Handmade Amate Paper

I made the drawing of this horse on a handmade mexican paper, called "papel amate".
Since prehispanic times, the indigenous people of Mexico used to make paper out of a variety of natural fibers. Papel amate can be made from the bark of several types of ficus trees: The macerated bark is placed on a wooden board and beaten repeatedly with a volcanic stone until the fiber releases a sticky substance which holds the resulting pulp together. It is pounded flat and arranged into the shape of sheets, which have uneven edges. Then it is air dried.
The paper has a beautiful, irregular surface and the color can be from very light beige to dark brown.
In the Mexican states of Puebla, Guerrero and Morelos, this paper is used for either monochrome or very colorful, naive paintings, depicting traditional events like weddings, harvests, rodeos etc..

Abstraction vs. Realism

There is no right or wrong in art. Both representational and non representational art can be good or bad. Good art, at least for me, is one which creates a response in the viewer which is similar to the artists own initial impression or intent in relation to the subject matter.
Even though I paint representationally, I am always using a certain degree of abstraction. Nature is three dimensional and my canvas has only two dimensions, so, by definition, I need to abstract. How much I want to stick to what I see or how far I want to simplify is up to me and they way I feel that day. Sometimes I enjoy playing around with both abstraction and figure in a painting. It is just a matter of shapes and colors put together in a harmonious way.

Music and Visual Arts

I believe music and visual arts have a lot in common and many artistic people have a sensibility for both.
I went to high school in Vienna, Austria, and I still regret the fact, that at a certain age we had to choose between art education and music. I chose visual arts, but would have loved to continue with classes about music as well.
Both art forms can express moods and atmosphere so well, both can evoke emotions in the audience (as can language, I guess, but I never got much into writing).
Recently, when I started teaching a course in color theory, I found myself using a lot of comparisons and referring to technical parallels between the two.
Both art and music benefit from contrast between economy and variety, rhythm and calm, a strong statement and an element of surprise. Accents make the work come alive but the general layout of the composition is more important than the detail.
In any case, I feel it is best not to say it all, but to leave a little room for the pleasure of interpretation.

Children in Portraiture

A few years ago I was commissioned to paint the portraits of two sisters. Children won´t hold still for you, so I worked from a family snapshot for one and a studio photograph for the other. I knew the kids quite well, as they lived across the street from me. Otherwise I would have had to ask for a whole bunch of photographs to get to know them better - I do the same when I have to paint a portrait of an adult whom I don´t know well and who cannot sit for me.
And being familiar with their personality was very helpful.
The older sister, the blond girl, was very outgoing and full of spunk, her little sister rather sweet and shy. Their mother left the choice of backgrounds up to me and was quite happy with the prickly cacti in back the older and the soft meadow behind the younger child.

Trends in Art

Art is not exempt from fashion.
Every time has its preferences and trends and, most people, with few exceptions, follow them.
The last century has seen its share of abstract or non representational art, some of it exceptional, some of it bad, some hardly art at all, but as long as it is in fashion, everything goes.
Now it looks like realism begins to have a comeback.
Recently, work which is shocking, offensive, violent, or which otherwise causes raised eyebrows is being favored by the critics.
Novelty at all cost - but is it art?
I choose to paint representationally, because I feel attracted to the (often hidden) beauty nature has to offer. There is plenty of tragedy and ugliness in the daily news, I don´t need to contribute to that. Besides, I am convinced that it is within the human condition to crave beauty.

Rodin on Drawing

I have a model and a bunch of artists over to may studio every Friday.
We put on some classical music, turn on the spotlight and set the timer to 1 minute. Everyone works with frenzied speed and concentration to capture these quick poses as best he or she can. Next are 2 minute and 5 minute poses, like the one in this example.
More than a warm up, they bring out the best in us. Not only do the models strike more interesting poses than when they have to hold it for 10 or 15 minutes, but the artist has no time for, what Rodin called "..the inexpressive minutiae of execution and false nobility of gesture which please the ignorant."
Quick drawing does not give you time to be afraid of mistakes or to worry about style. And that is good. The purpose is not to create masterpieces but to practice; to grow as an artist and to keep in shape. Says Rodin: "Craft is only a means, but the artist who neglects it will never attain his end, ............. in short, no sudden inspiration can replace the long toil which is indispensable to give the eye a true knowledge of form and of proportion and to render the hand obedient to the commands of feeling."
I feel so lucky that my profession as a painter allows me to enjoy every minute of this "long toil"! Well, almost every minute, with the exception of washing my brushes...............

Rodin on Beauty

Santa Teresita is a - well, how should I say it politely - pretty ugly part of Guadalajara. But that does not mean that beauty cannot be found there.
I had been invited to participate in a water color show and, even though I am an oil painter, I accepted.
My aim was to stay away as far as possible from the artificially sweetened, the pretty, from what´s commonly perceived as beautiful. I looked around for a subject that the other participants would not consider worthy. I found it in the tangle of telephone cables and electrical wires strung between the roofless houses of this part of town.
And I could not help remembering a passage I read in a wonderful book, called "On Art and Artists", published by Philosophical Library, New York, which is a summary of interviews given by the great Auguste Rodin, in which he says - and I quote: "..... In short, Beauty is everywhere. It is not she that is lacking to our eye, but our eyes which fail to perceive her. Beauty is character and expression." In another chapter he offers this: "There is nothing ugly in art except that which is without character,....... And that which is considered ugly in nature often presents more character than that which is termed beautiful......"
I recommend this book to everyone who does creative work.