Forever Young

We all can be young. Sure, our bodies age, and our minds ossify too - we become set in our opinions or bound to our routine. But, under this, youthful potential still sparkles.








It can be hard to see!








But every person has the capacity to grow, to learn, to expand, no matter his or her age. When I see this happening amongst my elders and betters, I feel hopeful: if they can do this, perhaps I can, too!








Ken Wiley has been a painter longer than I've been alive. He spent 34 years teaching art at North Country Community College, working both in oil and watercolor paints, though in recent years he has focused more on the latter.








Shown above is "Playing Misty", featured in Ken's new show, "Awakening", at the Adirondack Artists' Guild in Saranac Lake. This painting exemplifies many of the beauties inherent to watercolor. The paper almost glows with sunlight, while the darker foreground trees stand solid and real. Ken manipulates the medium to take advantage of all its potential, while - master that he is - making any misstroke seem unthinkable. Like an accomplished dancer, he makes his art seem the easiest, most natural thing in the world.







A few months ago, however, Ken decided to challenge himself in a new way. He bought a set of acrylic paints, and began to experiment. Some of these discoveries are also featured in this show: of the 20 works on display, eight are acrylic. Reproduced below is a piece titled "Autumn is Here: Riverside Park, SL".














With his practiced eye, Ken studies and celebrates the sharp contrasts of sunrise and shadow. This bold geometry draws the viewer in to the inviting benches which line the waterfront. Beyond the benches, look: mist rises from Lake Flower, fading to reveal the trees beyond. It is indeed autumn, when the warmer lake water is condensed by the colder air, foretelling weather to come.

Note the mist. Look again at the watercolor piece - also a misty, watery scene. Acrylic paint is waterbased, and can mimic many watercolor effects - many of the same techniques can be applied to each. But in these two paintings, Ken has used each medium in a distinct way. Rather than trying to bleed or wash the acrylic paint over his support, as if it were watercolor, the artist has maintained its unique character. The mist, though not solid, is not translucent either, for the most part. It rises and coils from the lake as a distinct entity, catching light, twisting upward, and finally dissipating.












Despite Ken's decades of work in watercolor and oils, he has studied this modern paint carefully, learning to work within it on its own terms. Rather than trying to force it to behave like the paints he already knew, he respected it enough to work in harmony with it, developing new approaches to take advantage of its own tendencies. He embraced this new opportunity. You can see more images from this show through NCPR's online gallery: click here.












I only hope I can remain as open to novelty as I age. Always a teacher, Ken instructs neophytes like me just by allowing us glimpses of his youthful, artistic spirit.

Garden, Forest, and Paint

On a recent morning in my garden, I was struck anew by the tenacity of life bursting forth from winter's grip. As I turned fragrant soil, uprooted stubborn weeds, moved long-legged perennials, and as earthworms and milipedes scuttled away - I had to marvel at life's abundance.

Two local painters who also study the natural life of the North Country are Lee Ann Sporn and Meg Bernstein - both of whom have been subjects of previous posts in the blog. (Click here and here to read some of these.)

Now, the two have mounted a show together in the Cantwell Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library. They have spent the last year visiting the Debar Wilderness area, together and individually, and painting their observations of it.

Each artist works in both watercolor and acrylic, and though each has a distinct style, they harmonize. Lee Ann's watercolor pieces are in the tradition of botanical illustration - she is a biologist, after all, and her paintings are enriched by her careful examination of life's pathways and mechanisms. Her acrylic pieces, however, feature a looser approach: still clear, but more exuberant - perhaps a bit more playful than scientific.

In this exhibit, she pairs the watercolors and acrylics of similar subjects together; for example, above is her acrylic rendering of a jack-in-the-pulpit cluster; below, she depicts a single plant in watercolor. My photos do not do justice to the originals, but perhaps you can see how the watercolor features precise detailing, while the acrylic, though still carefully observed, has looser lines, a greater sense of playful energy.





Meg's pieces take the energy and playfulness even further. Her acrylic paintings remind me of a time I saw original oils by Vincent Van Gogh; the paint swoops with its own ideas, thick and sensuous, leaving luxuriant brushstrokes to hint at the hand behind the work. It's thrilling to see, and inviting to ponder.

Meg's pieces in this show are all landscapes; trees commune with clouds, while colors dance from water to mountain to sky and beyond. The watercolors, too, share the force and vibrancy of our lush North country.






