"I am an Impressionist in the sense that I am too impatient and emotional for carefully planned formula renditions...
I respond intuitively and I am interested in strong essentials,
which for me are perspective, color, spontaneity, passion, power and poetry..."
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The essence of Impressionism is to make a fast statement, to suggest a lot of detail without painting a lot of detail. The important thing is the tactile quality and the color.
Light is the spark that makes it (a work) come to life. In my painting, I lay the light on last, almost as if it is the sun beating down… forcefully, directly, full brush
Art is more than painting, it is emotion…inspiration. I take the essence of the subject in note form and pencil draft…then later recall the memory, evoking spontaneous brushwork. When I am totally engrossed in what I am doing, as if nothing else exists… painting can be a spiritual experience. The more I enjoy myself, the better the work.
Sometimes it's almost like an out of body experience. Hours will go by and I don't know where they have gone. The floodgates open and my painting is finished.
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Drawing is I think, the basic element in fine art. I mean drawing in the true sense, in the old academic sense. To be able to do a portrait, a figure, a nude, and have it right the first time.
If you can draw spontaneously, without the use of a rubber eraser just to do it and get it done and it's finished, that's what I am talking about. Without touching it or retouching it. That is I think, the measure of the artist. |
Painting is an extension beyond that, but without the ability to draw it will lack spontaneity and vitality required in any representative or impressionistic painting.
When I choose a scene, a landscape for instance, I sketch quickly perhaps several sketches on site, and make color notes. Then, when I am back in the studio, I simple sketch with paint right on the canvass.
Sometimes a very quick painting turns out to be a masterpiece. I like spontaneous brushwork, the direct approach. A nice juice painting. Little fiddle brushwork bothers
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