Art in My Life
Ever since I can remember art has been a piece of my life. There have been times that it has been all consuming. Other times when I've not been able to produce any work. I have always thought of art, and the craft of putting things on paper or canvas. I remember having small children and looking at leaves and mountains, mentally figuring out how to go about painting these things that I loved.
I majored in Art History with a minor in Studio Art and English. My father Donald Sykes Lewis Sr. ran an Art Gallery, Auslew Gallery, in Norfolk, Virginia. I was eight when he opened the gallery. Both my parents painted. I was surrounded with art my whole life.
When I was four years old, I contracted polio. My mother used art to entertain both my younger brother and myself with crayons pencils and paper. She even used the old card boards out of my Dad's shirts, that had come back from the laundry. We would have drawing contest. No one lost . She would always find some way to encourage us. Awarding everyone a prize of a treat. This was a way of keeping me busy and happy when the other children were running around out side. Not to be done in, I too did my share of running around, playing hide and seek, and climbing trees. I did this even with crutches and a brace on my leg. Because we were both brought up creating art works, we never gave up our art work.
While I was in College, I studied under Charles Sibley. Charles was a good friend of my father's. Dad carried some of his paintings in his Art Gallery. I remember that one day when we were still children, my brother came into the gallery. He stood in front of one of Charles' paintings. He said quiet loudly,"Who'd want to buy that, the people look dead buried and dug up." Charles was standing there for the full effect. In spite of this remark, he and my brother later became good friends.
While attending Old Dominion University, I took courses in water color, and printmaking, for some reason I did not take oil painting. Another course that I took was basic design. We disdainfully called it early morning cut and paste. Little did I know that this was one of the most valuable courses that I would ever take. It seemed too much like play. It was only many years later when working on my own paintings, that I realized how very helpful early morning cut and paste actually was.
I was able to take on balance, color, design, and depth perception without much difficulty. I also have to give credit to hanging around my Dad's Art Gallery. Dad had let a studio in the Gallery out to a portrait painter, Ted Tevis. Mr. Tevis took me under his wing and gave me instructions in perspective. He went to great pains to show me the vanishing point using strings to extend lines well off the paper where I was drawing. I was about fourteen and thought that he had gone way far to extreme; however, it was a lesson well taught. I learned about aerial and atmospheric perspective in my Art History classes by observing older paintings and having my Art History Professor, Parker Lesley, point this out in Renaissance Art.
One weekend with my family that I particularly remember, Dad brought in easels, oil paints, and the whole family painted together. We used photos from National Geographic Magazine to paint from. I painted a Greek fishing boat on a beach. Dad took time to instruct. We all enjoyed the process and being together.
I also remember a time even earlier when I was recuperating from one of my operations. Mother gave me paper a pencils and had me draw a china cat that my grandfather had given me, She showed me how to look a something that I wanted to draw on paper. After trying very hard and with much erasing, I turned out a nice drawing of this cat licking his paw. I still have that drawing somewhere. It was hard won. I was about eight years old. I was proud enough to put it in my scrap book. One other thing that I tried as a young child was painting by numbers. I failed miserly, because I could not just fill in the spots. I had to do one better. The vase of flowers ended up to be not a paint by numbers, but a Leigh original.
Charles taught me to be free with my art. I took water color from him. I learned to let the paints flow, and that there happy circumstances that happen in art. You take advantage of these rather than trying too hard to control the paint. I have not done water colors for years, but when I start my oils I am able to use my brush work casually almost abstractly in the early stages. The tough part is knowing when to quit. It is so easy to over do a painting.
Well after college, Charles spent a weekend in the country with just my brother and myself. I believe that I used water colors that weekend. I sketched some with water color crayons applied water and let it run. My colors were bright and fresh.
