Goodbye, Nathan

http://www.crownpoint.com/files/images/angelrocker_lg.print.gif


Nathan Oliveira
Angel Rocker, 2005
Color sugar lift aquatint with aquatint and drypoint
Image Size: 45 x 36"

I was about to write a post about how Nathan Oliveira influenced my work.


Influences are inevitable. One of the pivotal experiences of my art career was an off-campus residency with Nathan Oliveira at the Santa Fe Institute of Art in New Mexico. Although almost twenty years have past, his emphasis on "letting the form emerge" is burned into my psyche. That concept guides my work today and probably always will.


When I searched for links, I found this one:

In Memoriam: Nathan Oliveira 1928-2010

Tears welled up in my eyes and a hole opened in my gut. I felt like I'd lost my shining light. Even though we hardly corresponded, his importance to the artist in me was monumental. Nathan transformed my artistic practice from intellectualized to passion-driven. He emphasized credibility, the importance of process, and the concept that content and painting go hand-in- hand. His ideas will remain center stage in my practice.


Goodbye, Nathan. Your influence will carry on.




If you would like to read more about Nathan Oliveira, click on these links:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/november/nathan-oliveira-obit-111710.html
http://www.conversations.org/story.php?sid=79
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seed/nathan-oliveira-19282010_b_783995.html
articles.sfgate.com/2010-11-19/bay-area/24839837_1_arts-and-crafts-modern-art-richard-diebenkorn

Five Quick Sketches

Quick sketches are just that. Quick and not preconceived, they are rough and free. The work says more about the moment than about "good art." Are they whimsical, scary, or menacing? You be the judge, and send me some comments.

Study 6

© 2011 Kathryn Dettwiller

Charcoal and acrylic on paper

26 X 20"

Study 11

© 2011 Kathryn Dettwiller

Charcoal and acrylic on paper

26 X 20"

Three Blind Mice

© 2011 Kathryn Dettwiller

Charcoal and acrylic on paper

20 X 26"

Fret

© 2011 Kathryn Dettwiller

Charcoal, pastel and acrylic on paper

26 X 20"

Study 11

© 2011 Kathryn Dettwiller

Charcoal, conte and acrylic on paper

26 X 20"

Meanwhile Back at the Farm Studio, I have been very busy.

• Archiving my work has taken much longer than I ever expected. The process of selecting and culling, the schlepping of work and supplies to and from storage, the wrapping and detailing of work, the database work, photographing and Photoshopping...has been a monumental task. That says nothing about the emotional roller-coaster that many of the works generated for me.
• I responded to an RFQ. That is really time-intensive!
• I was selected to participate in Creative Capital's Professional Development Program (a weekend immersion in career matters for working artists). Creative Capital was brought to Nashville by our Arts and Business Council. My experience at the Capital PDP workshop stimulated a rethinking of my art practice, and I'm working through various iterations of it.
• Life and death matters, family, and just plain living took time, too.
• And, I have continued to show up in the studio. These quick drawings are meant to tap into that ever present ticker tape of information running in my mind. They are meant to be Brain-Drain work, but there is little doubt that reviewing past artwork has reprised some shapes and forms from deep in my memory bank.

Here are three:

Study 4

© 2011 Kathryn Dettwiller

Charcoal,acrylic,conte on paper

26 X 20"

Study 14

© 2011 Kathryn Dettwiller

Charcoal,acrylic,on paper

26 X 20"

Octopi

© 2011 Kathryn Dettwiller

Charcoal,acrylic, on paper

20 X 20"

Paint, Paint, and More Paint

In an earlier post I remarked that I was ready to paint again with vigorous, big strokes. That meant OIL PAINT.
I haven't used oils in years.

When I began using encaustics in 1996, I was smitten. I left my old medium, oils, for a new one. I loved encaustics then and I still do, but the limitations of the hot wax make it challenging to work in a larger scale. The wax hardens before I can make a long stroke of paint.

Then I unpacked my oils. Yikes! Absence did not make my nose grow fonder. The odor was so pungent that my allergies rebelled.

But, I reasoned, oil paint is compatible with encaustic paint.

So I squeezed out some oils, heated up the wax, and painted. The painting was awful. The surface of the painting was gobby, the design poor, and the smell of the oils made my head hurt! I'd been away too long, and now the odor was a problem. I put the painting away.

Still yearning to paint boldly, I remembered an old stand-by of mine---black and white tempera paint. Powdered tempera is a liberating medium since it is quick to dry, can be made thick enough to have some heft, and it's cheap.The flip side, though, is that it can be brittle when dry. The first "Brain-Drain" painting, Study #2, was crumbly and fragile when it dried.

©2011 Kathryn Dettwiller  Study # 3, Charcoal, Acrylic on Paper,

26 x 20"

Since I had acrylics on hand, I thought they could substitute for the tempera. Here I worked some black and white as well as colored acrylic into the charcoal base layer. The finished work is now mostly acrylic paint without the brittleness of tempera.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Page

Richard Serra, September

Intellectually, I know that there's nothing new under the sun. But the scope of visual influences astonishes me. My last post image bears a too-canny resemblance to a photo in April's issue of  ARTnews, featuring Richard Serra's drawing retrospective exhibit at the Met in New York.


When I saw the magazine last month, I saved the article and put it aside. In it the writer detailed Serra's choice of media...ink, charcoal, paint stick...which are materials that I use quite often. Obviously, the visuals imprinted my brain.
Alas, Alack!!

Granted, I thought I was sourcing from my unconscious when I stepped up to my page. I guess in a way, I was. But today, when I sat down at my studio table, it was clear: Richard Serra's drawings spoke to me in a visceral and compelling way. He is quoted as saying that drawing is nothing "less than a language and a way of seeing and thinking." I understood his language.

Why I Don’t Draw Much in a Sketchbook

Artists are supposed to keep sketchbooks. I do. But mine is filled with more words than pictures. I discovered a long time ago that I like to work with shapes and lines that flow into and out of shapes. Plus, I really like to work standing up and with some degree of size, so that I have to use big arm movements to fashion an image. Using paint to make those big shapes is a better fit for me.
This spring I have made a number of quick drawings/paintings that represent a kind of brain-drain. The paintings are spontaneous with no preconceived imagery. They are mixed media on paper, generally about 26” x 20”.

©2011 Kathryn Dettwiller, Study #2, Charcoal, Tempera, Acrylic Medium  
26 x 20”