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Archives for December 2018

Art to Elders – A Work of Love

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For the past ten years, I have been working with a most interesting population of individuals. They have offered me a wealth of wisdom, from their stories to their habits, from their aches and pains to their memory loss. That group of people has been the elderly.
This past decade I have been studying how visual expression through painting has benefited senior citizens.
Research confirms the positive benefits creating has on the brain, whether it is painting or music, dance or theatre, the brain responds to visual stimuli. But I don’t need to cite any research to tell you my findings.
From a blank canvas to a finished product and all of the color in between, I have noticed the gratification that comes when a student begins and ends a painting session.

I have witnessed how art-making reduces stress, fear, and anxiety. It decreases agitation and possible emotional outbursts on students with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. It increases cognitive functioning and has the ability to positively alter the mind. It increases communication, enhances memory, reduces feelings of loneliness and awakens curiosity.
Art alone is very powerful, but I have also found the connection that students have with their instructor is just as valuable. This age group responds well to bonding with others and benefit from the class structure and routine. Patience and attention go a long way with students who not only need instruction for proper painting technique but also need love and compassion.
Loving instruction that never rushes or criticizes and always offers genuine feedback is all part of the job of an art therapist. In my experience, enthusiasm and positive energy given by the instructor is a necessary component for a successful art therapy session.
I have seen so many people find a new talent, leaving with the desire to draw and paint every day. People left behind lots of beautiful memories to their loved ones with the art that they created.

I read before that the fountain of youth is always learning something new and the amount of excitement that I have seen among my students is the best payment.
This is a quick brush stroke to what teaching art looks like. Exchanging the spreading of love for meaningful connection.
Life is beautiful and using art to enhance it is amazing.
I continue teaching but I am a full-time Custom Pet Portrait artist now.
Thank you for letting me share my story.


This post was co-written and edited by Bianca Lago. 

The Necessity of Story

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The Last Train – by Larry Moore
48″x60″ – Oil on wood

I’ve spent a good bit of time breaking down the components of painting in order to become more thoughtful about my work and to help others do the same. To my way of thinking, the intent of the work is the number one consideration in any creative endeavor with the narrative/story next in importance. Yes, drawing, color, shape and all of the aspects of craft are critical for the realist painter but once that skill set is acquired, what do you do with it?
Every song has a narrative, every movie a storyline, every poem a scenario, each novel a plot, every song an emotion, and every picture tells a story. Why should a painting be any different?  The intangible thing that separates the greats from the pretty-goods is rooted in a deep pool of ethos that is mixed into every puddle of color and imbued in every movement of the brush. It’s the foundational idea of a piece that sets the tone for a poignant outcome.
You may be thinking that I’m referring to the Golden era illustrators or the cowboy and Indian paintings that fill every gallery in the west. I’m not, but that’s as good a place to start as any. A quick Google search of “golden era illustration” will give you a balcony seat view of some of the greatest storytellers of the last century; Mead Schaeffer, Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, Dean Cornwell, Jessie Willcox Smith, the list is incredibly long. This, one of the most prolific movements in the narrative arts, housed the masters of story, design, style, and ability.
Reservoir
Reservoir by Larry Moore
30″x30″ – Oil on canvas

One of the tricks (beyond a brilliant design) to creating a powerful narrative in a painting is to think like a movie director. After all, a painting is a single-frame movie that speaks to a moment in time, but the outstanding ones hint at the preceding events and those that are yet to come. If you incorporate a figure or figures in your work, you should know them as a writer knows his/her characters. What are they thinking? What is their backstory? Why are they there? What do their expressions, posture, and the placement of the hands, say about them?
Go through a top 100 movie frame by frame, Citizen Kane or The Grand Budapest Hotel come to mind, and look at the construction of each scene. What symbolism does it hold? How is it designed? What are they up to and what’s coming next? That’ll fill your noggin with some new ideas.
I appreciate the skill in a great portrait or a well-executed nude but I, as a viewer, want more. If you’re going to paint a beautiful female nude languishing on a sun-drenched bed, put an easter egg in there to give the discerning eye something to think about, something that hints of events beyond the boundaries of the frame. The viewer wants to be included, let them fill in some of the script. Think like a writer, give them enough but leave room for the imagination. Tap into your inner recesses and tell your story.
Ys by Larry Moore
48″x48″ – Oil on wood

