 after visiting Pollard in Pennant Hills, when he was forced to wait for the Parramatta bus. To pass the time he took out a book of "ivory smooth" drawing paper and set to work with a soft pencil.
It was not a combination he had previously favoured, believing such paper suited only for pen and ink work. The results were a revelation. "I became aware of the remarkable power of line to suggest the essential character of objects," he wrote, "more so than most renderings of light and shade." The first results of this breakthrough may be seen in Sketch at Pennant Hills (c. 1930), which feels amazingly simple alongside some of the densely worked pieces that would follow. In this show the first drawing that stopped me in my tracks was Trees (1933), which takes fine detail to a new plane.

From 1930 onwards, painting was put aside as Rees became preoccupied with the analysis of form. In these painstaking studies he would work out an overall design, then lay in the details piece by piece. He took such infinite care over the smallest of lines that one can scarcely credit his reserves of skill and patience. These drawings are exhausting simply to look at. It's almost inconceivable to imagine the artist scratching away at them for days and weeks, pausing only to sharpen his pencil to keep that tight, precise line.
The landscape drawings established Rees as one of Australian art's premier draughtsmen, but they form a very specific body of work. Like other talented draughtsmen, such as George Lambert or William Dobell, Rees was capable of looser, more expressive drawing, but for more than five years he practised the most exacting discipline. In seeking precedents one must look outside Australia, to artists such as Durer, Goltzius, Ingres and Menzel.

There is a classical nobility about Rees's drawings but also a recognisable sense of the Australian landscape. A work such as The Bridge, South Coast Landscape (1936), has all the elements of a Claudean​ view of the Italian campagna – the distant hills, a river with a stone bridge, even a tall building at the top of a mountain that could be a monastery or a castle. It is the relative sparseness of the trees, a very un-Italian house, and a spindly wooden fence that tells us we are in rural Australia.
Rock Formation, Waverton (1934) would not be out of place in a work by Giovanni Bellini, but once again it is the fence, the houses and the gum trees that bring us back home.

One of the reasons many of Rees' drawings feel so otherworldly is that they depict Sydney 80 years ago when the suburbs were still punctuated by bush and paddocks, and the city had no building that might be considered high-rise by today's standards. As the catalogue notes, in 1933 Sydney had a metropolitan population of only 1.2 million.

The 1930s were marked by the Great Depression (1929-32), which put urban progress on hold and saw many workers lose their homes and their livelihoods. It doesn't take much imagination to find echoes of these times in a drawing such as Sydney Harbour, McMahons Point (1932), with its lonely figure of a swagman set against a glimpse of the harbour. The same melancholy atmosphere is present in The Hillside (1934), another picture in which a solitary figure strolls along a dirt road, with the shadowy forms of the city looming in the distance.

In interpreting such drawings one must be wary of Ruskin's "pathetic fallacy", which imparts one's own sentimental feelings onto the landscape. Yet with Rees such thoughts seem justified because – regardless of their mind-boggling precision – these pictures are full of feeling. One can see this in his many versions of the rocky outcrop of Balls Head or the gnarled, heroic fig trees that stand like sentinels around the harbour. These are not mere records of local scenery, but symbols of resilience. "I had a great sense of belonging with the figs and Balls Head," he wrote. "I felt like embracing them to me."

As the old tree has withstood generations of wind and rain, so too will people withstand the privations of the Depression – even the homeless who gather at Balls Head in makeshift humpies. So too would Rees overcome his grief and illness, and find his vocation as an artist.

In the book that accompanies this show it is often noted that Rees did not simply draw what met his eyes. He allowed himself the freedom of selecting and combining, omitting details that distracted from the composition. "I have never been exactly topographical," he modestly explained.

Although he drew like Ingres, by temperament Rees was a Romantic. This is made clear in his preference for depopulated views of a city that must have been swarming with people. There is a deliberately antiquated feel to these pictures, which concentrate on aspects of nature and the silhouettes of distant buildings rather than the life of the streets.

