ArtistsMagazine 01 02 Jan - Feb 2018

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Magazine
All My
LOVE
Botticelli, Warhol
& the Art of Venus
Beautiful Blue
Painterly Skies, Satin Drapes
and Red-Carpet Entrances
WE'VE GOT YOU

24 Sketching Supplies
11 Art Projects 4 Tutorials
1 Plein Air Paradise
Like Matisse
Make Home
+
The Inspiration
The Downfall
of Pearl Paint JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
Details of Renaissance Paintings
(Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482)
by Andy Warhol
COLLECTION OF THE ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM, PITTSBURGH
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Contents
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
78
94
86
Compositions
66 78
SEARCHING FOR THE DIVINE: OBJECT AS INSPIRATION:
BOTTICELLI AND BEYOND MATISSE IN THE STUDIO
We trace the evolution of Renaissance painter The objects and textiles Matisse collected formed a
Sandro Botticelli, whose goal of painting divine seamless world with his artwork.
beauty has been carried forward and transformed by
modern artists such as Andy Warhol.
86
72 THREE MEADOWS
Patricia Watwood’s annual retreat devoted to
THE RISE AND FALL painting the figure in the landscape does more than
OF PEARL PAINT produce masterful art—it reawakens the artist.
Family, staff and customers recall the glory years of
New York City’s Pearl Paint—and the crumbling of
the empire.
94
THE EVOLUTION OF
FIGURE DRAWING
We examine three longstanding figure-drawing
traditions, which artists can use and synthesize in
their work.
2 Artists Magazine January /February 2018

Some people see water colour paint.
You see a history of innovation.
We created the first water colour pan in 1835.

And in 1842 the collapsible paint tube. Two ground
breaking ideas that gave artists like JMW Turner
the freedom to paint anywhere. Our rich history now
continues with 96 pigment-rich Professional Water
Colours and eleven mediums to provide an even
greater variety of techniques and effects.
Turner would have approved.
See our water colour history at

www.winsornewton.com
Contents
Volume 35 | Issue 01
102
14
46
Prime Build Outfit

12 BIO 42 WORKSHOP 102 SHORT STORIES
Holly Solomon Colored Pencil Drawing
104 INDEPENDENT
14 COLOR STORY 46 TUTORIALS STUDY
Titian Blue Preparing a Canvas
108 DO NOW
17 SPACE 48 WORKSHOP
In Learning Color Painting a Long Pose in Oil 112 LASTING
IMPRESSION
18 WELLNESS 54 PROMPTS
Yoga for the Soul 11 Projects to Paint
24 CROSSROADS 56 WORKSHOP
Intersections: Hue-Bias Painting
Art and Design
30 ALCHEMY
Urban Sketcher
In Every Issue On the Cover
37 THE ASK Details of Renaissance Paintings
6 EDITOR’S NOTE (Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482)
38 GENESIS by Andy Warhol
8 CONTRIBUTORS 1984; acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen, 48x72
COLLECTION OF THE ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM, PITTSBURGH;
© 1984 THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS,
INC. / LICENSED BY ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK

From The Editor Art sts Magazine
CONTENT STRATEGIST + EDITOR IN CHIEF
Michael Gormley
MANAGING EDITOR Austin R. Williams
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Dean Abatemarco
ART DIRECTOR Amy Petriello
SENIOR EDITOR Holly Davis
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Michael Woodson
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Contributors
Contributors to this issue of
Artists Magazine include…
JOHN EISCHEID
“THE RISE AND FALL
OF PEARL PAINT”
John Eischeid is a freelance writer
who lives in New York. He has a
master’s degree from Columbia
University Graduate School of
Journalism, and his previous work has been
published by The New York Times and Scientific
American.
EMILY ESFAHANI
SMITH
“WELFARE: YOGA
FOR THE SOUL”
Emily Esfahani Smith is a writer and
William F. Draper Grand Prize Winner: David Kassan the author of The Power of Meaning:
Love and Resilience, Portrait of Louise and Lazar Farkas, Survivors of the Shoah Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed
46x42", oil on panel
With Happiness. She is also an editor at Stanford
University’s Hoover Institution, where she advises
20th Annual International the Ben Franklin Circles project, an initiative to build
belonging and meaning in local communities. Her
Portrait Competition work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall
Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Criterion and
Call for Entries other publications.
ver $100,000 in prizes MEREDITH HEUER

and awards will be “THREE MEADOWS”
presented in categories Meredith Heuer was born and raised
in Detroit. She has spent the last 20
recognizing Painting,
years traveling the globe, shooting
Drawing and Sculpture. In celebration of our assignments for magazines such as
Fortune, Gourmet and Travel + Leisure
20th anniversary, the Grand Prize winner will
on subjects ranging from apples to Arnold
be awarded a cash prize of $20,000. Schwarzenegger. She has photographed four books:
Haven and At Home in the Hudson Valley, both by
Allison Serrell (Chronicle Books); How to Sharpen
Visit our website for full details or call toll-free for your prospectus. Pencils, by David Rees (Melville House); and Side by
Side, by Tsia Carson (Roost Books).
Entry Deadline February 22, 2018
1-877-772-4321 www.portraitsociety.org
A national non-profit 501 (c ) (3)

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How to Draw
Taught by Professor David Brody
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
TIME O
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RY
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BY F E B R U 7. Composition: The Format and Its Armature
8. Composition: How Artists Compose
9. Line and Shape: Line Attributes and Gesture
10. Composition: Shape and Advanced Strategies
11. Proportion: Alberti’s Velo
12. Proportion: Accurate Proportion and Measure
13. Creating Volume and Illusionistic Space
14. Six Complex Drawing Projects
15. Linear Perspective: Introduction
16. Linear Perspective: The Quad
17. Linear Perspective: The Gridded Room
18. Linear Perspective: Ellipses and Pattern
19. Linear Perspective: Advanced Topics
20. Value: How Artists Use Value
21. Value: Drawing Materials for Value
22. Value: Black and White and a Value Scale
23. Value: Eight Complex Drawing Projects
24. Value: Side Light and Cast Shadow
25. Value: Oblique Light and Cast Shadow
26. Texture: Mark Making and Optical Value
27. Texture: How Artists Use Texture
28. Color: Color Theory and Color and Light
29. Color: How Artists Use Color
Uncover Your Hidden 30.

31.
Color: Color Drawing Projects
The Figure: A Canon of Proportions
Talent for Drawing

32. The Figure: The Head, Hands, and Feet
33. The Figure: Artistic Anatomy
34. The Figure: Drawing Projects
35. Advanced Concepts: Pictorial Space
Like reading and writing, drawing is a fundamental life skill. Once an
36. Advanced Drawing Projects
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“ W H AT W E
SEE IN THE
WORLD AROUND
US IS JUST A
REFLECTION OF
W H AT I S I N S I D E
O F U S .”
S H A RO N G A N N O N ,
YO G A A N D
V E G E TA R I A N I S M :
THE DIET OF
ENLIGHTENMENT
“ YOGA MEANS
RECLAIMING OUR
WILDNESS—BREAKING
DOWN THE BARRIERS
T H AT S TA N D B E T W E E N
U S A N D N AT U R E .”
D AV I D L I F E
PHOTO: GUZMAN
Sharon Gannon and

David Life at the Wild
Woodstock Jivamukti
Forest Sanctuary
ArtistsNetwork.com 11
Prime BIO
CREDIT

Holly Solomon, seen here in 1988,
was a dealer and collector of
Modern and Pop art.
HOLLY
SOLOMON:
The Last of New York’s
Great Doyennes of Art
The influential dealer and collector never hesitated
to champion new, whimsical and edgy artists.
by Michael Gormley
i first met Holly Solomon (1934–2002) in

1985 in New York, when she was opening
a show of East Village artists, then the
darlings of the art world, in her new uptown
space. The East Village at that time felt like a
that night. All had shunned Modernism
and the overthought and tepid minimalism
that dominated the SoHo gallery scene. To
these artists, Solomon was a legend—a for-
mer Warhol darling who never quite fit into
young and armed art collective rallying the SoHo she had helped create. Her kitschy,
against urban decay through street art, drag performative aesthetic—cue Laurie
performance and noise punk. It was rare for Anderson, Judy Pfaff, Nam June Paik and
me and my fellow East Village denizens to Red Grooms—forged a radical beachhead
venture north of 14th Street—save perhaps for the expressive figurative works being
to go to Danceteria, a nightclub on 21st. shown in the funky storefronts scattered
Solomon was one of the first to recognize across Alphabet City.
the significance of the nascent East Village Pfaff ’s exploding installations, which felt
art scene and support it. Her endorsement like a giddy walk inside a Kandinsky paint-
wasn’t ignored in the greater market—but ing, were perfect iterations of Solomon’s
then again, Solomon wasn’t easily dis- aesthetic. The photo at left shows Solomon
missed. I don’t recall the show or the sitting in front of a rare wall sculpture by
opening, but I do recall her, hosting the Pfaff—a work made in response to an
after-party at her home, resplendent in a impassioned plea from Solomon that Pfaff
sleeveless, figure-hugging white dress that make something that could actually be sold.
set off her slicked-back platinum hair. I’m That said, Solomon loved the spectacle of big
not sure what bowled me over more, her creations, and her artists readily delivered
dazzling glamour or the blue-chip art collec- on that fantasy.
PHOTO: ARNOLD NEWMAN/GETTY IMAGES
tion decorating her spread. It was the first Soon after that fateful after-party,
time the bohemian art scene I was involved Solomon bankrolled an installation by
with had brushed against serious wealth. It the artist Izhar Patkin at Limbo Lounge,
was to happen frequently in the following the nightclub and performance space I
months and years. But on that night, I took was a partner in. “She influences me
notice of a change in the air, made electric still,” Patkin said recently as we were remi-
by this elegant uptown art diva. niscing about Solomon. “I’m still
A common bond tethered the young East channeling her energy.”
CREDIT
Village artists and dealers in attendance So am I.
Prime COLOR STORY
Bow Down to Blue

Ultramarine is ultra chic, and it’s here to stay.
Titian Dating back as far as the 13th century, ultramarine blue was made from the semi-
Blue precious stone lapis lazuli, mined in what is now Afghanistan. To save money,
artists often used a cheaper blue pigment as a base layer and covered only the surface Bacchus and
of their work with more expensive ultramarine. Titian, however, wasn’t one to cut Ariadne
corners, and he made use of Venice’s location as a trading port and gateway to the East by Titian
ca 1520–23; oil on
to purchase the vibrant pigments he desired. From the looks of Bacchus and Ariadne
canvas, 69½x75³⁄₁₆
(below), he spared no expense. Today, ultramarine and other blue tones are as prized as NATIONAL GALLERY,
ever, helping to beautify our homes and glamorize our wardrobes. –MICHAEL WOODSON LONDON
Sponsored by
FOLLOW @ARTISTSNETWORK ON INSTAGRAM AND SHOW US YOUR BLUE! #ARTISTSNETWORK_COLORSTORY

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Semiprecious lapis
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is born.
CATHERINE: MAX MUMBY/INDIGO/GETTY IMAGES; LAPIS: SUNCHAN/GETTY IMAGES; WEDGEWOOD: UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UIG VIA GETTY IMAGES; EARRINGS: COURTESY BAUBLEBAR; BEDROOM: JUMPING ROCKS/UIG VIA GETTY IMAGES;
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Titian blue is havingg its
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seen in these The centuries-old Wedgwood
BaubleBar periwinklenkle ceramics company gave its name
tassel earrings and to the color Wedgwood blue, seen
ROYAL BLUE actress Kerryy on this 20th-century vase.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Washington’s
shows elegance in a Roksanda Ilincic tea-length
a length Emmm
dress in London. Kuo dress.
dress
WASHINGTON: JASON LAVERIS/FILMMAGIC; WOSK HOUSE: KEN HIVELY/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES
BEDROOM BLISS BLUE HAVEN

Painting your bedroom blue can help Artist Miriam Wosk’s cobalt-blue guesthouse is an
improve your sleep. So what are you homage to Frida Kahlo’s famous blue studio in
waiting for? Mexico City.
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For this project

my firm designed
colorful classrooms
with glass corners.
In Learning Color
An architectural firm used color as a cornerstone to modernize a school.
by Lloyd DesBrisay
m y firm, DesBrisay & Smith

Architects, was recently tasked
with converting a traditional
school layout into a 21st-century learning
space, and color proved to be the key. The
Academy of the City Charter School is a pub-
lic charter school in Queens, New York, and
this project helped the Academy fulfill its
mission to provide free, high-quality educa-
tion to a diverse student body. We designed
colorful classrooms (above), built with glass corners to
allow acoustical privacy with visual connections. WHEN COLOR CALLS
The most dramatic design choices were the colors, Eames-style chairs, the
which give each classroom and grade an identity. There architecture of Le Corbusier
has been interest in multichromatic palettes in design and vintage dyed-wool color
for more than a century—our color choices were samples were among the
inspirations for this project.
BLUEPRINT AND MAIN IMAGE: LLOYD DESBRISAY; OTHER IMAGES: GETTY IMAGES
inspired by sources such as the architectural studies of

Le Corbusier’s Polychromie architecturale. The school
already owned Eames-inspired furniture, to which these
In this study for a
colors provide a contemporary foil. Parents, students, playground, every
community volunteers and our staff completed the color represents a
project by participating in a volunteer painting event. different activity.
A later project for the school resulted in a play-
ground design mapped with color blocks representing
different play activities (at lower right). A participa-
tory workshop with 60 fourth-graders created the
final design of the new playground.
These projects are proof that simple yet bold colors
can economically transform an otherwise mundane
space. It’s a lesson we can all profit from in our own
studios, offices and homes.
Lloyd DesBrisay has been a practicing architect

since 1989.
Prime WELLNESS
David Life and

Sharon Gannon
i n 1975, Sharon Gannon decided to

end her life. Age 24 at the time, she
was about to throw herself into
oncoming traffic when her 19-year-old
sister, who’d seen her from a distance,
rushed over and saved her.
Rather than comfort Gannon, her
sister asked a pointed question: “If
someone had hit and killed you, how
do you think that would have affected
the rest of that person’s life?”
“And that,” Gannon later said,
“pushed me out of my self-involved
‘woe is me’ bubble.” She began to see
the interconnectedness of things, how
her actions touched others—an insight
she has returned to over and over again
in her spiritual path as a yogi.
Today, Gannon and her partner,
David Life, both now in their 60s, are
celebrated yoga teachers based in
Woodstock, New York. In the 1980s,
they developed a style of yoga called
Jivamukti Yoga, known for its
unabashed mysticism (in Sanskrit, jiva
means soul and mukti means libera-
tion). Millions of people today turn to
yoga for health benefits, but for Life
and Gannon, yoga is a spiritual practice.
TWO SEEKERS
Gannon and Life have always been
spiritual seekers. Life grew up Catholic
in Michigan and was educated by
strict nuns. After a revelatory high
school trip with his art teacher to
Italy, where he stood in awe before the
ALL PHOTOS: GUZMAN; COURTESY OF JIVAMUKTI YOGA
works of Michelangelo and Leonardo

da Vinci, he decided to study art at
Yoga for the Soul Michigan State University. On campus

in the late 1960s, he got involved with
Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS), girls and drugs but was other-
Sharon Gannon and David Life’s Jivamukti Yoga wise an introspective young man. He
practice reaches beyond physical exercise to was drawn to art—and eventually to
yoga—by a yearning to understand
spiritual enlightenment. who he truly was.
Gannon’s childhood was more itiner-
by Emily Esfahani Smith ant, taking her from Washington, D.C.