Life is: celebrate! Enjoy art, and make some of your own! For inspiration, dig around in a garden, or walk through some woods, or go see Lee Ann's and Meg's work in Saranac Lake. Or - all of the above!

Bursting Barriers

This is the cover of a new book: "Rethinking Acrylic: Radical Solutions for Exploiting the World's Most Versatile Medium", by Patti Brady. -The world's most versatile medium? Some artists might quibble with that subtitle, but Brady uses acrylic in so many ways, it seems plausible...



Acrylic paint is a modern invention, part of the post-war plastics revolution (click here to read a previous post on that topic). While more traditional media such as oils and watercolors have been studied for centuries, we have had only the last few decades to play with acrylic paint. And yet, with creative minds and adventurous spirits, chemists and artists alike have pushed this new substance in exciting ways.




One of the most adventurous artists I know is Meg Bernstein, of Saranac Lake. Meg has embraced multiple media through the years, from fabric and beads to watercolor to computer art - and, always, acrylic. Her landscapes move with fluid, harmonious shapes and colors, leading the viewer to a fantasy world recognizably related to the Adirondacks, but brimming with previously unimagined possibilities. Meg also steps easily from the representational to the abstract; sometimes her paintings blur that line. Recently, Brady's book has been inspiring her to lots of new experiments.

Meg is a teacher and mentor to many artists, both formally at Paul Smiths College, and informally as an inspiring friend and advisor. Several years ago she took me under her wing, and taught me more about art than any three people I had ever known before; I continue to seek her guidance whenever I am perplexed.

Like now. I LOVE the ideas set forth in Brady's book - she uses color, texture, shape, and line with abandon, flinging forth materials and letting them take her where they want to go. She creates innovative surfaces for ink-jet printing, and incorporates these into larger pieces. She pours, drips, scrapes, carves, slathers, and crackles her way through her art.

So does Meg!

But I have trouble achieving the joyful release of their work. I have generally created representational art - which I still enjoy - but I am trying to increase my fluency with color, shape, and texture through acrylics. I am striving to break my own barriers of ideas and intention, to let the medium itself direct my work to a greater degree.

Meg is a master at this - when I see her work, I am encouraged - and challenged! And fortunately, she maintains a permanent (but always changing!) display at the Adirondack Artists Guild here in Saranac Lake. And, together with Lee Ann Sporn, she has a show opening at the Cantwell Community Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library on May 27th. (Click here and here to read earlier posts about Lee Ann's work.) When that show is up, I will write about it here.

In the meantime, I will continue to experiment, explore, and try to relinquish a degree of control in my work. It's not easy - but what of value is? Through this journey, I am relying on Patti Brady's new book, and on the dazzling work and solid insights of Meg Bernstein.

Winter Treat

Have you ever gazed upon an Adirondack lake, on a windy summer's day, and seen how the deep, cool darks cavort under the sun-sparkled surface? It's a visual oxymoron which generates powerful tension.

The exuberant painting above, titled "Blossoms", captures that electric energy. Saranac Lake artist Margo Nagle (who is also my mother) uses luxuriant acrylic paint to describe flowers growing at the edge of a windy Adirondack lake. My photo does not do justice to the nuanced color and complex texture of the original. But I hope you can see how the warm pinks of the blossoms are echoed in flecks of the darkening water, while the leaves twist and dance in the fresh air.

This piece is part of the 28th Annual Paint and Palette Society Winter Show currently hanging in the Cantwell Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library. The show includes thirty-four pieces by eight local artists (myself included) in a range of media. Watercolor, oil paint, and soft pastel are showcased in addition to acrylic; Louise Plosilla also paints with enamel on copper, and Jane Harris uses a technique called tinsel art, with which I was previously unfamiliar.

The Paint and Palette Society is a small group of Saranac Lake artists who have met regularly to learn and paint together since 1955. This current exhibition features a wide variety of subject matter and of style. There are still lifes reminiscent of the Dutch Masters, landscapes both rural and urban, pieces bordering on the abstract, and more.

If you have previously seen Paint and Palette shows, you know what a treat they are. If you are unfamiliar with the group, you owe it to yourself to become acquainted. This show hangs through January 4th.

A Living Legend

Ursula.

As a girl growing up in Saranac Lake, that name meant glamour, energy, bold fashion.

At church, my sister and I would peer around the pews, trying to study her hats, her jewels, her style, as inconspicuously as possible.

(Mom would scold if she caught us staring, but Dad, Rev. George Nagle, was usually otherwise occupied.)