A painting doesn’t have to contain pirates or a well-heeled couple in high society to communicate a message. Even a simple still life should hint at a plot line. Who put the stuff on the table? What are the flowers feeling? What’s the relationship between the asparagus and the knife and who drank half the beer placed at a calculated distance from that nibbled on bread? The space between objects is like a pregnant pause in a conversation. It helps to create a compelling plot even if the characters in the play are just vegetables and dinnerware. Assign human characteristics to every piece in your static production. Use your friends and family as a reference for a more compelling dysfunctional still life.
If it’s a landscape, there’s always a story to tell. What is it about this place that you are painting that is important? Who lived there? Or died there? What would a pioneer have felt having seen this place for the first time? What would Thoreau say about this land? How does it feel on your skin? What memory does it spark? What is the message you want to convey about that bustling street scene? Even if it just stays in your head while you are painting, it may not be readily evident, but the lookers-on will feel it.
Untitled by Larry Moore
48″x60″ – Oil on wood

So, how does it make you feel? If you took 15 minutes before you ever lay brush to the surface to write about your sense of place you’d have a deeper understanding of what you are saying to the viewer because you have defined it for yourself. Your palette, your brushwork, drawing, design, and style all go to the story. Every mark and movement should be in support of the plot line.
Included are a few of my own pieces to show how I weave the narrative into a body of work. It took me a while to find it. The broad theme is that of environmental concern, but each piece has its own sub-plot. Sometimes the story is written before I begin and other times it unfolds as I go. I’ve come to view this series as stories that I tell myself. If other people get them, all the better. More often than not they make up their own. But, at least, I am telling my story.

Some Thoughts About Using Photography

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This year I was asked what my thoughts are about painting from photographs and if this is a practice I use.
There is much I can write about, and I will start with……. Yes, I paint from photographs.
But the painting does not look like the photograph,  yet, there is no painting without the photograph. So what’s happening?
I think the photographs touch something inside of me,  which awakens and inspires me…
Usually, when painting from a photo or my monitor, it is in the studio and with oils. I set up the image(s) the night before, then sleep on it, and I’m ready to start the next morning.


I would like to say more about myself and photography:
I started studying painting when I was 20 at the Art Students League with the late Frank Mason.
Back then the rage in New York City was Abstract Expressionism. Realism was considered dead by the intelligent ones. You were actually considered stupid to want to paint realistically, “don’t you realize it has already been done?” At that time painting realistically was limited and very different from today.
Among us young artists who wanted to paint realistically, we had a false notion which I swallowed completely …. “if you work from a photo you were an illustrator (God forbid), and if you worked from real life you were considered a fine artist, yay!”
For my first 20 years of painting which was in the studio and out on location, I never considered using a photo.
When I returned from Europe I started using black and white photography as I got involved painting Mexican and Guatemalan marketplaces. That was during an eight-month visit to San Miguel de Allende and afterward.
 
Woodstock, NY (1970-1983)
A few years later I moved to Woodstock. The landscape and the Catskill mountains were breath-taking. Painting on location and exclusively with pastel. Of course, the light would change and be different from when I began, I found I could have painted both light conditions. While taking a short break and viewing other mouth-watering subjects to paint, I felt as if I was a child in a candy store. This caused inner anxiety.
To satisfy my anxiety I started taking slides of subjects I would have painted if I wasn’t already involved. The weather in Woodstock could get nasty. Since taking only slides of something I would have painted if not already committed to a  painting… I found myself in my studio viewing these slides, reliving them, they excited and they inspired me, and I found myself starting to paint from them.
Much to my chagrin, the paintings were beautiful.
This caused a lot of confusion and guilt within me which I struggled with for a good many years till finally getting over it. I now use photography for landscape and find it as a great help for painting my oils in the studio, and my workshop demos.

