Creative Artists: Geoffrey Johnson

In an attempt to be more creative with my painting, I am doing a fair amount of research and web browsing to discover something that will spark new ideas and concepts. Over the next few months I will be exploring and experimenting with new concepts as well as keep up my normal painting schedule. I will post the things I find interesting along the way.

When first stumbling on this concept of creative representationalism, one artist in particular came immediately to mind. Geoffrey Johnson, born in 1965, is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy, the first and oldest art school in the US, and has been selling out his shows for years now.

Born in North Carolina and now I believe living in Georgia, Geoffery has an extremely compelling style that fuses still urban landscapes with the movement of figures and crowds. He began his career by painting landscapes much like the one below and eventually began incorporating figures which were soon coupled with monochromatic urban scenes, creating a style and concept that is all his own. Geoffrey's work does border the fine line between aesthetic and representational art, but I doubt there is a collector or gallery that wouldn't love to have one of his works in their collection.

Check out more of Geoffrey's work through his galleries: Principal Gallery,  Shain Gallery, & Hubert Gallery


More thoughts on creative art:
I believe the art community, and myself, should limit ourselves to a strict criteria when it comes to creativity. It's easy to see that modern art has opened the doors to just about any material and technique. While this might make it easy to develop something unique, it might not be creative. Anyone can strap some neon lights and paint on a canvas, or drip paint from a pendulum suspended over a canvas, but that doesn't say anything about our past as painters,  our skill and technique, or the exact feeling and message that we are trying to convey (unless it's chaos). If we limit ourselves to classical techniques and materials, we can insure that our work will stand upon the shoulders of the old masters, as well as the test of time.

Brad Kunkle's work (as described in the post below) uses gold leaf, a technique that was used in the Egyptian pyramids and ancient Rome. The use of gold and oil paint together has been used for centuries, and Brad isn't the only contemporary artist doing it, but he was able to add his own creativity and a high level of skill to create something entirely new.

Graphic designers and agencies do this every day, and in some cases the best advertisements take a unique spin on something common or classical (I saw the below Billboard for McDonalds in my town the other day . . . It's a good example). Imagine if the marketing world took hold of the concepts of modern art, we would probably see car salesmen trying to sell cosmetics by screaming at women and slapping colorful starbursts all over. But yet we see in every makeup ad the idea of "natural" beauty and clean, soft light, as if every model is a Greek goddess (and you too is you buy the stuff).

This narrowing down of materials and techniques (which is still very broad) will produce a potential for higher creativity than would otherwise be possible, and could also gauge what is "acceptable" representational creative art. From an investment point of view, collectors are concerned with the whole gamut of art history and how an artists work fits into it. We have all seen artists fade in and out of popularity, catching the latest trend or it's resurgence. If an artists work could be in sync with the foundations of classical art, while still bringing the current world and his personal thoughts into it, then he has a much better shot of becoming a "new master".

As in my past post, I don't think a painting needs to be more than paint on canvas or board, the use of other materials like gold, silver or who knows what else may be a rough road to travel. As we have seen by Geoffrey Johnson and countless other artists, creativity and sound technique is all you need to create something worth while.

Where is the Creative Art?

 Gustave Klimt

A couple weeks back, I saw posted on Facebook that it was Gustav Klimt's birthday (July 14, 1862) and it immediately made me think of the countless times that I have recently heard the comparison of contemporary artist Brad Kunkle's work to Klimts. Being very familiar with Kunkles work, I decided to learn more about Klimt to make a comparison for myself.

  Brad Reuben Kunkle

Both artists use gold leaf and oil paint together on canvas, and both focus primarily on the female figure/portrait (which is probably the most common and popular subject matter). So, past this use of gold, I really didn't see much unique similarities that would justify the hype.

The more I looked through the various paintings, the more one major thought came rushing to my mind. Whether you like their works, or think they are similar, I think the greatest point is that they both are doing more than just painting reality, they have gone a step further and added creativity. Design, simplicity, materials, composition, abstraction . . . these are all elements within their work, and also considerations and judgments that they planned for well before starting to paint.

