Welcome. Comments, constructive or destructive of my painting site is welcome.
WhoganB@aol.com
Left: Confidence Leading a Goat
Acrylic on Illustration board 24x30
Interview with the artist as told to Maxwell Butler
How do you go about creating a painting?
I usually start by sketching out some ideas on 8x11 paper. I’ll sketch a number of ideas, lay them on the floor and take a good hard and long look. When I see an image I like, or images, I combine them and sketch again until I’m satisfied with an image and composition that says something to me. I already have a canvas tacked to my easil, close to the same proportions as the sketch. I freely draw in from the sketch, making minor changes as I go. When it is freely drawn I sit back and take a long look as to where it is going. Is it as originally drawn in my sketches? Is the composition, so important, right? Usually not. I’m never really satisfied with the original sketch. I don’t know why, just is. There is always the discovery of something slightly new as I draw in. Once I feel I have it going well, I start to paint, to fill in, so to speak, and the colors follow my mental palette.
Your subject matter is some what related to the Surrealists. Would you agree?
Yes. I have always felt that the mind is a place of vast ideas. That I ought to challenge my mind and open up this repository, that one doesn’t just see what’s in front of you, what you see through a window, how you interpret what you see, but how I relate to these objects, so I juxtapose unrelated objects to one another. I see things out that ‘window,’ but so much of it seems absurd.
I see you have worked in a number of different media such as clay (terracotta), watercolor, and acrylic paint, and on different surfaces such as canvas and wood. Why, and which do you prefer?
I like them all. They each have something something of a challenge in them. Currently I’m working with acrylic on canvas, using a palette knife and brush combination. Very exciting textural juxtapositions.
Wood has no give to the surface. It is hard. I worked on a wood surface for many years, I liked the smoothness of the surface I made by gessoing the surface 4 to 5 times, sanding between each application. It was perfect for my paintings at that time.
Moving to watercolor and watercolor paper was something of an immediate challenge, quite different than the hard wood surface. Although the paper I chose was not a rough surface, it did have a tooth to it. The use of the watercolors was and application was totally new to me, but as time and work progressed I liked the lightness and transparency of the medium.
Working with clay was and is, again, a total shift in texture. No longer the use of a brush, but carving away from a low relief surface, sculpting with unfamiliar tools. It was a great fun challenge. My subject matter remained essentially the same, so the process, the ideas were there, but the way to capture my ideas in low relief was demanding.
Currently I am working mostly on canvas, and have been for the past 3 years, but now with brush and palette knife. The knife is new and a very interesting tool. The knife has given me a new way of applying paint. The knife is nothing new. It has been around for centuries, but new to me and a wonderful tool.
How did you become a painter?
I think art called me. I liked to draw as a kid. It was fun. I was brought up with Post Magazine covers and Norman Rockwell. I went to art school to be an illustrator and I found ‘fine art.’ I made a living as an illustrator/cartoonist. I’ve spent my whole career involved in art. I became a better illustrator through my ‘fine art,’ and a better painter through my illustrations. I can express a bit of myself through an illustration, but in my own work I can express the full extension of my heart, mind, feelings and history. It’s a great gift.
Who is your audience?
I’m not looking or searching or focused on any particular audience. I’m not narrowing the ‘viewing’ field in that respect. Who ever looks at my art is welcome. If they take time to look, they might enjoy the journey and walk away with some understanding of my art. It’s not about like. I’m not trying to please the viewer. It’s up to the viewer to pass judgment. Hopefully my work communicates a passion and esthetic; however, I am not directing my work towards any particular audience. If an audience stops and looks at my work, I’d be happy. I don’t hang around galleries to listen or see how people react to my work. It would be interesting though, wouldn’t it? Set up a hidden video camera and record the expressions and comments.
What is arts function in society?
Art has had different functions at different periods in history. Today in the west, a variety of “schools” run the gamut from photo-realism to non-objectivism, from Thomas Kinkade to Jackson Pollack, to Claude Monet to Andy Warhol, to Rembrandt to Frankenthaler to Matisse. Presently it has been internationalized eastward to China, and the Chinese artists now in vogue.
In my opinion ‘Art’ has no function at all. Ah, but it has an esthetic and visual poetry that is so intriguing and magical. When it is completed, a painting has an imagination of its own. We are drawn to it with our own imagination.