Rees was born and raised in Brisbane, but few artists have been more acutely sensitive to Sydney's attractions. It was love at first sight when he gazed at Sydney Harbour from a boat bound for Melbourne in 1916. During his many years living in the city he explored its foreshores and byways with a thoroughness few artists could match. His admiration for Sydney's fig trees has been shared by every generation who protest fiercely whenever one of these monoliths is cut down.

Rees is the laureate of the fig tree, which takes on a monumental presence in drawing after drawing. He loved these trees not only for their sculptural qualities but as metaphysical entities. In his own words: "I'm constantly thinking of the miracle of endlessness, and I look upon every bit of nature as a symbol of eternity."

Perhaps the lesson in these remarkable works is that an artist can connect with the cosmos through the most rigorous attention to the natural world.

Resource: http://www.canberratimes.com.au

Stephen Bush painting lifts lid on surreal vision at TarraWarra gallery

Not surprisingly, the paint reacts in unforeseen ways. It oozes. It swirls and drips. It forms in viscous pools. It creates a marbling effect. Some critics have even compared it to hallucinogenic, Rorschach-like forms and shapes.

Once the layers of paint are dried, Bush takes up his paintbrush. Using the vibrant abstract surface as his backdrop, he identifies areas where he can paint figurative elements, such as a potbelly stove, a log cabin, a highway. This often disparate figurative imagery adds a surreal narrative component to the picture.

It is evident that Bush revels in paint’s virtuosity and lurid colours. As he once said in an interview: “It’s a special moment opening a fresh can of fumy, glossy, slinky enamel [paint] … all that possibility. Somewhere within this stew, moments appear.”

Bush, who was born in Colac, Victoria, in 1958, has had a prolific career in Australia and the US. During this time, his painting style and choice of subject matter have been varied. He is known for populating his canvases with recurring characters such as Babar the Elephant, beekeepers and colonial explorers.

One of Bush’s paintings, Ficus Elastica, is on display at TarraWarra Museum of Art in Healesville, in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. The work is in Panorama, an exhibition dedicated to exploring the Australian landscape. Bush’s painting is being shown with work by artists such as Judy Watson, Fred Williams, Brett White­ley, Imants Tillers and Rosalie Gas­coigne.

I’m shown Bush’s painting by curator Anthony Fitzpatrick. Looking at Ficus Elastica, Fitzpatrick and I discuss how it depicts a psychedelic landscape of vibrant high-keyed greens, yellows and pinks that seem to swirl in unexpected combinations. Furthermore, there is the addition of surreal figurative juxtapositions, such as a rubber plant, a rustic stone dwelling and a river flowing through a valley.

Fitzpatrick explains that the painting’s title is the correct name for what is more commonly known as a rubber plant. The title, therefore, refers to the realistic representation of the foliage of a rubber plant in the left foreground of the painting. But it also alludes, he says, to the elasticity, the changing surface of the painting and to Bush’s adaptability as an artist.

Fitzpatrick says the painting is good example of the artist’s current work. He notes how Bush has always liked to play with elements of abstraction and figuration and that this is clearly evident in Ficus Elastica.

“It is like a surrealist technique to bring out imagery from a chance operation,” Fitzpatrick says. “There are elements of the sublime, with mountain vistas and the romantic notion of landscape, but Bush also introduces surrealist and abstract elements into that mix. His im­agery in a sense emerges out of chaos, and I think a sense of that excitement and of that unknown, and the mysterious element of that process, is what gives the painting its charge and impact. The painting also highlights Bush’s adaptability as an artist who adeptly balances the tension between chaos and order, the irrational and reason, chance and control and abstraction and representation.”

Stephen Bush, Ficus Elastica (2006). TarraWarra Museum of Art collection. Acquired 2012. On display in Panorama, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria, until May 15.