 Gustave Klimt

I am a firm believer that a painting (or "art") needs to be nothing more than a glimpse of the beauty in our world. Whether an exact representation of the subject or the artists judgment on what elements are specifically important. Both of these general approaches encompass the majority of paintings in the "non-modern" art world and I'm happy to spend hours looking and creating them. But I now see that although the majority of these types of artistic works are filled with great brushwork and exquisite renderings, they may lack the creativity or maybe even better said, the potential for creativity that limits them from being ageless masterpieces.

   Brad Reuben Kunkle

This creative touch that is so apparent in Kunkle's work (and so non-existent in most of today's popular representational masters) has really got me thinking, and a bit convicted, that I could go further with my art and pay more attention on the design and concept of a piece. I bet that if artists took the time to be more creative, we would see greater individuality and perhaps a monumental new era that could stand up to the 19th century masters or in some respects the Modern Art age that predominated the 20th century and today.

 Gustave Klimt

The shift to be more creative in the late 19th century (that Klimt was clearly a part of) was taken to the extreme and spawned Modern art. Losing almost all technique and natural beauty, modern art became only creativity and the striving need for something unique and shocking. Maybe this time around, with the right combination of technique and creativity, and maybe with the help of artist like Brad Kunkle, we can actually get it right.

 Gustave Klimt

  Brad Reuben Kunkle

Note: In the late 19th century, Klimt was highly rejected for his paintings. The main cause of this was for his erotic and overtly nude pieces. I am personally discouraged by this strange association with nudity and sexuality to highly creative art. I feel that these additions pushed art toward the shocking and obscene that modernism was hungry for. This ever growing rise of nudity in both modern, and in some cases, classical art is desensitizing our culture and instead of conveying a new and undiscovered beauty, it is stripping beauty away from intimacy and personal relationships and slapping it onto canvases to be shared with the world. This is strictly my own opinion, but for fear of adding to the noise and problem, I err on the side of caution and stay away from it in my subject matter.

Rebecca, 9x14

Just finished this little painting of my sister-in-law Rebecca. I've been working on a huge painting of her for a long time now and I need to keep taking breaks from it so I don't go crazy. I think this little painting will act as a good study for me, there were some problems that I solved that should help with the big one . . . it's always hard for me to play around, or try out different things on a big painting. I get scared of building up to much paint, or wasting a big canvas, but with these little paintings, I could care less if it doesn't work out and I can always just throw them away if I'm not happy. I wish I could get my head to think like that for the big ones too, I bet the outcomes would be even better (and quicker).
 
I was planning on taking more photos throughout the painting, but it moved pretty fast so I only got three.

Inspiration: Sir Frank Dicksee

I just stumbled on a collection of paintings by Sir Francis Dicksee and saw some really great paintings that I was completely unaware of. I didn't know much about him or his work, and previously thought of him as a genre painter and member of the pre-raphaelite movement. Upon reading his biography, he apparently only has a loose association with the movement – mostly because of his general style and popular genre paintings like the Romeo & Juliet or Othelo works that you most likely have seen.

Francis Bernard Dicksee was born in London, 1853. He studied in the studio of his father, Thomas Francis Dicksee, who painted portraits and historical genre scenes; he then enrolled at the Royal Academy in 1870, was elected RA in 1891, and became it's president in 1924. Through some early studies with Henry Holiday, a designer of stained glass, Dicksee grew to enjoy the decorative and detailed aspects of painting. With the further influences of Fredric Leighton and G.F. Watts, Dicksee filled his wonderful compositions with orchestrations of color and elaborate detail.

It's because of this attention to composition, detail, and decoration, that I find it an inspiration for my own work. I can't imagine the amount of time and devotion that went into these paintings. I consider them masterpieces and I hope to someday create works that warrant the same title. Although I personally like a loose, painterly style, I admire these works very much, and feel that they still have plenty of exquisite brush work that is generally unnoticeable in much of today's "classicism" and photo realism styles.

Other interesting historical notes is that his sister Margaret Isabel and brother Herbert Thomas were also painters, along with his uncle John Robert Dicksee and his aforementioned father.

Sir Frank Dicksee passed away suddenly on the 17th of October 1928.