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Prime WELLNESS
TO L I F E A N D G A N N O N , YO G A— L I K E A RT A N D L I K E A M A S S—
CAN HELP PEOPLE TRANSCEND THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE
O F D A I LY L I F E .
to Tucson to Seattle, yoga as an exercise

where she settled for program.
high school and “If you took what was
college. She, too, was called a yoga class back
Catholic, the only mem- then,” Gannon says, “you
ber of her family who got a series of exercises,
took the faith seriously. and they were presented
After her suicide attempt that way—as physical
she started dancing ballet exercises for health. You
as a form of therapy and weren’t given any sense
received her degree in of how they could bring
dance from the about enlightenment or
University of Washington bring you closer to God.”
in 1979. During her Life and Gannon
college years she was wanted something differ-
introduced to Indian ent. In 1986, they
philosophy in her classes traveled to India to study
and through volunteering with the sage Swami
at the Theosophical Nirmalananda. When
Society’s library, where they returned, they cre-
she passed time reading ated the Jivamukti Yoga
its copies of the Bhagavad Society and held classes
Gita and Yoga Sutras of in the apartment of a
Patanjali, both classic friend. They outgrew the
works of yogic thought. apartment, and they
Yet neither Gannon opened their first
nor Life started practicing Jivamukti Yoga studio in
yoga seriously until their the East Village in 1989,
paths crossed in New after a trip to India to
David Life
York. Life had arrived in study with renowned
1979 as an artist. He yoga teacher Shri K.
moved into a storefront Pattabhi Jois. On the
on 10th Street and Avenue B with his NURTURING BODY walls they put images of their Indian
then-wife, Kathy, and there they gurus next to pictures of St. Teresa of
opened Life Café, which became an
AND SPIRIT Avila, Glinda the Good Witch and
iconic hangout for artists and was fea- Today, yoga is a multibillion-dollar Hindu deities. They played Van
tured in the Broadway musical Rent. In industry with 36 million practitioners Morrison and Moby during classes.
1983, Gannon performed at the café on in the United States. Its history in Invoking the principle of ahimsa (non-
tour with her band, Audio Letter. When America stretches back to 1893, when violence), they adopted a vegan diet
she moved to New York later that year, Swami Vivekananda traveled from and encouraged their students to do
Life offered her a job as a cook. India to speak at the World’s the same. It was an eccentric place.
Unfortunately, Sharon had a broken Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Other yoga teachers warned them
vertebra at the time. She worked, but There he described a spiritual practice, not to talk about Hinduism or any-
the pain was excruciating. One day, a thousands of years old, whose goal was thing remotely religious. They did
café waitress, who was also a yoga union with God. But yoga didn’t catch anyway. “We were always advocates
instructor, invited Sharon to come to on here until the 1960s and 1970s. The of—” Life begins. “God!” says Gannon.
her yoga classes, thinking yoga would man most responsible for mainstream- The term “yoga,” they tell their stu-
help ease the pain. David, who had a ing yoga in the United States was dents, means “union with God.” The
crush on Sharon, tagged along. So began Richard Hittleman, whose 1961 televi- practice of yoga peels back the false lay-
their yoga practice and their romance. sion show “Yoga for Health” presented ers of the self to reveal an individual’s

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Prime WELLNESS
Sharon Gannon
meditating
true nature. In the enlightened state,

the seeker understands that what he
truly is isn’t his body or personality but
a divine essence that exists within all
living beings, uniting them. “That reali-
zation can take many lifetimes,” Life
says with a laugh.
THE JIVAMUKTI
DIFFERENCE
Yoga wasn’t popular in New York in the
late 1980s, when Life and Gannon
started offering classes, but their stu-
dio quickly took off. Lines formed out
the door, and celebrity students from
Sting to Madonna came. The New York
Times called their studio the “white hot
center” of yoga in 1998, and Vanity Fair
credited them with making yoga cool
and hip. There are now Jivamukti Yoga
studios around the world.
Like other yoga classes, those based
on Jivamukti incorporate the poses
we’ve come to associate with yoga—
the warrior pose, for example. Unlike
other yoga classes, Jivamukti Yoga
includes chanting, meditation, music,
incense and readings from Indian
scriptures—a full pageant of ritual and
ceremony more reminiscent of the
Catholic masses of Gannon and Life’s
childhood than a gym workout.
Interestingly, neither one of them has
rejected their Catholicism; they see
yoga as another path to the same truth.
To Life and Gannon, yoga—like art
and like a mass—can help people tran-
scend the hustle and bustle of daily life
and bring them to an understanding of
deeper truths about themselves and
the world they live in. They hope more
“ W E W E R E A L W AY S A D V O C AT E S people will recognize yoga for what it
is—a path not just to a beautiful body
OF—” LIFE BEGINS. “GOD!” or calmer mind but to enlightenment.
S AY S G A N N O N .
Emily Esfahani Smith is the author of
The Power of Meaning: Finding
Fulfillment in a World Obsessed With
Happiness. Visit her website at
emilyesfahanismith.com.

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Prime CROSSROADS
Intersections:
Art and Design
Glenn Gissler’s design puts fine art first.
by Allison Malafronte
t hroughout Glenn Gissler’s 30-year career, the New

York City interior designer has earned a reputation
for bringing calm, clarity and order into people’s
lives and the homes. His natural ability to create an
environment where disparate elements come together
in harmonious dialogue, and where the sum of a space
is always greater than its individual parts, is driven by
his lifelong passion for “alchemy” — or “turning the
ordinary into extraordinary,” as he defines it. Achieving
this effect in an interior is, according to Gissler, both an
art and a science. “The decision-making process in
design is driven by intellect and intuition,” he says.
“There’s the analysis, testing of ideas and problem-solving
guided by your intellect. But there’s also the visceral
understanding of how a space feels and how one will
experience an environment that is led by intuition.
Great designers have both.”
FRONT AND CENTER
ALL PHOTOS OF INTERIORS IN THIS ARTICLE COURTESY GROSS & DALEY PHOTOGRAPHY, NEW YORK, NY
In designing this room, Gissler utilizes its height by making
the focal point a large painting by Larry Poons. The
accompanying furniture pulls out color accents found in
the piece, unifying the decor and the art.
(GROSSANDDALEY.COM)
ABOVE: Gissler and his collaborators create perspective drawings by hand

as part of client presentation plans.
RIGHT: Gissler and his team use quick sketches, perspective drawings and
architectural blueprints to conceive and present interior design projects.

<
BALANCING
THE BOLD
For this dining room,
Gissler made a late-1970s
painting by Jim Dine the
centerpiece. He then
worked with paint colorist
Donald Kaufman to
develop a custom red wall
color. To balance the
boldness of the wall,
Gissler opted for
understated furniture
designs by Jean-Michel
Frank.
“There’s information here, but not

chaos. The built-ins have a taut,
graphic quality. The Native American
black pot keys off the graphic quality
in the magical line of Matisse’s
portrait. The room is tonal and quiet,
but not without interest.”
— Glenn Gissler
The foundational understanding of structure, volume and

utility informs Gissler’s design principles. He then combines
that knowledge with his expertise in decorative arts to create
designs that complement his clients’ lifestyles, composing
furniture, textiles, contemporary art and fine objects into
aesthetically pleasing and spatially sound arrangements. For
his creative process, Gissler first interviews his clients to
learn how they occupy their home and time and how that
might change in the future. He next takes inventory of the
current architecture to determine what alterations need to
be made in order to create the best possible sequence of
space. Gissler and his team take photographs and measure-
ments, then create preliminary drawings using computer-
aided drafting (CAD). The designer then hand-draws his ini-
tial furniture plans over the CAD drawings, first using fine
markers, then adding tone and shading to create user-
friendly illustrative plans for his clients’ review. One of
Gissler’s collaborators then creates a series of perspective
drawings in graphite or ink to show the clients. Once he
receives general approval from his clients, Gissler and his
team develop the design further for pricing and fabrication.
Fine art is not simply a finishing touch in Gissler’s design
Prime CROSSROADS
<
TRAVELING
THROUGH TIME
Gissler strikes a
balance between
traditional and
modern. “There’s a
play between eras,
and the mixture of
classic (Persian rug,
tailored curtains)
and contemporary
(artwork, chairs
from the 1950s),”
Gissler says.
“The two
wonderful works
on paper are by
contemporary
artist Brice
Marden. I like the
idea of having one
foot in history and
one foot in the
times we live in.”
— Glenn Gissler

Prime CROSSROADS
process; it is the cornerstone and often the starting point

from which other design decisions are made. “Fine art is
the single most important element in the interior,”
Gissler says. “It sets the tone and character for the space
and changes the way people experience their surround-
ings. You could have the highest quality furniture with
<
top-of-the-line upholstery, but rarely do guests remem-
ber the furniture. They will, however, notice and PAST MEETS
remember the art on the walls. I often say that fine art is PRESENT
The focus of this
the ultimate luxury in a home environment. It allows you
room is Cy
to live with another person’s expression of what it means Twombly’s set of six
to be human and to see the world through someone prints called
else’s eyes.” Roman Notes, from
When designing the room seen on pages 24–25 (see the 1970s. Gissler
Front and Center), Gissler wanted to maintain its inher- complemented this
ent sophisticated structure, which he compares to an piece with
early-20th-century French salon: classic, clean lines streamlined,
with a grand but intimate scale. As in all of his finished modern furniture
projects, fine art takes center stage. “While there are and comfortable
floor coverings.
many wonderful pieces of furni-
ture and lighting fixtures in the
room, the painting is the single
most important element,” he
says. “The tall ceilings and simple
but dramatic height called for a
large-scale artwork. In this under-
stated room, Larry Poons’
painting creates a rich and quietly
colorful drama.” The two lamps
with their ombré glaze and the
jewel-toned chair and ottoman
pull some of the green and tur-
quoise notes from the painting
into other areas of the room.
Gissler has worked on hundreds
of homes, with clients ranging
from celebrity fashion designers
and urban elites to suburban New
Jersey families and couples seek-
ing quaint seaside retreats. He has
noticed that in the end, most peo-
<
ple want the same thing from their COMBINING CULTURES

environments. “We live in an “This room incorporates a variety of cultures,” Gissler
increasingly chaotic world,” the designer says. “And the says. “There’s the 1950s Milton Resnick painting
home is where we can have some sense of control and bal- [through doorway], the 1940s museum-quality work
ance and encourage visitors to share in that with us.” As of Theodoros Stamos [at right], the African sculpture
such, his design philosophy and decision-making center on sitting on an Asian altar table and the sculptural
quality, provenance and timelessness. “I avoid novelty, chandelier by designer Lindsey Adelman. These
trends and cutting edge,” Gissler says. “At some point the pieces are in dialogue with one another, but they’re
not discordant; they all relate in some way.”
novelty, trend or edge will become dated. Thoughtful deci-
sions endure over time—and that lasting impression is
what art and design can offer at their best.”
Allison Malafronte is an arts writer, editor and curator FOR MORE INFORMATION ON GLENN
based in the greater New York City area. GISSLER DESIGN, VISIT GISSLER.COM

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Prime ALCHEMY
Urban Sketcher 1
Award-winning illustrator and devoted urban sketcher
Matt Rota shares some of his choices for pared-down
art materials for drawing and painting on the go.
illustration by Matt Rota photography by Ali Blumenthal
“I practice what I teach, and I teach what I was taught—

and that’s to draw from life and to draw on location.” So
says Matt Rota, an artist known for his high-impact
graphic illustrations, examples of which you can see
in this article and on page 72. “From this regular
practice I’ve learned how to create forceful narra-
tives and compositions that distill the barrage of
visual stimulation in our view down to essential
elements. With a single image I get one shot to tell a
story, and to do that well, I need to find and communi-
cate what really matters. Depicting that underlying truth
simply and honestly will always get a viewer’s attention,
because in the end we are all earnest searchers on the hunt for meaning.”
On the following pages, Rota has assembled a range of suggested materials for fel-
low city-dwelling draftsmen, focusing on portability and ease of use. “Experiment
with your drawing materials,” Rota says. “Feel free to mix materials together, and
don’t worry about whether your drawing is ‘right.’ It’s more important to emphasize
what is important. Aim to draw what you want the viewer to see.” –MICHAEL GORMLEY
10

2 1. Hand Book Artist Journal
2. Hahnemühle Nostalgie
Sketchbook
3. Winsor & Newton Professional
Water Colour Journal
4. Staedtler Pigment Liner Sketch
Pen
3 5. Derwent Eraser
6. Ecoline Liquid Watercolor
Brush Pens
7. Winsor & Newton Cotman
Water Colours Field Box
8. SoHo Urban Artist Colored
Pencils
9. Caran d’Ache Neocolor II
Water-Soluble Wax Oil Pastels
10. Blick Sketch Pad Board
4
6
5
8
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“ T H E S K E T C H H U N T E R … M O V E S T H R O U G H L I F E A S H E F I N D S I T,
N O T P A S S I N G N E G L I G E N T LY T H E T H I N G S H E L O V E S ,
BUT STOPPING TO KNOW THEM AND TO NOTE THEM DOWN
I N T H E S H O R T H A N D O F H I S S K E T C H B O O K .”
R O B E RT H E N R I
3
5 7
6
TO SEE MATT ROTA PAINT
START TO FINISH, AND TO
PEEK AT THE PAGES OF HIS
SKETCHBOOKS, VISIT
ARTISTSNETWORK.COM/
MAGAZINE.
1. Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Water-Soluble Wax Oil

Pastels
2. Blick Studio Brush Markers
3. Ecoline Liquid Watercolor Brush Pens
4. SoHo Urban Artist Colored Pencils
5. Blick Studio Artists’ Colored Pencils
6. Bruynzeel Rijksmuseum Watercolour Pencils
7. Hahnemühle Grey Book

9
10 11
12
13
14 15
16
8 17
8. Hand Book Artist Journal 15. Pigma Professional Brush

9. Hahnemühle Sketch & Note 16. Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen
10. Factis BM2 Pencil Eraser 17. Hahnemühle Sketch Diary Black
11. Copic Start Sketching Marker Set, Sepia
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WE ASKED... The Cello Player
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MADE YOU FALL IN ELIZABETH OSBORNE,

ARTIST
LOVE WITH ART? “I don’t think it was one piece

of art, more exposure to art
over a period of time.
I remember going with my
“ W H E N I S T U D I E D AT P R AT T I N S T I T U T E , T H E parents to a watercolor
artist’s studio—seeing her
DEAN HAD A POSTER HANGING OUTSIDE studio set in the Berks
H I S O F F I C E . T H E PA I N T I N G , T I T L E D M AST E R County, Pennsylvania
landscape captivated my
BEDROOM, DEPICTED A DOG SLEEPING ON A imagination. Also, my
grandmother was a painter,
B E D . T H E A R T I S T W A S A N D R E W W Y E T H .”
so I saw examples of
MARIO ROBINSON, ARTIST practicing artists. The first
exhibition that was a religious
experience was a Jusepe de
“The Sistine Ribera show at The
Metropolitan Museum of
“The first painting I remember
falling in love with was
Chapel, when I Art—large-scale figure
paintings that were unlike
Mrs. Potter Palmer, a life-size first saw it as a anything I could have
portrait at the Art Institute of imagined.”
Chicago. Years later, after I
7-year-old boy
JULIETTE ARISTIDES,
became aware of Anders Zorn, growing up in ARTIST
I realized it was by him.
I loved the elegance of her
Rome.”
gown and her pose, holding a XAVIER F. SALOMON,
scepter like a fairy-tale queen.” PETER JAY SHARP CHIEF
CURATOR AT THE FRICK “It was a reproduction,
SUSAN LYON, ARTIST COLLECTION not an original, that I first
fell in love with: Shuffleton’s
Barbershop, by Norman
“On a childhood trip to Greece, my homeland, I experienced what Rockwell. Mr. Rockwell
would become a seminal artistic inspiration: seeing the Charioteer donated the painting to the
of Delphi. This began my fascination with Greek sculpture, leading me Berkshire Museum, in
to explorations of the human form for over 40 years. I didn’t realize
Massachusetts, but, sadly,
until much later that through my art I have been attempting to
re-create the intensity of that moment.” the museum currently
intends to auction it off.”
COSTA VAVAGIAKIS, ARTIST
JAMES GURNEY, ARTIST
Prime GENESIS
How Would YOU

Have Painted This?
There’s more than one way to paint the goddess of beauty and love.
Do you envision Venus as an unattainable ideal or as a more personable
entity? Is she sultry? Innocent? Aloof? Does she wear a tattoo? –HOLLY DAVIS
PoseWould your Venus be standing, sitting, reclining

or moving about?
SettingIs she inside, outside or in an undetermined

setting? Is she alone? Does she wear or hold anything?
Are her skin tones natural or fanciful? Is your palette

Color
muted or chromatic?

