The American Art Gallery Blog

Special Announcement for September 2011 – Tara Grim Dining with Art

Special Announcements for April 9 -13 2012 – 5 Day Workshop with Robert Burridge

and April 13, 2012 Dining with Art with Robert Burridge

Tara Funk Grim Dining with Art
Friday, September 23, 2011 6:30 pm

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• Special catered dinner served in the gallery – Dinner includes wine, goodies before dinner, dinner, coffee and dessert.  We can accommodate special diet needs. $35 per person includes taxes  (nonrefundable)
• Special live music suited for the evening
• After dinner, Tara will discuss with Gallery owner Barb Dougherty life as an artist and respond to questions from those in attendance.
• Limited seating

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Special Announcements for April 2012

5- Day Painting Workshop  with Robert Burridge
Oil & Acrylic
April 9 – 13, 2012

Demonstrations, Loose Action Painting, Fix & Finishing Instruction, +a day of Plein air painting may be arranged (depending on the weather) just in time for Paint Snow Hill

For a complete biography of Robert Burridge

www.robertburridge.com

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Limited enrollment

Cost of workshop $650 for 5 Days Instruction

Robert Burridge Dining with Art – April 13th, 2012 6:30 p.m.

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• Special catered dinner served in the gallery – Dinner includes wine, goodies before dinner, dinner, coffee and dessert.We can accomodate special dietary needs. $35 per person includes taxes  (nonrefundable)
• Special live music suited for the evening
• After dinner, Robert Burridge will discuss with Gallery owner Barb Dougherty life as an artist and respond to questions from those in attendance.
• Limited seating

Registration for the Workshop

Workshop Registrations are accepted on a first-come first-served basis. The following deposits are due upon registration.

1.  A deposit of $200.00 must be submitted at time of registration with the balance due before the start of the workshop. All taxes are included in the workshop fees.
2. We offer a $50 discount when fees are paid 30 or more days prior to a class.
Mail the registration form with your check (no credit cards please) to the address shown below. A materials list will be provided after registration. $100 of the deposit is nonrefundable.

—Refunds:
If the American Art Gallery cancels a workshop, the students registered for that workshop will receive a full refund of all money paid. If the Gallery cancels the Dining with Art the registration fee will be refunded in full.
Miscellaneous:
Lodging discounts: click here
There are several listed hotels on this website in Pocomoke MD, Holiday Inn Express is the most acceptable. If you call them directly the cost is more than if you use Priceline website address above.  Princess Anne motels are a bit too far away.
Please make checks or money order payable to American Art Gallery, 211 N. Washington St., Snow Hill, MD 21863

For registration questions or comments:
Email us at barbdoug@verizon.net
Phone:
Barb Dougherty (410) 632-0278.

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Workshop Registration Form

Last Name
First Name
Phone#
Address
City
State
Zip
E-mail

• Please enroll me in the following

- Robert Burridge 5 day Workshop April 9 -12
- Robert Burridge Dining with Art April 13th

-Tara Grim Dining with Art Sept 23, 2011

• Please Choose One of the Following Payment Methods:

- I enclosed a check or money order for $200.00 as a deposit plus a $100.00 non-refundable registration fee.
- I enclosed a check or money order for Robert Burridge Dining with Art for ____ number of people.  The registration fee is non-refundable.
- I enclosed a check or money order for Tara Funk Grim Dining with Art for _____number of people

Once we receive your registration form and fees we will send you a confirmation and the materials lists for the workshop.

In April I watched two barn swallows  make a nest on top of the electric box outside the gallery.  There was no protection for the nest from the elements.  The nest just sat on the top of the box and the wind and rain whipped it daily.

The outside staircase to the second floor  of the gallery has an outdoor landing and from there I could look down into the nest.  I  left the door open on the landing because it became my habit to check the nest.   One night, the female barn swallow flew into the gallery, perched on the inside staircase and screamed and screamed. Yes, it was a scream, not a chirp, not a bird call;  it was a scream.   I was sitting at the desk upstairs and I had to pay attention because it seemed like the bird was not going to turn around and fly back out the door.  I went close to where the bird perched and it simply did not move.  It stayed a few feet away from me and kept screaming.  Rip my Golden Retriever was lying nearby on the floor.  He seemed entirely disinterested.  I began to softly talk to the bird.   She stopped screaming.  Then she hopped to the wind chimes that hang in the doorway and flew back to the nest.  I did not see her come into the gallery again.

Each day I parked my vehicle  within a few feet of  the nest.  Pulling the large old Isuzu Trooper in an out of the back alley did not bother the birds.  If it rained, the barn swallow just huddled in the nest.  Eventually at least one baby bird was born.  It was fed for several weeks and then it disappeared.  Since June, I have not seen the baby or the two barn swallows that made the nest, and now it is August.  I have retrieved the nest and am working on a painting of it.  Rip keeps trying to snatch the eggs even though they are clearly just the remnants of the bird that hatched.  I have never painted a birds nest before, but I like painting a subject that I have come to know.

