Roses by Samuel John Peploe.  [1920-1925]. 

Studying art always presents fantastic surprises. This morning, I discovered a still life by Samuel Peploe, a Scottish painter in the early teens of the 20th century.  Now, I’m on a quest to research all of his work, sketch and study his techniques.  Its evident during the early 20th century the linear and edgy influence of cubism in his work.  In the 1920’s it seemed his work began to smooth out, yet adopt many of the geometric principles are still utilized. 

                                                              Still Life of Fruit,  Samuel Peploe

I’d like to share the Google image search of Peploe and roses - it’s a visual fireworks show of hundreds of beautiful floral still life.  Has the textural and brushwork of Cezzane and the bright hues of Kandinsky.  Peploe’s use of dark blacks in shadowing and edges brings the light whites and cream colors alive.  Something I don’t think I have the courage to attempt in my work. 

                         Roses in a Brown Jar by Samuel Peploe

National Galleries of Scotland has a nice collection of his work.  I’m off to grab some pastels, a pad and experiment with some of Peploe’s concepts. I’ll post some pictures later.

What do you think of his work?  Let me know your reactions.

La Bellezza della Toscana (The Beauty of Tuscany)

  I had originally planned to compile all of the travel paintings from a summer trip to Italy later this summer.  After seeing the pictures, the Facebook posts from friends and artists in Italy who have been devastated by recent earthquakes, I rushed to put this together to try and do something to help.  Even while writing this and compiling pictures of paintings, I read of another aftershock (5.1 magnitude) earthquake struck in Novi Di Modena in Emiglia-Romagna  (News Link).

                                                           Montalcino Watercolor, ©Accorsi Studios.

Catholic Relief Services has a operative in Rome - Caritas Internationalis where people can donate to help.  CRS has the highest percentage of funds that directly help the poor and traumatized in the world and I have worked with them for over 15 years.  If you would like more information on how to help - click here.

  I have compiled more than 20 paintings that are finally home from a show and will donate 10% of all the proceeds of sales of these paintings to CRS’s relief effort in Rome to help earthquake victims, children and reconstruction efforts. 

                                               ITALIAN PAINTING GALLERY

                                      Vinyard di Montalcino, watercolor on paper. ©Accorsi Studios. 

                                                ITALIAN PAINTING GALLERY

  My family and I spent a vacation together in Montalcino during the summer of 2007.  Each morning I would wake up before the full sunrise to walk to capture the beautiful landscape of Montalcino and its vineyards while it too was still sleeping.  The only movement were the old ladies making breads in the dimly lit bakery.  Along the ridge near the Rocca di Montalcino fortress at the top of the town, I would sit and sketch privately for hours.  The colors of the landscape seemed to be more brilliant before the hot Tuscan sun bleeched their hue.  Trees seemed to be red, orange and violet at their base.  The fields a cool blue and olive vermillion.  The distant mountains were violet and light blue in the distance.  The floor of the valley beneath Montalcino looked as if it were a quilt of yellow, olive, and orange patches woven together with light rises of hills in between.

                                                           Montepulciano, crylic on canvas. ©Accorsi Studios.

     Take a look at the Italian paintings that were inspired by this trip.  I will donate 10% of the proceeds to the CRS earthquake relief effort in Rome.  It is such a beautiful place full of heartfelt and passionate people.  Thank you for supporting art and helping people recover in Italy. 

       Essence of Montepulciano. mixed media and collage on canvas. ©Accorsi Studios.

                                                   ITALIAN PAINTING GALLERY

 Female Model, 24x30, Oil on Linen

by Michael Accorsi

Peruse Jason Juan’s expressive, figurative work with your favorite music playing and glass of wine - it’s an experience within itself. I had the opportunity to interview Jason this past week for EIL - enjoy!

MA: Tell us a little about your art background and studio. Where do you do most of your work?

Jason Juan: I recently moved to Bay Area. The art scene is still new to me at this point. For the last nine years I lived in Seattle and worked with Eastside Artists Collaborative, Gage Academy of Art, and Art or Not Terminal. I learned a great deal at EAC which is run by Larine Chung. We started to incorporate windows with natural light to the settings which create the best quality of lighting on the subjects.  