DÉJÀ VU
Botticelli’s Venus (at left) shares
the same face and pose as the
artist’s exuberant The Birth of
Venus, which shows the goddess,
hair blowing in the wind, riding the
waves on a scallop shell and
attended by other deities. In
Venus, though, the feeling is more
intimate, with the goddess, in a
filmy camisole, standing alone in
dim lighting.
Venus
(ca 1484–90; tempera on
canvas) by Sandro
Botticelli and workshop
GALLERIA SABAUDA, INV. 172,
TURIN; COURTESY, MUSEUM OF
FINE ARTS, BOSTON
SEE MORE OF BOTTICELLI’S WORK

ON PAGES 66-70.
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Bu ld
“ THE PROCESS
OF WORKING WITH
A MODEL CAN REVEAL
AND INSPIRE IDEAS IN
A W AY T H AT P A I N T I N G
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH
C A N N O T.”
ANDREW CONKLIN
Build WORKSHOP
URBAN SKETCHING
Create a Tree-Mendous
Colored Pencil Drawing
Capture the scale and volume of an urban green-space tree
with MATT ROTA’s step-by-step instruction.
Most New York City parks are at least 100 years old, so their trees
tend to tower over the landscape and visitors. When I draw in Materials
these parks, I like to capture the drama of the scale and unwieldi- SURFACE
ness of the trees, as well as the blanketing shadows they cast on
Canson Mix Media paper,
sunny days. Capturing the contrast between the size of the trees
9x12
and the people beneath them is a great way to illustrate the inten-
sity of natural beauty in urban green spaces. COLORED PENCILS
For Madison Square Park Tree (opposite) I focused on an isolated Stabilo CarbOthello
tree at around 1 p.m. The sun—high in the sky but a little behind ·No. 105: ivory
the tree—cast shadows on the side closest to me while allowing ·No. 205: neutral yellow
light to pass through its branches. This lighting brought out the ·No. 210: orange yellow
volume and fullness of the tree, as well as the grandiosity of its ·No. 385: violet deep
scale. My goals were to frame the tree so as to emphasize its scale ·No. 390: Prussian blue
and to capture the illumination of the leaves as sunlight passed ·No. 405: ultramarine
through them. ·No. 435: ultramarine light
·No. 460: turquoise blue
·No. 545: green light
·No. 560: leaf green pale
·No. 570: leaf green middle
MATT ROTA is an illustrator living and ·No. 575: leaf green
working in Brooklyn, New York. His ·No. 590: viridian matt
illustrations have garnered awards from the ·No. 595: leaf green deep
Society of Illustrators and Communications ·No. 610: raw umber
Arts and have appeared in The New York ·No. 615: dark ochre
Times, The Washington Post, The Boston ·No. 645: caput mortuum
Globe and GQ Italia. He’s the author of The red
Art of Ballpoint, a survey of contemporary ·No. 724: cold grey 3
ballpoint pen drawing. Rota is also an instructor at the School of ·No. 770: Payne’s grey
Visual Arts (New York City) and the Maryland Institute College of
Art (Baltimore).
OPPOSITE
Madison Square Park Tree
by Matt Rota
colored pencil on paper, 12x9
The colored pencils in this article
are brought to you by Stabilo.
To learn more, visit stabilo.com.

Build WORKSHOP
STEP 1 STEP 2
When I draw with color, as I did here, I start with a Once I’d sketched the tree, I blocked in some basic
light, warm hue because it’s easy to draw over and it colors that represent the larger compositional
allows me to cover any early mistakes with future shapes. I squinted at the tree in order to better see
layers of darker colors. I loosely sketched the tree’s the general shapes made by the shadows and
shape, framing it to the edges of the page. This made highlights. Squinting prevents me from focusing on
the composition all about the scale of the tree, giving details while allowing me to see the larger forms,
it a dramatic appearance on the page. giving me a better sense of the image as a whole.
STEP 3 STEP 4
When I blocked in the trunk of the tree, the grass and I had sketched in the major compositional shapes
the leaves, I looked for the color underneath the boldly with large marks, but when I started adding
shadow. I made this a warm color because I knew shadows over these shapes, I sharpened my pencils
that when I added cooler shadows later, the warmer and worked slowly and in finer detail. I didn’t press
colors underneath would add dimension. Also it’s down as hard on the paper. I sketched in the shadows
easier to cool down a warm color than warm up a lightly so that some of the color from the first layer
cool color. would show through the shadow layer.

STEP 5 STEP 6
When drawing the leaves, I didn’t go for the exact Having established a style of mark for the leaves, I squinted
shape of each leaf. Instead I created a general mark again to find the general shapes of the shadows. I then filled in
that represented the texture of a cluster of that type the shadows with detailed mark-making, without losing sight
of leaf. I paid attention to the direction the leaves of the bigger shapes formed by the leaf clusters. For
moved; my eye followed the leaf patterns, and I drew shadowed leaves, I used a much darker and cooler (closer to
the texture of the leaves to flow in that direction. blue than yellow) color of green than the initial lemon and
olive greens I’d started with.
STEP 7 STEP 8
With the trunk and leaf shadows completed, the point of I added the final details: A cool gray over the yellow of the
working from warm to cool is apparent. The red of the trunk sidewalk gives it a sun-dappled look. The fence in the
resonates through its purple shadow, giving the form depth. foreground emphasizes the depth of field. A cool, light green
Note that the purple looks like a shadow on a brown tree—not added to the leaves in the foreground emphasizes the tree’s
like a purple trunk. Also, the yellows in the leaves seem to be volume. All of the warm tones are inside the tree’s crown or
behind the deeper, bluer greens. This temperature contrast behind the tree. The tree casts a shadow toward the viewer, so
creates an illusion of space and volume and of light passing the highlights on the shadowy side are cool, indicating that
through leaves. Figures in the foreground provide scale. they’re not in the direct sunlight.
Build TUTORIAL
PREPARING
A CANVAS
HELEN OH teaches
you to stretch, size
and prime.
It’s easy to purchase readymade

canvases, but preparing a
canvas yourself has its
advantages. You can produce a
greater range of shapes than
those commercially available,
you can apply grounds in the
best way to suit your painting
approach, and you can select
the best type and weight of
canvas for your subject. Some artists prefer heavy, almost
burlaplike surfaces; for my work, I prefer lightweight linen
prepared with an oil ground, which produces a very smooth
surface. The following tips are useful for preparing raw cotton or
linen, as well as primed canvas.
PRIMING
For oil painting, an acrylic gesso or

oil-painting primer is recommended as a
ground. Acrylic gesso is odorless,
fast-drying and economical. Oil-painting
primer produces a more opaque and slick
SIZING Raw linen and cotton must be sealed to isolate surface than acrylic gesso. The primer
the porous fabric from acrylic gesso or oil primer. Sizing dries slowly and should be prepared in a
prevents oil from penetrating and rotting a canvas. Sizes ventilated, dust-free space.
include polyvinyl acetate (or PVA, which I used here) and Using a plastic putty knife, spread your
traditional rabbit-skin glue. PVA stiffens the fabric when dry, gesso or primer over your canvas. Then
whereas rabbit-skin glue shrinks the fibers to a drumlike smooth the surface with a bristle brush.
tightness on the stretcher. Whatever type of size you use, Depending on the smoothness you prefer,
apply an even layer to the raw fabric, using a brush. you can apply either one or two coats,
with light sanding between coats.

STRETCHING CANVAS:
5 THINGS TO REMEMBER
1 Square the canvas. When

joining stretcher bars, use a
T-square to set right angles on all
2 Use the selvage for the short
side of the canvas. The
selvage is the finished edge of the
3 Begin stapling at the center
of each side. Stretch and
staple one side at a time, starting
four corners. Make sure the canvas that runs parallel to with a staple in the center of each
diagonal measurements are equal canvas’ warp threads. The weft side. Staple the center of one long
in order to prevent creating a thread, in contrast, is less reactive side. Then, staple the middle of
rhomboid-shaped stretcher frame. to moisture than the warp thread, the opposite long side. Place a
making it better for the long side third staple in the center of a short
of the canvas—particularly for side and a fourth on the opposite
larger works. short side.
4 Place temporary staples to

create tension. Stretch each
end of the two short sides, and
add two temporary staples. These
staples maintain tension when
stretching the long sides. For easy
removal, I use a light-duty manual
stapler.
5 Complete stretching the long sides of the canvas first. Fully staple
the long sides, stretching as you go. When nearing the corners,
remove the temporary staples and finish stretching the short sides.
USING CANVAS KEYS Canvas contracts and expands with humidity

changes. “Keying out” a canvas using wooden keys can tighten a slackened
canvas. On the back of the stretcher, insert wooden keys into the slotted
corners. Place the longest side of the key against the stretcher bar. Tap it in
gently with a hammer, rotating the stretchers until the canvas is tightened.
Make sure to pick up extra wooden keys when purchasing stretcher bars. Plastic
keys often come with store-bought canvas, but I find these too soft to hammer.
Build WORKSHOP
THE FIGURE
Painting a
Long Pose in Oil
ANDREW S. CONKLIN walks step-by-step through the process of
painting a live model over the course of several sessions.
Painting the figure in a long pose presents unique chal-

lenges to the artist. It tests perceptual abilities, evokes Materials
the powerful figurative tradition of Western art and PAINTS
provides an opportunity for both personal expression Used throughout the work :
and a sense of collaboration. The process of working ·Cremnitz white
with a model can reveal and inspire ideas in a way that ·Mars black
painting from a photograph cannot. ·raw umber
To demonstrate my process for painting the figure ·transparent earth yellow
from life in oil, I spent three sessions with my model ·Spanish earth
Ania. I planned for a medium-size study of a ·burnt sienna
three-quarter figure. In this painting, I wanted to ·Venetian red
experiment a bit with color contrasts: warm neutrals of ·Naples yellow
the skin against strong colors of synthetic activewear. ·brown ochre
· rose madder genuine
Used in the fabrics only:
·vermilion
ANDREW S. CONKLIN earned a ·magenta
B.F.A. from the American Academy of ·Prussian blue
Art, in Chicago. He attended the
SURFACE
National Academy of Design and the
·oil-primed linen canvas,
Art Students League of New York
24x18
before earning an M.F.A. from
Academy of Art University, in San BRUSHES
Francisco. He is represented by ·synthetic watercolor
Gallery Victor Armendariz, in Chicago. For more brushes: flats in various
information, visit cargocollective.com/andrewsconklin. sizes from ⅛- to ¾-inch,
plus a few No. 1 rounds
KNIFE
·palette knife No. 96
OPPOSITE
Ania Seated With Raised Knee
by Andrew S. Conklin Materials in this article are brought
oil on linen, 24x18 to you by Blick Art Materials. To
learn more, visit dickblick.com and
search keyword #buildworkshop.

Build WORKSHOP
STEP 1 STEP 2
I began with a 24x18 oil-primed linen After setting the pose, I taped a sheet of tracing paper onto
canvas, toned with a neutral gray wash of the canvas and began with a simple contour line drawing in
black, raw umber and white. This graphite. My aim was to capture the proportions accurately
imprimatura was completely dry before I without spending more time than absolutely necessary, so I
began to work. avoided shading in large part, focusing on the major outlines
around and within the forms. I lightly indicated the facial
features but, knowing they would have to be modeled in paint,
did not spend too much time on them.
STEP 3 STEP 4
An advantage to drawing on paper instead of directly on the Once everything was taped in place, I took
canvas is that you can reposition the drawing before you a colored pencil and retraced my contour
commit to its placement. In this case, though, I was satisfied lines, using moderate pressure.
with the scale, proportions and composition, so I taped the Occasionally, I lifted the paper to ensure
paper to the canvas. I then transferred the lines from the the blue lines were visible on the canvas.
drawing to the canvas by slipping a sheet of blue Saral transfer
paper between the tracing paper and canvas, making sure to
place the blue powdered side facing the linen surface.

tip I use synthetic
watercolor brushes when
painting in oil. I find they
are more responsive than
traditional hog bristle,
especially on fine canvas.
STEP 5 STEP 6
With the transfer complete, my drawing was visible as light I next painted the form shadows, using a
blue lines on my canvas; I was ready to begin painting. I laid mixture of transparent earth yellow,
out my colors, a handful of watercolor brushes and a small Spanish earth and raw umber, slightly
cup of Gamsol. The model resumed her pose, and I began thinned.
rapidly applying my first layer of paint. I began with the gray
background, which allowed me to “key” the flesh tones to the
reliable value of the back wall.
STEP 7 STEP 8
The lights on the skin came next. I again I blocked in the leggings with a mix of
used a mixture of earth colors plus white, magenta and bright red. I finished this
which provided a nice contrast to the initial layer of paint by adding the table
transparent shadows. and lower background in earth colors.
Build WORKSHOP
STEP 9 STEP 10
Once the layer was dry, I “oiled out” the surface of the figure With Ania back in the pose, I focused on her head. Using
by brushing medium onto the canvas, then spreading it using ½-inch watercolor brushes, I restated the shadows of the hair,
a soft remnant of cloth. Oiling out rejuvenates the surface, deepening the strands to a more accurate value and color. I
deepening the matte earth colors and helping the next layer mixed several batches of paint for areas of her face—shadow,
adhere. The medium I prefer is approximately one part stand halftone and light—and proceeded to lay them in, from dark
linseed oil to three or four parts Gamsol. Note that you should to light. I defined the eyelids, brows and irises with a small
never use paper towels to spread the medium, as they will round brush and dark earth colors, making slight drawing
abrade the surface. adjustments as I went.
STEP 11 STEP 12
I took some Venetian red and Naples yellow and carefully I noticed that Ania’s bare right foot appeared awkward in
delineated her ear. I also shaded her neck and thickened her foreshortening—it looked too large. I asked her to wear a red Mary
hair. I then applied another coat to the background with paint Jane shoe that I keep in the studio for models, and it fit her
the consistency of cream in order to unify the values and set perfectly! I blocked this in, adding a dab of C.A.S. AlkydPro gel
off the skin colors. medium to speed up the drying time of the notoriously slow-drying
alizarin paint. I also deepened the shadow on her arms and bent
leg and gave the table and pillow a second coat. When all this was
dry, I applied a second “oiling out,” over the upper body.

STEP 13 STEP 14
I now homed in on the face. With several I mixed a few more flesh tones and
subtle batches of flesh color mixed on my rendered her arms and hands before
palette, I carefully rendered the skin of her turning to the leggings for a final pass.
forehead, cheek, mouth and chin, almost I again used a mixture of brilliant magenta,
sculpting them from the flat layer below. I alizarin and bright red. While Ania was
blended one tone into the next with a soft taking a break, I painted the shoe, placing
squirrel-hair flat brush. it where her foot had been.
STEP 15 STEP 16
I washed in a final shadow over the With white chalk, I drew in details of the table and rendered
upper-left background, to contrast against them in semitransparent earth colors mixed with generous
the light side of the figure. I also added a cast amounts of medium. Finally, I placed two glazes of Prussian
shadow from the model in the lower right. blue over the pillow, intending this cold color to balance the
heat of the pinks and orange-reds. With those last touches,
Ania Seated With Raised Knee (page 49) was complete.
Build PROMPTS
11 Projects to Paint
Take a tip from Matisse and find inspiration for your next
painting from the objects you see around you (see “Matisse
in the Studio,” pages 78–85). The objects don’t have to be
unusual or expensive—they just have to grab you in some
1
You could start with your
morning cuppa. Place a mug or
way and set your imagination spinning. – HOLLY DAVIS teacup in a standard (or nonstandard)
still life setting. Or expand the context
and paint a couple, talking and sipping at
2
their kitchen table. Maybe head outdoors
and paint a lidded paper cup on a park
bench—or hang a teacup from a tree
Now try a larger object—say, a branch. Turn the cup upside down or
chair. Take a good look at the view the inside from above. There
one closest to you. Note the are a zillion ways to paint a
lines and angles of the basic cup or mug.
structure. Does it have both soft
and hard surfaces? What colors
ARMCHAIR: GREGORY LEE, ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES; GOURD: ALLISON DINNER, STOCKFOOD CREATIVE/GETTY IMAGES
do you see, and how will they
affect your palette? Does the
chair cast shadows? What is it
about the chair that most
appeals to your artistic
sensibilities? Now paint the
3
Do you have a treasured heirloom
chair—or a grouping of that or collectible? Whether or not it’s
chair—but concentrate on its valuable is beside the point. That
most appealing characteristics. object means something to you.
Forget that a chair is something Plumb those feelings, and find a way
to sit in and think of it simply as to convey them, as well as the object,
a vehicle for design. in a painting.
4
One way Matisse fed his creativity was through travel—changing
the scene to alter his expectations and buying exotic souvenirs
for his collection. Often, though, in his paintings he’d set items
he brought home in a completely different context from that of
their origin. Try composing a painting with an exotic object in a
mundane setting. (Tip: Museums have loads of exotic objects you
can sketch—so does the web.)
You don’t have to visit a foreign land to give yourself a change of scene. Head somewhere
closer to home—a place you’ve never been or haven’t visited lately. Bring back a local find
that reminds you of that place—a printed napkin, an oddly shaped rock, a farmer’s market
vegetable—anything. Let that item trigger ideas for your next painting. Once again, you
5
might set your find in a completely different context from where you found it.