The painting of the nest  is a challenge of form and color.  All of the color of the nest seems to be within it.  It is as though the deep colors from  the twigs and dried leaves that make the nest, have all been imbued with the rich colors of the fall.  Much of the nest is made of mud. The color does not have me stumped but the form does.  I love paintings where form is painted so boldly and with such strength that the entire painting is a testament to the objects it depicts.  For me this was the genius of the Fauve painters.

I love the way the Fauve artists (1905-1907) made the form of the painting of central importance.  I think the Impressionists and Post Impressonists painted in an almost feminine fashion making mood and light the central concern.   Fauve artists  ignored the mood and light and painted the essential form. The paintings were bold and masculine in comparison. Some critics characterize the paintings as having wild brush strokes.

Matisse was amongst the Fauve artists.  Other artists were Derain, Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin, Louis Valtatl, Henri Evenepoel, Jeany Puy, Maurice de Vlaminch, Alfred Maurer, Henri Manguin, Raou Dufy, Othon Friesz,  George Roulat, Kees van Dongen, Alice Bailey, and George Bracque.  My favorite artists are Dufy and Matisse. Matisse and Derain are often selected as the leaders of this short lived movement.

Here is a painting by Matisse (Portrait of Madame Matisse [The green line], 1905, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark).  I love the strong silent shapes of the forms.  The hair, the background, the eyes, every line is strong and does not wavier.  What does it matter if this is not a photographic impression?  Who cares if paint drips down her face or if the background is only fresh color.  The artist is not pretending that he has painted her portrait or represented her beauty.  The artist has simply said, see this………..this is enough.

I want my birds nest to be this kind of painting, but frankly, I do not have the courage to paint that boldly.  I take that back.  I do not know how to paint so boldly.  Matisse could draw, oh could he draw.  His drawings of nudes showed no lack of confidence.  Lines in drawings by Matisse are not hesitant. They are not made up of smaller lines. The lines do not stop and start at convenient places in the rendering.  No the line that Matisse draws starts and does not stop until the image is practically rendered with only one line.

When I was a teenager, my mother gave me a Modigliani poster.  It was the portrait of a woman. I would lie in bed at night and over and over again count the lines that were used to make the portrait.  There were only seven.  I would say to myself, “There are only seven lines that make that painting, only seven. “  Later I searched for other artists who worked like that.  That is how I discovered Matisse.  But Matisse could make a portrait with only two lines.  The only one I could find that was better than Matisse was Picasso.  Yes, Picasso could make a portrait with only one line.

I never understood why it has been said that you need to be able to draw in order to be good at painting.  Ordinarily the painter does not paint lines. The painter paints light and dark.  The painter has to train not to see lines, but to see where the light falls and then where the light fails to fall. Then the painter has to feel the shadow and feel the dancing of specular light.  I have always thought that a  painting was a rendering of the light.

Until I started to paint the birds nest I maintained to myself that you do not really need to draw to be able to paint.  But today my insight is that drawing does not teach you to see, it teaches you to feel.  If you can feel a form you can paint it with the kind of boldness of form found in the works of Matisse.

This was actually a lesson in the great book “The Natural Way to Draw”  written by the students of Nicholaides.  (http://www.scribd.com/doc/6641659/The-Natural-Way-to-Draw-Kimon-Nicolaides) The exercise in the Nicholaides book, was to hold up your hand in front of your face and in the other hand put a pencil.  Without letting your eyes waiver from your upheld hand you were to feel the shape of your hand with your eyes and let your inner mind direct the pencil in the other hand.  As you traced your hand with your eyes the pencil would render that shape on paper.  The exercise ended if you looked down at the paper.   I watched a professor of art, John C. Menahan from the University of Rochester, do this exercise.  He ended  up with a rendering of his hand that would challenge any rendering done while looking at both your hand and the rendering you were doing.   John C. Menahan, did this as a special demonstration for me to quell any hesitations I had about learning to  draw using the Nicholaides technique.  The point of the exercise was to make drawing a feeling not a looking experience.  Somehow today, I realize that if I had learned the lesson I could paint the form of the birds nest with confidence.  I could do what Matisse did.  I could do what so many of the Fauve artists did.  I could let the form of the birds nest speak for itself.

Barb Dougherty

American Art Gallery Announces Publication of a New Series of Monographs

“18 Steps to Painting the Light” is a series of art instruction monographs  with paintings by Michele Byrne.

Each monograph can be laid flat because of its spiral binding. You can proceed in a step by step  fashion to paint following  the artists instructions.  All that you need in terms of paint, brushes and canvas is fully detailed in each monograph.

In each monograph the painting changes but the steps stay the same.

Follow along as the artist creates a painting bathed in the light of the season and time of day.  Learn the basics of impressionism where the details of the painting are expressed with the strokes of a brush.

The 18 Step approach was developed and written by the team of Michele Bryne and Barbara Dougherty

Now  Available:  Only $15 each or 3 for $40 Plus shipping and handling

Monograph 1

Title of Painting: Can I Take Your Order?