WhoganB@aol.com
Left: Confidence Leading a Goat
Acrylic on Illustration board 24x30
Interview with the artist as told to Maxwell Butler
How do you go about creating a painting?
I usually start by sketching out some ideas on 8x11 paper. I’ll sketch a number of ideas, lay them on the floor and take a good hard and long look. When I see an image I like, or images, I combine them and sketch again until I’m satisfied with an image and composition that says something to me. I already have a canvas tacked to my easil, close to the same proportions as the sketch. I freely draw in from the sketch, making minor changes as I go. When it is freely drawn I sit back and take a long look as to where it is going. Is it as originally drawn in my sketches? Is the composition, so important, right? Usually not. I’m never really satisfied with the original sketch. I don’t know why, just is. There is always the discovery of something slightly new as I draw in. Once I feel I have it going well, I start to paint, to fill in, so to speak, and the colors follow my mental palette.
Your subject matter is some what related to the Surrealists. Would you agree?
Yes. I have always felt that the mind is a place of vast ideas. That I ought to challenge my mind and open up this repository, that one doesn’t just see what’s in front of you, what you see through a window, how you interpret what you see, but how I relate to these objects, so I juxtapose unrelated objects to one another. I see things out that ‘window,’ but so much of it seems absurd.
I see you have worked in a number of different media such as clay (terracotta), watercolor, and acrylic paint, and on different surfaces such as canvas and wood. Why, and which do you prefer?
I like them all. They each have something something of a challenge in them. Currently I’m working with acrylic on canvas, using a palette knife and brush combination. Very exciting textural juxtapositions.
Wood has no give to the surface. It is hard. I worked on a wood surface for many years, I liked the smoothness of the surface I made by gessoing the surface 4 to 5 times, sanding between each application. It was perfect for my paintings at that time.
Moving to watercolor and watercolor paper was something of an immediate challenge, quite different than the hard wood surface. Although the paper I chose was not a rough surface, it did have a tooth to it. The use of the watercolors was and application was totally new to me, but as time and work progressed I liked the lightness and transparency of the medium.
Working with clay was and is, again, a total shift in texture. No longer the use of a brush, but carving away from a low relief surface, sculpting with unfamiliar tools. It was a great fun challenge. My subject matter remained essentially the same, so the process, the ideas were there, but the way to capture my ideas in low relief was demanding.
Currently I am working mostly on canvas, and have been for the past 3 years, but now with brush and palette knife. The knife is new and a very interesting tool. The knife has given me a new way of applying paint. The knife is nothing new. It has been around for centuries, but new to me and a wonderful tool.
How did you become a painter?
I think art called me. I liked to draw as a kid. It was fun. I was brought up with Post Magazine covers and Norman Rockwell. I went to art school to be an illustrator and I found ‘fine art.’ I made a living as an illustrator/cartoonist. I’ve spent my whole career involved in art. I became a better illustrator through my ‘fine art,’ and a better painter through my illustrations. I can express a bit of myself through an illustration, but in my own work I can express the full extension of my heart, mind, feelings and history. It’s a great gift.
Who is your audience?
I’m not looking or searching or focused on any particular audience. I’m not narrowing the ‘viewing’ field in that respect. Who ever looks at my art is welcome. If they take time to look, they might enjoy the journey and walk away with some understanding of my art. It’s not about like. I’m not trying to please the viewer. It’s up to the viewer to pass judgment. Hopefully my work communicates a passion and esthetic; however, I am not directing my work towards any particular audience. If an audience stops and looks at my work, I’d be happy. I don’t hang around galleries to listen or see how people react to my work. It would be interesting though, wouldn’t it? Set up a hidden video camera and record the expressions and comments.
What is arts function in society?
Art has had different functions at different periods in history. Today in the west, a variety of “schools” run the gamut from photo-realism to non-objectivism, from Thomas Kinkade to Jackson Pollack, to Claude Monet to Andy Warhol, to Rembrandt to Frankenthaler to Matisse. Presently it has been internationalized eastward to China, and the Chinese artists now in vogue.
In my opinion ‘Art’ has no function at all. Ah, but it has an esthetic and visual poetry that is so intriguing and magical. When it is completed, a painting has an imagination of its own. We are drawn to it with our own imagination.
