Tag: painting

Fa-Flex

The propaganda aspects of a lot of renaissance art has been lost to the more casual peruser of paintings and sculpture. The shorthand of what they were doing has now become that Michelangelo, da Vinci et al were presenting the physical ideal. The ideal being equated to something to strive for regardless of its impossibility.

Part of the magic of painting which started with the immediate precursors to   impressionism (Courbet, Fantin Latour, Millet) was that they were begging to slowly move away from the subjects when not a still life or landscape being restricted to  those of myth, biblical or historic. The heroic, idealized.

When the Nazi occupation of France became inevitable there was a scramble to get the high profile residents, thinkers, politicos and artists to safety. Matisse was on this list. At the last minute he backed out of fleeing, saying:

“If everyone who has any value leaves France, what remains of France?”

After the fact asked to expand upon what he meant in greater detail he cited culture not personality as what he had been getting at. If the abstracts which gives us pleasure, define us and add to us are gone then what is the point?

Unfortunately in current times art and culture by default often is associated with an elitism. Art has a duty, not in the sense of promoting a message or agenda though. Now is the time for any who can, to create something of beauty. And if you can’t, it is of equal importance to appreciate and enjoy it.  The purpose art and beauty can serve now has changed since the renaissance. None of it should be tied in with any sort of “ideal”. It represents something not necessarily perfect, an impossibility to be striven for but rather something outside of ourselves, the “I” becoming part of a greater whole.

This should bolster the thought that no matter how bad things get, we all have to live with ourselves when it’s over and back to normal. Paraphrasing Matisse’s train of thought, to lose what we value about ourselves as a society just to stay around, well what would be the point?

W.Wolfson 2020

“Fa-Flex” Watercolor & French Cotton Paper 7×10

 

Fa-Flex

 

 

by Wayne Wolfson

Blue Pillows

With my work, I prefer a certain degree of density. The great thing about watercolors is that they allow for this density but in conjunction with a delicacy inherent to the medium.

Often I like the viewer to feel as if they are ease dropping upon a scene. It ads to the emotional cadence of a piece to not have anything explicitly spelled out. When walking through Paris, one will see these little vignettes play out in endless variations, their true meaning unknown to all except the direct participants.

It is a give and take as equally, I have found myself a player on this urban-impromptu stage. Being watched as I lean against the balcony railing, doing dishes in the back-facing kitchen or sitting up late at night reading in bed, mine just another square of light and gentle activity among the mosiac.

This piece is 9×12 watercolor & multi media paper.

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Not Cool

I read a lot. I mix it up though, not sticking merely to one type of thing. One genre that I like to read is biographies on artists and/or artistic eras and movements. It has become much easier to appear in print, especially if one has a hook such as “Secret Lives of …”, so I highly recommend reading up on whether a work of non fiction is accurate or not beforehand.

Having read all the better biographies on the impressionists it spurred me on to seeing their work in person. Their works retains an emotional power, sometimes more than that of a few of the modern masters who came after them. Even with this retention of power though, their work has lost its “dangerous” aspect. Unless well versed with their era, looking now at a Monet or Renoir one would never suspect how they had upset and scandalized Parisian culture.

Matisse who proceeded them had similar problems. After a small showing of some of his works, newspapers said that the colorful “blobs” were germs and that viewers risked catching something by viewing them.  This taunt would even be repeated while he was within earshot in the streets. Looking at his works now with their radiant joy and color, it’s difficult to imagine that they had at  one point been considered scandalous.

All of this underscored what I had already known, I would rather put my energy & attention towards creating as I want, rather than trying to be “cool” or cutting edge. Today’s “dangerous” (which seems to go hand in hand w/ “cool”) work is destined to not necessarily become unappreciated but most likely made safer by whatever generationally comes down the line.

A then radical innovation I cribbed from the  Impressionists which many painters I admire continued with  is the  painting objects & people from my every day life. I do not look for the drama but rather the real and let the truth supply the emotion.

I have an ongoing Series titled “A Valentine of Sorts”.  All the pieces are 5.5×8.5 and compositionally, are often a small section of a larger scene (i.e just my hand instead of my entire body, just a glass instead of an entire tablescape). Their commonality is in being things from my every day life, observed and then captured.

“Her First Docs”  Watercolor & Paper 5.5×8.5

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by Wayne Wolfson

Trufb Theninggin # 2

This is the second piece in a series.

Watercolor & French cotton paper 7×10
The size I choose for my works is intentional. I want the viewer to feel as if ease dropping on a scene.

As important to me is the new or first time collector.
Art collecting has become for the average citizen nearly unobtainable. This is because of a pervading bigger is better mentality. Not all people have gallery like wall space to work with. I keep in mind the apartment dwellers and first time art investors.

Space aside, burgeoning collectors are just starting to form their taste. A large piece runs the risk of informing the aesthetics of what to collect. I want my audience to live with my work, not under it.

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Paint It Britain

I was very pleased that for January 26 my painting “(Self Portrait) Black Eye” was chosen by Paint It Britain as their painting of the day. It is 5.5×8.5 Watercolor & Paper.

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Si G

This is 9×12 Multi-Media Paper & Watercolor. It is spiral bound but not perforated which means every piece must carefully be cut out of the book with an exacto knife.

I sought to capture the merging of public & private emotions that played upon the face in this piece.

SiG

by Wayne Wolfson

Macaroni & Pancetta

Everyone’s face is akin to a great symphony. In constant flux, this ever changing canvas upon which we paint our feelings, secrets and ambitions never ceases to fascinate me, nor compel me to capture it. W.Wolfson

 

Watercolor & Paper 5.5×8.5

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by Wayne Wolfson

Sabre Dahnce

The shock on their faces as she broke into her famous sabre dance, then after we ate kabobs while listening to the soft laughter of the rain hitting the streets and the murmuring of a phone left off the hook.WWolfson

9×12 Watercolor & Multi Media Paper

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Two Pieces

After painting for a few years and garnering some chops, i notice that while my voice is ever present in my work(s) different paper have their own inherent properties. The characteristics each paper brings to a piece is akin to a spice intentionally added to a dish for a desired effect.

 

Here are two pieces I did in same week:

 

“Hey” 5.5×8.5 Watercolor  & Paper

 

“Soak” 9×12 Watercolor & mutli media paper

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

She is Tall

I like my pieces to exude the feeling that one is a voyeur into a scene. I try to not rigidly state what the viewer is seeing. Pleasure, pain, either or so long as emotion is present.

 

7×10 Watercolor & French Cotton Paper

 

 

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by Wayne Wolfson