Who knew - Ursula is also an artist?

Actually, everyone knew. Ursula Wyatt Trudeau is a member of the Adirondack Artists Guild, and tonight they host a reception to open her latest show, "Down on the Farm".

Her work is as distinctive and noteworthy as herself - it cannot possibly be mistaken for anyone else's. The style is free, open, even playful.

This current show highlights her background as (among other things) a children's book illustrator. She presents us with an array of characters whose vibrant colors and energetic lines bespeak the extravagance of youth - or of the young at heart.

Most of these acrylic paintings are small, but do not imagine them as little. Each is a glimpse into a world: whether the watchful, sombre world of an owl at night, or the excited, trembling world of a bride, or the joyous abandon of a galloping horse.

The picture above celebrates a creature who is secure in the knowledge of his place at the apex of the world, and of the rightful services rendered unto him by his human companions. Were he orange instead of black, he could be my own cat.

Gracious as well as glamorous, Ursula has created these delightful works of art, and is allowing us to enjoy them. They hang at the Guild through January 4th.

Traditional Value

A photographer friend and I recently chatted about the value of learning film photography in this digital age.

Why should one bother learning how to develop and print film, when Photoshop puts image manipulation tools at one's fingertips? Digital imagery has improved over the past several years, to the point that many professional photographers use nothing else. Why master obsolete technology?

Because, we concluded, while both forms can create all kinds of art, knowledge of both deepens one's understanding of each. A good darkroom technician will have a more nuanced visual understanding than a software user; conversely, a digital photographer might bring a sense of spontaneity and freedom to the more technically oriented approach of some film shooters.

This is true, I find, across disciplines: innovations are often wonderful, but tradition can also still prove invaluable.

Acrylic paint is a relatively new medium (developed in the late 1940's) which has unique working properties of its own, but which also imitates many of the qualities inherent to watercolor and oil paints. You can certainly be an excellent painter in acrylic without ever touching another medium. However, if you develop proficiency in either oil or watercolor, it will enrich your understanding of acrylic. It might even improve your technique.

The same principle applies in literature. Paradoxically, the strict form required of a sonnet stimulates creativity, thus enabling a poet to move more expressively into less structured outlets.

In music, too: the best jazz improvisers are often those who have mastered formal music theory and musicianship.

I am not saying that one must master the sonnet to write good poetry, or play a concerto to be a jazz musician; I am asserting, however, that fluency in a more traditional format can enhance capacity in the innovative.

To go as far as possible, a flight of the imagination should have well-built wings!

Plastics Proliferation

In the original version of the movie Sabrina (1954), businessman Linus Larrabee spends a fancy party showing wealthy guests the wonders of plastics - at one point bouncing up and down on what looks like a sheet of Plexiglas.

From the movie The Graduate (1967), you might recall the line, "There's a great future in plastics!"

Plastics have, indeed, redefined our material lives. Look around you right now: what can you identify that isn't plastic? For me, at the moment, I am sitting at a wooden desk - but my chair, computer, clock, telephone - all are mostly plastic.

Plastics inundate the art world too.

If you look to my earlier blog entry titled "Medium, Pigment, Binder", you will recall that binder - whatever holds the pigment together - is the defining element of a medium. The binder which creates acrylic paint is "polymer resin".

In simpler terms, that means "goopy plastic". Polymer (literally, a chemical compound of repeating structures) refers to plastic, and resin is goo (like pine tree sap, only in this case, synthetically produced).

Now, I am not a chemist, but Sam Golden was. While making oil paints with his uncle Leonard Bocour in post-war New York City, Golden invented what we now call acrylic paint. At first, it was pretty uninspiring stuff - gloppy and hard to control, puddling and drying in unfortunate ways.

But over the past 60 years or so, acrylic paints have come a long way. Today they offer dazzling versatility and variety. They can imitate oil paints or watercolors, and have many unique properties of their own.

Polymer clay is another obvious example of plastic art. More commonly known by the brand names "Sculpey", "Fimo", and "Kato Poly Clay", this is a malleable product which hardens permanently when heated at a low temperature in a home oven. Like acrylic paint, its versatility astounds.

Other plastic-based art products: adhesives, varnishes, palettes, brushes, markers, rubber stamps - and on and on and on. What comes to your mind?

There is much to lament about life in the modern world - environmental degradation, dwindling resources, junk food. BUT: anything which expands our opportunities for positive self-expression can be called good. In that light, plastic is a blessing.