Resource: http://www.theaustralian.com.au

Ludovico Einaudi review – a Thomas Kinkade painting in sound

rossover classical superstars are rare birds these days but Italian pianist-composer Ludovico Einaudi is just that: his 2015 album Elements became the first classical release in 23 years to reach the top 15 of the charts. But it’s tough to enjoy his success during this witless sold-out show.

Joined in a rock venue by an accomplished band playing percussion, strings, guitars and electronic effects, Einuadi casts himself as the antithesis to the stuffy conservatoire – but then plays music that is less adventurous than your average indie band’s. The Elements material has spots of loveliness, as when Four Dimensions whirrs like a well-oiled grandfather clock, but this is beauty that is interested only in itself. All Einuadi can conjure is the dashed-off poignancy of an Instagrammed sunset or emailed condolence; his endless minor chords recall the emotional illiteracy of an unfaithful spouse pleading for forgiveness.

Einaudi compounds this by being a mediocre pianist. He can finesse a phrase, but is proudly anti-virtuosic, playing only simple arpeggios and limpid four-note melodies. A solo section is an impressionistic series of miniatures, like a songwriting bootcamp for James Taylor or Adele where the top lines haven’t been worked out yet; it’s the balladry of Westlife but without their clarity of purpose.

Sentimental piano-playing is an underrated art, and performers like Keith Jarrett, Ryuichi Sakamoto or Ketil Bjornstad understand that you need a wry wit to offset it. Einaudi is too busy pondering dew on a rose petal. He apes the techno pulse of Pantha du Prince with the plasticky sound of a car indicator, and the mathematics of Steve Reich but at a Key Stage 2 level. He’s patronising too: an ambient piece imitates water with a gong in a tank alongside the sound of drips. Einaudi has created a Thomas Kinkade painting in sound: a dishonest, disconnected fantasy that has nothing to say about how our lives are lived.

Resource: http://www.theguardian.com/

Emanuel Skarlatos masters element of air, space in paintings

After Emanuel Skarlatos hung up the phone with his son, Alek Skarlatos, who was calling from France, he turned on the TV and more details about what had happened to his son unfolded.

“I didn’t have much of (a reaction),” Skarlatos remembered. “I was outdoor working in the yard and he tried to call me first but my phone dies sometimes and my wife came running out of the house to hand me the phone.”

Skarlatos’ son, Alek, was one of three men who took down the terrorist on the train heading from Amsterdam to Paris in August of last year. The incident made national news and the men were later recognized by French President Francois Hollande and U.S. President Barack Obama.

“The train incident makes you think that bad things can happen in any moment and you can’t just sit there and do nothing. People have to act and defend themselves and if enough people do that, the terrorists don’t stand a chance,” he said.

This month, Skarlatos has an art show, “The Tradition of the Masters” at the Orland Art Center, which runs through March 26.

“Alek is an artist himself,” Skarlatos said. “He’s more non-objective abstract and I’m more of a traditional painter but he’s quite good at it.”

Skarlatos, who lives in Roseburg, Oregon, has 45 oil paintings of landscapes, seascapes and still life for the March show. The show houses images of the rugged coast of Oregon, the lushness of the California countryside, the vibrancy of the Aegean Sea and coastlines of Greece, the painter’s ancestral origins.

After receiving his bachelor of arts degree in 1972, he traveled to Greece where he spent several months honing his skills in art — working on everything from plein air painting to studio work and photography.

“Just being in nature is an inspiration every day. Sometimes, people try to make art too cliché but painting, itself, is the language,” he said. “I remember going to galleries back in ’70s and there would be a big abstract painting and next to it, the artist had almost a book written (explaining what the painting is). If you have to explain it, it takes away from the painting. If there’s a feeling in it, let the people feel it.”

In his paintings, Skarlatos is very keen on capturing light and using the right shades and edgings to create an image filled with air and space.
“If you find a painting inspiring, it just has certain elements or design. And the light. It’s all about light and how it’s conveyed as juxtaposed to shade,” he said. “It’s definitely creating an illusion that’s really not there. It’s creating a three dimensional, a painting that makes the person feel like they just walked into a painting or creating the air and space around you.”