6
Try your hand at a calligraphic line painting—like Matisse’s Acrobat (page 84).
A little research on Chinese or Arabic calligraphy will feed your creativity.
CALLIGRAPHY: XIMENA GUEVARA/EYEEM, EYEEM/GETTY IMAGES; LAMP: DAVE KING, DORLING KINDERSLEY/GETTY IMAGES; YELLOW IKAT: SLANAPOTAM, ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES; BLUE IKAT: L KRAMER, ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
7
In his article on Matisse, John A. Parks says
that the vase in Matisse’s Vase of Flowers (page
81) has a “hands-on-hips” look. Maybe Matisse
intended that association; maybe not—but
what a creative window that idea opens! Start
with a lamp or lighting fixture. What
personality do you think it would have? What
gesture could you give it? Paint the object with
those ideas in mind. Adding a face (or faces)
and limbs (or wings or a tail) is optional.
9
8
Check out Matisse’s Self-
Matisse was also big on
patterns. He borrowed many
from textiles. Examine your
Portrait on page 80. Note the clothing, curtains and upholstery—
bold, simplified rendering. Try or gather swatches from a fabric
painting your own portrait this shop. What about fur patterns on
way. (Okay, your face isn’t an cats or dogs or tile patterns on
object—but it is something floors or walls? Work one or
near and dear to you.) more patterns into a
painting.
10
Matisse’s paintings tended toward a flat, graphic look,
but yours don’t have to. Look around you for textures,
11
Choose three things from this list,
just as you did for patterns. Consider wood grain and work them into one painting, and show us
tree bark; knitted wool and smooth satin; brick, stone a pic of the results on Instagram!
@artistsnetwork
and water; animal fur and plush toys. Try combining #artistsnetwork_prompts
patterns and textures in an abstract painting.
Build WORKSHOP
COLOR AND LANDSCAPE
Hue-Bias Painting:
An Introduction
MARGARET KRUG explains how to paint a harmonious landscape by using
a dominant color and a unified color scheme.
dante’s alley: memory

and presence (path)
by Margaret Krug
distemper and beeswax on
wood panel, 5x3

dante’s alley: memory and presence (portal)
by Margaret Krug; casein and beeswax on wood panel, 4x12
COURTESY OF PAMELIA MARKWOOD AND CRAIG NEFF, TRENTON, MAINE
The green of early spring is the dominant hue for my series of paintings dante’s alley:
memory and presence. In (portal), I laid down several green washes until the warm
underpainting was well covered and the darkest tones were achieved.
A WAY TO CREATE HARMONY In this article, I’ll discuss basic strategies for creating a
One way that artists can approach the complex issue of hue-bias landscape painting. I encourage you to try it,
color theory and color schemes is through creating hue-bias using whatever precise methods you choose—you can
paintings: paintings with an all-over dominant color. Hue- create a hue-bias painting in many ways, using many dif-
bias is a simple concept that allows us to think in a more ferent materials. By repeatedly engaging in this practice,
considered way about color while affording us a vast array you can begin to create hue-bias paintings intuitively.
of creative responses. This in turn allows you to more instinctively create paint-
From the Venetian Renaissance onward, painters have ings that are not simply collections of individual colors
made use of the contrasts between warm and cool and and shapes but rather are harmonious wholes.
between dark and light colors in order to paint and record
what they see in the most adept way possible. Polarities can COLOR IN HUE-BIAS PAINTING
intensify and strengthen what we see. Hue-bias allows art-
ists to explore and better understand color polarities and The basic principle of hue-bias is the use of an all-over, domi-
color nuances that correspond to tendencies encountered in nant color to provide pictorial unity. When you first visualize
nature. Hue-bias painting also provides an avenue to create an image you want to paint, pick the dominant color. Then,
a successful composition and pictorial space. When look- working from memory or from visualization, create a thumb-
ing at a painting with unified color, the eye does not want nail sketch or a more detailed preparatory sketch.
to stop. In addition to your dominant hue, you’ll want to employ color
complements. These are opposite colors on the color wheel, such
as green and red or blue and orange. By using complementary
or near-complementary colors in smaller passages, you’ll add
intensity and balance to the image, spurring color interactions
and providing visual interest.
You can also mix or layer analogous colors—those adjacent
to the dominant color on the color wheel—to create subtle
shifts, intervals and inflections. It’s also possible to mix the
dominant color with its complement to produce a muted
version of the color for appropriate passages, such as shadows,
or to temper a color that’s too garish.
Hue-bias painting is, in one sense, a method that uses a
limited palette, as it requires only three to five colors.
However, infinite color variations can be produced from
these few paints by taking advantage of several foundational
color concepts and strategies. You can adjust the lightness of
any color by adding white to produce a tint or adding black to
produce a shade. You can also adjust the intensity of a color—
A hue-bias painting in progress: At left is my
also called the brightness or the saturation—in several ways:
● Mixing a color with a touch of its complement or
preparatory sketch. At right is my wood panel,
covered with a red-earth underpainting. near-complement, or with a touch of black and white,
Build WORKSHOP
I Need Water and Time (Vermillion)
by Margaret Krug
casein, pigment and beeswax on casein gesso on canvas on wood panel, 4x14
produces a muted color, which is less intense than the

original hue.
● Mixing a color with a larger amount of a complementary
color or a larger amount of black and white will result in a

chromatic gray, a more colorful gray than is produced by a
simple mix of black and white.
● Broken colors are produced by laying down one color and
then laying a veil of another color over it before the first

color is dry, allowing the colors to mingle.
A HUE-BIAS PROCESS: FROM

LITERATURE TO LANDSCAPE
Many methods are possible using a hue-bias approach; here
I’ll outline just one. I encourage you to give it a try and adapt
it to fit your own practice.
Begin by deciding on your inspiration. I like to work from
literature, using words and ideas that inspire a unifying con-
cept and serve as a point of departure for my painting—the
works of mine seen in this article were inspired by authors
such as Dante, Willa Cather and J.M. Synge. Before you begin
to paint, ask yourself, do you have a favorite poem or essay
that brings to mind an image of a landscape? Or do you have
a memory of an experience in nature that could serve as the
basis for an image?
For the work-in-progress painting seen in the photo on
page 57, I started with a preparatory sketch. I planned the
image to have a dominant blue-green tone. I intended to visu-
ally explore early-evening dusk, when the human eye begins
to see only blue-green tones in the dimming light.
Hue-bias paintings can be created with oil paint alone, but
I wanted to start this piece using egg tempera and complete it
with oil. When painting with egg tempera, I often lay down a
loose wash of Naples yellow to warm the panel and create
inner light. I then lay down red earth as a second
underpainting. the wild keen (after Synge)
The next step was a monochromatic underpainting, or by Margaret Krug; oil and beeswax on linen, 60x24
COURTESY OF PAMELIA MARKWOOD AND CRAIG NEFF, TRENTON, MAINE
grisaille, to render the volumes. For this, I used three dilu-
tions (light, medium and dark) of one color—a combination I created the wild keen (after Synge) in response to my own ancestral
history and travels in the west of Ireland and to passages from the
of burnt umber and a touch of indigo blue. travel writings of J.M. Synge about the location. It is a blue-green
I finished the painting with repeated dark, translucent oil hue-bias painting, and in passages the dominant blue-green tones are
glazes interchanged with more opaque, near-white scumbling. punctuated by complementary red-orange hues.

ABOVE, FROM TOP
Off the Nore
by Joseph Mallord William Turner; ca 1840–45; oil on paper laid on canvas, 12x18
YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, PAUL MELLON COLLECTION
In Turner’s late works, color becomes the scene of the action. In Off the Nore, the nature of what is being depicted in the painting can be
experienced directly by the observer via color. Although this is a complex chromatic composition, we can detect an all-over tone of warm
yellow and orange ochre, with veils of blue applied.
Cloud Study
by John Constable; 1822; oil on paper laid on canvas, 12x20
YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, PAUL MELLON COLLECTION
Build WORKSHOP
A useful principle to keep in mind when painting a landscape is that warm hues,
such as orange and yellow, can appear closer to the viewer, and cooler hues, such
as blue and green, can appear more distant. By painting an area in cooler colors,
you can make it appear to recede from the picture plane.
Dingle Peninsula
I continued gradating with lighter tints, muted versions and by Margaret Krug; casein on wood panel, 4x11½
COURTESY OF RANDOLPH HANNAH, MUNICH, GERMANY
chromatic grays of the same colors. I used tiny round brushes
for details and larger flat brushes for broad areas. I tried to This view of Ireland’s western coast was inspired by the writings of J.M.
Synge. I began with a red-orange imprimatura that permeated the image
maintain a loose wrist to delicately convey the subtle grada- throughout the process, and small passages of it remain visible in the
tions of light, line and color. finished piece. I then painted with layers of colors, using complements to
A multitude of variations on this method are possible. For create broken tones where needed.
Dingle Peninsula (above), the all-over dominant hue is blue-
green, with the complement of red-orange as a counterpoint
providing visual interest. For this painting I worked in casein—a studies (page 59) by using an imprimatura, or initial layer, of
beautiful, nontoxic paint that uses skim milk curd as a binder. what he called “bruised pink,” which could have been created
(You can purchase it in tubes, but you can also make it yourself; by mixing a tint of vermilion and a small amount Prussian
the recipe is in my book, An Artist’s Handbook: Materials and blue with Naples or chrome yellow. Over this, he applied a
Techniques.) Casein fits well with a hue-bias approach. It can be blue hue-bias tint made from Prussian blue and lead white.
thinned with water to create veils of color that can be laid down He could then create a huge range of blues, purples and chro-
once the previous layer is dry to the touch. Colors can be easily matic grays by mixing that same blue with charcoal black,
mixed, and broken colors can occur readily when dropping one vermilion, transparent red lake and yellow.
color into another and letting the colors coalesce. By working with various tints, shades, muted colors and
Hue-bias approaches of one type or another have been chromatic grays produced from a reduced palette, artists can
used by some of history’s greatest artists. John Constable, for create hue-bias paintings that are harmonious wholes. Every
example, used a reduced sketching palette that provided the aspect of a painting is seen in relation to every other aspect,
most efficient way to mix and match color. He began his cloud and nothing is separate.
MARGARET KRUG earned an M.F.A. from

the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and
has exhibited at venues including the
Whitney Museum of American Art, the
National Arts Club, the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art and the Willa Cather
Foundation. She is an associate professor at
Parsons School of Design and the author of
An Artist’s Handbook: Materials and Techniques. For more
information, visit margaretkrug.com.

PAINTING BLUE AIR-RIVER Thumbnail Sketch
Blue Air-river (at bottom) is an oil painting with a blue hue-bias. It’s inspired by a
for Blue Air-river
passage in Willa Cather’s novel The Song of the Lark, describing a canyon that is by Margaret Krug
home to numerous swallows. I started by drawing a thumbnail sketch (bel0w) graphite on laid
created from a visualization of the area described by Cather. paper, 1x3½
I used a thin veil of terre Pozzuoli oil paint diluted with For the sky, I layered veils of tints, chromatic grays and
mineral spirits for the imprimatura layer. I added veils of muted versions of ultramarine blue, cobalt blue and
Indian yellow and burnt umber to the bottom third of the manganese blue. I did the same for the clouds, using mixtures
wood panel. The relatively warm colors of the underpainting of white and Naples yellow. I mixed indigo blue with Indian
remained visible throughout the process and provided a yellow and a trace of black to render earth and foliage. I then
counterpoint to intensify and strengthen the cool colors that added chromatic grays and muted colors made from these
followed. same pigments as subsequent veils of color.
With each layer of color, I used less mineral spirits. For the final coats, I mixed in a very small amount of a simple
oil-painting medium (one part linseed or walnut oil and one part mineral spirits). I finished the work by applying a thin layer
of melted beeswax with a touch of Prussian blue pigment to the bottom third of the painting, in order to spatially deepen and
enrich the surface.
Blue Air-river
by Margaret Krug; oil, pigment and beeswax on wood panel, 4x14
Blue Air-river was inspired by Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark. Cather writes about a flock of
swallows: “Their world was the blue air-river between the canyon walls. In that blue gulf the
arrow-shaped birds swam all day long, with only an occasional movement of the wings.”
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Deconstruct the elements Expert guidance and 60 exercises,

of a landscape quickly. using inks, pencils and full color.
“ L E AV I N G I N D U S T R I A L
DEVELOPMENT FOR AN OASIS
O F N AT U R E I S T H E D R E A M O F
ALL URBAN DWELLERS IN THE
S U M M E R . I T ’S A B L E S S I N G TO
DO SO WHILE ALSO DOING
W H AT I L O V E — P A I N T I N G
W I T H F R I E N D S .”
PAT R I C I A WAT W O O D
PHOTO: MEREDITH HEUER
SEARCHING
FOR THE
DIVINE:
BOTTICELLI
AND
BEYOND
A recent exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, traced
the evolution of Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli,
whose goal of painting divine beauty has been carried forward
and transformed by modern artists such as Andy Warhol.
by Michael Gormley
Virgin and Child

(Madonna of the Book)
by Sandro Botticelli
ca 1478–80; tempera on wood panel
MUSEO POLDI PEZZOLI, MILAN;
COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

