Part Two -- An Artist's Way: My Art Colony along US 68

    It is a little tricky telling the story of my art colony because the connections are not linear.  They are very web-like.  So, what to tell next, that is the question...  I want to tell you about the Courthouse Square Arts Guild in Carlisle, KY; but I want to start by mentioning a lecture-discussion session that my friend Meg told me about and we attended together.  Native Nicholas Countian, Ann Kingsolver was presenting an analysis of several places in the world and their response to globalization. Nicholas County (Carlisle is the county seat) was one of those places.  Carlisle faces some serious challenges as tobacco weakens as a cash crop and the major local employer, Jockey International, left town ten years ago.  That is why I am so inspired by a hardy group of folks who wanted to create an arts guild and did just that! 
    I first learned about the Guild from Jo-Lynn, whose family owns the furniture store in Carlisle where we purchased the world's most comfortable couch. When I showed up, much of the heavy lifting had already taken place. Regina had dreamed of such an organization for a long time.  Brad (of fossil art fame) and Larry (who makes the most beautiful walking sticks) were interested in organizing to support their activities with local festivals. Cate wanted to make sure there were artistic opportunities in Carlisle. So the scene is one, where many folks were simultaneously dreaming the same dream. The result is an organization with a lot of "parents" which fulfills a broad spectrum of desires.
    A big breakthrough came when Dr. Tamaran generously offered a space for the Guild to call home.  Juanita came up with the name for our place: The Corner Studio. Which is perfect because it sits catty-cornered to the Courthouse Square which gives the Guild its name. Juanita started teaching Bob Ross classes and a whole slew of people started painting. They still are!  Every Tuesday, Juanita, Larry and Carol are at the Studio painting and all are welcome to join them.  Carol keeps us all informed about the guild and is the backbone of our organization (and many others in Carlisle!) In the summer, Louise teaches an art class for children, which is very popular.
    But here is what bedazzles me the most.  Larry, our president, single-handedly started a student art show--just because he thought it should exist! He built floor easels (lots!) and designed table easels to show rows of student art. He contacted all the schools in the region and picked up the art work.  Larry organized with Blue Licks State Resort Park to exhibit the work.  The result is an astounding art exhibit featuring the work of young people--work we would not know about or enjoy--if Larry had not created this opportunity for the students and the public.  Once again, this year the exhibit will be held in mid-April. 
    Like an art colony, the Courthouse Square Arts Guild is the result of many people dreaming for something to exist and then working hard to make it happen.  There is a bit of serendipity involved, too, which I am realizing more and more as I tell you about my art colony along US 68.

For more information about the Courthouse Square Arts Guild, please see the website (thank you, Derek): csag.info

An Artist's Way: My Art Colony Along US 68 Part I

It probably started with thinking about the Wyeths and their beautiful setting of Bucks County. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in an art colony!  At one point, art colonies abounded, particularly in New England.  I was reminded of this on a trip to Dartmouth, visiting the Hood Museum of Art, where there is an excellent collection of American art; a lot of it produced in those New England art colonies. One particular painting caught my eye (and continues to draw me in via the excellent catalogue).  That painting is entitled Below Mount Monadnock, painted by Abbott Handerson Thayer. Apparently Mount Monadnock was a favorite subject and situated close to the "burgeoning" art colony of Dublin in New Hampshire.  I have images of Thayer setting out on painting expeditions and stopping to speak with his fellow art colonists about their current projects.  If only I could work in such a setting!  Then one day, this happened--
      I was at my studio at Carnico and took a break to walk Carly, the dog.  It was a short walk, I just walked up the hill and down toward the point, and there were Jim and Ottis.  Ottis had brought a painting for Jim to look at.  Jim restores art as well as doing some framing and making his own original art.  The painting was one that Ottis had collected when he bought art to sell in his furniture store. Ottis is an amazing artist himself; the most experimental artist I know.  It is very liberating to be around him and his work!  Hmmm, I thought, maybe I do live in an art colony.  Jim's wife Katie is a first-rate needle artist and she has recently taken up weaving on an impressive loom. Between their home/studio and mine, is the home/studio of Derek, the mastermind designer of my website: http://www.kathyreesjohnson.com/. I don't have to travel far to have paintings framed or to have a chat with my website guru! Then a couple of coves over is Brad, who worked hard with others to start the Courthouse Square Arts Guild in nearby Carlisle.  Brad is a fossil artist!  He finds a lot of fossils along US 68 and creates some solid compositions with his found treasures.  March lives down another point and she makes gourd art, using  Native American techniques. Across the lake is Kay, who exudes creativity in her dress and in her collage work.  Her husband Raymond, makes fine furniture in an amazing workshop with a view like you wouldn't believe. No doubt, I am leaving many people out--but I'll get to know them, as Brad is planning an Art of Carnico exhibit. This is just Part I. Finding our place on Lake Carnico has made possible my archipelago-like art colony. I want to tell the story of  all these islands of creativity that enrich my artist's life.
     

