Stanley Lewis, View from the Porch, East Side of House , 2003-2006, Acrylic on canvas 38 3/4” x 48”
Yesterday I posted drawings by Stanley Lewis. Lewis was one of the influences listed by Charity Baker at the New York Studio School. Looking through Lewis’ art and writing, I found an interview on Painting Perceptions that talked about his methods, and his influences:
“[Painting from perception] often feels like a horribly impossible thing to do but you somehow do it anyway.” – Stanley Lewis on Painting Perceptions
Lewis says that one way to paint what you see accurately is to figure out the proportions and use a frame. The rectangle of the frame helps to determine the relationship where the verticals and horizontals intersect. Then you work to unify and relate the pieces spatially to each other.
View from Barn Window , 2008, Oil on canvas 14” x 14”View from the Barn Window (Detail) 2011,Oil on canvas 16” x 23 1/4”
Honestly, if I hadn’t taken Jonathan Harkham’s class I would think Lewis is talking about the standard struggle to paint as I knew it, the way I learned it in school, but these guys are using the language in a different way, their paintings have something special in them. They’re doing a different thing. It’s complicated and exciting … and I’m starting to get it.
Stanley Lewis, Still Life with Photograph of Karen, late 1970s, oil on masonite 48″ x 54¾”
“It can get very complicated; it’s difficult to explain. When you try to get everything working like this you realize that it actually can’t be done. How do you find a consistent stabilizing position? That’s what I’m interested in and that’s what I’ve been trying to do for my whole life.” – Lewis
Stanley Lewis, Corner of Connecticut Ave. and Calvert St. , 2002, acrylic on paper, 40″ x 45½”
Wilbur Niewald
Lewis worked with Niewald at Kansas City Art Institute for 17 years, and says that Wilbur Niewald, now approaching 95 years old, had a huge influence on his style, and carries the key to perceptual painting in America.
“You have got to find out about his paintings (…) Wilbur is an interpreter of Cézanne and Mondrian.” – Lewis
Following his advice, I looked up Wilbur Niewald. More in the next post.
Let’s do something simple and specific today: Draw this photograph using continuous line. Continuous line is when you don’t pick up your drawing tool once you’ve started. You can speed up, slow down, or stop, but you don’t pick up your tool. You can have up to 3 continuous lines in one picture, if you …
Before we move out of this big and beautiful space (and into a new big and beautiful space….) The Seattle Artist League is hosting a show of student work March 10, 11, 12 and we want you to be a part of it! Past and present students and teachers at the League, you are invited to …
This proclamation didn’t stop Chuck Close, who started painting portraits in the 1960s, 10 years after Pollock’s most famous drip paintings, and still during Greenberg’s reign. “I thought, ‘Well then, that field is wide open.’ And why the fuck can’t you make a portrait anyway?” – Chuck Close An informative little video WTF The quotes …
[image_with_animation image_url=”9362″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I went to see Figuring History at the Seattle Art Museum (closes soon!). Figuring History is a selection of work by three generations of contemporary black American artists (Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas) as they use their spin on white dominated painting traditions to address the white dominated …
Stanley Lewis talks about his mentor
Yesterday I posted drawings by Stanley Lewis. Lewis was one of the influences listed by Charity Baker at the New York Studio School. Looking through Lewis’ art and writing, I found an interview on Painting Perceptions that talked about his methods, and his influences:
“[Painting from perception] often feels like a horribly impossible thing to do but you somehow do it anyway.” – Stanley Lewis on Painting Perceptions
Lewis says that one way to paint what you see accurately is to figure out the proportions and use a frame. The rectangle of the frame helps to determine the relationship where the verticals and horizontals intersect. Then you work to unify and relate the pieces spatially to each other.
Honestly, if I hadn’t taken Jonathan Harkham’s class I would think Lewis is talking about the standard struggle to paint as I knew it, the way I learned it in school, but these guys are using the language in a different way, their paintings have something special in them. They’re doing a different thing. It’s complicated and exciting … and I’m starting to get it.
“It can get very complicated; it’s difficult to explain. When you try to get everything working like this you realize that it actually can’t be done. How do you find a consistent stabilizing position? That’s what I’m interested in and that’s what I’ve been trying to do for my whole life.” – Lewis
Lewis worked with Niewald at Kansas City Art Institute for 17 years, and says that Wilbur Niewald, now approaching 95 years old, had a huge influence on his style, and carries the key to perceptual painting in America.
“You have got to find out about his paintings (…) Wilbur is an interpreter of Cézanne and Mondrian.” – Lewis
Following his advice, I looked up Wilbur Niewald. More in the next post.
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Let’s do something simple and specific today: Draw this photograph using continuous line. Continuous line is when you don’t pick up your drawing tool once you’ve started. You can speed up, slow down, or stop, but you don’t pick up your tool. You can have up to 3 continuous lines in one picture, if you …
Seattle Artist League Show
Before we move out of this big and beautiful space (and into a new big and beautiful space….) The Seattle Artist League is hosting a show of student work March 10, 11, 12 and we want you to be a part of it! Past and present students and teachers at the League, you are invited to …
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This proclamation didn’t stop Chuck Close, who started painting portraits in the 1960s, 10 years after Pollock’s most famous drip paintings, and still during Greenberg’s reign. “I thought, ‘Well then, that field is wide open.’ And why the fuck can’t you make a portrait anyway?” – Chuck Close An informative little video WTF The quotes …
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[image_with_animation image_url=”9362″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I went to see Figuring History at the Seattle Art Museum (closes soon!). Figuring History is a selection of work by three generations of contemporary black American artists (Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas) as they use their spin on white dominated painting traditions to address the white dominated …