THE
MODERN
GRAVEN
IMAGE
Andy Warhol’s silkscreen depiction of
Venus, an extravagant appropriation of
Botticelli’s vision of the birth of beauty,
struck the Artists Magazine staff as the
ideal cover image for the relaunch of
our publication. Reproducing Warhol’s
shameless swipe symbolizes our maga-
zine’s overarching aim to grab whatever
great art it can get its hands on and
position aesthetic consciousness as an
urgent obsession.
Warhol’s oeuvre is a testament to
obsessiveness—a language of redun-
dancy and perseveration accomplished
through techniques ideally suited to
the creation of themed multiples. The
artist made numerous iterations of
other iconic beauties as well. Among
them were Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn
Monroe, who both, like Botticelli’s
Venus, enjoy worldwide recognition, a
status attributable to the broad dissem-
ination of their likenesses.
The creation of imagery and effigy
and the harnessing of their inherent
power has been a concern for human-
kind ever since the first artists painted
animals on cave walls. Warhol, by cre-
ating multiple iterations of his images
through a process of appropriation and
manipulation, further separated his BRINGING UP
BOTTICELLI
images from the reality they initially
sought to represent and bestowed
them with a life of their own to be
enjoyed on a purely aesthetic basis. In When Sandro Botticelli was born in Florence, Italy, in 1445,
the case of images depicting Venus or the production of images was highly constricted by the
Monroe—or even the Madonna and church. The city was then emerging as a powerful city-state,
Child—the aesthetic experience can newly prosperous, culturally liberal and increasingly at odds
evolve into spiritual contemplation with the church’s dogmatic worldview. Botticelli initially
and, ultimately, veneration as the apprenticed to be a goldsmith, and during that training he
image attains the status of icon. exhibited a unique decorative sensibility, a tendency that was
later to become a defining attribute in his painting style.
Around age 18—late by the standards of the time—Botticelli
Virgin and Child changed course and commenced an apprenticeship with the
(Madonna of the Loggia) artist and monk Fra Filippo Lippi.
by Sandro Botticelli Lippi is a key transitional figure in quattrocento Italian
ca 1467; tempera on wood panel
art, his work a harbinger of the naturalism that was to over-
GALLERIE DEGLI UFFIZI, FLORENCE;
COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON take the mysticism and otherworldly qualities endemic to
the Gothic style. In Virgin and Child (opposite), painted in the

late 1460s, Lippi makes bold advances in the depiction of
light and form. His figures appear lifelike and human; they BELOW, FROM LEFT
Virgin and Child
turn in space, have weight and volume, and as such they can by Fra Filippo Lippi
no longer inhabit the flattened, spiritualized plane typical of ca 1466–69; tempera on wood panel
Gothic art. Lippi situates the figures as if in front of a win- PALAZZO MEDICI RICCARDI, FLORENCE; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
dow with the child standing upon the sill, a compositional
strategy that shows the influence of the artist and theorist Virgin and Child With the Young Saint John the Baptist
by Sandro Botticelli
Leon Battista Alberti. Alberti’s theories on one-point per- ca 1505; tempera on canvas
spective and structural modeling using light and shade GALLERIA PALATINA, PALAZZO PITTI, FLORENCE; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
revolutionized art-making of the time and greatly advanced
pictorial realism.
Botticelli’s Virgin and Child (Madonna of the Loggia) (oppo-
site), painted about 1467, soon after the artist completed
his studies with Lippi, shows a similar approach. The natu- LOVE
AND THE
ralistic modeling evinces an understanding of light, form
and underlying anatomical structures. Botticelli had yet to
NATURAL
fully master strategies for depicting pictorial space, and his
architectural backdrop appears out of proportion to his fig-
ures, more symbolic than real. Later, as he matured as a
painter, he developed a more powerful sense of form and
space, as exemplified by Virgin and Child (Madonna of the WORLD
Book) (page 67), in which the figures appear to recede into Florence’s subsequent embrace of Greek
deep, illusionistic space. Although the subject matter and Roman antiquity, seasoned with a
remains rooted in Christian dogma, technically the work scholarly engagement with humanist
shows a clear break from medieval influences. philosophies and a growing secular
Venus
by Sandro Botticelli and workshop
ca 1484–90; tempera on canvas
GALLERIA SABAUDA. INV. 172. TURIN;
market, afforded Botticelli the freedom to

begin exploring imagery outside of Church
doctrine. Paintings such as Venus (left)
heralded a new order in which artists were
free to explore the sensual, mythical and
temporal—a natural realm symbolized by
the beauty and grace of the idealized
female form. Love, elevated and expressed
as divine and perfect, became the focal
subject of Botticelli’s mature style.
The advance of Florence’s liberal
humanism, however, faltered in 1492
with the death of Lorenzo the
Magnificent, the patriarch of the ruling
Medici family. The family’s political for-
tunes quickly declined, and soon
Girolamo Savonarola—a Dominican friar,
popular preacher and outspoken critic of
Medici rule—attained control of
Florence. He mounted an aggressive cam-
paign aimed at Christian renewal and the
destruction of secular art and culture.
Botticelli’s late work took up
Savonarola’s call to piety. He returned to
biblical subject matter in paintings such
as Virgin and Child With the Young Saint
John the Baptist (page 69). In it we see a
very human and careworn Madonna
folding in on herself, exhausted under
the strain of her own existence and the
premonition that her child will suffer the
pains of a mortal existence. Missing from
the figures is the spirited gioia della vita
(joy of life) exhibited by the artist’s earlier
scenes of the Holy Family. The work
recalls Gothic tendencies—the figures
appear more stylized, the pictorial spaces
flattened. In his late works, Botticelli’s
search for the divine thus looked back
toward the medieval and away from the
celebrations of secular beauty for which
he is so beloved today.
Michael Gormley is the editor in chief

of Artists Magazine.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

“Botticelli and the Search for the Divine” was on view at
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this past summer. See
further images from the exhibition, purchase the catalog,
and view upcoming programs at the museum at mfa.org.

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artistsnetwork.com/the-artists-magazine-annual-competition
THE RISE
AND FALL OF
PEARL
PAINT
Family, staff and customers recall the glory years of
New York City’s Pearl Paint—and the crumbling of the empire.
by John Eischeid illustration by Matt Rota
all the sweatshops and factories closed at 5 or so. Many
artists were covered by Loft Laws [laws benefiting those
living in what were once commercial or factory spaces] and
were protected.”
Pat Cuatico, who worked at the store from 2004 until its
closure in 2014, says, “That whole area was like being in the
paint-mixing room and working on a table that’s just saturated
with layers and layers of paint, and looking at all the different
layers and all the different colors, and it’s just like history.”
When the Canal Street location opened in the 1970s,
Robert Perlmutter, the son of the store’s founder, was at the
helm. “The artist-supply side of Pearl started when my dad
set out plastic tables, fold-out tables with paint brushes and
whatnot, to try and bring in extra rent money,” says Darren,
Robert’s son, who started sweeping floors at the store at
age 6. “So I guess it was really my dad that started the
art-supply side of the business.”
As the demand for art materials grew, Pearl’s supplies
expanded. “All these specialty artists started moving into the
The name still glows in neon just off Canal Street in New area and making specialty requests for supplies, and we just
York City, though now obscured by window glare. The glass decided to start carrying it all,” says Darren. “So by accommo-
on the doors reflects late-model, luxury SUVs as the words dating all these different artists, over time the product line
“Pearl Paint” smolder in red and white beneath the vans’ evolved into what was apparently the largest in the world.”
image. The sign once hung on the building’s similarly “It was sort of an anchor in the neighborhood for artists,”
colored facade as a welcome mat to artists of all levels and says Arthur Cohen, an artist and retired art instructor who
incomes, but it’s now ensconced in a vacant lobby for posh has lived in SoHo since 1989. He started shopping at the
rentals that go for about $14,000 a month. On the surface, Canal Street store right after its opening and continued to do
the sign is a tribute to the building’s historic place in the so until just before its closure. “Every time you went there,
New York arts scene as the home of Pearl Paint, a creative you would meet somebody,” he says. In Cohen’s case, that
hub where any artist could get just about anything and get often meant friends and former students.
it on the cheap. To those who remember the sign, however, “When Robert started the business, there really wasn’t any
it’s a dubious homage. competition,” says Robert’s wife, Rosalind (Roz) Perlmutter,
“I think it’s exploitative of a name that a family worked who also helped Robert manage the business from the early
pretty much a century to build, and it doesn’t belong to 1980s to around 2000, when she took over. “Nobody dis-
them,” says Darren Perlmutter, whose grandfather, Louis, counted [merchandise] in that industry. He was a trendsetter.”
founded the store in Brooklyn during the Great The business expanded. “When I met my husband,” Roz
Depression, deriving the store’s name from his surname. says, “there were four stores, and we expanded to 24 in 20
Over the decades the business went from a struggling years.” She points out that she and her husband had opened
housepaint store to one of the most prominent brands in all the locations with their own finances.
art supplies, with 24 stores nationwide and James
Rosenquist and Red Grooms as regular customers. The
Canal Street location was one of the last bastions against HEYDEY MEMORIES
the flood tide of IRS investigations, bankruptcy, unsellable The store’s popularity among artists became one of its
inventory and empty shelves. It was also there, in a defining features, and artists also worked on staff.
no-man’s land between SoHo, TriBeCa and Chinatown— “That’s what I miss about Pearl,” says Cuatico, who was
and with a steady stream of traffic feeding the Lincoln working in pen-and-ink drawings while there. “There was
Tunnel—that the store got its foothold in the arts this energy. People are coming in—they want to create stuff.
community in the 1970s and 1980s. They want to do things. Sometimes, they’re grudgingly doing
it because they’re students. Just helping people figure things
out. It’s nice. I learned so much about art because of that.”
RISE TO THE TOP “I loved working at Pearl Paint. It was like a second home
“SoHo was the Williamsburg of that era,” says Andru Eron, to me,” says Steven Taveras, another employee, who studied
who worked at the Canal Sreet store from 1980 to 1982 illustration at LaGuardia High School and was a coworker of
while attending Parsons School of Design and creating Cuatico’s from 2001 to 2010. He describes himself as the
paintings and sculptures. “SoHo was rapidly transitioning store’s “resident paper expert.”
into the boutique ghetto that it is now—very rough and “When I was at Pearl,” says Taveras, “I did a lot of comic
tumble in the ’70s, pretty much abandoned at night, since book work—always trying to, you know, come out with that

underground work, a comic book. But I’ll be honest with you, much powerless,” says Darren. “He was forbidden by the
my love for the arts left years before then, and working at IRS from doing any work for the shop and couldn’t have
Pearl was the only thing probably keeping my art as alive as any input. My mom, in her best intentions, brought in a
it was at the time.” whole bunch of suit types, which, when you bring suit
types into the art world, you’re going to have different
[priorities]. They extorted and mismanaged and stole and
CRIMINAL CHARGES failed to replenish the merchandise and kept poor accounts
Despite the rosy veneer, misplaced finances were chipping of everything.”
away at the store’s foundation. As far back as the 1980s,
Eron had noticed, “There was definitely a feeling of, at the
top, we’ll do whatever it takes to get over”—though Eron
UNSELLABLE
declined to give any details. MERCHANDISE
Cracks in the facade became apparent in 1996, when a box While failing to replenish the stock of supplies that had
broke open in a UPS shipping facility, revealing thousands of made the store so popular with artists, management also
dollars in cash. An ensuing investigation found that the enforced sales quotas on the staff. Accounts from former
package had been sent from New York to Florida, where staff members paint a picture of a store that was selling
Robert Perlmutter was building a home. Further investiga- whatever it had on hand.
tion revealed that $2,000 to $10,000 in cash had been “I felt like I had become an obnoxious salesperson,” says
skimmed daily from Pearl Paint’s proceeds, and some Cuatico, “I really had to push people, and I didn’t like that.”
offenses stretched back 15 years. Robert Perlmutter ulti- He adds, “Things were starting to get real weird because we
mately struck a plea agreement to pay $6 million in taxes, hit all our sales targets, and they canceled all our orders for
penalties and interest to the IRS. At his sentencing in 2000, eight months. I don’t know why it happened.”
he also received a $75,000 fine and a three-year prison “They were so bad with inventory.” says Taveras, “If you
sentence for tax fraud. had ever gone down to the basement level, they had moun-
“The great tank started when my dad went to prison,” tains of things that they couldn’t sell anymore because they
says Darren. His mother took over business operations and, were either so old or just ridiculous trinkets.” He described
according to Darren, was fairly successful until the 9/11 the basement merchandise as “toy-like items”—little chess
terrorist attacks, when everything crashed. “Dad was pretty sets that came in leather pouches, backgammon, sets of
PHOTO: EUGENE GANNON
The original Pearl Paint storefront, ca 1970s, before the

company took over the adjacent Canal Jean Co. building
“ N O M AT T E R W H AT, P E A R L P A I N T W A S A H O M E F O R
THE ARTISTS. IF YOU WERE RICH OR POOR ... IF YOU
WERE A GUT TERPUNK , IF YOU WERE A PREPPY BOY
O R K I D . . . I F Y O U W E R E G AY O R Y O U W E R E
S T R A I G H T, [ I F ] Y O U W E R E A N Y T H I N G .”
ST E V E N TAV E R A S
checkers and little purses with dolls in them. “I was like, he cut his own—he was looking after his own interests.
‘What is this? a discount 99-cent store? No, this should be Put it that way.”
an art-supply store,’” says Taveras. Serra could not be reached for comment.
“It seemed like Mr. Perlmutter, even though he ran an “The more supplies dwindled, the more customers com-
arts store, he really wasn’t an artist,” says Cuatico. “He was plained, the more management didn’t want to hear it, ‘cause
a retailer, and so it’s this old school way of thinking. Like, they just knew,” Taveras says, “They already knew they
‘Okay, if I buy five pallets of this thing and I pay, like, $2 weren’t going to get supply A and supply B until this and that
for it, and then I flip and sell it—’ You know, that’s just date, and even then it was gonna be gone within a week.”
how he thought.” Customers could see the swell on the horizon. “They were
By way of example, Cuatico recalls, “We had these Santa always asking me, ‘Are you guys going out of business?’” says
village things that were made out of I-don’t-know-what Taveras. “That was the number one question, ‘Are you guys
material, and we had, like, thousands of them. You can only going out of business? Are you guys going out of business?’ And
go so far when someone’s coming in for Venetian plaster, sometimes I got so frustrated. I’d be, like, ‘Yes, we’re going out
and you’re, like, ‘Hey, Santa village!’ They don’t give a crap of business.’ I think I was even quoted on it by a secret customer
about Santa village.” in some magazine: ‘The guy on the third floor said Pearl is going
“I think I know what you’re getting at,” says Darren when out of business,’ and I was just, like, ‘What? I was never formally
asked about the oddities in the store’s inventory. “All the interviewed for that! They can’t quote me!’”
close-outs, all the weird shit was all my father,” he laughs. He Taveras also recalls customers’ frequent requests for out-
blames the difficulty in selling those items on the decline in of-stock merchandise: “It happened all the time—‘When are
business in that area after 9/11. you guys gonna get this?’ ‘I’m not sure if we’re gonna get
“Before 2001, we could put anything on the shelves, and if this.’ ‘When are you guys gonna get that?’ ‘We had that last
it was priced well enough, it would sell,” says Darren. “So we week. You know, maybe we won’t get it for another two
got great deals on a number of gift items, trying to expand weeks’—and so on and so on.”
beyond the art-supply general moniker and go into gifts. “Before it was shut down, it felt like it was being run out
That part never quite took off, and we had [a] whole bunch of someone’s left pocket,” says Cohen, the artist who had
of Chinese closeouts to sell.” been shopping at Pearl Paint for decades. “For a long time,
Roz, who was in charge of the chain at the time, says these they were pretty well stocked—beautiful brush collection—
were “primarily gifts for artists, probably in about five loca- and then it got emptier and emptier.”
tions,” and that the store eventually discontinued that line of “There wasn’t a lot of variety towards the end,” says
retail around 2007. Taveras, “and we had to constantly explain to our clients, you
know, why they couldn’t find the things on their list in [a]
place where you could [at one time] find anything.”
STOCK SHORTAGES
Just before then, in July of 2006, the store brought in Keith
Serra, who was executive vice president until January 2010, LAST EFFORTS
according to his LinkedIn profile. “He wasn’t giving stores The chain declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009.
money to order merchandise, and nobody else in corporate “The demise of the business was apparently the combined
knew that he was withholding funds,” says Darren. “No effect of a number of things,” says Roz, “It was the leadership
merchandise, no sales. No sales, no store.” that I had appointed, a couple of people in particular. Many
Roz describes Serra’s performance as “unacceptable.” things happened at once. The CFO passed, the attorney died,
“I think he’s partially responsible for the demise of the my husband got cancer, and the economy was in recession,
business,” she says, “He made many business deals that so we decided to liquidate.” Roz also agrees that overhead,
weren’t sound, and they were kind of insider deals, where such as rent, was a factor.

