The Yankee Spirit - Art Exhibit

West Rock, New Haven - Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)

Last week I checked out "The Yankee Spirit" art exhibit at BYU's Museum of Art. This show features artworks by many  of the most highly regarded American artists of the last two centuries including Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, Georgia O'Keefe, John Singer Sargent, Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Moran, Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish. The works are all on loan from the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut.

Maxfield Parrish- Dusk, oil on panel

I had the pleasure of seeing many of these works a couple of years ago when I was getting my MFA degree in nearby Hartford, Connecticut, so it was especially fun to revisit them. I have to admit that one of my all time favorites in the show is Maxfield Parrish's "Dusk". I marvel at his expert handling of glazes to create such a feeling of depth and luminosity. If you go, take a moment to soak in this small but stunning work.

More exhibit info, dates, times,  pictures and a great review at:
 Art Wife Needs a Life- check it out!

Angel-Fish

Angel-Fish, 9" x 9" Acrylic and metal foil.

Anyone following this blog has probably noticed a bit of an obsession with fish. It started out innocently enough with a small demo painting of a fat fish for a class I was teaching and has since morphed into a series of progressively goofier fish since then. To date I have painted over a half dozen of these critters and I am sure there are more to come. Click the links below to see some of the others in this crazy fish family.

Cat-Fish
Dog-Fish
Angler Fish
Devil-Fish

LeConte Stewart Joint Exhibits

The above painting by LeConte Stewart (1891-1990) was my first exposure to the work of this prolific and talented artist. I was a high school student and there was a retrospective show of his work at the  LDS Church History Museum in Salt Lake City in 1985. I was not as astute at deciphering the language of paint then as I am now (after an additional quarter century of artistic pursuits) but the honesty and passion he displayed for his subject matter resonated with me. I  immediately became a fan.

Utah native LeConte Stewart was born in 1891 in Glenwood, Utah. His Mormon pioneer ancestry ran deep. His grandparents crossed the American plains after joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints after meeting Church prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois and settled in Utah. As a boy, Stewart spent countless hours out among the sage drawing and painting. Despite trepidation from his father about becoming an artist, he went to New York where he studied at the Art Student's League as well as landscape painting in the Catskill Mountains at the Leagues branch there.

LeConte's  passion remained in the West and the pull of desert landscape eventually brought him home to Utah. He spent the remainder of his long and productive career painting things that were familiar to him in his rural surroundings. Stewart's  affection for the desert greatly influenced his art. He would often slip a sprig of sagebrush in his pocket, a symbol of his beloved desert, referring to it as his "eau de cologne".

He documented the depression and it's impact on rural life during a five year stretch from 1931-1936. These scenes of abandoned buildings and run down urban and rural scenes are a slice of history and a stark reminder of the hard times Stewart and indeed all of America suffered through during the Depression years.

He was an avid outdoor painter and spent countless hours painting and sketching directly from nature. He was adept in many mediums including pastel, pen and ink, and watercolor, but his passion was oil painting.Stewart taught art at the University of Utah where he served as chairman of the art department for twenty years. His influence as a painter and teacher in the west and Utah in particular continues to be felt.

There are joint exhibits of Stewart's work on display in Salt Lake City and I am excited to view both parts. In a combined effort, The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is hosting LeConte Stewart: Depression Era Art and the LDS Museum of History is showing LeConte Stewart- The Soul of Rural Utah.

A wonderfully thoughtful review of the UMFA show can be found at Artwife Needs A Life

Both Shows are on display through January 15, 2012. The combined exhibits showcase over 200 of Stewart's works. The UMFA show is $7.00 per person and the Church History Museum show is free. Find additional info at the links below.

Utah Museum of Fine Arts
LDS Church History Museum
LeConte Stewart Bio on LDS.org
Deseret News article
Salt Lake Tribune article
UMFA's resources for Stewart
Film on Stewart including footage of him drawing and painting

Filming a Video Tutorial

Devil-Fish- 9" x 9" Acrylic and metal leaf

Last Friday I filmed my first art instructional video. As I mentioned in a post last week, I created a new version of my "Devil-Fish" demo painted in acrylic. We laid down about 5 hours of raw video and it will be edited down to somewhere around three hours of instruction. I go through the process of creating an entire painting and I show how I work along with some tips and tricks.

