Tom Buechner: Sorrowful News

It's with a heavy heart I share this email from Lin Gardner, the director of West End Gallery, sent out yesterday...

West End Gallery Artists

Although some of you may already be aware of this, it is with great sadness that I am writing to let you know that Tom Buechner is very ill and is not expected to live much longer. He was very recently diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. We can take some comfort in the fact that he is not in pain and is sleeping a great deal. The family has asked for privacy at this time. This news has taken us all by surprise.  He will be greatly missed.  We will keep you informed.

Lin


I've known Tom was sick for a few weeks now; learning just how serious his illness was last week. May is usually the last month of the "Friday Night Portrait Group" before breaking for the summer. Tom painted the first two Fridays, but said he didn't feel well. The third Friday he was in the studio instructing but didn't paint. The last Friday is usually a critique and he was unable to attend. 


I had planned on writing an entry on the May class for West End's blog, and took pictures to illustrate it. Not sure if my heart is in it now.


Please send all your prayers and thoughts to Tom and his family.

An Invitation to Arnot Art Museum Gala

Our local art museum, The Arnot Art Museum, has had a Gallery Gala every year since we moved here. Then there was some sort of restructuring,  work was done on the museum and John O'Hern left - not necessarily all related, I don't think. This is the first Gala in a couple of years. They have renamed it. Now its to be known as "Framed".

When we first moved here ten years ago we received an invitation to attend. It was a very nice night, a chance to meet people and look at some great art by local, and not so local, artists. The quality was very high.  Over the years I've come to know some of the big names showing: Buechner, Poole, Gardner, Myers, Keeler, Ziegler, etc.  To make a long story short one of my goals was to be invited as an artist to show in the Gala. This year the invitation arrived. 

The show will run the 5th of June to 9th of July 2010.  It is a silent auction format: 50% and 50% to raise funds for the museum. To celebrate my invitation I've uploaded some stuff from sketchbooks. Most are from the model, but some are from TV. 

Acting on advice from Morgan Weistling I'm trying to draw AMAP (as much as possible). My friends think I'm nuts, and it does kind of kill the continuity of a TV program to freeze the frame and run off a sketch. Thats why I just channel surf boring programs with the sound off looking for heads. It doesn't always work; sometimes I'm drawn in anyway. You might recognize Lyoto Machida (never boring) or a character from The Tudors (Showtime). But a couple are from commercials or HD programs. 

Tom Buechner's Friday Night Class: First Session

http://www.westendgallery.net/

Contour Drawing

Last Friday Thomas Buechner's portrait class started. It runs from October to June. My friend Bruce was kind enough to share his 'slot' with me. (There's a waiting list.) We alternate Fridays. The model for this month is a young teen, the daughter of one of Buechner's more famous models - Sonjia.

I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to this. Mondays I study with Dustin Boutwell and my plate is pretty full for the rest of the week. Tuesday is catch-up (framing, painting.)Wednesday is our nude model session, Thursdays I generally go to Ithaca for another model sesssion. Saturday's Open Studio at 171 Cedar Arts will be starting up. (Saturday is also a bird hunting day.) My Sundays in the fall (and spring) are full of soccer and coaching soccer. So the idea of painting Friday nights didn't have me too excited. But -after attending the first session with Tom Buechner I was excited.

I wasn't sure if Tom remembered me from past plein air sessions, but he did. The classes are held at his home on a hill high above Corning, NY. I arrived a few minutes early, which was fortuitous. Tom was able to introduce me to his studio assistants Eric and Maria and generally orient me as to rules and procedures. In order to get the full benefit of the sessions he suggested I paint his way, just like in a workshop, then after a while I could decide if I liked it.

His studio is amazing, and amazingly organized. There are hardwood floors, a wall of northlight windows, shelves of books on various painters (all arranged alphabetically of course) a model dais and mirrors and reflectors and painting materials...go to his website and you'll have a neat view of the space. Tom moved his giant Hughes easel out of the way to accomodate the class, and he painted from his ancient Jullian. Most of the students brought Jullians, though I did see a Soltek. Everyone present had been painting with Tom for years. There's no conversation except on model breaks and he plays opera over a state-of-the-art sound system. Oh, and turn your cell phone off, please.