After Serra’s departure in 2010, the store was managed by time,” he says, “I had a feeling that there would be negative
“kind of a think tank,” according to Darren. “It was me and press, and I didn’t want to be the poster boy anymore, so I
my mother and everyone else at corporate grabbing at straws backed off a little bit and let the ship sink.”
while drowning, trying to figure out if there was anything “In 2013, my husband had cancer,” says Roz, “and we
left to do, but at that juncture, there wasn’t.” They did bring decided not to continue with the five locations. And the
the chain out of bankruptcy by closing all but the five most industry had changed dramatically.”
profitable locations, cutting staff, renegotiating leases, sell- The New York location closed in May, 2014, and the final
ing off inventory and paying off creditors. However, the closure, in Fort Lauderdale, came the following August.
store faced the Herculean task of refilling the copious stock “I saw disappointment, disappointment and disap-
of art supplies that had made it famous, and the staff still pointment,” says Darren, describing his father as he
found themselves with sales quotas and few products that witnessed the store’s last few days, “Shame and shame
customers were willing to buy. and shame as the stores kept closing, and then, when the
“There was a lot of pressure on sales—to push a lot on last one closed, he was so relieved. There was nothing left
people. It was harder than doing advertising sales, surpris- to fail anymore.”
ingly,” says Kara Duffus, who worked in the Los Angeles Darren now works in his own creative studio in Fort
location from 2012 to 2013 and had sold advertising before Lauderdale, though he often spends his free time thinking
then. “People would come in and they would want black and of ways to bring Pearl back. “It’s a brand that needs to be
white paint, and we wouldn’t even have that,” she says. alive,” he says.
“The damage was done,” said Darren, “We were already “No matter what, Pearl Paint was a home for the artists,”
losing several thousand dollars a day. The business was no says Taveras. “No matter if you were rich or poor, you know,
longer sustainable, no matter what we did.” if you were a gutterpunk, if you were a preppy boy or kid,
you know, if you were gay or you were straight, [if] you were
anything. … We were very welcoming over there, and I think
END DAYS that that’s why it stayed for so long. It will always have an
Darren decided to leave before the business deteriorated too indelible mark in Chinatown. Even when you pass by it and
much. “I was primed pretty much my entire life to be at the you see that building, you’re, like, ‘That was Pearl Paint.’
head of Pearl, and that was ripped out from under me. My Unless they tear it down.”
father was dying from cancer. I was suffering from just a
horrible bout of depression, which happens from time to John Eischeid is a freelance writer based in New York City.
PHOTO: BILLIE GRACE WARD/FLICKR
The vacant Pearl Paint building at 304-306 Canal St. in 2015, predevelopment
Object as Inspiration
MAT I S SE
in the studio
Matisse in Villa La Rêve, Vence, France,
with his collection of Kuba cloths and a
Samoan tapa on the wall behind him
1944; PHOTO BY HENRI CARTIER, BRESSON;
© HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON/MAGNUM PHOTOS;
The objects and textiles Matisse

collected formed a seamless world
with his artwork.
by John A. Parks
V isiting Matisse in his studio in Vence, France,

in 1944, the journalist Marguette Bouvier
noted that “Congolese tapestries hang on the
wall …” and that the artist had “… brought his shells and
Chinese porcelains, his moucharaby [Moroccan textile
screens] and his marble table and all the strange objects with
which he loves to surround himself. Thus he reconstructed
… this Matisse-atmosphere which he needs in order to live.”
Throughout his career Matisse acquired a variety of
objects that would serve as creative inspiration, as reminders
of past experiences and as guides to the pictorial languages
and formal devices of other cultures. They range from hum-
ble household items, like a tobacco jar, to more exotic objects
such as Oceanic masks and Tahitian textiles. Many of these
artifacts appear multiple times in his paintings, taking on a
variety of roles, almost as a repertory actor might take center
stage for one performance and appear as a minor character
in the next. Like actors, the objects mutate in his work, their
proportions and color transformed by the new relationships
and settings in which they find themselves. When they
weren’t being used as subject matter, they took their places
as part of the ever-shifting domestic environment that
Matisse needed to sustain his imaginative world.
This past spring the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
mounted an exhibition, “Matisse in the Studio,” that brought
together key objects from Matisse’s collection and paired
them with works of art in which they appear or for which
they provided inspiration. The result was an extraordinary
demonstration of the transformative power of art and an
event that provided considerable insight into the creative
process and artistic ambitions of one of the 20th century’s
greatest painters.
LEFT
Self-Portrait
by Henri Matisse
1906; oil on canvas
STATENS MUSEUM FOR KUNST, COPENHAGEN, GIFT OF
JOHANNES RUMP, 1928; © 2017 SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/
ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; COURTESY,
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
BELOW
Mboom mask
artist unknown
Kuba kingdom, Democratic Republic of the
Congo; 19th–early 20th century; wood,
textile, shells, pearls, seeds, copper and
mixed media
FORMER COLLECTION OF HENRI MATISSE; MUSÉE MATISSE,
NICE, BEQUEST OF MADAME HENRI MATISSE, 1960;
PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANÇOIS FERNANDEZ; COURTESY,
MUSÉE MATISSE/MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
Out of Africa tongue,” he later recalled. “I went to

Gertrude Stein’s on the rue de Fleurus
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) launched his career as an artist and showed her the statue. Picasso
in the first decade of the 1900s, when modern art was just came while I was showing the statue
beginning to blossom. Inspired by the experiments of the to her. … It was then when Picasso
Post-Impressionists and alive to new possibilities of color noticed negro sculpture.”
and execution, Matisse and a group of painters that Matisse was entranced by the visual
included Édouard Vuillard and André Derain exhibited qualities of his new find—the strength
paintings in which raw, unnatural color was married with of form, severe simplification and
direct and forceful paint handling. In 1905, the press unfinished surfaces—qualities he
dubbed them the “Fauves,” or “Wild Beasts,” and their began to incorporate into his own
careers were up and running. work. Over the next two years he
Among the many influences that led to this break- acquired more than 20 African pieces,
through was the availability of artifacts from cultures including several tribal masks (see
around the world that had been affected by colonialism or Mboom mask, above). While these
made accessible by ever-increasing trade. African art, for objects rarely make an appearance in
example, was just beginning to find its way into Parisian his paintings, their influence is evident
studios. One of the first items Matisse bought was an in Matisse’s 1906 Self-Portrait (above,
African sculpture, a Congolese Vili figure, which he pur- left), which is achieved with an almost
chased in Paris in 1906 for the modest sum of 50 francs. “I brutally direct hand and bold
went in and bought a little seated chap sticking out his simplification.

FROM FAR LEFT
Vase of Flowers
by Henri Matisse
1924; oil on canvas
BEQUEST OF JOHN T. SPAULDING;
© 2017 SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/
ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS),
NEW YORK; PHOTOGRAPH ©
Vase
artist unknown
Andalusia, Spain; early 20th
century; blown glass
FORMER COLLECTION OF HENRI
MATISSE; MUSÉE MATISSE, NICE.
BEQUEST OF MADAME HENRI
MATISSE, 1960; PHOTOGRAPH BY
FRANCOIS FERNANDEZ; COURTESY,
MUSÉE MATISSE/MUSEUM OF FINE
ARTS, BOSTON
Moorish with the artist’s desire to move away from Western European
art’s focus on fully rendered form and perspectival space.
Allurements In addition to its formal visual language, the artist also
took from the Islamic world a fantasy of sensual life. He had
The artist’s next revelation was his dis- brought home from Granada a postcard of the Hall of the BELOW
covery of Islamic art, largely brought Beds, the richly decorated changing room of the Alhambra Interior With an
about in 1910, when Matisse made bath house, where the king’s wives disrobed before bathing. Etruscan Vase
repeated visits to an exhibition in The 1920s found him setting up similar scenes in his studio, by Henri Matisse
1940; oil on canvas
Munich entitled “Masterpieces of hanging fabrics and carpets to provide settings for models
THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART,
Mohammedan Art.” This inspired him posed sensually in costumes fit for a harem, with billowing CLEVELAND, GIFT OF THE HANNA
to make an extended trip to southern culottes and sheer blouses revealing naked breasts. This sub- FUND; COURTESY THE CLEVELAND
MUSEUM OF ART; © 2017
Spain, visiting the Alhambra in Granada ject matter was a cliché left over from 19th-century SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/ARTISTS
RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK;
and the Great Mosque of Córdoba. It Orientalism, when academic painters found a ready market COURTESY, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS,
was here that Matisse began to realize for harem scenes. Rather than seeming voyeuristic, Matisse’s BOSTON
the power of patterned surfaces to cre-
ate a sense of space, especially when
different patterns are juxtaposed with
each other. One of the objects he
acquired was a green glass Andalusian
vase (above, right), which he used in
several paintings. In Vase of Flowers
(above, left), from 1924, it stands in the
center of a domestic scene, taking on a
curiously anthropomorphic quality with
its two handles giving a hands-on-hips
appearance. The background is formed
with a set of juxtaposed patterns and a
view through a window to the sea, all of
which appear to have equal weight in a
highly flattened composition.
Matisse went on to immerse himself
in Islamic culture, making visits to
Morocco in 1912 and 1913, where he
hired models and collected textiles. His
work began to incorporate the flat-
tened space of Islamic art, with its lack
of hierarchies, its delight in pattern and
its rich color. This went hand-in-hand
RIGHT
The Moorish Screen
by Henri Matisse; 1921; oil on canvas
PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, BEQUEST OF LISA NORRIS ELKINS, 1950;
COURTESY THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART; © 2017 SUCCESSION
H. MATISSE/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; COURTESY,
BELOW
Haiti
artist unknown; Morocco; late 19th–20th century; cotton
plain weave cut and appliquéd to bast fiber cloth
FORMER COLLECTION OF HENRI MATISSE EN DÉPOT, MUSÉE MATISSE, NICE;
PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANÇOIS FERNANDEZ; COURTESY,
ABOVE
Jug
artist unknown; Northern France; late 18th century; engraved pewter
FORMER COLLECTION OF HENRI MATISSE; MUSÉE MATISSE, NICE; BEQUEST OF
MADAM HENRI MATISE, 1960; PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANÇOIS FERNANDEZ; COURTESY,
LEFT
Purple Robe and Anemones
THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART: THE CONE COLLECTION, FORMED BY DR. CLARIBEL
CONE AND MISS ETTA CONE OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND; PHOTOGRAPH
© THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART; © 2017 SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/ARTISTS RIGHTS
SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; COURTESY, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

paintings treat the subject playfully, textile with sections of open decorative work designed to
turning it into a charming motif on hang in front of a window. Matisse used it in several paint-
which to hang more formal adventures. ings including The Moorish Screen (opposite) of 1921. Here,
Matisse’s playfulness with his sub- in spite of the lavish environment of Islamic textiles and
ject matter is clearly in evidence in his rugs, the artist peoples the space with two properly dressed
1940 painting Interior With an Etruscan French ladies and includes a violin case as well as a European
Vase (page 81). Here a model rests table. The sensuality of Islamic world has been safely domes-
between poses, glancing up from a ticated, but the focused rendering of the European tradition
book she is reading. Beneath the table has also been removed so that the flattened figures are given
the green harem pants she has been no more importance than any of the other elements. “For
dressed in for posing are visible. me, the subject of a picture and its background must have
the same value,” wrote Matisse, “or to put it more clearly,
Importance there is no principal feature, only the pattern is important.”
Although Matisse delighted in artifacts from other cul-
of Pattern tures, some of his favorite props were more humble French
domestic objects. A pewter jug with a twisted stripe motif
One of the Moorish objects Matisse and a decorative handle (opposite) appears in his work over
acquired was a Haiti (opposite), a large several decades. In 1917 it shows up in a fairly quiet and
ABOVE
Egyptian tent curtain (khayamiya)
artist unknown
Egypt; 19th–early 20th century; cotton plain
weave, appliquéd
FORMER COLLECTION OF HENRI MATISSE; PRIVATE
COLLECTION; COURTESY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
RIGHT
Interior With Egyptian Curtain
THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, WASHINGTON D.C.; © 2017
SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS),
NEW YORK; COURTESY, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
greatest paintings, Interior With
Egyptian Curtain (page 83), uses an
Egyptian tent curtain (page 83)—a
large piece of woven fabric covered in a
bold appliqué design. In the painting,
the tent curtain hangs to the right of a
window with a view of a stylized palm
tree. A table in the foreground holds a
bowl of lemons. The painting achieves
a dynamic sense of balance as the
expanding energy of the tree is pitched
RIGHT
against the more constrained shapes of
Acrobat the curtain’s pattern, while the lemons
by Henri Matisse provide a gentle counterpoint at the
1952; ink on paper bottom of the painting.
MUSÉE NATIONAL D’ART MODERNE,
CENTRE GEORGE POMPIDOU,
PARIS; PHOTOGRAPH BY PHILIPPE
MIGEAT; © CNAC/MNAM/DIST.
RMN-GRAND PALAI/ART RESOURSE,
Reduction of
NY; © 2017 SUCCESSION H.
MATISSE/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY
(ARS), NEW YORK; COURTESY,
Objects to Signs
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON Much in evidence in Matisse’s work is
the calligraphic handling of line, a fea-
BELOW
Calligraphy panel ture that was to play an expanded role
artist unknown with the years. Late in his career,
China; 19th century; Matisse did an enormous number of
lacquered wood with gilding brush drawings where he explored the
FORMER COLLECTION OF HENRI
MATISSE; MUSÉE MATISSE, NICE,
idea of reducing objects to signs that
BEQUEST OF MADAME HENRI could be arranged in compositions. To
MATISSE, 1960; PHOTOGRAPH BY
FRANÇOIS FERNANDEZ; find the appropriate sign for an object,
COURTESY, MUSÉE MATISSE/ Matisse drew it numerous times, inter-
nalizing it until he truly understood
what it was for him. His calligraphic
approach was much influenced by
Chinese art. He owned a large Chinese
relief panel of four characters executed
in a bold, energetic style (lower left),
and he often quoted what he said was
an old Chinese proverb: “When you
draw a tree, you must feel yourself
gradually growing with it.” For Matisse,
drawing an object wasn’t a process of
imitating its surface appearance but an
act of supreme empathy. His brush
drawing Acrobat (left, at top), of 1952,
shows the extreme simplification that
solid still life, but in 1937 it performs a literally pivotal role he arrived at in reducing objects to the
in a series of paintings, including the remarkable Purple Robe status of a sign.
and Anemones (page 82). Here the entire composition seems This approach allowed him to make
to turn around the jug, which stands on a Moroccan table, his late great work in the form of paper
another perennial favorite prop of the artist. A bouquet of cutouts, in which he “drew” with a pair
anemones bursts and spreads from the jug to balance the of scissors as he cut into large sheets of
sensual promise of the young woman as she smiles back at paper painted with gouache (see
the artist. The patterns filling the rest of the surface jostle Mimosa, opposite). “The cut-out” he
against each other in a lively and precarious balancing act. said in a 1952 interview, “is what I have
Matisse’s sensitivity to pattern was continually nourished now found the simplest and most
by his growing collection of textiles and rugs. These included direct way to express myself. One must
Tahitian bark cloth, Kuba textiles from the Congo, Islamic study an object a long time to know
wall hangings, and a variety of oriental rugs. One of his what its sign is. Yet in a composition

the object becomes a new sign that helps to maintain the
force of the whole. In a word, each work of art is a collection
“ T H E C U T- O U T I S W H AT I H AV E of signs invented during the picture’s execution to suit the
needs of their position. Taken out of the composition for
NOW FOUND THE SIMPLEST which they were created, these signs have no further use.”
A N D M O S T D I R E C T W AY T O Matisse’s use of sign reached its zenith in his work for
the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, in which his starkly clari-
E X P R E S S M Y S E L F.” fied brush drawings appear on white tiled walls, illuminated
by colors from the almost abstract designs of the stained
— H E N R I M AT I S S E glass. The artist even designed vestments for the priest on
which versions of Christian symbols appear as signs (see
Maquette for Red Chasuble (back), below). Matisse had arrived
at an art relieved of all its descriptive duties, projecting
instead a kind of spiritual resonance throughout a complete
environment. The achievement would not have been possi-
ble without the artist’s absorption in the products of many
cultures and his insistence on drawing and painting them
until he wholly possessed them. “Things that are acquired
consciously permit us to express ourselves unconsciously
with a certain richness,” he wrote. Indeed, one of the most
striking revelations of the exhibition was how ordinary,
even dull, so many of the objects seemed in comparison
with their appearance in the artist’s paintings, where they
feel vital, vibrant and necessary. In the magic of this trans-
formation, we feel the full mystery and greatness of
Matisse’s art.
John A. Parks is an artist as well as a writer. His latest book

is Universal Principles of Art: 100 Key Concepts for
Understanding, Analyzing and Practicing Art. Visit his
website at johnaparks.com.
ABOVE
Mimosa
by Henri Matisse
1949–51; gouache on paper, cut and pasted, mounted on canvas ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
IKEDA MUSEUM OF 20TH CENTURY ART; © 2017 SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/ARTISTS RIGHTS
SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; COURTESY, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON “Matisse in the Studio” was on view at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this past
RIGHT summer. See further images from the
Maquette for Red Chasuble (back)
designed by Henri Matisse for the Chapel of the Rosary of the Dominican
exhibition, hear comments from the curators
Nuns of Venice; late 1950–52; gouache on paper, cut and pasted and purchase the catalog at mfa.org.
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK; ACQUIRED THROUGH THE LILLIE P. BLISS BEQUEST;
© 2017 SUCCESSION H. MATISSE/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; COURTESY,
CREDIT
Patricia Watwood’s annual
retreat devoted to painting the
figure in the landscape does
more than produce masterful
art—it reawakens the artist.
THREE by Michael Woodson

photography by Meredith Heuer
MEADOWS
CREDIT
S hrouded by 18 acres of undeveloped land near Beach Lake,
Pennsylvania, in the northern part of the Delaware Water
Gap, is a group of painters, ensconced at their easels. The
model lies before them in what the artist Patricia Watwood
calls “a beautiful and challenging pose.” The sun beats down
on them during the afternoon painting session. At the session’s finish, they go
for a swim in the Delaware River. They explore the land’s meadows, covered in
goldenrod, wild blueberries and apples, milkweed and lace. A breeze floats
across a nearby pond, and as the day progresses, the artists guess at the hour
based on the position of the sun and the sounds of the surrounding birds and
insects. They rest in hammocks, share meals over a campfire and prepare to do
it all again during the next morning’s session. This is PA Paint Out.
Helmed by Watwood, PA Paint Out is a five-day retreat in which a small
group of artists come together in nature to, in her words, “channel their inner
Zorn.” It is an opportunity to paint the figure in an almost undisturbed land-
scape with the ever-changing sun as the only light source. “Leaving industrial
development for an oasis of nature and fresh air is the dream of all urban
dwellers in the summer,” says Watwood. “It’s a blessing to do so while also
doing what I love—painting with friends.”
The third-annual PA Paint Out took place this August, and we were among
the lucky ones in attendance. Model Nadine Stevens joined the group for the last
three days of the retreat, and the combination of a vibrant model, hardworking
artists and forested escape made for an inspired and familial experience.