                                               Artist, 12x16, Oil on Linen

Artist is a portrait of my artist friend. It is such a joy when a painting got done so smoothly and everything just feel right. If the setting and lighting are right, the painting is halfway done. When I was painting him, he was actually drawing as well until the last ten minutes I asked him to look at me so I could finish the eyes.

MA: Can you tell us the methods you use to start a large work?: (sketches, smaller mock-ups, etc.)

Jason Juan: Before I paint a large sized painting, I prepare a smaller oil sketch usually around 9”x 12” to 16”x20”, or Charcoal/Pencil sketch which is usually 8.5”x 11”. With large work, it has to be done in several stages. I prefer to paint straight for a few hours so the canvas is still wet or wait for another week until it totally dried so I can work on it again. Sometimes sandpaper is used in the process especially for the smooth area such as skin before I put another layer of paint. I also paint over my old work a lot if some of the abstract elements in the old work is something I was to help in the composition for the new painting.

                                            Temptation, 24x30, Oil on Linen

Temptation is a painting I developed from a quick sketch at one of my drawing sessions. The primary sketch is pictured below.

MA: What I enjoy about your figurative work is the interplay between realistic classical figurative work, then some interpretive contemporary twists and loose styles – how does this ability to have versatility work for you?

Jason Juan: I believe the contemporary twists and loose styles you saw in my paintings were from what I learn in Chinese calligraphy. Chinese calligraphy contains many elements which I feel has big connection with human figures, and sometimes I even feel they could be the same such as certain curve lines, compositions, and the power of the strokes.  

                                           Figure Sketch, carbon pencil on paper  

MA: Are there any contemporary artists that you admire or made impressions on your work?

Jason Juan: There are many contemporary artists who have inspired my work. Here are just few of them: Chuck Close, Lucian Freud, David Leffel, Jeremy Lipking, Nikolay Blokhin and Carl Jackson, who is one of my instructors in school, and he shared personal and painting experience with me while I was learning to draw between 2002-2005.

                                             The Light #3, 22x28, Oil on Canvas

MA: Where can interested collectors see and purchase you work?

Jason Juan: I worked on both traditional media and digital media. Waterhouse Gallery at Santa Barbara carry some of my oil paintings. Visit my blog or contact me for more detail info if you are interested in more paintings and limited archival paintings of my digital works.  

                                                                Jason Juan in his studio 

Jason Juan is a traditional and digital artist working in the San Francisco Bay area. After working for nine years in the Seattle art scene Juan is making an impression on contemporary artists across California. See more of his work and drop him a note on his blog.   Jason Juan website       

Michael Accorsi is an artist, painter working from his studio in Northern California. He writes about art on his blog Plotlines Art Journal. Connect with Michael on Facebook and Twitter as well.    

Artists Giving Back: School mural project on Navajo Reservation

by Michael Accorsi

Summer of 2005 an ambitious group of students and I ventured down to Tuba City, Arizona to volunteer and complete some service work projects in the summer education program on the Navajo Reservation.  We split into two groups one at Tuba City Primary, the other in Eagles Nest elementary school.

 
An amazing Navajo artist completed a beautiful mural in the center of the school so the administration of the school asked me to do a series of paintings to promote reading between the second and third grades which led to the library.  Almost like a small book within itself.

 
And I only had three days to complete the job.  The problem is the wall itself had to be repainted so I didn’t have fresh blocks of color against a weary tan wall.  Also, I really only had 3 colors, found a little yellow.  The good news - its hot in Tuba City and paint would dry in half the time.  I decided to make a dozen or so panels using a familiar cartoon character - Snoopy and the story of the Precious Present by Spencer Johnson. 

The book the precious present by Spencer Johnson is a book that my father gave to me as a sentimental gift.  It is a story I have utilized in the classroom and on trips and retreats with students.  Its a wonderful fireside story to read to kids of any age.
 
