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.

Wassily Kandinsky.  Composition V 1911.

According to Inventing Abstraction curator Leah Dickerman at MOMA in New York, after hearing Arnold Schönberg’s Second String Quartet, artist Wassily Kandinsky painted Impression 3 (Concert) [pictured above] and invited the composer to exhibit his own painting’s with Kandinsky’s Blue Rider group.  According to Dickerman, Schönberg’s Second String Quartet, brought Kandinsky into the realm of abstraction in his art. 

Part of the exhibit is a revealing “social graph” of Kandinsky and his compadres of the time.  Be sure to click on each name as you browse the graphic as its interactive with pieces of art influences by the artist’s peers. 

It is noteworthy to view abstract art in the early 20th Century through this lens as it clearly delineates abstract art as a conglomeration of music, art, and poetry as opposed to an autonomous conception of one artist.

In partnership with MOMA, WQXR of New York has put together a playlist illuminating the musical influences of music on this genre of abstract artists.

And the best for last, give yourself a treat and listen to this fantastic interview with Leah Dickerman on the Modern Art Notes Podcast to enjoy this topic from start to finish.  To see what amazing combustive artistry comes forth from you, here is  Arnold Schönberg’s String Quartet No. 2.

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

by Michael Accorsi

On June 2nd, Oakland ProArts Gallery gallery helped host East Bay Open Studios which promoted the work of over 400 artists from Fremont to Richmond. The event was fantastic. Garages, studios, houses, apartments, warehouses were full of art. Seemingly, every street and alley had something vibrant and creative happening. It validated the cliche Art is the only thing left in the world as it brought people together.

I wrote up a brief summary in an earlier blog post if you would like to read more.  Of the hundred or so artists that I saw at Open Studios, the expressive paintings of artist Paula Boas stood out with their movement and depth.  Artistically, her work reveals a sense of natural tension as elements of simplicity-complexity and competing styles of clean edges-expressive strokes vie for your attention. I had the pleasure to meet and interview Paula about her work - so sit back with a fruity summer drink and enjoy the colorful abstract paintings of Paula Boas.  

                                                 Spring IV, acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 36 in.

  “My works are expressions of motion created from handwriting. Each of the paintings start with examples of handwriting, the design of handwriting – the shapes, forms, type of line whether it’s bold, thin, the effect and our reaction to handwriting.”  

                                              Growth acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 36 in.

“In the work titled Growth I have multiple layers of handwriting and the movement of the letters, showing through. The object is to be able to see things coming up through the canvas underneath the painting surface.” “I tend to be non-objective in most of my work but like the painting Spring IV (above) - leaf symbolism gets into my work, I didn’t plan this, the painting kind of evolved this way. I like how the yellow green work the form of the leaf that comes across in this painting.” 

                              Underpainting for Floral Essence, acrylic on Canvas, 24 x 24 in.

An example of the process behind Paula’s work is shown in the photograph above, Underpainting for Floral Essence. Boas states, “I am interested in the visual effects of using text and script as line, shape or pattern. My lyrical works evolve as I reveal, obscure and re-expose layers of paint, script, graphite, and paper to create subtle yet complex surfaces. I start with an idea or color sense, but then improvisation takes over and the paintings move in new and sometimes unexpected directions.”

“In the painting Floral Essence I incorporated the word indubitably into to the painting as when I was working on this piece my nephew was using the word endlessly. I worked in more flowing shapes and movement, then quiet the painting, constantly eliminating.”

                                                 Floral Essence, acrylic on Canvas, 24 x 24 in.

“In the painting Escaping (pictured below), is another way of using form and shape in handwriting. Its an improvisational process - bright layers of paint, then I lift it through, you can’t paint that line the same way you can lift it out or scrape it.”

                                                 Escaping, acrylic on Canvas, 30 x 30 in.

  “In the painting Tranquil Message it’s about using the elements of the water’s edge. Bringing into it a lot of writing, pulling together a drawing point of sea to sky, all of these elements bring forth a sense of movement in their abstractions.”  

                                              Tranquil Message, acrylic on Canvas, 40 x 40 in.

As an artist what I appreciate the most about Boas’ work is her sense of balance and control with her media and subject matter. I studied her work for sometime prior to meeting with her, and felt the punctuated points of each painting. Abstract work communicates familiar and powerful messages that make our right brain work and search for explanation, clarity, and purpose. Paula Boas paintings give much to study - some improvisation and expressive movement, off-set with clean contrasting edges.  

                          Yellow Cello and a Bowl of Fruit, acrylic on Canvas, 30 x 30 in.

                                           Above, mixed media on Canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Paula Boas is a former engineer who has been painting for over seven years. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania she studied engineering at the University of Maryland. Currently her work is available at Lafayette Gallery, Valley Art Gallery, and Art Conceptsin Walnut Creek. You can also contact her directly to beautify your home or business with one of her beautiful works of art.  

                                              Artist Paula Boas at East Bay Open Studios

                           On the Edge, acrylic on Canvas, 40 x 64 in. (background paintings)

Official Website of Paula Boas

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

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.    