NATURE’S
CATHEDRAL
“The trees make a cathedral of green
air,” Watwood says, “with a quiet hush
and the distant rustle of leaves at the
tree tops. Nadine Stevens (opposite,
bottom) brought beautiful inspiration
to the group, with gorgeous poses, an
intrepid attitude and a sense of
harmony with the environment. I’m so
grateful for models who so generously
give their spirit and energy.”
CREDIT

R & ART
Between sessions the group takes a long midday
break. They swim in the Delaware River or grab ice
cream in the nearby town of Narrowsburg, New
York, on the opposite side of the river. In the photo
at left, Chris Eastland strums on his guitar.
“It’s so fun to work alongside other

artists. We share experiences, swap
colors and try to learn from each
other’s approaches.”
— Patricia Watwood
“Nature” is what we see—
The Hill—the Afternoon—
Squirrel—Eclipse—the Bumble bee—
Nay—Nature is Heaven—
“Nature” is what we hear—
The Bobolink—the Sea—
Thunder—the Cricket—
Nay—Nature is Harmony—
“Nature” is what we know—
Yet have no art to say—
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.
— Emily Dickinson, “Nature Is What We See”

RIGHT
Yellow Parasol
by Patricia Watwood
oil on linen panel, 12x9
BELOW
In the Grass
by Kristin Kunc
oil on linen, 10x8
LEFT ABOVE
Girl on Lake Reclining Nude
by Hyeseung by Chris Eastland
Marriage-Song oil on linen, 6x8
oil on linen, 12x9
Michael Woodson is the associate editor

of Artists Magazine.
The
Evolution of
Figure
Drawing Many approaches to figure drawing exist, and artists
don’t have to limit themselves to just one. We examine
three longstanding traditions, which artists can use and
synthesize in their work.
by Robert Zeller
I
n recent years there has been a huge resurgence of interest in the practice of
academic figure drawing, accompanied by much debate about the best way to
draw the figure in a “classical manner.” Although it may seem an impossibility to
add anything truly new or innovative in this field, I propose an approach that can
be considered an evolution of existing methods and schools, rather than something
radically new.
Simply put, I combine three methods that have been adopted by significant schools of
thought on figure drawing throughout the centuries. The first method centers around the
study of gesture and is embodied in the rhythmic Italian style of drawing referred to as
disegno. The second method is the smooth and subtle creation of form found in the
Holly
by Robert Zeller
French academic method of the 19th century, often referred to today as the atelier method.
2010; graphite on Finally there is the 20th-century architectural-structural approach, which interprets the
paper, 24x18 figure as a series of interlocking geometric shapes.
These methods have been around a very long time: Each has roots in the Italian Renaissance, which in turn had roots in
Greek Classicism. However, unlike ancient Greek drawing and painting—almost none of which has survived—we have
examples from all three traditions to help guide our efforts.
These three schools are often perceived as being at odds with each other; I believe that they are essentially saying the
same thing about the figure but in different ways. A slight shift in emphasis can lead to overall cohesion between them. In
fact, combining these concepts is disarmingly simple. Here I’ll offer a brief overview of these three traditions, and if you’re
interested in learning more, this topic is covered in much more depth in my book The Figurative Artist’s Handbook.
1. Disegno drawing Pietà (below left). The main figure appears monu-
mental, and the gesture lines that flow through it,
Disegno is the Italian word for drawing, but in the context of indicated here with white lines, are powerful and full of
the Renaissance, its meaning is multifaceted. It encompasses life—ironic, given that it’s a scene of the dead Christ.
not only line but also form, composition and—most impor-
tantly for us—gesture. Gesture refers to the way rhythm
and movement flow through a single figure. The consider-
ation of gesture adds life to a drawing and can help join
2. The Academic Method
multiple figures in a composition. This is a conceptual The method of figure drawing taught at modern ateliers is
approach, of course, given that no one walks around with based on methodologies formulated by the École des
visible rhythm lines flowing through his or her body. Beaux-Arts—the principal French academy in the 19th
The philosophy of disegno also involves integrating the fig- century. The core concept of “training the artist’s eye”
ure into the space around it in a believable manner, showing stems from drawing courses such as those designed by
how the rhythms that flow through the figure also flow Charles Bargue (ca 1826–83) and Bernard Romain Julien
through the surrounding area. In other words, gesture doesn’t (1802–71).
start and stop with a single figure, and it’s the key to creating Schools in this tradition strive to teach artists to repre-
organized groupings of figures in multifigure compositions. sent nature faithfully. They don’t all use precisely the same
Disegno was used by the masters of the Italian methods, but they generally have two points in common:
Renaissance, and we can see it clearly in Michelangelo’s an emphasis on light and shadow and a focus on convert-
ing three-dimensional figures into flat, two-dimensional
shapes. Both of these areas of emphasis are designed to
emulate nature as accurately as possible.
I was trained in the Water Street Atelier system, itself a
variant on a method taught by Ted Seth Jacobs and Tony
Ryder. This approach begins by blocking in using straight
lines, establishing proportions and moving from the gen-
eral to the specific in creating forms and subforms. Each
subsequent pass brings more detailed information, all
based on the dividing point between light and shadow,
Pietà called the terminator. The method culminates in a rather
by Michelangelo sophisticated conceptualization of surface form, one that is
ca 1530–36; red and white
chalk over black chalk not based on perception but rather on an understanding of
on paper the relationship between surface form and light source.
The result can convey a beautiful illusion of three-
dimensionality.
Léon Cogniet’s Male Nude From the Back (opposite)
shows an anatomical study developed in this tradition.
Cogniet was a fabulous draftsman and painter who con-
tributed art to the drawing course developed by Julien.
Notice the terrific contrapposto and strong modeling on
the figure’s back. The medium, white chalk and charcoal on
MICHELANGELO: ALBERTINA, VIENNA
gray paper, is terrific for creating volume and form, using a

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE: DISEGNO middle tone as the ground. We also see very subtle model-
You don’t need to attend an art school to learn disegno. ing in Study for Narcissus (opposite) by the contemporary
Simply practice by tracing or copying Old Master drawings artist Camie Isabella Salaz, and Craig Banholzer shows a
and paintings, particularly multifigure compositions. Your wonderful conceptualization of light on smooth surface
only tuition will be the cost of reproductions—or museum form in his Torso Study (opposite). Note that Banholzer
admission if you want to copy from life. leaves his initial straight-line conception visible in the fin-
ished drawing.

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE:
ACADEMIC METHOD
Much of the information taught in ateliers is also available online
and in print. If you want to explore these methods, I recommend
downloading a high-resolution set of Bargue plates and/or the
Julien course and slowly working your way through them. You
can also find videos on YouTube about how to approach cast
drawing.
What you won’t find on the internet is model time. One of the
great things about ateliers is that they take live-model sessions
seriously. If you’re lucky enough to have friends or acquaintances
who will model for you at length, then you’re all set. If not,
enrolling in an atelier may be a good idea.
A final note: Don’t rely on working from photographs, which
become useful only after you’ve developed drawing skills.
There’s no way to cut corners on this, trust me.
NEAR RIGHT
Torso Study
by Craig Banholzer
2016; charcoal and white chalk on
toned paper, 20x16
FAR RIGHT
Male Nude From the Back
by Léon Cogniet
1812; black and white chalk on
blue paper, 23¹¹⁄₁₆x18¼
BELOW
Study for Narcissus
by Camie Isabella Salaz
2009; graphite and white chalk on
toned paper, 16x20
3. The Anatomical- INDEPENDENT STUDY:
ANATOMICAL-STRUCTURAL
Structural Approach There are many great books available on the subject, written
and illustrated by knowledgeable authors. Here are a few of
If you’re going to draw the figure well, you’re going to have to my favorites:
learn anatomy. But for anatomy to make sense, you first ·George Bridgman’s The Complete Guide to Drawing From
want to learn the interior architecture and geometry of the Life and Constructive Anatomy conceive of the human body
figure. The best approach I’ve found for teaching anatomy is as a machine with parts that interlock and function as a
a method I refer to as anatomical-structural, but it has several unit. They’re also great for their emphasis on gesture.
other names, including architectonic and stereographic. This ·The German anatomist Gottfried Bammes makes this
method has a long history, going back as far as Albrecht method very accessible in his books Sehen und Verstehen
Dürer (1471–1528) and Luca Cambiaso (1527–85). I person- and Die Gestalt des Menschen. They’re written in German,
ally learned this approach from the sculptor Sabin Howard, but you can learn everything you need just by looking at
who in turn learned it from the sculptor and anatomist the illustrations.
Walter Erlebacher. ·Roberto Osti’s recent book Basic Human Anatomy is quite
The premise is simple enough: Rather than memorize good and accessible.
long lists of muscles and bones, begin by breaking the figure Purchase any of these books and start copying the plates.
down into geometric shapes. Rectangular blocks and cubes Then, most importantly, work from a live model to practice
are usually the most helpful, but there are also cones, cylin- and internalize the concepts. Without working from life,
ders, ovals and spheres. Try to conceive of the body as being you’ll miss out on much of what this method has to offer.
made up of these shapes. This then provides context and
function for the relevant anatomy, making it easier and more
practical to remember. Using this method, artists also build a
conceptual figure in their mind and then compare the actual
model they’re looking at to that ideal, conceptual model.
H
ow you put these three methods together in your
own practice will be as personal for you as it is for
me, tailored to your specific strengths and weak-
nesses. I’ve taught figure drawing since 2009, when I
founded the Teaching Studios of Art, in Oyster Bay, New
York. My motivations for creating this synthesis were practi-
cal, born of a real need to simplify the process for my
students. Again, I see this as more of an evolution and not
an innovation. I sincerely hope that you forge ahead and cre-
ate your own variation, contributing your personal approach
and vision to this ever-changing tradition.
The topics discussed in this

article are covered in more
depth in my book
The Figurative Artist’s
Handbook (Monacelli Press, ABOVE
2017), which includes In this anatomical
several detailed demonstration, Roberto Osti
shows a box conception of the
demonstrations of how I
figure to the left and a
synthesize the traditions conceptual skeleton to the
discussed here. It also right.
explores how other artists
use the figure to create LEFT
George Bridgman used box
elaborate, original construction and rhythm lines
compositions, along with to convey both the gesture
chapters on subjects such as keeping a sketchbook, portrait and construction of the
drawing and portrait painting. For more information, or to human body, as in this
illustration from his book
purchase a copy, visit monacellipress.com or robertzeller.com.
Constructive Anatomy
(ca 1920).

Jamaal
by Robert Zeller
2014; graphite on
paper, 24x18
CALL FOR ENTRIES
acrylicworks 6
Creative Energy
Windows to the Soul – Chimpanzee, Shelley Gentry, Acrylic on canvas

Philippe’s, Tony Podue, Acrylic on canvas
Le Rouge et Le Noir, Lilianne Milgrom, Acrylic on canvas
EXPRESS YOUR CREATIVE ENERGY!

Celebrate your best acrylic artwork by entering it in !
Along with a feature in the sixth edition of North Light

Books’, your win could lead to recognition from your
peers and even potential clients.
A variety of subjects and styles are welcome, so

let your creative energy shine on the canvas and
enter today!
Keep Moving Forward, Darien Bogart, Acrylic on canvas
Early-Bird Deadline
February 1, 2018
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO ENTER, VISIT

artistsnetwork.com/acrylicworks
NORTH LIGHT BOOKS
an imprint of f+w, a content
+ ecommerce company
TDS (THE DEATH SQUAD) BY PART ONE; 1989; INK ON BOARD, 10x7;
MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, GIFT OF MARTIN WONG
AN EHIBITION ON VIEW IN INDIANA CHRONICLES THE

ORIGINS OF GRAFFITI AND ITS EVOLUTION FROM A
C R E AT I V E O U T L E T—V I E W E D B Y M A N Y AT T H E T I M E A S
A P U B L I C N U I S A N C E —T O A C E L E B R AT E D F O R M O F A R T.
short stories Brief reflections on notable
exhibitions BY AUSTIN R. WILLIAMS
Sculpture in Chicago
GALLERY VICTOR ARMENDARIZ • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
GALLERYVICTOR.COM • CLOSING DATE TBA
The group exhibition “3D” a collision between expres-

shows off the roster of sive figurative sculpture of
sculptors at Chicago’s the early 20th century and
Gallery Victor Armendariz, the minimalism of a later
with works incorporating era.
bronze, steel, earthenware Other works on display
and wood, among other include Dean Kugler’s fig-
media. ures made of such
One participant is the materials as clay and resin
Spanish artist Jesús Curiá and Cristina Córdova’s
Perez, whose sculptures intricately patterned and
combine ghostly bronze painted ceramic bodies.
figures with geometric The exhibition’s artworks
forms made of other materi- aren’t limited to traditional
als. The bodies frequently sculpture, as the show also
seem to morph into starker includes examples of Jim
nonorganic shapes, and the Rose’s unique furniture—
Untitled
figures can seem both bur- cupboards and cabinets
by Richard Diebenkorn dened and empowered by with drawers made of mes-
1952; gouache on paper, 10x10 their strange predicaments. merizing arrangements of
© RICHARD DIEBENKORN FOUNDATION We feel that we’re witnessing painted steel.
Early Diebenkorn
CROCKER ART MUSEUM • SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
CROCKERART.ORG • THROUGH JANUARY 7
A short biography of the works show the artist rapidly

California artist Richard assimilating art from various
Diebenkorn (1922–93) might time periods and locales.”
hold that he began his career The earliest paintings on
as an Abstract Expressionist display were created when
and later moved to a more Diebenkorn was only 20, and
figurative style. The exhibi- the work is highly accom-
tion “Richard Diebenkorn: plished for such a young
Beginnings, 1942–1955,” at artist. Divided between figu-
the Crocker Art Museum, ration and abstraction, it
shows that the artist’s evolu- frequently points toward the
tion was more complex. sophisticated adventures in
“Though his evolution was perception and color that
rapid, he did not suddenly Diebenkorn would pursue in
arrive on the scene as an subsequent decades. Like
Abstract Expressionist many artists’ early work, it
prodigy,” says Scott A. also wears its influences
Shields, the chief curator openly, and we can see the
and associate director of the young Diebenkorn probing Sin Fin III
Crocker. “He investigated styles inspired by such artists by Jesús Curiá Perez
many styles and ideas to get as Edward Hopper, Paul Klee, bronze and steel, 25½x29x29
there. … Diebenkorn’s early and Willem de Kooning. COURTESY OF GALLERY VICTOR ARMENDARIZ