 For more on Dicksee, check out the Art Renewal Center info

Wet Paint: Repose #1

Just finished this little painting. Been wanting to do it for a while now, but kept feeling like the larger paintings should come first. This is the kinda stuff I really love to do and I think I'm going to bust out a couple more before I embark on some more bigger canvases.

Max Turner

Max Turner is an instructor at the California Art Institute; other faculty members include artists like Tony Pro, Glen Orbik, Ryan Wurmser, and many other greats. I first saw Max's work several years ago in his self-published book Faces. When looking at his charcoal head studies, I instantly thought they were reminiscent of Nicolai Fechin.

Max's world is all about faces. As a child, he would rummage through the trash, looking for the popular fashion magazines of the day, just to get a glimpse of the latest cover illustrations by Harrison Fisher or Jon Whitcomb. He was born in the small, and art baron, town of Bingham Canyon, Utah, and was a soldier in World War II, a printer, machinist, foundry worker, and eventually an instructor, artist, and sculptor.

There isn't much about Max or his work on the web, but after seeing the below photo on Tony Pro's Facebook profile, I was reminded of his drawings and set out to find his book and to see more of his work. His books, which now include Faces2, and Figures & Faces are not available through any means other than from him directly.

Without knowing any of his contact info, I stumbled across a site called Bonanzle which was selling some drawings and paintings under the name Max Turner. After contacting the seller, I found out that it was actually Max himself and I was able to purchase a book and a head study from him. The below image is a photo taken of my new drawing which I just got put in a frame.

It amazes me that Max, along with probably hundreds of other great artists are fairly unknown and unrecognized for their work. It may be the cost of being a teacher, and not a gallery artist, and perhaps they just live on through their students (Tony Pro, Jeremy Lipking, Aaron Westerberg and others in Max's case), but in any event, I wish they were more known and rewarded.

For me, my most influential teacher in art school was Brian Jekel. I can't imagine the sacrifices he has made just so young artists like myself could be set on the right path . . . I hope to someday make him and my other instructors proud by becoming the type of artist they dream of for their students.

Jeremy Lipking Demo

I went to Arcadia Gallery this Saturday to watch a demo by Jeremy Lipking. There were at least 50 people crammed into the gallery for the 2 hour demo, and after almost the first hour being taken up by set-up, discussion, and the initial stages of painting, Jeremy was still able to get incredibly far with it (The photo below is the final painting).

In the crowd I also saw Michael Klein, Dorian Vallejo, and several other artists. If you haven't had a chance to view Lipkings current show, try and make it down to the gallery, or view the paintings at Arcadia's site by clicking the "current exhibition" link. Thanks to Steve and the rest of the team over at Arcadia for making this event possible, it was a real treat.

Painting in FAV 15% in Fine Art Studio competition

My painting July Serenade was a top 15% finalist in the Fine Art Studio's online painting competition. Check out all the great paintings here. Congratulations to the winner,  Aaron Westerberg, with his painting Going Out. The Judge was William Wray, a really cool urban landscape painter that is also the illustrator responsible for that awesome Ren & Stimpy style and those "gross" detailed illustrations that I always loved seeing on the show.

Aaron Westerberg

William Wray

Bill Wray (He goes by Bill as an illustrator)

Day in Vermont

I had the privilege and honor of spending this past Monday up in Vermont with some great painters (and ticks, mosquitoes, and black flies).

I joined Daniel Keys, Michelle Dunaway, and Putney Painters: Rosemary Ladd, John Smith, and Lori Woodward Simons in the town of Ludlow to paint an amazing apple tree in bloom, and then later in the day, a picture perfect farm (with clothes on the line!). Throw in a little lunch and antiquing for future still life elements, and it was just about a perfect art day.

Daniel Keys was up giving a workshop at the Village Arts of Putney, and from what I heard and saw, anyone would benefit from the insights and techniques of quite possibly the next big "master". Keep an eye on this guy . . . his amazing still life's are just the beginning.

Michelle Dunaway was most recently a finalist at the Portrait Society of America's annual competition, and her body of work is truly some great inspiration for me (and for you) as I try and focus on more figurative works. (that's Rosemary Ladd standing next to Michelle above)

Above is all of us lined up along the road painting the large apple tree, and below are the two studies that I painted (about an hour and a half each), definitely rough and not frame worthy, but hopefully they are either a good start or color reference for some final paintings.