Something particularly significant with The Precious Present and Navajo culture is Navajo people are keenly aware  of the living in the present - and maintaining a deep connection to time and tradition.  The traditional Navajo home the hogan has a door that faces east to pray and give homage to the rising Sun each day.  This serves as a fresh rejuvenating start to a new day and permits the troubles of yesterday to dissipate.
 
I altered how I portrayed the story to the Navajo children to incorporate some of these themes that are familiar and sacred within their culture.

 
People always want to know ways that they can help - either by sending donated items or money.  I always suggest to donate to Fr. Blaine Green at the Lady of Fatima Catholic church in Chinle, Arizona by Canyon de Chelly.  He facilitates two organizations that help Navajo people:  a clothing donation center and the Talbot House which provides support and help to those struggling with alcoholism on the reservation.  If you are interested in helping the church here is a link with their contact information.

Michael Accorsi is an artist and blogger in Northern California.  His oil paintings can be seen on his website.  Follow Michael on Twitter and on his studio Facebook page. 

Harry, 2007, Charcoal, pastel, acrylic on paper, 28 x 22 in [pictured above].

Painting is the primal impulse to mark. It’s a visual record of the mind, the body, and the human spirit. For me there’s an urgency to both create and destroy. Maybe it’s out of sheer frustration that I work. Maybe it’s just to satisfy a need to violate or to contradict. I’m not sure. There is a strong feeling though and I feel compelled to communicate this feeling.

Nuit #5

Concerning content and meaning in my art, I’m never quite sure. The work seems to be layered with different meanings. It primarily deals with vulnerability, fragility, and submission. It conjures up past images and emotions… feelings about the church, about nuns, relationships with my mother, with my wife, and other persons both male and female that all seem to play a part of each painting. And then there’s the surface, the physical quality of the work that eludes to decay, to violation, and to vulnerability.

Liar, 2008, Mixed Media on Panel, 24 x 24 in.

The surfaces of the paintings are like excavations, surfaces layered with a variety of materials… dry pigments, acrylics, tar, fabrics, oils, bonding agents, along with different clays dug from the Georgia soil. From these materials figurative images are unearthed. Their surfaces reveal the painting’s history, its process, and provide actual depth, both physically through build up and layering as well as emotional depth with destructive scarring.

Figure #75, 2007, mixed media on canvas, 72 x 72 in.

The works are an existential search for an abstract presence, an intuitive search into the unknown, a search for truth revealed through distortion and through exaggeration. I feel connected to the past, to a timeless tradition in art that has always been a primary concern of man…the expression of existence. It’s innate. It’s primal. It’s been there since the beginning and I too have become part of this search for meaning and identity through the creative process of art making.

l07 dymphna

Artist Bio Harry Paul Ally is recognized as one of the South’s finest painters. He has been a professor of drawing and painting at Valdosta State University in Georgia for more than 20 years. Harry Paul Ally has exhibited extensively in individual, group, and juried exhibitions since the 1970’s and has won numerous awards for his paintings across the nation. Harry Paul Ally utilizes a wide variety of materials - dry pigments, acrylics, tar, fabrics, oils, bonding agents, and different clays dug from the Georgia soil - “From these materials the figurative images are unearthed,” Ally states. “There is a markedly primitive feel to Harry Paul Ally’s work. Even with his raw figures, each canvas seems like a realistic moment in nature,” comments gallery owner, Bill Lowe.  

Harry Ally in his studio

  Hary Ally’s Website  

Michael Accorsi is an artist, painter working from his studio in Northern California. He writes about art on his blog Plotlines Art Journal. Connect with Michael on Facebook and Twitter as well.    

Santa Cruz sixth graders publish their own magazine:  Tangerine Moon

Sixth grade girls, write, design, publish, and now sell their own magazine Tangerine Moon  in Santa Cruz, California.  The staff has a Facebook page set up and Bookshop Santa Cruz is currently selling their magazine. 

Want to read more? Good Times magazine in Santa Cruz wrote an inspiring article about this project.  This story renewed the confident and joy art and creation can instill in children that will last a lifetime.