Painting: Technique vs. Subject

I had a laugh as I was blocking in a new painting. It reminded me of a painting I made in 1975. I was in a painting class at the University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Art and Architecture. I was officially studying fashion design (humorous, no?) and my true gift was for fashion illustration.  I'll always be grateful for this because I was given a pretty sturdy education in rendering the figure. Our core-curriculum for design included graphic design and painting. In the graphic design course we used Color-Aid to create all sorts of transparency effects and shadows, etc.  It was a real education in seeing color. But painting was another issue. During my childhood, I wanted to be an artist, but it seemed too impractical and I did not have a particular message to sing out from the canvas.  I have to say, even though my technique was not bad, my paintings were pretty stupid! One day, I was painting along featuring an inane collection of objects and the painting professor suggested I just paint over what I was working on. So, I did. In no time at all, he came over and said, "Stop! Stop! Leave it like that."  So that is how the painting to the left came to be.  My stepmother liked it sufficiently to want it in her house for a time.  So the prof was on to something for sure. Technique will only take you so far.  Passion for subject is what ultimately makes a painting.  It would take me another twenty years before I discovered my calling to paint the landscape.  It is that love and passion for the landscape that informs me how to paint. Painting is a lot easier now!

In Praise of Dead Wood

 While eating breakfast at Clover Slope the other day, I looked out to see a Red-headed Woodpecker on the tree right by the deck. This was a beautiful specimen, rounded with full-blown markings and a brilliant red head (of course!)  I am sorry that I was not quick enough to get a photo. Between the snow and the bare trees, woodpeckers have been very much on view.  The elegant and improbable Pileated Woodpecker, which I can hear but not see all summer long has become a ho-hum sight this winter.  The more camouflaged Northern Flicker is a regular, too.  There are Downies up and about, and Red-bellies and certainly many others I have not been quick or knowledgeable enough to officially see.  The point is that there seem to be more woodpeckers in these parts than anyplace else that I frequent.  No doubt this is because of the dead wood that is part of our landscape.  We are encouraged by Virginia Kingsolver to let dead trees be, for this very reason.  It is working beautifully.
     This reminds me of recent studies suggesting that part of the prevalence of allergies and asthma these days might be due to growing up in an overly clean interior environment. Apparently, we need pet dander and a general smattering of germs to help build up our natural defenses. The detergent  that kills 99% of all bacteria is working against us!
     And from there, I take the step to the number one solution for everything these days:  clear your clutter!  Believe me, I have some clutter to clear.  "Too muchness" is a drag.  I have not seen any of the hoarding shows that abound, but I imagine they would set me to sorting pronto!  But perhaps this constant need to purge, to rid ourselves of everything that is not of use to our own personal life plan is another sort of "kills 99%" detergent.  Maybe this is just an attempt at complete control over our lives (and sometimes others'.)
     The problem is, this limits us to only our particular gifts and allows no room for the genius of the world to enter.  May I always have room for a little dead wood in my life.

Lessons from the One Day Wonder Workshop

 As I was preparing to leave for The Corner Studio to set up for my One Day Wonder Workshop, I was treated to a special message from the "This I Believe" segment of Bob Edwards Weekend. The speaker told the story of how, at an early age she was judged to have a poor singing voice.  So, she did not sing for many years until she was a mother with a child who had a lot of pain.  To comfort her child, the "bad singer" was called upon to spend many hours each day holding and singing to her daughter. Sometimes, after the child had dozed off to sleep, the mother would stop singing only to have the baby request more from her vocal goddess.  What a good message to receive right before facing a room full of intimidated, but hopeful artists!
    Just about everyone who had signed up for the workshop (where we were exploring painting with watercolor/pastel) professed to be wholly under qualified.  I had to assure them that all of us would be trying new things and learning.  It is funny how we believe we have to be perfect before trying something. How can that happen? All this worry and concern made me think about what I appreciate most in other artists.  It is always their distinct view of the world that engages and enchants me.  I don't believe I've ever bought a painting because it was flawlessly rendered.  It is always: "What an interesting way of seeing the world!"  It is the humanity that we fall in love with, not the perfection.
    We set to work.  Sure enough, each participant in the workshop had a different idea about how the world looks.  Even while some of them were using watercolor and/or pastel for the first time, their special voice came through.  It was very exciting! We had a room filled with uniquely beautiful creations.  Since everyone had selected their own images to paint, we were able to learn what was meaningful to them personally and how they would interpret this offering to the world.  And, as I had predicted, I learned as much as anyone and had a light shown on beauty I had not seen before.  It was very human and humane, these wonderful, experimental paintings.
   So keep it up!  Keep painting, singing and telling stories.  You never know when your particular beauty will be the needed balm to an aching world.