The time of day in this painting is around noon.  The restaurant is serving lunch.  The light filtered into the restaurant creates a soft mood but remember that the light outside is strong and bright.

Monograph 2

Title of Painting:  On the Beach

The time of day in this painting is 9:00 a.m.  The day is expected to be very hot and people have already begun to claim their spot on the beach. There is a nice pale yellow lighting on everything and a strong light cast on the water.

Monograph 3

Title of Painting: The Outdoor Cafe

The time of day in this painting is 4:00 p.m.  The violet has not yet settled into the colors.  At 4:00 p.m.  in the afternoon there are the warm tones of the afternoon and violets in the shadows.

Ordering the Monographs

The Monographs can be ordered by calling the American Art Gallery and using a credit card.

410-632-0278

or you can send a check or money order

American Art Gallery

211 N Washington Street

Snow Hill MD 21863

The price is only $15 each or 3 for $40 plus shipping and handling (flat rate shipping Priority for 1 -3 monographs $6.95 U.S.)

Other New “18 Steps to Painting the Light” Monographs will be available shortly.

For more of Michele Byrnes paintings please visit www.michelebyrne.com

Finally in America, and in most of the rest of the world, there is true freedom of speech.  Anyone can blog.  The writing does not require an editor or a publisher.  The writing does not have to go through a process that keeps important first impressions from reaching the public in a timely fashion.  This does not mean that blogging should attack the personal reputation of another or promote rumor.  Blogging, however,  lets us speak to each other directly.  I not only want to blog;  I want to encourage blogging.  I hope you join me in sharing your thoughts, reactions and emotions.  I hope you practice this amazing gift.

Ray Bradbury said, “Love what you do and do what you love.”    There could not be a better description of my life in the arts.  When I sit down to paint time goes away.  I no longer feel my legs ache or my itching nose.  I no longer run my mind over all the things I have not accomplished.  I no longer have to work at folding my emotions and putting them on a shelf in my heart.   There is just me and the paint.

I start a painting with an idea in mind.  I start with the confidence that I can achieve on canvas,or watercolor paper, the image that sits on a screen inside my mind.  It is like I have gone to my own drive in movie.  I have parked in front of a screen and the movie begins.  I lift the brush to the canvas,  but then also the trouble begins.

I love to paint landscapes.  I start with the question,  should I use a low horizon or a high horizon?  Should I lean to the left or lean to the right?  Should I use strong color or weak?  Suddenly I am saying to myself, “What made me think that I was capable of doing this image?  I get panicked and the panic  lasts through the entire effort of trying to do the painting.   There is no time to feel anything else or think of anything else.  Thus time goes away.  Yes, sometimes I have painted from one day to the next without noticing that really dawn has become afternoon and that afternoon  has become dusk and then it is dark and dawn again.

So why do I work so hard at trying to paint a landscape that  is far more beautiful than an image I can paint?  Because inside me is a feeling like a flood.  It rises to the surface when I look at the growing fields and the woods.  It rises when I see the marshes and the waterways.  It rises when I see the mountains, and the rocks and the bales of hay or vines of grapes.  If I do not paint then the flood overcomes me and I become restless… so very restless.

Original Oil, looking at Deal Island from Rumbley  MD

This painting is one of my landscapes hanging in the American Art Gallery.

A filmmaker creates a movie, the public goes to the theater.  A musician creates and the public goes to a concert.  A visual artist work also seeks the public.  Like the musician and the filmmaker, the artist seeks the public to find support that will allow the artist to create more visual works of art.

The more the public supports the artist, the more there are visual works.   When we step back and view the history of visual images we find a wealth of cultural insight.  We learn about ourselves and our world as translated through the creative instincts of the artist.   Yes, yes, what goes around comes around.

I have so many special moments standing in front of works of art.  I remember standing in front of David Hockney’s Brooklyn Bridge.  The work is one of his images constructed with hundreds of photographs taken with a simple 35mm camera and with film developed at Thrifty’s Drug Store.  He assembled the image as a collage without care as to the final shape of the image.  The final piece is impressively large, but the borders are uneven.  I remember standing in front of it and seeing at the lower edge the  front of two shoes.   I realized that these were Hockney’s feet and it indicated where he stood as he took the photo shots.  My excitement was almost impossible to contain.  The artist had overcome the camera. The camera was a tool and the artist was the creator.  The artist had also let the viewer know that this was no ordinary image.  This was a place where Hockney had found himself and stood in a particular place.  Hockney had sent an invitation to the viewer to stand there with him.  I loved feeling invited.     (Find the Hockney, Brooklyn Bridge at this website – scroll down : // http://www.ski.org/CWTyler_lab/CWTyler/Art%20Investigations/C20th_Space/C20thSpace.html

There are more moments all of which have led me to want to share this kind of feeling.

Thus I have opened the American Art Gallery, an actual building in Snow Hill Maryland, with two floors and lots of room to display art.

I have also opened this blog to share my moments and concerns about art.

Welcome all!

Barb Dougherty