Live Preppy

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Preppy was a term tossed around a few decades ago. It referred to the behavior of someone who went to a preparatory school.  Or, it could refer to a logo-laden dress code.  The word and the style fell from favor, but I’ve always liked the sound and decided that it could be re-defined and re-cycled for better use.  All of us have heard the honored motto, “Be Prepared”.  As artists, we must always make an effort to be so.  But my new definition means a bit more. I would like for you to consider not just, being prepared, but also living in a state of preparedness.  Living preppy.
Here are a few ways an artist can live a preppy life.
Live in a constant state of awareness.
Collect information, file visual data.  You never know when some wonderful visual experience might happen to you.  Be ready.  Be aware that ideas are all around you.  Write them down if you don’t have time for a sketch.  You may be unhappily surprised if you don’t get into this practice.  You’ll have a wonderful idea, see a great motif and believe that you’ll surely remember.  But there is so much data attacking all the time that you may not remember.  Carrying a small sketchbook, or even a little notebook is such a great habit.  I wrote a note last week, “long deep blue morning shadows from tree line silhouetting foreground interest”.  That doesn’t sound like much, but it was just the jolt I needed to remember the idea and return to the location at the right time of day.
Stay prepared by keeping your skills sharp.

Tuesday’s Twos, Permanent markers on Bristol paper. Two-minute gesture drawings.  These improve my observation skills and make all my drawings more lyrical.  Look for the gesture in everything.  It’s there.

This seems obvious especially if you are just beginning your artist’s journey.  You are at that part of the learning curve where you must practice every skill such as drawing particularly, but also value study, color mixing, and even perspective.  But as we advance, we get to a comfort zone, trust in our skill set and stop working to advance.  So, you’ll stay just where you are.  Drawing improves because you seek to improve it.  And even the most gifted artist will tell you that they wish they drew better.  Make practice of your skills a part of your life.  Those tedious color charts are invaluable.  Drawing either on your own, or with a group is one of the best things you can do to advance your art.  And draw just for the sake of drawing.  You will gain such amazing memory, both mental and physical.  Your hand will want to do just the right thing.  But it takes some dedication and commitment to keep those skills moving up the ladder.
Your drawing practice doesn’t need to be limited to life drawing. There may be no life group near you. So start a group.  Get some artists together and commit to draw on a regular schedule.  You could draw each other. You could have a day when you all bring a favorite object.  You could go out and have “celebrate tree day.”  Just draw.
Prepare before you begin.  Solve problems before they exist.
Get into the habit of exploring an idea, a composition before you begin a painting.  This can assume many forms and one or several may work for you.  These will probably be different for each artist.  There are a couple of things I do that help me get closer to success.
When I’m painting, especially en plein air, I always begin with a drawing.  It is nothing formal, not even meant to be a good drawing.  That’s not my purpose.  I’m moving the pencil around, working it out.  I’m studying the few basic values, thinking visually.  I write on the drawings, make any note that might help. I start the process in the middle of the page and draw out from there, leaving myself plenty of room to change the cropping of the image.  At this point, I don’t know the format, whether it will be a square, rectangle, perhaps a long format.  That hasn’t been determined.  I need to spend a little time with the subject and let that dictate the ratio.  This also slows me down and that is a good thing.  I notice that I have more failures when I jump in too soon.  And I have noticed this in so many artists.  We love to get right into the wonderful paint and may find out at an unfortunate later time that the composition is just not quite there.  That is no fun and it is so difficult to try to change it in the middle.  Why not begin with success?  Then you can truly enjoy the painting process with less worry because you’ve nailed the composition.  And since you’ve been practicing your drawing, no worries about getting it in correctly.  I do these sketches inside as well.
Painting one of Santa Fe’s blue doors. Photo courtesy of Paulette Alsworth.