Colored
Pencil Call for Entries
Wall of Ambassadors
by Toyin Ojih Odutola
charcoal, pastel and graphite on paper, 40x30
© TOYIN OJIH ODUTOLA; COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND
JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK.
BFFs—Save the Elephants, Gemma Gylling, CPSA (California)

Toyin Ojih $5,000 Best of Show and CIPPY Award, 25th Annual CPSA International Exhibition
Odutola Cash awards for the 26th Annual This is a juried gallery exhibition
Colored Pencil Society of America to be held at the Bridgeport Art
WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN
ART • NEW YORK, NEW YORK International Exhibition will total Center in Chicago, Illinois, from
WHITNEY.ORG • CLOSING DATE TBA more than $15,000. July 13 to August 20, 2018.
Artwork must be 100% colored For full information about the
“Toyin Ojih Odutola: To Wander pencil and meet other requirements. exhibition and CPSA convention,
Determined,” an exhibition at the Enter online between December 15, visit: www.cpsa.org/INA
Whitney Museum of American Art, 2017, and March 31, 2018.
presents a suite of works by a young Since 1990
artist who has made a major impres-
sion in the past few years with her
drawings that explore issues of iden- Join CPSA
tity, race and class. Become a positive voice
Her latest series consists of portraits for colored pencil fine art
depicting members of two fictional www.cpsa.org
aristocratic Nigerian families. The
drawings are life-size, created with a
combination of charcoal, pastel and
graphite. We see the characters in
attractive domestic interiors awash in
bright sunlight. The drawings buzz
with a sense of life as the artist’s dis-
tinctive marks follow the contours of
bodies, clothing, furniture and
Subscribe Today
Art sts
architecture.
Odutola was born in Nigeria and,
after moving to the United States,
earned a B.A. from the University of
Alabama and an M.F.A. from California
ARTISTSNETWORK.COM
Magazine
College of the Arts. She has exhibited
at venues including the Brooklyn
Museum, the Aldrich Contemporary
800-333-0444 • ArtistsNetwork.com/magazine
Art Museum and the Menil Collection.
Independent GO FIGURE!
In the three-part video series
Figure Drawing Essentials (Artists
Study
Network TV) Brent Eviston, founder
Resources to inspire of Evolution Academy for the Arts
(Eureka, California), turns the
and build skills BY HOLLY DAVIS challenges of drawing the figure into
a series of confidence-building
exercises.
· Getting Started With Gesture & Shape
(101 minutes) examines the basic
shapes used to construct the figure.
· Anatomy & Form (78 minutes)
provides details about drawing
specific parts of the body.
· Master Class (93 minutes) explains
how to use light and shadow to
show volume.
THE HUMAN FACE

Painting realistic portraits in oil is challenging, but with the right guidance, it
can be an amazingly satisfying experience. Popular instructor and lecturer
Kristy Gordon boosts student skills and confidence with invaluable insights.
She begins her online course, Portrait Painting, With Kristy Gordon (Artists
Network University) with an overview of essential skills, such as staging,
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refining of the features. Optional assignments help students hone their skills.
What’s more, the course includes access to discussion boards and a gallery, so
participants can share work and ideas with other students in the Artists
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MORE MATISSE AND BOTTICELLI

Have our reviews on the exhibitions on Botticelli (page 66) and Matisse (page 78)
left you hungering for more? We recommend these exhibition catalogs, available at
mfashop.com:
• Matisse in the Studio (MFA Publications) by Ellen McBreen and Helen Burnham
• Botticelli and the Search for the Divine: Florentine Painting Between the Medici
and the Bonfire of the Vanities (Centro Di) by John T. Spike and Alessandro Cecchi

IN PARADISE
This winter, travel to Key
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Taking registrations
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EXPRESSIVE
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In The Joy of Acrylic Painting,
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Just in time for holiday greetings, readers to analyze works by artists
they love for key
the United States Postal Service characteristics—and then
has issued four Forever stamps take creative flight.
by children’s picture book
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READING ROUNDUP
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delves into the personalities and events Bridget Watson Payne’s little Selwyn Leamy’s Read This if You Want
behind the work of 80 artists from the sunshine-yellow book How Art Can to Be Great at Drawing (Lawrence
Renaissance to the present. Read the Make You Happy (Chronicle Books) King) will have you turning out simple,
book cover to cover or graze at random is a reminder of all the things we love skill-building drawings faster than you
over the profiles and sumptuous about art and all the ways there are thought possible. Particularly appealing
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MENTLER
Figure Drawing in the
1.
2.
DO
Renaissance Tradition
!
NEW
NOW
1. DIAMOND STYLE BY STASH TWO; 1991; ACRYLIC AND INK ON CANVAS, 42x40; MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, GIFT OF MARTIN WONG. 2. LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTY BY PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR; 1880–81;
1. American
Graffiti
2. Renoir and
Friends
3. LA Art Show
3. 4. Max Ernst
California
Stephanie LA ART SHOW
deadpan materiality that gave them
form. The exhibition features more
BIRDSALL LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
than 150 sculptures, drawings and
prints, all of which trace the
Lemons & Leaves LAARTSHOW.COM crisscrossing avenues of Taylor’s artistic
The Natural Still Life JANUARY 10 THROUGH 14 inquiry and his innovative use of
unexpected materials.
Promoted as the region’s foremost
celebration of the visual arts, the LA
Art Show offers collectors, galleries and Illinois
the community the opportunity to
view, exhibit and purchase art from TRANSFORMING
around the globe. Now in its third
decade, the LA Art Show is one of the
NEIGHBORHOODS
! world’s largest and longest-running art CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE
NEW FOUNDATION • CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
events, with more than 100 galleries
from 18 countries. Some 70,000 312-922-3432 • ARCHITECTURE.ORG
OIL ON CANVAS, 51¼x69⅛; THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, WASHINGTON, D.C. 3. ARTWORK FROM THE 2017 LA ART SHOW
THROUGH JANUARY 7
attendees are expected over the show’s
four days, which also feature
Cesar programming organized by several Los
“Between States—50 Designers
Transform Chicago’s Neighborhoods”
SANTOS Angeles-area museums, including the
Broad, the Getty, the Los Angeles
is an ambitious showcase of communi-
Secrets of Figure Drawing™ ty-based design solutions, geared at
County Museum of Art and the Muzeo
transforming underappreciated and
Museum and Cultural Center.
underperforming spaces in Chicago.
!
NEW Chicago Architecture Foundation
Georgia (CAF) challenged Chicago-based design
teams to identify a physical asset in
AL TAYLOR one of Chicago’s 50 wards that could
benefit from a redesign and to imagine
HIGH MUSEUM OF ART • ATLANTA, a way to transition it “between states.”
GEORGIA • 404-733-4400 • HIGH.ORG
If you’re interested in the topic but
NOVEMBER 17 THROUGH MARCH 18
won’t be in Chicago anytime soon, the
exhibition can be explored in detail
With “Al Taylor: What Are You Looking
through the CAF’s website.
At?” Atlanta’s High Museum explores the
career of American sculptor and
multimedia artist Al Taylor (1948–1999). Indiana
Like many artists of his generation,
Taylor often used commonplace objects AMERICAN
1-877-867-0324
such as broomsticks, coffee cans and
hula hoops to construct his three-
GRAFFITI
LiliArtVideo.com dimensional works, delighting in the INDIANAPOLIS MUSEUM OF ART
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

4.
317-923-1331 • IMAMUSEUM.ORG In “Max Ernst: Washington, D.C.
THROUGH JANUARY 28 Beyond Painting,”
MoMA presents RENOIR AND
Step onto the streets and back in time:
“City as Canvas: New York City Graffiti
works by the
pre-eminent Dada
FRIENDS
From the 70s & 80s” invites viewers to and Surrealist THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION
experience an amazing display of early WASHINGTON, D.C. • 202-387-2151
artist. The PHILLIPSCOLLECTION.ORG
graffiti, from the collection of the Museum exhibition THROUGH JANUARY 7
of the City of New York. The exhibition emphasizes Ernst’s
chronicles the origins of graffiti and its (1891–1976) ceaseless experimentation,
evolution from a creative outlet—viewed An exhibition currently on display at the
such as his radical techniques that Phillips Collection centers on a single
by many at the time as a public nuisance— strove to articulate the irrational and
to a celebrated form of art. Included are work: Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Luncheon of
unexplainable in the wake of World the Boating Party, painted in 1880–81.
seminal works by pioneering graffiti artists War I, continuing through the advent
Keith Haring, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink Widely recognized as one of Renoir’s major
and aftermath of World War II. The achievements, Luncheon is a marvel of
and Futura 2000. show features approximately 100 works plein air painting on a grand scale. The
from the Museum’s collection, including
4. THE KING PLAYING WITH THE QUEEN BY MAX ERNST; 1944; BRONZE, 38½x33x20½; THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK; © 2017 ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS) NEW YORK / ADAGP, PARIS
exhibition comprises more than 40

paintings that challenged material and paintings, drawings, pastels, prints and
New York compositional conventions, collages and photographs that uncover the
overpaintings utilizing found printed
MAX ERNST reproductions, frottages (rubbings),
circumstances leading to the painting’s
creation, the diverse and fascinating circle
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART illustrated books and collage novels, of friends who inspired it and the complex
NEW YORK, NEW YORK sculptures of painted stone and bronze evolution of the work itself, which was
212-708-9400 • MOMA.ORG and prints made using a range of
THROUGH JANUARY 1 mostly painted on the balcony of the
techniques. Fournaise restaurant in Chatou, near Paris.
A RT I S T ’S M A R K E T P L A C E
CAROL LAKE • CAROL.LAKE@FWMEDIA.COM • 385-414-1439 MARY MCLANE • MARY.MCLANE@FWMEDIA.COM • 970-290-6065
sponsored by the Stockton Art League. May 17 – NEW YORK

C a l l Fo r E n t r ie s July 15, 2018. Cash awards over $5,000. Open to all
US artists. No photography or computer art. Pastel Society of America
DEADLINE: JANUARY 14, 2018 https://client.smarterentry.com/sal. Juror: Sabina PSA School for Pastels
National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South,
NORTHWEST WATERCOLOR SOCIETY’S 78TH ANNUAL Turner. Prospectus: www.stocktonartleague.org. New York, NY 10003
INTERNATIONAL OPEN EXHIBITION. Exhibit dates: Inquiries: stocktonartleague@gmail.com. Type Contact: 212/533-6931
April 16 – June 1, 2018. Awards up to $10,000 – “Haggin 2018” in subject line. psaoffice pastelsocietyofamerica.org or
1st $2,000, 2nd $1,250, 3rd $750. Juror Mark E. www.pastelsocietyofamerica.org
Mehaffey. Digital entry/prospectus available DEADLINE: MAY 15, 2018
Nov. 12, 2017 at www.nwws.org Enrich your paintings and study with these masterful
PENNSYLVANIA WATERCOLOR SOCIETY’S 39TH artists.
INTERNATIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION, September 15 - 1/12-1/14/18, Painting Rocks in the Pastel Landscape
DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 19, 2018 October 20, 2018. At the Crary Art Gallery, Warren, with Liz Haywood-Sullivan PSA-MP.
SOUTHERN WATERCOLOR SOCIETY 41ST ANNUAL PA. Juror of Selection – Keiko Tanabe, Juror of 2/18-2/23/18, PSA Destination Workshop in Dunedin, FL
EXHIBITION. May 15 - June 22, 2018 at the Art Center Awards – Ron Thurston. Over $14,000 in Awards. with Richard McKinley PSA-MP, Hall of Honoree 2010.
Manatee, Bradenton, FL. Juror: John Salminen NWS, Entries accepted beginning March 1, 2018. For a 3/17-3/18/18, Exploring the Application of Broken
AWS.DF. Cash/merchandise awards. John Salminen Color in the Landscape with Maria Marino PSA.
Workshop “Realism through Design” May 15-18, 2018. prospectus, visit www.pawcs.com or email
pwsjuriedshow@gmail.com 4/14/18, Dancing Pastels, Inspired by Gesture and
Limited to member artists residing in the 18 states Movement with Janet A. Cook PSA.
and DC which comprise SW. Deadline for entries 5/11-5/12/18, Day at the Museum Animal Drawing with
through Juried Art Services February 19, 2018. Patricia Wynne, professional illustrator and naturalist.
Information and download prospectus at
www.southernwatercolorsociety.org
Wo r k s h o p s 5/18-5/20/18, People in Places in NYC with
Aline Ordman PSA-MP.
6/1-6/3/18, Hands-on Albers Color Workshop with
DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 21, 2018 ALABAMA Cynthia Dantzic, LIU professor of art, author, student
SOUTHEASTERN PASTEL SOCIETY - 18TH Huntsville Museum of Art of Josef Albers.
INTERNATIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION. May 11 - June 2/9-2/11/18, HUNTSVILLE. Sara Beth Fair, 8/17-8/19/18, Soften the Edges of the City with Pastel
24, 2018. Oglethorpe University Museum, Atlanta, Painting with Light, Color & Joy. with Nancie King-Mertz PSA-MP.
GA. Soft pastels only. Members $35, Non-members 5/3-5/6/18, HUNTSVILLE. David Dunlop, Natural 9/24-9/26/18, The Prosaic Landscape made Poetic
$45. $5,000 in cash and merchandise awards. Juror Elements; Painting with the Masters, Old & New with Richard McKinley PSA-MP, Hall of Honoree 2010.
Dawn Emerson. southeasternpastel.org Techniques. 10/13-10/14/18, On Color! Unity & Form with
6/1-6/2/18, HUNTSVILLE. Alan Shuptrine, Casey Klahn PSA.
DEADLINE: MARCH 5, 2018 Realistic Watercolor Landscapes. 10/20/18, Emerging from the Dust of Failed Paintings
8/16-8/18/18, HUNTSVILLE. Keith Andry, with Anna Wainright PSA-MP.
GIBSON CO VISUAL ARTS ASSOCIATION, 17th GCVAA 10/27-10/28/18, Pastel Portraits from Life in the
National Juried Exhibition, Trenton, TN. $2,000 Strong Design & Bold Strokes in Watercolor.
Classical Realist Tradition with Carol Peebles PSA.
cash awards. Juror: Soon Y. Warren AWS-NWS- 10/18-10/21/18, HUNTSVILLE. David Shevlino,
CLASSES – ONGOING YEAR ROUND:
TWSA / Workshop: April 30 -May 4, 2018. Online Alla Prima Clothed Figure & Portrait Painting. Tuesdays, 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm, Introduction to Pastel
prospectus at www.gcvaa.org. Submit Digital 11/9-11/11/18, HUNTSVILLE. Lian Quan Zhen, Still Life and Landscape with Janet A. Cook PSA.
entries: gcvaa2012@gmail.com. All 2-D media, no Watercolor Painting: Let the Colors Paint Themselves. Wednesdays, 9 am to 12 pm, Portraiture, Landscape
photography. 731/784-4120 / 731/352-5852. 11/15-11/17/18, HUNTSVILLE. Perry Austin, and Still Life with Diana DeSantis PSA-MP.
Painting the Landscape in Oils. Wednesdays, 1 pm to 4 pm, Flowers, Faces, and
DEADLINE: MARCH 16, 2018 Contact: Laura E. Smith, Director of Education/ Fabric in Pastel with Wennie Huang.
2018 (60TH EXHIBITION) STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA. Museum Academy, 256/535-4350 x222 Thursdays, 1 pm to 4 pm, Color & Composition with
The 60th Juried Exhibition at The Haggin Museum lsmith@hsvmuseum.org or hsvmuseum.org Maceo Mitchell PSA-MP.
PSA Destination Workshop with

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VA L K I L M E R
A RT I ST, A C TO R ,
AUTHOR
For Lyda Was Nigh To Joppa

by Val Kilmer
enamel on metal, 20½x12
PHOTO VAL KILMER © 2017 HANK O’NEAL. COURTESY OF WOODWARD GALLERY, NEW YORK.
I really enjoy painting abstractions.

This work is born from the perspective that matter isn’t matter; it’s energy.
And energy is viewable or instigated by thought or perception, according to
modern physics. For Lyda Was Nigh To Joppa features a portrait orientation
and reveals a depth of layers, encouraging the viewer to fall into the frame.
The shoreline edges reference the fractal notion of zooming or falling
infinitely into the image. I consider it my Black Hole—my window
into another world.

CREDIT
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