Hello friends, time for a new show announcement that I'm very excited for.
I have recently joined a new organization called the Missouri Valley Impressionist Society, and I am so happy to announce that I've had three entries accepted into their 10th Annual Juried Exhibition at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, Missouri.
The show runs from November 19th through January 9th, 2022, and the opening reception will be held on Friday, November 19th from 4-7pm at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum.
I entered three paintings, and all three were accepted. I hope those of you in the area will be able to visit the show!
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Water and Spirit
oil on panel, 8x10"
2021 |
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Hideaway
oil on linen, 11x14"
2021 |
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The Passage
oil on linen, 16x20"
2019 |
This year, I made the decision to forfeit my membership to NOAPS, the National Oil and Acrylic Painters' Society because I really did not feel I was getting the most out of that organization that I wanted. I had been a member since 2015, but had very little to show for it in terms of show acceptance and success overall. And I simply felt it wasn't for me at this time. Although, I do appreciate the opportunities and small successes that I did have as a member. Perhaps another day I will consider rejoining NOAPS.
Joining MVIS has been on my mind for some time now, but I never got around to doing so until last month. I don't consider myself an "impressionist" painter necessarily, especially when it comes to my figurative work. And I know that MVIS doesn't necessarily disqualify any artists on that basis. They simply require that your work be in a representational style. But to me it seems more fitting if it is impressionistic since it's in the name, afterall. This is one reason I have begun focusing more on landscape and nature as a subject in my work. The subject lends itself to such a style and technique, and recently I've been exploring the many different textures and effects that my brushes and other tools can create on the painting surface, not to mention color and light. Lately, I have been very interested in the idea of creating definitive focal points, and painting scenes of nature the way our eyes see nature. When our eyes are looking at something, they are focused solely on that particular thing, and everything else is in our peripheral vision - off to the side and out of focus. What matters in that moment is what our eyes are focused on.
Recently, I was looking through Richard Schmid's Alla Prima book and found a painting of his that captures perfectly what I'm talking about. It's a 2006 landscape of his called Captain John's House:
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Richard Schmid
Captain John's House
oil on canvas, 11x10", 2006.
p. 139, Alla Prima II |
The clear focal point that Schmid wants us to look at is the house itself, while everything else in the rest, and majority, of the painting is very loosely sketched in. From the trees and minor buildings in the right background to even the bits of grass and small twigs in the foreground. None of that matters to the eyes when they are focused on the house. This scene is painted to simulate the way our eyes focus on things.
Schmid has defined "impressionism" very simply. To paraphrase him: "Up close, nothing. Standing back, everything." I honestly see that as essential painting altogether, not just in impressionism. Paint is naturally an abstract material. Beyond it being pigment and binder, it has no rational meaning until it is manipulated in such a way as to represent something else. So this is the definition of all representational painting.
You can always tell an artist when you see him at a museum. He'll be the one trying to get as close as he possibly can to the painting to study the brushwork and the goobers of paint before some museum staff member walks over and tells him to step back. Everyone else is there to look at the paintings, and usually from a distance. Because unless you are an artist, who cares about what the paint looks like up close?
Well, this went from being a simple announcement about this upcoming show to a philosophical tangent about impressionism and representational painting. So I'll stop there, and just say this:
November 19 - January 9, Albrect-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, Missouri. Hope you can make it!