To the left is a typical set-up for me.  I always keep these composition drawings close-by as I go through the painting process.  A little bungee cord keeps it from falling into the palette.  I learned that detail the hard way.
I also love doing tiny color sketches.  I may be preparing to attack a new subject or I may be searching for a fresh idea on a subject I’ve done often. Either way, I find it so helpful to take time to do some of these tiny studies.  I mark off scraps of canvas, or even paper to the scale that I’m thinking about.  I keep these around the studio so I can grab one that will work for a 4:5 ratio or a 3:4 ratio.  And then, I may ignore that altogether and just go for a new ratio that suits the subject. These sketches are done very quickly, no detail, no fuss, just the big ideas.  They often look more like abstract paintings than the subject I’m about to tackle. But that’s the point.  If an idea works in the abstract, it works in every way.  And because they are so quickly done, I tend to explore ideas more thoroughly.  I do these on a separate day than I’m planning to start the painting. That way, I don’t rush to decide on the composition.  I live with it a while, study it.  There is such joy and freedom in this type of preparation.
A page of composition ideas with roosters
by Joe Anna Arnett

So whether it is pencil sketches, tiny color abstractions, value compositions with markers, being prepared will not only save you from some problematic compositions, but it will advance your journey at a much more rapid pace.  That’s right.  That’s what I said.  Taking the time up front, being prepared will get you to the goal more quickly and with greater success.
The page of composition ideas shown on the right was done in oil on ordinary brown paper, brushed with shellac.  I taped off the rectangles in a 4:5 ratio for a later 12” x 16” canvas.  The sketches are only about 4” wide. Use a big brush and leave the details out.  Several of these will result in paintings later on.  This type of exercise, done on a cheap, non-permanent surface, is so liberating.  You’ll find that ideas begin to flow.
“Lunch Hunt” by Joe Anna Arnett
Oil on mounted linen –  12” x 16”  
One of the little sketches developed further.

Think about it when you wake in the morning.  What can I do to live preppy today?  Take a sketchbook on my walk?  Make notes of interesting ideas?  Take time to keep my skills at performance level?  Make preparatory drawings and studies?  Think it out.  Prepare and then go for it with great gusto knowing that you are prepared for success.
Nice going, Preppy!
 
 
 
 
 

On Craft and Art

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“Vintage Soy and Tea Rose” by Brian Cote

Today we live in the midst of a revolution of art the likes of which the world has never seen. Through the overabundance of art instruction and marketing via social media and the internet, great masses of student artists have emerged. Masses of artists created by multitudes of texts, online tutorials and workshops generated to suit the personality of and pocketbook of every enthusiast across the globe.
What has emerged is a condition of academia whereby the burgeoning artist unwittingly believes that there is a magical system of method that will mold them into a master artist. Yet the bulk of students remain students and never advance beyond craft. Although these artists may have completed numerous workshops and tutorials, they struggle to create a meaningful expression because they lack the ability to see with their heart. They have listened closely and diligently followed each process step-by-step but they have not learned to feel and experience their surroundings in order to imbue their work worth a singular personal expression. Without this quality, their art remains craft and exudes only a dry deadness and the viewer is not compelled to become a part of the artist’s world.
Art is not just what you want to paint, it is also and more importantly, what you want to say. The artist must utilize the basic foundations of art as a platform for their emotional response to a landscape, a still life or a portrait. Academia is not a means to an end, but a tool with which the student may sow the seed of opportunity to blossom into greatness.
All too often I witness students copying this or that artist and jumping from technique to technique and workshop to workshop as if they are collecting trading cards. They purchase all the latest easels, brushes and boutique paints advertised by their favorite artists. But all the while they are overlooking the point of the lessons. They never internalize their training and fail to make the processes a part of their individuality; consequently never moving beyond craft.
“In the Shadow of Summer” by Brian Cote

Great works of art are enduring because the artist has been uncompromising in their approach to express themselves fully through the language of art. They have put their blood, sweat, and soul into their work to the point where the art itself is indistinguishable from who they are and what they want to say. This kind of art speaks to us on a deep, intimate level because it speaks to us from the heart.
I propose that from the beginning of their academic training, students be coached and encouraged to pour out their heart upon the canvas. That with every step of their foundation they learn to experience the beauty that surrounds them in a way that expresses their particular perspective and personality. In this way I believe the student may not arrive at a stand-still or dead-end upon the completion of their training, but that they arrive at the beginning of art. They arrive at a place where they may create an enduring work of art which emanates the glow of their passion for life and their passion for art.