[pictured above, light around the body. 24” x 36”]

Artist Showcase: Mark Horst            

    New Mexico artist Mark Horst creates poetic work in oil that captivate and hold your attention.  His expressive natural composition, use of color and shading, make for a moving interpretative experience for the viewer.  I continuously flipped between paintings with the subject in the same pose, which Mark altered the color-light schemes from warm to cool and the painting took on an entirely fresh and evocative meaning . 

                                                                                                   art studio of Mark Horst                                                                 
Q:  What is the art scene like in Albuquerque?

This place is full of artists and they’re good too and moving in lots of directions. The street scene is good—some great mural work. Lot’s of talented hip hop painters—whose work regularly gets wiped out by the mayor’s minions. Traditional landscape painting is big here and lots of people do it well.

A lot of artists can’t afford to live in Santa Fe. So Albuquerque—about 60 miles from Santa Fe—has a close connection to the Santa Fe scene—which is where the big galleries congregate.

Q:  Where do you do most of your painting?  What would you say is the best modification or change you have made to your studio over the years?

I have a studio in an old factory and I’m there most days. I’m a firm believer in boredom as a form of creative motivation. So I need to spend enough time with my work to get over being impressed or intimidated by it. So maybe the best change I’ve made is not to change much of anything.

                    Narcissus redeemed. 24” x 48” oil on canvas

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

For me a large painting is often easier than a small one—I just find the gesture and the ability to move more paint around helps me. So I used to start with small studies and then move progressively bigger, but now, often, it’s the opposite.

I still like drawing a lot. And I don’t at all mind drawing into paint. Sometimes I use charcoal in wet paint. Lately I’ve been dragging my pastels through paint. I don’t know if it’s a good idea, but sometimes when the paint is getting hard to work into, I can’t resist a good saturated pastel.

                                                                       quiet places no.15. (oil on canvas 40x30)

Q:  What aspect of creating your art has evolved the most over the past 3-4 years?

 I guess I’m more patient with my work now. Four years ago, I’d work on a painting for an afternoon and if it wasn’t finished I’d probably paint over it. Now, I’ve found ways of keeping a painting alive or open for much longer. I’m not sure that makes them better, but it means I have more chances to get them off life support.

Q:  Your brilliant overlapping of color and strokes that you use to create edges and lines.. how much of that is intentional, how much is spontaneous?

Can’t I be intentionally spontaneous? Hockney says spontaneity takes a lot of preparation!

So I do have a kind of dogmatic belief in the importance of destroying an image in order to save it. At every point in the process of painting, I’m working on ways to subvert my attempts to get everything in it’s right place. After working to render an image accurately, I might brush it into a blurred, Richter-esque mess. Or I might use a scrapper to distort and blend all the parts and pieces that seem to be all isolated and distinct. There are lots of ways to destroy and image.

After doing my Dionysian best, I stand back, survey the battlefield and try to find a way to move forward.

                                                                                     light no.6.  (oil on canvas 24x30)

Q:  Your figurative work has fantastic expression and emotion.  I most of all enjoy the sense of transparency, incompleteness of some parts of the figure.  If applicable, do any art critics question your strategy with your work? (perhaps from someone who’s artistic tastes evolve around realism?)  What is your response to this type of feedback.

Well so far I haven’t attracted much critical attention, but I had a client in my studio the other day and he was looking at a painting and asked me if I often painted amputees! I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about until I realized he thought one my models was missing a leg.

Can I just say, though, that in my opinion “realism” is not very real. We don’t see things in this crisp, hyper-static state. When we see, we see motion, we see distortion, we see bits and fragments that we hold together with memory and an understanding of the world and how it works and what we can expect of it.

I think it was Charles Hawthorne [“Hawthorne on Painting”—a great book] who said that “a painting should always let the eye do some of the work.” Nothing is more tedious to me than a painting that has resolved every ambiguity.

The other thing I’d say is that realist are interested in getting everything into their paintings whereas, I’m always trying to take things away—to eliminate details that don’t support my overall goals.

                                                                     four pears no.1  (oil on canvas 24x30)

Q:  Which artistic influences do you reference from the most?

I try to look at everybody, but I do return over and over to Rembrandt, Velazquez, Chardin. I’ve always liked Diebenkorn and Uglow.  Among our contemporaries I often look at Richter, Garcia-Lopez and Marlene Dumas. Sophie Jodoin, Alex Kanevsky are always great.  My teacher Mike Karaken is a master of perceptual painting.

                                                                 the secret life no.2 (oil on canvas 30x40)

Q:  How much has the internet and social network created interest around your work?

Well it sure helps. Flickr was my life-line to the outside world for years. Before I showed my work to my own mother, I was posting stuff on Flickr and, you know, if you say nice things about other people’s work, they’ll do the same for you. And I can’t tell you how important that was when I was taking baby steps as an artist.

                                   Artist: Painter,  Mark Horst

     Artist Mark Horst works from his studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  If you are interested in seeing more of Mark’s work, visit his website: www.markhorststudio.com.  For inquiries about purchasing Mark’s work, please email Mark at horst.mark@gmail.com.

Mark’s work is shown at Canyon Road Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

This article was written by Michael Accorsi for Plotlines Art Journal, April 2012.  [michaelaccorsi@gmail.com.]