My position was beside and slightly ahead of Tom. We were all squeezed in pretty tight and it wasn't a full class. Photos with no flash are allowed, so after every break I grabbed a few. I couldn't help but notice on the wall behind me a large blue ribbon. It was an "Award of Merit" from an OPA show.  I asked him what he'd submitted and he said he didn't know, that Eric and Maria go through his paintings and pick one out. He's received it in the mail recently. Jeez.

The way Tom explained his method of portrait painting to me was this: the first class draw a contour of the model on your surface. Then fix it at home. then stain it with a wash of yellow ochre and Ultramarine for a weak green. The next session is for painting the extremes of light and dark using Tit white or Naples yellow and a dark. After that he said we'd get into full color and half-tones.

The Contour is supposed to be a "road map" with no modeling whatsover. I hadn't spent three hours drawing one contour in years. Through the first break and most of the second I worked to place the head and shoulders in my rectangle. After I was happy with the position I started the contour in earnest. Generally if doing this on my own I'd make marks to place the bridge of the nose, zyphoid notch, jawline etc. Tom didn't want that and made me erase it. He also said my lines were waaaaay too heavy (at one point asking if I were doing stained glass). I struggled to reduce them. At the end of the three hour session I had a reasonable likeness. Sonjia, the model's mother, was appreciative of it. One thing the exercise did teach me is how easy it was to lose a likeness; one second it was there and the next subtle correction it was gone....

Tom has some great stories to tell and a lifetime of information to impart. He seems to have either taken a workshop with everybody famous or he sat next to them at a dinner party. He doesn't drop these names boasting, but in conversation while making a point about painting. During this session I learned he sat next to Richard Schmid at a dinner years ago, and had a very long conversation with him about painting. He's also told some funny stories about workshops with Kevin Macpherson, and contrasted styles of artists with Nelson Shanks. Stories like these bring the art world to life. I'm left wondering if he has any Hopper or Wyeth stories to tell. I don't know, hell, maybe he has one about Homer or Eakins.

As I said in an earlier blog entry Tom has a retrospective currently at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. There is a piece about him in the October issue of American Art Collector Magazine. His October show opens this Thursday at  West End Gallery in Corning, NY. Last week I was previewing the show and got a jolt as I noticed something. Tom must have been pulling out some very old photo references because he has a beautiful portrait of a girl about 12 or 13 years old. The same girl modeled for us recently. Now she's a 22 or 23 year old woman. Upstairs from Tom's show at West End I'll have a nude painting of her sitting on a diving board. Pretty cool.

American Art Collector: A Review

"There's gold in them thar hills."  Unknown


In October of 2005 a magazine unique to the art world was launched. Published by the same outfit that does International Artist it's aim was to bring collectors and galleries and artists together. The magazine is image rich (appropriate given its purpose), intelligently laid out, generous in its size and a pleasure to browse.

The title of this entry is  misleading; while I'll be blogging about the magazine, this isn't a Review per se. A few weeks ago I began 're-viewing' my copies of American Art Collector  starting at the beginning, Issue #1. There are 48 issues so far, and I'm at #28. Besides being great inspiration and motivation, the magazine is important to me as an artist because it educates me on the Domain of Painting.

Every art has its own domain and part of the education process is learning that domain. The art of science has its domain, business has a domain, soccer and sports have a domain, just about every activity known to man has a domain - including 'Fly Catching with Chopsticks'.  It supposedly takes ten years to (ahem) master the domain. This includes mastery of craft. And there are circles within circles in each domain. It's been said the average age of the Nobel Prize winners in physics has continuously increased because the Domain of Physics is getting so huge it takes more time to master.

Painting has its own domain encompassing pretty much all of Art History, Art Theory and Craft Mastery. I believe a painter should be a student of painting and its history. A painter should be able to recognize a Turner or a Caravaggio. They should know where oil painting originated (Northern Europe) and why Durer went to Italy. A painter should have a grasp on the natural sucession of artists from way, way before Giotto right through to Pollock, Porter, Wyeth and beyond. American Art Collector Magazine is the beyond.