I drew the flowers from the garden. This led me to doing several free water colors of fresh flowers. I'd plant my gardens with my paintings in mind. Dad told me to studying the flower paintings by the impressionist artist, Henri Fantin-Latour. He was known for his flowers. I copied his work in order to learn how he did his flowers. Another thing that aided both my brother and myself in our painting skills was the fact that we both did restoration of oil paintings with my Dad in his Gallery. In order to do in painting, you have to be able to match your strokes to that of the artist. You learn a lot about painting doing restoration.
My younger brother Donald Sykes Lewis Jr. actually started painting after he finished College long before I was able to begin. He encouraged me to pick up the brush and canvas. But it wasn't until my youngest son Lewis was in school that I decided that I could go back to painting.
I wanted to paint in oils. I had no training in oil painting. I needed to understand the basics of the medium as well as the process. I decided to go back to school to study oil painting. At the time I was living in Williamsburg at the time. I ended up picking up a class at the College of William and Mary. My doing this was not quite far to the other art students also taking the class. I was able to devote a lot of time and thought to the class as it was the only one I was taking. I was also raising three sons and running a gift shop, although I did have ladies working for me at the shop.
When I do my paintings I paint from photographs. I like using them as a guide not a bible. Photographs are not true to life. If you copy a photo, your paintings will be too surreal or photo realistic. I use photos as a jumping off place. I like my art to have atmosphere and express my feelings about the subject that I paint.
One time years ago, a friend of mine looked at one of my paintings and said that the background to the still life that I was working on seem to have movement to it. The atmosphere around us is not still. Why should the atmosphere in a painting appear flat? A flash of light, a passing cloud, a breeze all cause motion. I now rarely do still life painting preferring do Landscapes. Painting landscapes Plien Air, is difficult because you are constantly chasing after a fleeting moment only to have another flash before your eyes. When I paint from my photos, I am able to take these flashing moments and compile them into an impression of the time.
I have studied nature and the world around me for great lengths of time. Sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle, I have glazed upon clouds and mountains, fields and rivers, gaining a perception of the way things are, and how nature works. I learned to see what is really there. If you really look you will see the orange glint off of the trees as the sun sets, the sparkle of flowing water and the haze lying close to the shore line or shrouding the mountain top. I remember being with my grandparents and hearing my mother's father say as we looked at sunset over snow, "The Heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." I suppose that somehow I am trying to pay tribute to the beauty of our world and to the heavens. I love nature. When I could still walk I took great joy in walking up into the woods and hills, beaches and shores. I loved the woods of Vermont and Virginia. I have been privileged to have live in two of the most beautiful states. Also have been blessed to be able to have traveled across our country.
So, sometimes you just have to push yourself to do your art. No excuses, just do. I once said I thought that if God has given you a talent that you should not waste it. That it might even be a sin if you waste a God given talent. I need to practice what I preach.
To get going with my paintings, I get out the paintings that I have been working on, and set them against a piece of furniture across the room where I can critique them. Getting away from your work always helps. My studio at the moment is a drawing table in my bedroom. I always back up and look at my work as I paint. A funny thing that I do is to squint at my subject matter and at the painting in progress. I used to be near sighted, and never used glasses when I painted.
After studying my paintings, I'll pick up the painting and be able to adjust a little something here and there until I get it to look the way I want. I usually do this with all my pieces. These are the final touches that make a painting. This also keeps me from over doing. Knowing when to stop is an art. A painting can go from nice to over done in an instant. Unfortunately this can still happen to me.
I remember meeting one of my good friends for the first time. We started talking and discovered that we both pursued the art of painting. I told her that I was an artist. She replied that she was a REAL ARTIST. This took me back. I can imagine that my mouth hung open. Was she insinuating that I was not a real artist? Now that I think about it some 15 years later, what she meant was that she took art seriously as a full time pursuit, not just some hobby to be replaced with another. There are so many people who play at art. Neither she nor I played at our art. It was serious business that we both pursued with a passion.
We have grown with our art in very different ways. I have tried to continue painting no matter what my circumstances are. There have been times when I could paint with out interruptions as a full time job. During this time, I grew and produced a great number of works. There was a show in Richmond where we both took our paintings to be displayed. The show was judged and awards were given. I only received one ribbon during that time. I'm not sure that my friend received any. It did not matter. The shows were once a month,and we continued to try. This gave us the incentive to paint more and more. We are as different as night and day, but we are and continue to be REAL ARTIST despite all odds.