Skarlatos’ eye for these elements are mastered in his own paintings of boat docks, sea waves and mountain sides.

He said he loves the colors of the ocean and seascapes and paints mostly when the sun rises and when the sun sets — when the light is most saturated so he can capture rich colors and defining shadows.

“You don’t always have to copy what you see. They call it the ‘painters license.’ It’s how you interpret things any way you like,” he said.

Skarlatos oil paintings achieves the three-dimensional effect because he understands the basics and he’s mastered the skills. He also credits his success to studying classic artists such as Matt Smith, David Leffel, Joaquin Sorolla and Isaac Levitan, which he recommends serious artists to study as well.

Artists cannot become overnight successes, he explained. It takes time and practice.

“Just relax. Don’t take everything seriously. If you enjoy it, you’ll become better. Your heart has to be in it. You have to enjoy it to be good at it. If you enjoy it, you’ll create an understanding for it.”

Resource: http://www.orovillemr.com

Review 'Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium' is an impressive dual-museum overview

Without classic 1960s Pop art, especially Andy Warhol's, there would be no Robert Mapplethorpe photographs as we know them from the 1970s and 1980s.

That's the big takeaway from a visit to "Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium," a newly opened, impressive two-museum exhibition.

You won't see much in the way of comic strips, commercial advertising or movie-star pictures at either the Los Angeles County Museum of Art or the J. Paul Getty Museum, the pair of institutions whose curators, Britt Salvesen and Paul Martineau, organized the collaboration. LACMA and the Getty acquired a huge trove of Mapplethorpe's photographs plus the artist's vast archive of supporting material in 2011.
Instead, the medium is the message, as the show's title might imply. This is about Mapplethorpe's determination to close the long-enforced gap between photography and art.

Warhol had chosen existing commercial photographs to represent established clichés about Modern painting. Campbell's became the popular "soup" of gloppy paint in Abstract Expressionist canvases. An ad for a medical truss described the artistic "rupture" performed by the avant-garde. Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy played the role of "the tragic and the timeless" that ostensibly motivated serious art, while colorful flowers dotting a grassy field showed what a real Color Field painting could look like.

What Mapplethorpe took from Pop art was its cheeky conceptual approach to making pictures. If Warhol's factory-studio made painting into a mass product of industry, Mapplethorpe would make the camera — the image machine of the Industrial Age — into an ambitious equivalent of a sculptor's chisel and a painter's brush.

His figure studies mimic statuary, often ancient Greek or Roman and sometimes Neo-Classical, like the art of the 18th and 19th centuries that looked back at antiquity. Pictures of a muscular man posed within the circle of a giant tube fuse Lewis Hine's 1920 "Power House Mechanic," the famous photograph of a wrench-wielding worker in a massive industrial setting, with Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man," an idealized male form by a homosexual genius inscribed within the perfection of a circle and a square.

Mapplethorpe's flowers — never shown thriving in soil but always cut and composed — are forever at peak bloom, their imminent demise a cautionary picture of inevitable mortality, like a 17th century Dutch still life.
Like Warhol, the younger artist used camera images as a popular means of reformulating the art of the past. Mapplethorpe, a Modernist through and through, took to heart the motto to "make it new." Reformulating art was how he could invent a place for himself in an indifferent, often hostile world.

LACMA is focused on Mapplethorpe's earliest endeavors, including student work and juvenilia. One result is a lot of mediocre art.

Still, it's fascinating to examine in order to trace the strands that would come together to form the tapestry of his mature output. Working in the immediate aftermath of the 1960s sexual revolution, he embraced his homosexuality. Self-acceptance may even have contributed to the artist's decision to move away from his youthful interest in painting, sculpture and graphic design and toward photography.

After all, camera work had always held second-class status in art's established hierarchy. It was not unlike Mapplethorpe's own social standing as a gay man. A photograph really was his perfect medium.

