Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
D
uring sluggish economic times such as these, the need for frugality can sometimes lead to
greater overall moderation in thoughts and in actions. In a way, such moderation is a moral
undertaking, as lessening one’s excesses can lead to a greater understanding of oneself and of
what is truly valuable. These concerns bring to mind the archetype of the starving artist, although
it may be a romantic conceit. I recall a friend once remarking (in the economically robust 1990s,
nonetheless) that artists shouldn’t make a lot of money, because the accumulation of wealth can lead
to complacency and loss of resourcefulness. My friend may have been right. The artistic process, at
least in most traditional media, requires only a moderate investment of material resources—with
just a few tubes of paint and a bit of raw canvas an artist can create a whole universe. The artist’s
more substantial investment is in his or her careful attention to craft along with a sincere search for a
genuine self-expression informed by a spirited exploration of life. These aspects of the artistic under-
taking are essentially nonmaterial. True artistic expression is, by nature, alchemical—a transforma-
tion of nonverbal, often illogical, at times accidental, intents and processes into something singular
and unified.
Zeuxis, an association of still life painters, recently played with the idea of humble beginnings in
their exhibition “The Common Object.” This is an intriguing title, given that paintings are gener-
ally considered to be a rarefied, rather than a populist, item. The participating artists were asked to
create a still life incorporating the most utilitarian of objects—a kitchen dishtowel. The show offers
a meditative alternative to some of the art world’s more excessive spectacles. By focusing on the trans-
formation of unspectcular elements into subject matter worthy of artistic engagement, “The Com-
mon Object” reveals how the processes of artistic transmutation can alter our view of the world. The
On the Line
by Catherine Kehoe, 2009, oil on panel, 8 x 8.
CaTheRine kehOe
“Painting is all very difficult!” Catherine Kehoe exclaims. Kehoe’s
“And it doesn’t get any easier, because as I begin to master Materials
some aspect of the medium, I set different standards for
pAlette
myself. The standards are all internal. I don’t need anyone
■ Indian yellow
to tell me what is strong and what is not. The voice within
■ cadmium yellow
is loud and clear—it banishes all other voices from the
pale or lemon
studio.”
■ cadmium yellow
Kehoe’s painting On the Line is a forceful study of form,
■ cadmium yellow
color, and movement through the classic motif of drapery.
deep
Like Karnes, Kehoe pushes the envelope on the depiction
■ cadmium orange
of the banal by hanging her towel on a clothesline. Baroque
■ cadmium scarlet
drama meets domestic drugery as Kehoe stages a domes-
■ cadmium red
tic sacrifice signaled by the splay of the towel—a loaded
deep
gesture that recalls Francisco Zurbarán’s The Martyrdom of
■ alizarin crimson
Saint Serapion.
■ dioxazine violet
Kehoe works mostly from life and uses photographic
■ ultramarine blue
sources for certain groups of paintings. She notes that
■ cerulean blue
working from photographs expands the possibilities of
■ viridian
subject matter. “Photography is a tool we have at our
■ cadmium green
disposal as painters,” she says. “It was important to me
pale
that I not attempt to copy photographs but use them as a
■ sap green
source to make paintings. It is not easy to keep the painting
■ raw umber
part foremost when using a photographic source, although
■ burnt sienna
many of the painters I admire most find ways to use pho-
■ perylene crimson
tography to serve their painting.”
■ quinacridone
Kehoe arrives at something she wants to paint intui-
red
tively. Usually it takes a few days for her to come up with an
■ quinacridone
arrangement, and often she will need to tell herself to stop
violet
arranging and begin painting even though she isn’t con-
■ phthalocyanine
vinced she has found something worth depicting. “Some
blue
days I move things around and nothing looks interesting,”
■ phthalocyanine
she says. “Other days everything I place in front of my eyes
turquoise
excites me. I am not sure why my response is different each
■ cobalt teal or
turquoise
brUsHes
About the Artist ■ Utrecht Kolinsky
Catherine kehoe received a B.F.A. in painting from sable brights,
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, in Boston, Nos. 10 through
and an M.F.A. in painting from the School of Visual Arts, 16. These allow
in New York City. She has received numerous awards, for crisp, narrow
including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and has lines, as well as
participated in many exhibitions, including several solo broad shapes of
shows at Howard Yezerski Gallery, in Boston, where color.
she is represented. She teaches painting at Massachu-
sUrfAces
setts College of Art and Design. For more information,
■ 4"-x-6" panels
visit www.catherinekehoe.com.
and paperboard
JaniCe nOWinSki
About the Artist Like Miller, Janice Nowinski always works from direct
Ruth Miller holds a B.A. from the University of Mis- observation. Still Life With Fork is a study about the im-
souri, and she also studied at the Art Students League mediacy of perception—a record of how one actually sees
of New York, in Manhattan. She has exhibited at the and comprehends life as it unfolds. The setup is just a
Lohin Geduld Gallery, in New York City; the Eleanor jumping off point for Nowinski; what she is painting is
D. Wilson Museum, at Hollins University, in Roanoke, her experience. “I am not trying to do a realistic depic-
Virgina; and The Alexandre Hogue Gallery, at the Uni- tion of the still life,” she says, “but instead to recreate my
versity of Tulsa, in Oklahoma. She has taught drawing experience in front of it, whatever that may be.”
and painting at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Her work is foremost about painting and its unique
Painting, and Sculpture since 1973. Her work is in the plastic language. Tonal relationships, gesture, and compo-
permanent collections of such notable institutions as sition are the ascendant concerns in Nowinski’s process,
the Delaware Art Museum, in Wilmington; the University and her work references Cézanne, Jean-Baptiste Siméon
of Delaware, in Newark; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Chardin, and Chaïm Soutine. “Painting and drawing are
Washington, DC; the National Academy, in New York inseparable for me,” the artist says. “Each mark I make is
City; and many others. drawn and painted. I paint without preconception.”
Light is important to Nowinski, and she prefers the
Nowinski prefers working on linen prepared with with Winsor & Newton and Blockx oils and Silver Brush’s Mixed Flowers With Towel
rabbit-skin glue and oil priming white and uses the Grand Prix bristles (filberts and rounds). For small plein About the Artist by Sharon Yates, 2009, oil on panel,
10 x 11.
Raphael Kaerell No. 10 synthetic brush. She notes that air paintings she uses archival Arches Cover paper stapled Sharon Yates holds a B.F.A. from Syracuse University and an M.F.A. from Tulane
she uses one until it wears out, usually in a month, and to a board. She primes her paper with two coats of Liquitex University, in New Orleans. She has recently exhibited at First Street Gallery,
then starts painting with another one. “They are like gesso followed by two coasts of matte medium. When her in New York City; and at several galleries in Maine—Northern Tides, in Lubec,
the poor man’s sable brush!” she says. “I like working painting is complete, she removes it from the board and Dowling Walsh Gallery, in Rockland, and June Fitzpatrick Gallery, in Portland.
with a small brush because I often make linear painting mounts it on a Masonite panel. ■ Yates is an academician member at the National Academy, in New York City, and
moves and I feel more connected to the marks on the a professor emeritus at the Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore.
canvas.” Michael Gormley is the editorial director of American Artist.
56 American Artist Reprinted from American Artist: Copyright © 2011 by Interweave Press, LLC. All rights reserved. www.ArtistDaily.com www.ArtistDaily.com February 2011 57