Getting set up to film. The live camera area was inside the blue tape.

Starting from a sketch I progress through initial washes of color, applying texture, creating a faux distressed gold leaf frame, building up the image layers and putting down final touches. It was a lot of fun as I worked to talk about why I do certain things, and explain what it takes to create a successful painting.The raw footage that I saw was expertly filmed and I think people will get a great view of how I typically work in acrylic.

The working set-up. I could reach for anything 

I needed out of camera shot and bring it into the shot.

I have a few finishing touches to put on the fish for a final shot and maybe a few voice over dubs in order to finish up. As soon as it is put together and launched, I will let you know how you can get your very own copy.

Early Bird at Pioneer Art Fest

Early Light- 6" x 9"  Oil by Greg Newbold

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I did the Early Bird Paint Out at the Pioneer Art Festival as well. I couldn't get back to sleep Saturday morning after waking up at 4:45 a.m. so I decided I may as well get out and paint. I had not intended to go the early painting, but since I was awake anyway, I figured I might as well make good use of my time. I had done a little scouting trip at Wheeler Farm the week prior and had a couple of locations selected as possible motifs. I picked a little block house to paint since the value contrasts in the flat light of early morning would be the most visible.

I didn't know if I would get any direct light that early since the building had a heavy row of trees between it and the rising sun. It was a good thing I based my value pattern on the local values since the building never did get any direct sun before I had to turn my picture in at 8:00 a.m. The low light was a little bit of a challenge and I exaggerated the warmth of the palette for dramatic purposes, but I sort of like this little piece.

In progress- about 45 minutes into the painting

Shows and competitions like this one are a little strange because I normally never let anything out of the studio before I am satisfied. They never usually see the light of day before they reworked,  retouched and sealed. In this situation people see them before the paint is even dry which is a bit of a strange feeling, sort of like they are looking over your shoulder in the studio. In a way they are since people were stopping all morning long and having a look. I will definitely be adding a few details and a coat of varnish before I call this one done.

Pioneer Art Fest Paint Out

Old Moline - 12" x 12", Oil

I had a great time painting at the Pioneer Art Festival held at Wheeler Farm this past Saturday. I did both the Early Bird Paint Out and the regular Paint Out and I had a great time. The Early Bird  from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m.was more of a warm up, but I like how it turned out. I'll post that tomorrow. For the main paint out, I scouted a motif earlier in the week and estimated the light for the hours I would be painting. I picked an antique Minneapolis Moline tractor as my subject. As the perennial piece of machinery on any farm, I thought a tractor would be fun to paint. I got set up and my painting was underway by 8:15. It was funny seeing other artists get a little upset that I had a prime spot, but there was no lack of subject matter on the farm. I got a good block in going by about 10:00 a.m. After that I was humming along getting to the good details and thick paint.

About halfway through the painting- 2 hours in

At 12" square, it was the largest painting I have attempted outdoors, but I enjoyed it and gained confidence as I went along. One lady ducked under my view as she walked in front of me and I had to laugh. I was painting pretty fast (for me) but not quite fast enough to paint in a spectator. I got great comments from other artists about how this painting turned out and was feeling pretty good about my chances at a prize. Alas, the cash prize eluded me, but I got a great swirly purple art glass paperweight as an honorable mention prize. My boys promptly dubbed it "Koraeghoth, Maelstrom of Destiny" (whatever that means). I thought it was pretty funny and they were excited that I won a prize even if no money was involved. Considering the competition, I got over my disappointment. There were a lot of artists who have been at this outdoor painting thing a lot longer than I have been. 

Devil Fish In Progress

Devil Fish- 9" x 9" (detail)acrylic and metal leaf- in progress

Here is a little demo that I did for my Intro to Illustration class at BYU a couple of weeks back (about 2.5 hours working time). It's not done quite yet as deadlines got in the way the last little bit. Tomorrow, I will be painting an entirely new version of this critter for an instructional video I am having filmed. I have never done a video before and I am excited to give it a shot. It will be part of a new video art tutorial site that is being launched by my good friend and fellow artist Will Terry. I'll let you know how it goes and give all my readers first shot at purchasing it when it becomes available. Wish me luck!

Also in this series, see Angler Fish Goes Green, Dog-Fish and Cat-Fish