Street photography and its subject matter of life caught unmediated and unawares was then the dominant genre. It found trenchant form in "The Gay Essay," the ambitious 1969 project by Anthony Friedkin to document the LGBT communities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. And its grand history dated to the 1850s, while the up-to-the-minute street work of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander was widely celebrated.

Mapplethorpe promptly rejected it. Instead, he chose to work where painters and sculptors traditionally worked — in the studio, not the street.

FULL COVERAGE: Spring 2016 arts preview | Exhibits | Theater | Dance | Pop music | Books 

Mapplethorpe zigged where accepted photography zagged. Portraiture, figure studies and still lifes are his nearly exclusive subjects.

LACMA presents 182 works, mostly photographs but also assemblage sculptures, drawings, collages and other objects. There are portraits of Mapplethorpe by other artists, including Lynn Davis and Francesco Scavullo, as well as ephemera — posters, catalogs, gay magazines, etc.

A sizable number of the photographs in both halves of the show were posthumously printed from negatives held in the archive (Mapplethorpe died at 42 in 1989). That's less than ideal, although not a deal-breaker since the artist never printed his work himself. He left the task to master printers; artist Tom Baril did the honors for 15 years.

More problematic is a wince-inducing LACMA wall-text. It asserts that Mapplethorpe was an advocate for leading "an openly gay lifestyle."

Yet there is no such thing. The "gay lifestyle" is a political fiction, invented by opponents of gay civil rights. I daresay Mapplethorpe didn't encourage that. An accurate wall text would say he advocated living an openly gay life.

The show's first great photograph suggests as much. It's a 1979 double portrait of Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, two men Mapplethorpe knew from Manhattan's leather underground. Shackled and chained together in black biker regalia as master and slave, they occupy a sleek domestic living room instead of a bleak dungeon.

It's a very funny picture, brilliantly staged.
The power couple are a caricature of masculinity. They sit or lean on a Chesterfield wingback chair, itself a leather sendup of bourgeois male authority. All that's missing from this macho scene of domestic bliss is a cigar and brandy snifter for "him" and a string of pearls for "her" — if such gender distinctions could be drawn.

Mapplethorpe's photograph is "American Gothic" reconceived for a new age of multicultural urbanity. Grant Wood's prune-faced Iowa farmers get recast with a disturbing Diane Arbus edge, all within a surrounding glow of Warholian camp.

At the Getty, photography as an insistent Art-with-a-capital-A moves front and center. The 113 photographs open with a formal emphasis on the artist's "Studio Practice," as distinct from street photography. A room full of portraits and figure studies of Samuel Wagstaff, Philip Prioleau and Milton Moore even put you in mind of Picasso.

The pictures' style is obviously different — elegant, austere, always statuesque. But the erotic attachment to and inspiration from a succession of the artist's lovers is the same.

Among nine images of Lisa Lyon, the acclaimed female bodybuilder, one shows her in a lustrous satin gown as a glamour girl from Hollywood's Golden Age. She's photographed in the romantic manner of George Hurrell, like a brunet Jean Harlow. When finally you notice the armpit hair in her unshaved underarms, the gauzy past collapses under the acutely observed power of a more liberated present.

A double portrait of Ken Moody and Robert Sherman in layered profiles riffs on the exquisite, black-and-white tonal range that platinum print photography can produce. These unisex heads are intensely sculptural — black skin as densely radiant as bronze, white skin glistening like marble.

A 1980 self-portrait is carefully stylized to evoke a 1950s bad boy, signified by an elaborately exaggerated ducktail haircut and black leather jacket. The artist transforms himself into Elvis performing Marlon Brando in "The Wild One." It's a virtual fusion of Warhol's famous photo-silkscreen paintings of those two celebrity icons — albeit without a drop of paint or stitch of canvas.

Warhol's inventive photo-silkscreen technique allowed an ordinary photograph to masquerade as a painting. Mapplethorpe dropped any painterly pretense.