Into the Woods, Part II

I am working on my painting Dancing Landscape (48x36", acrylic on board) and it reminds me of the "birthplace" of my blog.  Dancing Landscape portrays the view from the trail by the petrified waterfall at Floracliff Nature Sanctuary in Fayette County, Kentucky (please see, left). Walking in the woods that day in October with a robust gathering of folks celebrating the 400th birthday of Woody C. Guthree, a chinquapin oak, I felt completely in my element. This is what I want to paint!
     The next weekend also found me walking among the trees, but these trees were on canvasses painted by Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt. I felt a tingle of inspiration.  These artists had the same desire to celebrate nature.  Wait, maybe that is not quite correct.  Karen Wilkin in a review in The Wall Street Journal   (30 November 2010)writes: "...in the German works, French-type enthusiasm for the appearances of landscape seems charged here with a mystical desire to be 'one with nature,' a phenomenon  that anyone with German friends will recognize as still current."  That explains a lot!
As I took in the exhibit (actually, two: "German Impressionist Landscape Painting" and "Drawing from Nature: Landscapes by Liebermann, Corinth and Slevogt") I was besotted.  This is how I want to paint!  Freedom.  Yet firmly grounded in the given world.  Sounds like contentment...

     One painting in particular grabbed my attention:  Red Arbor with Dog, an earlier painting by Max Slevogt.  It is a dark and moody image that draws you right in.  I thought about what I could paint that would give a similar feeling and thought of the fence rows of blackberry bushes near my studio.  I could have even included a dog, since little Luke often accompanies me on walks out at the lake!  (But, I did not...) Below is my painting, Red Fence Row.

     What struck me most about Lovis Corinth was his ability to so convincingly depict the steep slopes of his Alpine setting (later in his life he painted at Walchensee in Upper Bavaria). So, it was very interesting to learn that a stroke that afflicted him at the age of 53, affected his spacial perception. Most of Corinth's landscape works were painted after his stroke.  Below is  his painting, The Herzogstand at Walchensee in the Snow. In my painting Dancing Landscape, I tried to convey the same sense of  slope.

      Viewing this exhibit, there was an overall feeling of liberation. Here is how Karen Wilkin of The Wall Street Journal describes the Liebermann, Corinth, Slevogt paintings:  "All three artists' paintings are direct and bold, as if the painterly tradition of Hals and Rubens had been co-opted for other purposes.  All three revel in manipulating paint, suppressing details in favor of virtuoso mark-making.  Slashing brush-strokes and rapid scribbles.."   It is the "at oneness" with the landscape that enraptures this artist.

There is an excellent catalogue from the exhibit:  German Impressionist Landscape Painting  Liebermann-Corinth-Slevogt, edited by Gotz Czymmek and Helga Kessler Aurisch, Arnoldsche Art Publishers

The Way I See It

When I wrote up the last blog ("Nine Years Old") I first used the photo I took on September 11, 2001 because I did not have the photo of my painting at the ready (I had to convert the slide of the painting to digital).  Looking at the two images, it struck me that I remember the day much more as I had painted it than how I had photographed it.  This is why I paint!  There is enchantment in the landscape...
    Much of my work as an artist involves collecting images for painting.  I do this every day, on every walk I take.  I am considering colors and lines.  Fortunately, I usually have my camera with me.  But before I take a picture, there is a motive.  There is a reason I am attracted to that image.  That is what I bring to the painting of the scene.  I don't just copy the photograph. I certainly wouldn't use a projector--that would remove my impetus.  In the above painting, I was mostly influenced by the brilliant blue of the sky and the late September color of the grass and sycamore leaves.  The trees had a beautiful shape, too, and I wanted to bring that out.  That shape comes through on the the photograph, and I did push and pull at the image to make it sing the way I desired.  But, if I had to go by the photograph alone, the colors would be quite different.  Personally, I think my memory is more accurate--at least in how I observed the scene that day.

My painting, "Angel Tree" also illustrates how I use photographs to make paintings. When I was walking in the woods at Blue Licks back in October, I knew that the Advent Angel Art Exhibit was coming up and I needed to make a painting.  Walking down the trail toward the Licking River, I looked up to see a decidedly blue tree centered between the arcade of trees on either side of the path.  It was a sycamore along the river.  Naturally, I took a photo, but first came the inspiration:  a blue tree!  When I arrived down by the riverside, the same sycamore was a brilliant white against the sky, like an angel.  Voila! My angel painting.  I took another photo (see photos below).  When I set to work on the painting, I was doing a fair amount of pushing and pulling to create what I wanted.  Since this was for an angel exhibit at a church, I  brought out the arch of the natural arcade. While preserving the beautiful blue of the lower part of the tree, I made the upper limbs brilliant white that in person I had only seen  from the riverside perspective. I am also working to convey how I feel, coming upon that scene which is both magic and reality. That is why I am an artist! This is my reality--how I see the world and what I want to share with you.