Archive: Workshop your Artist Statement!

[beverley.healy3]

Well here goes – This is my draft statement. I have already had to half this – never realised I had so much to say! –

I always loved to draw – and always drew people – in fact I was often asked to sketch various pop stars for my friends when I was at school and was happy to oblige! I moved into paint and I now focus on the face and the beauty of the face, using egg tempera on gesso board. I came to this medium in the final year of my Fine Art Degree and enjoy the freedom it gives to depict fine detail and its softness of colour. I work from a mixture of photographs and life – I like to know or meet my sitter to get a feel of their personality for myself and create initial sketches. I spend time with my images before I choose the right one, then draw my initial drawing on transfer paper which is then relayed to the board, as tempera gesso is sensitive and I do not want to muddy the colours or disturb the surface as far as I can help it. I seek to create a work that is not merely a likeness but a beautiful painting, a jewel to adorn the wall of a home. Work on my portraits is intense and time-consuming and often engages the perfectionist in me but I love seeing the face appear and finding the exact colour tones to portray the jewel-like beauty of the piece. I know if it is not working that soon it will and that gives the process an edge that can be scary but exhilarating!

My pastel work, on the other hand, allows me to throw away my perfectionism and make “mistakes”. I saw a documentary of an illustrator whose name I have sadly forgotten; she splashed paint, added collage and ripped things out without feeling at all precious about her work. At the time that hit a note with me and I sat with a piece of paper and a favourite song and simply prayed that it would become something – and it did. I was not precious at all in my method and I didn’t care if my anatomy was stylised. I splashed dyes and paints on my page and after this just drew what I felt using soft pastels. The painting became a discovery. The pictures spoke back to me and they were often voices of encouragement or illustrations to particular verses or songs. They came from the heart and have encouraged others as much as they have spoken to me. I see these paintings as a prayer – a two-way conversation between myself and the Creator. Painting this way has helped me to see that all art has the potential to engage in this conversation and I now see my portraits in the same way, although the method is very different.

Whether it be from the head or the heart, I paint to explore the colour and beauty in the world and to offer up a jewel to brighten the life of another.

[Memet Burnett]

I really enjoyed reading this!

 

[martina.delange60]

Hello Peeps! This is your techno-phobic and naive colleague. But that is how I like to do my art: with the spontaneity of art therapy, where my inspiration comes from. Which means that I have a huge resistance to intellectualising. I am doing my best, though :’)  This is my first artists’s statement ever. Here goes…

 

My landscape paintings flow from my heightened awareness when surrounded by the isolation and vastness of wilderness areas. I hope that my viewer will have a sense of recognition. This could be a ‘sense of place’; being reminded of their experience of a similar location. It could also be a recognition of a universal emotion expressed in the painting. My use of rough textures and my loose application of acrylic paint indicates that the goal is not photo-type realism. Instead, these effects aim at increasing the immediacy of the experience of the painting. When I am told that a painting is “so realistic”, I rejoice that it resonates with the viewer and that my message has in some measure been received.

I paint landscapes to share my experience and to document some of the wild places that still remain. I hope that my work will serve as a reminder of the value of the remaining wilderness areas, which put us into perspective and speak to the emotions and values that make us truly human.

[Crista Cloutier]

Martina,

 

I can’t believe this is your first statement! It’s really good!

I am a writer so I could not help myself, I started to edit it and play with the words and order. You can take it or leave it, but this is what I came up with:

 

 

My landscapes flow from the heightened awareness experienced when surrounded by the isolation and vastness of wilderness areas. These canvases offer a sense of recognition. This could be a sense of place; being reminded of similar locations, or even the recognition of the universal emotions expressed in the painting. My use of rough textures and loose application of acrylic paint  aim at increasing the immediacy of the experience.

I paint landscapes in service to the wild places that still remain. For these are the places that speak to the emotions and values that make us truly human.

[martina.delange60]

Thank you so much, Christa, for your encouragement and edit. 😀 😀

I posted a second try, very short and sharp, in more general terms so as to cover my abstract work as well. I’ll put that one out there as well.

[martina.delange60]

I wrote a second artist statement, short and sharp,on  which Drew was kind enough to comment (I don’t know where it has gone to, though). In the first statement I concentrated on landscapes. Then I tried to come up with the thread running through all my work, including abstracts.

Here is my General Artist Statement:

My art recognizes pain and loss in the face of inevitable change. Even though cycles of destruction and recreation underpin the universe, the human reaction to undesired change is resistance. Paradoxically, a willingness to embrace all change opens up a richness of experience. My art, therefore, also celebrates the beauty that transcends suffering.

My landscapes flow from the heightened awareness experienced  in the isolation and vastness of wilderness areas. These canvases offer a sense of recognition. At one level there is a sense of recognizing location, while at another level there is a recognition of some universal emotion. Rough textures and loose paint application aim at increasing the immediacy of the experience. I paint in service of the wild places that still remain, For these are the places that speak to the emotions and values that make us truly human.

The unplanned shapes and color combinations of my abstract flow paintings tap into the realm of the unconscious more directly. Their appeal is thus less easily defined.