In 1987, the year Warhol suddenly died, Mapplethorpe photographed a dollar bill in tight close-up, filling the frame and illuminated by a bright light set up behind the currency. Backlighting allowed both sides of the bill to show at once, superimposing them as if in a double exposure.

The word "ONE" is stamped in capital letters across the bewigged head of George Washington. Is this a nod to ONE Magazine, in 1953 the first widely distributed U.S. publication for homosexuals?

Maybe. Whatever the case, I can't look at the dollar bill photograph without seeing a candid Pop homage to Warhol. And rightly so: He's the father of Mapplethorpe country.

Resource: http://www.latimes.com

Adobe Harnesses AI to Organize Your Photos for You

Imagine you’re the designer for an advertising campaign for a furniture store. That campaign will run on desktops, and in email newsletters, but it will also need to live on tablets and phones. You’ll need different photos for different devices, and suddenly, creating one campaign is more like creating four.

As screens (and screen sizes) proliferate, this is an increasingly common problem. At Adobe’s digital marketing conference in Las Vegas, one of many new features the creative tools company announced is particularly poised to offer relief to anyone working in branding or marketing. Called Smart Tags, it’s a new service that uses image recognition software to automatically create keywords for photographs. “People are busy, and we are all faced with these increasingly enormous photos collections,” says Jon Brandt, a senior principal scientist at Adobe. “It’s not practical to apply keywords or tags as a fully manual process.” This is particularly true for marketers and branding agencies tasked with creating campaigns for companies. “We’re finding that marketers are struggling to keep up with expectations, with the amount of content they need to produce,” says Loni Stark, Adobe’s senior director of strategy and product marketing.

Smart Tags could expedite some of that work. Say you’ve got a photo of the Eiffel Tower. To file it away properly, you would add tags like, “architecture,” “landmark,” and, of course, “Eiffel Tower.” Adobe provided WIRED with a demo that shows Smart Tags assessing the image and automatically adding those tags. It can account for context, as well, so that tags like “Paris” and “France” get included in the list of keywords.

The cloud-based service will be available in Adobe’s content management system, Experience Manager. Upload your photos to the Smart Tags repository, and Adobe’s image-recognition software can analyze the pixels and generate a list of keywords that get stored along with the photo. This works well for object identification, like “dog” or “house,” but Brandt and Stark say they’ve also applied machine learning algorithms to the system so that Smart Tags can come up with more nuanced, contextual keywords, like “business,” “lifestyle,” or “celebration.” The 100,000 available tags even include words like “summer” or “winter” to identify the season. All of these keywords are readily available through search functions, hopefully turning what Brandt calls “a black hole of images for marketers” into a navigable dossier of images. No matter how many you have.

Resource: http://www.wired.com

Form & Function in Photography: House of Brinson [Sponsored]

TV’s obsession with foodie chic spotlights the complex balance between preparation and ingredients, but the final product is still greater than the sum of its respective recipe ingredients. You could say the same for eagle-eyed food and lifestyle photography duo, the Brinsons.

Former Manhattanites, William and Susan Brinson transcend their unbelievably expressive photo spreads for cookbooks, print pubs (Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times), and high-caliber clients (Saatchi & Saatchi, Mastercard). Their increasingly ubiquitous blog, House of Brinson, cuts across categories, offering adventure stories alongside tips on interior design, recipes, and a range of other aesthetic concerns for the aspiring aesthete. It’s fueled by a (literal) breath of fresh air echoing from the spacious and incredibly vibrant environs of their upstate home / restoration project, the Stonyford Estate.

We caught up with them in the middle of a busy cookbook shoot to share a quick nip of Woodford Reserve, find out how they balance their personal and professional relationships, and to get a taste of the method behind their many forms of food madness.
Flavorwire: The “New York City exodus” has been having a moment. Why did you leave? Were you seeking a different energy? A different kind of creative space?
Susan Brinson: We were at a point where we were looking for change. We moved to NYC straight out of college for our careers and worked our way up in the photography and advertising industry. After 13 years, we were toying around with getting a weekend country house. Just as a little escape from NYC. It’s pretty amazing you can go 60 miles north of NYC and can stand in the middle of a corn field.