AACM has contemporary realist painters and sculptors - contemporary meaning of our time right now. I think it tries to showcase the best painters and sculptors working today in the realist tradition. There are no conceptual artists, fiber artists, abstract artists, video artists, or any artists of that ilk. In some of the first few issues I noticed a photographer here and there, but that has apparently been discontinued.  After the first year a special section on sculpture was added.

Every month I eagerly await, then slowly savor each issue that arrives in my mailbox.  Galleries take out huge full page and half page adds on upcoming shows.  Various featured artists are interviewed and their work displayed. This mag is not a 'how-to' like American Artist.  This is a glorious display, the best foot forward, a gallery walk and studio tour.  This is a  slice of some of the best  painting in America today.

A Warning: don't expect any deep analysis on the art or artists. I do like the fact that I can check out prices artists are charging for their work, sometimes even comparing prices from previous years.  This info is for the collector to determine appreciation (never depreciation), but it's valuable info for artists too.

Recently the magazine has changed in a subtle way. I've been trying to nail down exactly what changed, but have so far been unsuccessful. Perhaps its a new editor who has shifted emphasis subtly.  I do know there used to be photos of the artist's studios, and that seems to have been dropped. (As an artist I love to see other studios.) Perhaps the quality of the art showcased has dropped. Reviewing issues, as I approach October 2009 I find my self less wowed by the work. Flipping pages I'm thinking "cliche, cliche, derivative, oooo bad" more and more with only the occasional "HOLY SMOKES".

Some Observations :


Joseph Todorovitch preceded Jeremy Lipking in the magazine.

Jeremy Lipking's first painting in AACM was a landscape.

Danny Mccaw has almost disappeared from the magazine after dominating early issues.

I find something distasteful in Chinese painters using Tibetans as subject matter.

John O'Hern is a contributing writer (editor?) to AACM. He was the director of our local Arnot Art Museum until recently. While there he put together an annual show called "Representing Representation". Unfortunately he has since left the area. Fortunately he still writes for American Art Collector.

Tom Buechner has a retrospective at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia and he's showcased in the October 2009 issue. I'm painting with TB and hope to blog a little about it.

Robert Liberace is rarely mentioned. Wonder why?

In the US the most important galleries for representational painting are located in NYC, Atlanta, Charleston, New England Coastal, Scottsdale AZ, Laguna Beach and LA. OK never mind, that's pretty much a duh? observation.


I'm continuosly flummoxed by the fact that people actually buy still lifes of grapes and fruit and wine bottles and cheese and vegetables and meat....????


Artist Don Huber grows on you. I like him. He's taken out a full-page ad in the mag from, I think, Day One.

Conclusion: If you're an artist painting in a representational manner  - subscribe to this magazine.  If you love representational painting - subscribe.  American Art Collector is NOT like International Artist or American Artist, etc. There is no talk of how to paint, it's simply a glorious celebration of the paintings themselves.  Oh, and by the way, it's monthly.

Schmid's Alla Prima

Lately I've been dipping into Richard Schmid's Alla Prima, a book Marty Poole turned me on to about seven years ago. At the time I had no idea who Schmid was, probably because I was painting in watercolor. But I had started experimenting with oils and asked Marty for advice. He said to get a copy of Schmid's book and then to pay attention to color, drawing, edges, and values. Good advice from two great painters,. but for various reasons I gave up on oils until 2007.

Anyway...Schmid's book. Tom Buechner and I were talking yesterday about it. I told him how amazed I am every time I open it. Schmid is like this Zen master. There's a minimum of BS and he tells it like it is. He never says "My way or the highway", he just says "this is what works for me. Try it." My copy is paint stained and underlined. It's a book that keeps on giving.

For example at one point he talks about curves, in particular curves on the figure. They are rarely as 'curvy' as we want to make them. And to draw them accurately draw them as straight lines. OK, I've read that how many times and yet it never lit up for me until I tried an experiment. Since about January I was drawing from model books - some very good model books. I decided to draw a figure then trace it and compare my drawing to the tracing. Lo and behold I'd exaggerated almost every curve: The line dropping from the shoulder to the wrist, the hip, the calves... it was another little epiphany.

When I say he's like a Zen Master I mean it. Compare "Concentrate on the breath. When your mind wanders bring it back to the breath," and "Start with the simplest shape. Get the drawing of this simple shape correct, then move to the next simple shape, piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle." They both sound so easy...