Schmid on patience

I have been working on a very large painting for just about 3 months now. I am determined to get it just right, and I'm going insane, painting and re-painting one section of the face in particular for the last month and a half. I only spend about 8 hours a week on it and I'm working at a crawling pace to make sure I'm doing it right. Before this crawling pace, I had re-painted the head about 20 times, expecting that each time I scrapped it down and re-painted it, the right strokes would just flow out as easily as other parts of the painting.


It for some reason made me think of Richard Schmid and his writing about patience. He touches on it lightly in his book Alla Prima, but when grazing through the book, I couldn't find what I was looking for.

After some searching, I found it in a word document I made a few years ago compiling Richard's old "Notes from the Hayloft" that he used to write on an older version of his website.

. . . some measure of perseverance and tenacity is necessary at various (and often unpredictable) times throughout a painting. Sometimes things go smoothly and I can simply enjoy what I am doing. Other times I slam into a problem and the only way out is to slow down to a crawl, concentrate until my teeth hurt, and bring every faculty I have to bear on getting exactly what I want, no matter how long it takes. It's more than simple endurance. It's real mental effort and the inspiration fairy has yet to appear at such times waving her magic wand of easy solutions. I alone must solve my problem. I have to clear my mind of everything else, think hard, analyze, explore my options, plan a strategy for the immediate situation, and then do whatever it takes. Sometimes it means scraping off what I have done and starting over again and again.

It looks like I should finish the painting sometime in the next week or two and I'll be so happy when it's done. For the rest of the spring, I will be doing some smaller paintings and some plein air . . . which I can't wait for.

If your interested in Schmid's old "Notes from the Hayloft" check out the wayback machine and click through the old versions of his site: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://richardschmid.com

Harold Speed on Modern Art

I am slowly working my way through Harold Speed's book, Oil Painting Techniques And Materials. I'm only through the first chapter but there are some great quotes and content that I want to share before I forget them.


I have never been fond of swearing (most likely because it was never used and punishable within my home growing up) and Harold, while talking about modern art, tied the two together so well. Hopefully the below quote will make you think twice about swearing, or encourage you to expand your painting "vocabulary" (or if necessary, both).

The use of swear words by ignorant people is quite excusable, because they have not the wit to use, or the knowledge of, just those words which would forcefully express what they want to say. And failing to give their expression the force they desire by the legitimate use of words, they throw in some nasty expression of entirely alien association, like a bad smell, but calculated to give a shock; which gives them the satisfaction of having made a forceful remark. The violent use of colours and forms adopted by much so-called advanced art nowadays, is just like these swear words. They want to create a sensation, and not having the wit to use the wonderful instruments of expression that are at the disposal of the modern artist who is prepared to follow the straight and narrow way, they would destroy the restraints of tradition and rush to the use of swearing yellows and screeching reds, of clashing lines and jarring planes, in lieu of anything really forceful to say.

Making Oil Paint

I mainly use Gamblin and Winsor & Newton oil paints (I also use some Rembrandt, but the quality is noticeably different). I recently saw a Discovery channel special on the making of Gamblin paints, and it got me wondering if Winsor & Newton manufactures paint the exact same way. Luckily, I found on YouTube an episode of "How it's Made" (another Discovery channel show) featuring the Winsor & Newton process. After watching both, it is clear that although the process of making paint is the same, it seems that Winsor & Newton focuses much more on exactness, quality control, and lab testing. This is probably tied closely with the fact that Winsor & Newton is a much larger company and has a reputation as the "best" oil paint to keep up. From a personal, hands-on point of view, I like each brand for their own qualities. Gamblin has a generally fantastic consistency and transparency, but Winsor & Newton's colors seem purer while the consistency is a little thicker with less transparent in some cases (which may be tied to the actual pigment, not the manufacturing process).



To really study the options and differences between these brands, I've ordered their hand-painted color charts (which I honestly didn't know existed). This way I can put the swatches side-by-side and make sure I'm choosing the right brand for the right color.

For the Winsor & Newton click here
And for Gamblin, go here and at the bottom you can send an email requesting one.