FW: That’s a bit different than pulling up stakes, though…

SB: As we began the search for a country house, we found out our landlord [in NYC] was selling the building we were living in. They wanted to raise our rent in a NYC kinda way, so we decided to move to the country full time. We normally don’t work in the city five days a week, so it was ok if we had a bit of a commute. I think after you’ve lived in NYC for over a decade you have to get to a point where NYC needs you more than you need it.
SB: We were a bit worried at first. I’m not gonna lie! Commercial photography used to be so rooted in NYC, but it’s changed over the past five years. It’s worked out for the better because we travel for work more than we imagined. It’s been a really nice change.

FW: I’m interested in your approach to different mediums. Are there differences in your process when you’re shooting for web vs magazine vs, say, a book or fast food joint?

SB: I would say they are all different processes. The medium with the most wild card attributes would be magazines because the images get used in print and on the web… and by separate editorial teams. You have to be a bit looser with your composition, but still make sure it holds your initial vision.

FW: Is ad work the same way?

SB: Advertising is so much more structured when dealing with the end use of photographs, because the placements of ads has been dictated before we even shoot. That being said, in advertising we are shooting each image for a specific use and the vision follows through much more closely. With the addition of social media, we understand that people have a really short attention span! It’s a matter of seconds, and images have to connect with a person, so we simplify.
FW: What’s the most essential element you focus on when deciding how to frame a given food?

SB: We wouldn’t say there is one special element to look for in shooting a specific food. It’s all about how that food makes you feel and how to evoke that in others. Each food item calls for its own approach depending on what story you want to tell about it.

FW: To what extent does liking (or not) a food yourself influence the way you approach it?
SB: We try to approach food as a subject and be objective, or think about the audience a certain type of food appeals to. It helps when we love a certain type of food, but overall we look at the angles and presentation of the food we are shooting.

FW: The revamped House of Brinson site seems to be anchored on the idea of simplicity. That’s interesting given the lushness and detail of some of your other work. Why so much white?

SB: We don’t like to get caught up in the online world of blinky things, pop-ups, and too much “stuff” on a page. We make a museum-like space to view our images with very little distractions… Big, beautiful images with no distractions is our focus.
FW: Lastly, a personal one… My girlfriend and I work in the same studio and work together a lot. She’s an amazing collaborator but that much proximity definitely has its difficulties. I’m wondering how you mediate / segment your work vs personal relationship with such a lifestyle occupation.

SB: This is a tough question! First, we try to keep regular business hours. We are kinda strict about this, because if not, you don’t know when you have on your work hat and when you should be relaxing. The weekends are ours and we like to have a nice dinner after a weeknight work day as well. That’s not to say if a project or idea demands it we don’t make exceptions, but this allows time for a relationship outside of work. The second thing is being really honest with each other, even if it’s hard. We openly discuss what’s working, and what’s not. The most dangerous thing in any relationship is resentment. If we are open and discuss issues as they arise, for better or worse, it seems to work out.

This interview has been lightly condensed and edited for length.

Resource: http://flavorwire.com

Haris Imtiyaz Khan: world's youngest portrait artist

New Delhi: At age nine, Pune, Maharashtra-based Haris Imtiyaz Khan set a world record for being the youngest life portrait artist, completing the portrait in less than 30 minutes. Self-taught, he has been drawing since the age of three, but it was only when he turned seven that his mother, Huma, and father, Imtiyaz Khan, realised his talent.

In 2006, Haris began holding solo exhibitions and live shows at shopping malls in Pune and Mumbai and thereafter his artworks were auctioned.

His brush with stardom happened in 2007 when, during his seventh exhibition at Walking Plaza in Pune, he performed a feat in front of a large gathering.