I've been in an artist block for a while. Blaming being busy or not being able to concentrate, but maybe the truth is that I have not made time for doing what I love. I have been having difficulty starting and even sustaining an art project. Painting has taken me through some really tough times. It helped me get through my divorce and raising three sons as teens alone. Art is my Salish. It has been my refuge from problems. It has allowed me to regain what sanity I could garner in troubled times. It has kept my calm. To paint one does need a clear mind. I have never before had to contend with a crowed mind. Recently I've been thrashing around mentally trying to find myself with my art. I have problems keeping on track. Because I need to keep track of what is going on with life, taking care of my mother and working at our shop. Some times I get brain overload. After work and after dinner when I could possibly find time to paint, I tend to have no energy or creativity left. Writing definitely helps. I can share ideas and memories this way. I have not been able to find something to paint that I can get inspired about. I've been toying with the idea of doing something that is more modern than the impressionist landscapes that I have done of our area. I keep failing with abstract paintings. They are not easy to conceive. I tend to be a perfectionist. I guess after conquering the color green, which in itself is a real feat, I am just sick and tried of green and trees. I needed a new challenge. Lewis suggested icebergs. Wow, why didn't I think of that.
Once I start painting something that I love from nature, I become fascinated. I can not wait to get home and finish fixing dinner, so that I can work on the next painting. I have done several paintings of snow in the past and icebergs were not that different in concept and color.
Having a mission really gets me going.
I've been collecting pictures on line of icebergs. In the news there has been a lot about the fact that with the warming, the glaciers seem to be calving off icebergs at a phenomenal rate.
So with the idea fresh in my mind I got on line and ordered new or at least more and newer art supplies. Among these several colors that I felt necessary to add to my palette for painting Icebergs. Just writing about it makes me feel cool. Everything arrived a while back and I started my first painting.
Looking up photos of Icebergs on line just fuels my the enthusiasm.
There is such a wide variety of forms, shapes and colors. Daylight,
night, even northern lights, what inspirations to draw from.
For the last few years I have concentrated on taking care of my Mother and on our business. Between these things and trying to manage a home that has some sort of order, I have found very little time for myself. Recently Lewis, my youngest son, suggested that I start painting a series of paintings of icebergs with the idea that I would prepare for a show of my work. Now, I have a purpose for doing my art.
I ordered canvases and fresh paints, as well as a few good brushes. My art has always paid for itself, ever since I first started painting. I remember sending one of the first paintings to my Dad's gallery to be framed. He called me, and said, that a lady had come in and had loved my painting could he sell it to her. I was amazed that someone would actually buy one of my paintings. This happened at a time when I was recuperating from surgery and going thru a divorce.What a boost to my ego.
I should have remembered that my art work had gotten me through the trauma of my divorce. It had allowed me to clear my head, and relax. Why I had failed to make time for my art? It was beyond me. Maybe having a new purpose to paint was a way for me to remember that art is one of the best therapies available. It's cost was off set by rewards both physical and mental. When I practice my art I relax totally concentrating on the task at hand of rendering my subject onto the canvas. I have realized that my work is spiritual as well as physical. I am putting down the subject, but also I am projecting part of my spiritual feelings unto to canvas or board with my paints.
Painting Icebergs....Who would have thought that would get me excited about my art again. I went on line and found all sorts of images of icebergs, ice flows and Glaciers. I took the images and had them blown up to a manageable size. I used these as a jumping off point for my paintings. These were my inspiration. I can not always go to the locations, where I want to get my photos that I work from. I am limited because of my mobility. I have always been a keen observer of nature.
My advise to anyone wanting to paint is to start. The first steps must be taken in any endeavor. You have to start or you'll never do anything. Once you start it is amazing what can be done.
No comments:
Post a Comment