Link to Post:
http://studiocritical.blogspot.com/2012/12/mary-addison-hackett.html
Valerie Brennan interviews painter Mary Addison Hackett about her work and process.
Hackett notes: "It can begin with a memory, an object, an observation, something I read. Anything, really. When I was working abstractly, I would mentally store all of this information and approach a canvas using process as my starting point. Now that I'm working more representationally the hardest part is choosing what to paint. After that gets decided, I'm freer to navigate off course, but I still like having a tangible thing nearby as a reference. I vary my approach to painting and don't think too much about how I'm going to paint something. The paintings are as much about the physical process of painting and the inherent possibilities within that process to generate meaning, as they are about what's depicted on the canvas. Much of my process involves trying to get something right and yet in the end I'm not concerned with correctness. Sometimes I think I've willed a painting into being."
Link to Post:
http://pencilinthestudio.blogspot.com/2012/12/jj-manford.html
Maria Calandra visits the studio of painter JJ Manford.
Calandra writes that she finds "elements of [JJ's] new paintings reading like a fantastical projection of what you might see happening inside the artists' mind or behind their eyes. I suppose this could be visual, intellectual or scientific. It is almost as though he has arrived at the work by painting what he sees when he closes his eyes just after looking at a bright light, with his marks that make up noisy circular flashes and strings of electric color. Maybe he is giving the synapses (those rapid transfers of signals that happen in the brain from one cell to the next) a pictorial description. I liked thinking that the figures that he has begun to use, which act somewhat autobiographically, form a narrative of his past experiences. The figures appear quite appropriately with the abstracted synapses — as they play a major role in the formation of our memory."
Link to Post:
http://duochromefilms.blogspot.com/2012/11/louise-p-sloane-talking-about-painting.html
Painter Jeffrey Collins posts a video segment from his studio visit with Louise P. Sloane. Collins will edit his series of interviews into a future documentary entitled Who's Afraid of Red Yellow and Blue. In this clip Sloane narrates the development of her recent work.
Rogene Cuerden has written that Sloane "has created richly saturated hues that immediately catch the eye. Upon closer inspection, one discovers a multi-layered, incised surface that offers a tactile experience, as well as a visual encounter. Finally the artist utilizes written words, religious symbols, number codes and abstracted markings to communicate a myriad of ideas…"
Link to Post:
http://danielgalas.blogspot.com/2012/12/douglas-florian-studio-visit.html
Daniel Galas photo blogs his visit to the studio of painter Douglas Florian.
Galas writes that Florian "often uses gessoed brown paper bag to paint on. He almost exclusively uses this surface for creating drawings, but has chosen to do most of his paintings on wood... Sometimes on wood that he has found and sometimes on wood that he has bought new. However, both his paintings and drawings express a love for texture, abstracted form, humor, and centered composition."
Link to Post:
http://www.studiocritical.blogspot.com/2012/11/kristina-lee.html
Valerie Brennan interviews painter Kristina Lee about her work.
Lee notes: "I have an archive of screenshots from action movies and YouTube clips that I was referring to a lot in the past. The images are of women engaged in physical and violent acts like wrestling, boxing, and 'girl-fights.' Watching video and looking at video stills allowed me to focus on specific actions that represent the kind of movement I’m interested in, which is very physical, yet choreographed and graceful... The process in making the paintings is very layered. I start with a ground color that typically gets covered in the end, but it gives me a starting point and something to work off. Everything from then on is a series of reactions."
Link to Post:
http://ffffffwalls.com/2012/11/mary-jones-chelsea/
Jonathan Chapline and Lorraine Nam visit the Chelsea studio of painter Mary Jones.
Jones comments that in her paintings "there’s an implied figure and its usually sort of a very ancient prehistoric Greek Cycladic reference. I wanted to reference something prehistoric and from the beginning of human history to sort of connect with that primal part of art making. I think in terms of gestural painting, it roots them in another kind of impulse-the desire to find form in something and find form in chaos and to make it in this case, pretty literal."
Link to Post:
http://www.artnews.com/2012/11/26/pollock-paints-a-picture/
Robert Goodnough's classic 1951 narration of Jackson Pollock's studio process.
In addition to documenting Pollock's now familiar drip technique, Goodnough also reveals the lesser known aspects of Pollock's method. Goodnough writes: "The final work on the painting was slow and deliberate. The design had become exceedingly complex and had to be brought to a state of complete organization. When finished and free from himself the painting would record a released experience. A few movements in white paint constituted the final act and the picture was hung on the wall; then the artist decided there was nothing more he could do with it. Pollock felt that the work had become 'concrete'—he says that he works 'from the abstract to the concrete,' rather than vice versa: the painting does not depend on reference to any object or tactile surface, but exists 'on its own.' "
Link to Post:
http://www.artnews.com/2012/11/19/hans-hofmann-paints-a-picture/
Another entry in the seminal Paints a Picture series: Elaine de Kooning provides a first hand account of Hans Hofmann's process and approach to painting.
In a richly detailed narration, De Kooning records Hofmann's technical studio practice punctuated by his comments on painting: "Hofmann has evolved no rules for the making of a picture. On the contrary, always on guard against intellectualism and virtuosity, he says: 'At the time of making a picture, I want not to know what I’m doing; a picture should be made with feeling, not with knowing. The possibilities of the medium must be sensed. Anything can serve as a medium—kerosene, benzine, turpentine, linseed oil, beeswax…even beer,' he adds jokingly. ...'Painting, to me means forming with color,' Hofmann states. His first stroke of color is very important since it may be visible in the final version of the picture, and so, for Fruit Bowl, No. 1, Hofmann spent considerable time studying the still-life before picking up his brush... 'A work of art is finished from the point of view of the artist,' says Hofmann, 'when feeling and perception have resulted in a spiritual synthesis.' "
Link to Post:
http://www.gorkysgranddaughter.com/2012/11/tatiana-berg-nov-2012.html
Christopher Joy and Zachary Keeting visit the studio of painter Tatiana Berg. Berg's work is currently on view in the exhibition Surfaces/Supports at Storefront Bushwick, Brooklyn, on view through December 23, 2012.
Berg's work is described in the press release as "fast, active, and smooth... For Berg, the space of the surface of a painting is 'performative' and her process an energetic jumping back and forth from canvas to canvas." In this interview Berg discusses her new paintings, her "tents," and the relationship between the two modes of working.
Link to Post:
http://www.gorkysgranddaughter.com/2012/11/clare-grill-nov-2012.html
Zachary Keeting and Christopher Joy interview painter Clare Grill.
Grill discusses the source materials for her abstract paintings but she comments: "Often I'll start a painting with some kind of.. image or thing, then once the painting starts, the painting starts to have it's own set of rules at play, and then that's where the concern is... It's moved on from what it's source was." She continues noting that her sources are "inspiring but they're a jumping off point... I'm moved to make paintings and those are the things that I'm caring deeply about and trying to follow."