Haris, the Class 12 student at RIMS International School, Pune, said, “The host of the exhibition had to randomly pick up a person from the audience, and I was to make his portrait within 30 minutes. I completed it in 25 minutes, which became a world record. I was too young to understand the frenzy, as both national and international media published and broadcasted the achievement.”

Soon after, a shopping mall in Pune was adorned with drawings and paintings by Haris, which catapulted his career to a new level.
Using many mediums including pencil and charcoal, water colours and oil paints, Haris has held more than 15 exhibitions, live shows and auctions — all the while receiving good grades in school. He has received accolades in India and abroad.

Now 17, Haris is planning work in the field of architecture, as he says, “It is a mix of two of my favourite subjects: Mathematics and Arts.”

Here are some excerpts from an interview.

What project are you presently working on?

I am working on an oil painting of London’s iconic clock tower and timeless monument Big Ben. I plan to keep it black and white, which will portray its relation with indeterminate time and even add to the painting that will be given a traditional feel. This is one of the recent commissioned works of art, and I hope to soon resume my original artworks that will epitomise inspirational messages for times to come.

While making a portrait, what important elements do you take into account?

Every individual has different features and personality. From straight hair to curly hair, to a stern jaw or a fleshy nose to a round or an oval face, everything stands out in a face. But I do not go searching for all these features that construct their personality. It is best to adapt to a sequence, and for me the paramount facet to begin with are the eyes. I have always stuck to it, as the eyes give away the entire basic structure to me.

In art, what subjects interest you more?

I have not only delved in, but have also studied both portraits and conceptual art. Portraits appeal to me and come to me naturally. Drawing these have shaped my destiny and that’s where I have gained recognition. But strangely, people have different notions about portraits and since they feel it is the most difficult medium to begin with, it should not be initiated at a young age. I feel proud to have turned this theory on its head. Apart from portraits, I also like conceptual art because it is not entirely a painting, but more of a message and a way to depict an issue without saying a word!

Do you make a living off your art? How many works have you sold?

I have never felt the need to actually make a living out of art, as my family is blessed with life’s comforts. Drawing and painting is both my passion and hobby, but yes, I must have sold over 20 of my works till now. My parents have also formed [the] Haris Art Foundation, a non-profit organisation for future charity activities for the underprivileged through my works of art.

How has your work developed and what have you learnt over the years?

To look at it from a visual perspective, there has been a vast improvement in many aspects. Not only are the finishing and detailing in my works much more elevated than before, I have also acquired a lot of knowledge by practicing and delving deeper into the field. There’s no end to learning and I am ever ready to explore new avenues.

Are there any artists you admire and feel inspired by?

I have always been an admirer of Leonardo di Vinci, the Italian painter, sculptor and architect. His works amazed me as a child and the use of different colours and shades in his masterpieces don’t cease to make me gape at them even now. As for inspirations, they keep changing with the time. But my first inspiration was my grandfather, who had amazing narrative skills and I must have heard maximum number of stories from him than anyone else in the family. Stories of his struggles, achievements and India’s freedom struggle have led me to make portraits of numerous Indian political leaders. Former President Dr Abdul Kalam also felicitated me after I made his portrait.

Why architecture?

I have come to understand that architecture is an integration of all subjects, especially mathematics and arts that excite my brain cells the most. It’s also a perfect blend of themes wherein one can explore ones artistic views and expressions.

All about Haris

• Haris Imtiyaz Khan was acknowledged as Youngest Live Portrait Artist by World Record Academy — 2007.

• Won the International Art & Craft Competition — 2007.

• Won the Pride of Pune contest and awarded a trip to London — 2008.

• Special performance during Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune — 2008.

• American actress Sarah Jessica Parker named him among world’s eight greatest future artists — 2011.

• Received the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement by the Government of India — 2011.

• Invited as speaker and performer at TED — 2012.

• Winner of Pune Talent Hunt Competition — 2014.

Resource: http://gulfnews.com