Very First Post

I blame Dustin Boutwell for this. He's the artist I've been studying with for the past 13 months. I always take time off during the summer from his class because the summer can be hectic with two kids. There's swimming lessons, tennis lessons, soccer camps, etc. Six weeks ago I asked Dustin for a "report card", not so much looking at what I've accompished, but how do I get where I want to go. He came over to the house last week and we talked and looked and talked about painting. During that time we touched on the business side and he suggested a blog. So here i am - blogging. But I'll never twitter.

Since this is The Beginning I guess a quick update on my background is in order:
After graduating from Penn State in English, I looked around and decided to join the Coast Guard. That way I could earn money to pay off student loans and learn how to drive a boat. Ahh youth - I thought it was important to learn that. Seven years later I was coxswain of a 41, could fight a fire on the ocean, navigate, read a chart, run a search pattern and get my crew home safe. I also learned how to chip paint, tie knots, tell a short lobster from a legal lobster and fish for stripers. Then the fun went out of it - it was time to move on.

A quick relocation inland. At this point I married a wonderfully awesome woman I'd been dating for ten years. We'd known each other since high school and started dating in college. The two of us weren't just lovers but best friends. Marriage. Now I needed a new career. At first I tried Deputy Sheriff but moved over to Deputy Coroner. This was to be my career. We bought a house, planted a perennial garden and lived the DINK life-style. (DoubleIncomeNoKids)

At this point I should probably mention something about Art. Ever since I can remember I've drawn or painted. I visited galleries, read books, kept a sketchbook, did the portrait thing as gifts for family and friends. In the Coast Guard it passed the time, plus there were some great subjects. While in the Coroner's Office it helped balance the negative of dealing with death every day. I can remember buying my first real watercolor set: enameled steel Winsor & Newton half pans. When a friend of mine found out what I'd paid for it he thought I was nuts. Then I mentioned what he paid to trick out his Harley.

So after five years of marriage it was time for kids. No... more like Time For Kids. Connor was born at 1030. I remember the neonatologist turning to me and saying, "Welcome to Fatherhood. From now on you'll be known as Connor's Dad." How true. Big changes. Then my wife lost her position and we knew we'd have to move. More changes.

We ended up leaving the perennial garden, our first house and my career behind. More children were planned so it was decided, after mucho discussion, that I would be a house-dad. Neither of us wanted somebody else (day-care, babysitters, nanny) to raise our kids and we had no extended family to lean on. It was a new chapter in our lives.

Flash ahead one year: Here we are in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. My son is a toddler and we have a newborn daughter. I'm dying here. Stuck in the house, no local friends, diapers to change, bottles to warm, TeleTubbies on the tube...it needed a lot of estrogen and I had very little.

My wife came to the rescue. She was happy in her new position working on her career, meeting people and making friends. She saw me stuck at home slowly going insane and had a brilliant idea. We were walking around a neighboring artsy town at Christmas time. As was our habit we popped into a local gallery. She was quiet inside the gallery, and when we came out she turned to me and said, "You know you could do that." Ah-Ha One of those life-changing moments. Did I mention she's my best friend?

To make a long story short, I worked on some watercolors, approached a local gallery, and was accepted. The paintings sold. Actually this story in itself is kind of interesting and informative. I'll save it for another entry.

Three years ago I switched from watercolor to oil and seriously ramped up my seriousness. The kids were older, Connor was 9 and Jillian 6. They were both in school, doing well, and I needed to start making some money from my art. I joined a portrait group, began attending live-model sessions, and studying with Dustin. In the fall I also start studying with Tom Buechner. Right now I consider myself a student. Actually I'll probably be a student for life and that's a good thing. In this blog I hope to explore and chronicle this journey of being an artist. I'll talk about and post my paintings, some stuff I've learned and the people in my life. We're all helping each other to move to the next level. I'm going to try to keep the bullshit down. I'm going to try to keep it focused on art, though don't hold me too close to that. One vow I will keep is NO POLITICS. It just pisses me off and brings out the worst.

So my hope is that you will be slightly entertained and informed. Enough about you. I hope I'm entertained and informed by this too. Hey, it's my blog!