The Pastel Colorist - CASEY KLAHN

Pastels have always been one of my favorite media. They are a versatile material, and in the hands of a proficient artist they can be used to express a lot. I spoke with pastel artist Casey Klahn recently and the interview appears below. Casey has his portfolio at http://www.caseyklahn.com/. He also has blogs at http://www.thecolorist.blogspot.com/ and http://pastelsblog.blogspot.com

How did you begin in art? “It isn’t remarkable that someone will start drawing in childhood, as I did at four years of age. But, immediately I began to draw for hours and hours a day, and that continued for thirteen years until I graduated from high school. I estimate that I made over 100,000 drawings in that time, and along the way I learned a thing or two.”

Can you tell us how you progressed through various media and particularly into pastels and abstract landscapes? “That progression question is an interesting one. I did use every type of flat media that is common to art, just like any other art student. But the pencil was my truest form of expression, and when I decided to become a professional about 12 years ago, I felt the urge to present color with my art. I had a feeling that I could do well with color, but that I didn’t have much experience beyond the basics of color theory. Pastel was the natural next step for a drawing-centric artist, but I quickly saw its potential and that it really is a great painting medium. So, the growth areas for me were to go into pastels, and into the landscape. Landscape was new for me since my standard subject had been the figure. Then came the abstracted landscape. I guess I had been abstracting the figure for many years, too, because you get tired of realism after a while. . . New, new, new! That’s the idea of art: an exploration into what is new for you, and perhaps new to the world at large.”

How did you develop your style into its present direction? “Mostly by looking intently at contemporary landscape and modern artists. Wolf Kahn is an obvious influence on me. If patrons compare me to him, which often happens, I say,
‘thank you’! That is no easy feat. ‘Artistic looking’ is important. I once saw a view through the trees about 2 miles past my house that has continued to influence me. I also have an image of the river by my childhood home that sticks in my mind. . . Intuitive color choices are the substance and subjects of my works. My compositions subvert everything to the color idea, and walk the line between color field work and the landscape.”

Please tell us what kinds of color selection you like to use? “Browns are not allowed in my palette. Only the three primary and the three secondary colors are used. This allows for greater intensities, and a unique look. I will use gray as a neutral, however. . . Mostly I like to just keep trying new things. Trial and error describes it well, or I like to call it ‘intuitive choice’. . . There is some thought that I put into choosing color, too. My pink and green series was a heart felt love of that composition, which I worked on kinesthetically for months before I got it down on paper.”

What will be your next project? “I heard of an artist who arbitrarily chooses to work with a two-color wheel, like red and blue. I want to try that next.”

Please tell us about your working techniques? “There are a few different patterns occur. As far as concept is concerned, I ruminate on color ideas for a long time before I start to explore them. Sometimes, however, I just start throwing down color in a quick composition. But, other times, I will actually have dreams ahead of time relating to ideas that I’ve been exploring. . . Frequently I will do a value study, which gets the shades and also the lines and shapes organized. I don’t wish to be too exact, however. Spontaneity is important to me.

I do know what I’m about when I approach the paper, and that confidence transmits to the image a sense of freshness and looseness. My ’subjects’ are very limited to scenes in the trees. I grew up in the rain forests of coastal Washington State. You literally couldn’t see the forest for the trees, as they say. Nor could you see any sunlight!

About ten years ago we moved to Eastern Washington, where sunlight and open ground are the rule. I liken it to van Gogh’s move from the Low Countries and Paris to the Arles area in the south of France. Gray into color! People do sometimes try to describe an image of mine and they speak about light. That is way, way off of the mark.

In my weaning years on the coast, we had almost no direct sunlight ever. People would move there from Seattle and commit suicide. My art was about lines and shapes. Now, here in the sunny inland region, I suffer the intense sunlight. But what color! All of a sudden my art has intense, pure color. But my format still remembers the lack of direct sunlight and reliance on shapes and lines. And Modern Art influences me, with its flat, formal presentation.

My pastel images are executed very quickly. I don’t begin lightly and carefully layer up a perfect image. Instead I go in heavy and with intention. After all, I do know where I’m going. Few layers, heavy coverage, loose marks. I don’t create an image and then leave it on the easel to work on later. Do or die, you might say.”

What kind of tools, light, studio do you prefer? You mentioned pastels and Lascaux fixative - what brands of pastel, and what is the chemical content of your fixative? “My studio is being remodeled. I moved it out of the north room of my house, which we call the library, and am installing a freestanding studio by the old garden. Right now, the floor is half finished and we are getting ready to trench in the power cables. I’m chasing the frost to get the power in, so it’s very exciting stuff. Right now, I shiver in front of an electric space heater powered by a 100-foot extension cord. But, to answer my preference, I do rely on a north light widow, and a Dazor combination lamp. I have a track light in my new studio space where I have both warm and cool lights over my palette. I made my own really big shallow wooden tray that houses my assortment of pastels. Pastelists have hundreds and hundreds of sticks. And I made the table that it sits upon. It is waist high, and shallow enough that I can reach the whole tray plus a little extra room, and it is seven feet long. I resourced the Formica top from a salvage pile in a barn.

I am now making my own pastels, using powdered pigments. My favorite brand, though, is Diane Townsend. I write about
these things on my blogs, TheColorist and Pastel. The URLs are: www.thecolorist.blogspot.com and www.pastelsblog.blogspot.com. Behind Townsends come Sennelier, Schmincke and Unison. I also have about five other brands in my palette.

For a fixative, I use Blair for early layers where a little color change is insignificant. Later layers get Lascaux, which doesn’t change the color as far as I can tell. Lascaux is 10% Xylene and the balance is alcohol and propellants. No fixative goes on the finished work because of what it does to the structure. Pastel is a three dimensional thing to me, with two being the picture plane, and the layers of pastel being a third. Light goes in through the pastel, reflects off of the paper - which is why
I don’t choose black paper - and back to the eye.”

What are your sources of inspiration? “That’s a hard question. Certainly the objects, such as trees and skies are low on the list. I would say the formal parts of color are first, and then come the other formal elements, such as line and value and all of that. I am motivated by emotive and aesthetic qualities in painting. I participate in the broader society of art, but not so much that I need to be aware of what the ‘art world’ is up to. Art is personal, now. . . Beyond that, I have been making art for so long - about forty-five years - that I would say that art is a habit and an ingrained thing. Creative behavior is second
nature, or a part of one’s personality. Survival skill, maybe? I don’t know.”

What other contemporary pastel artists do you respect or appreciate? “That’s another subject that I write about in my blogs. . . To answer the question, I value Wolf Kahn for his newness, believe it or not. He has moved Abstract Expressionism onto the contemporary stage by using its formal stuff in landscapes that are nominally realist. Some probably burn him for that, and it is part of what I love about him. In your face expression, new color treatments, totally loose rendering. And behind him lie - directly - Mark Rothko and Hans Hoffman. Behind them lies van Gogh, who was the first really free artist with color. Vincent van Gogh stung me at an early stage in my artistic development. And he’s contemporary, right? I mean, a little over a hundred years is not that long in art history, in my opinion.

I appreciate Daniel Greene, who will be revered as a prominent guy in art history. He does for the portrait that which our day requires, and then takes it beyond. If I were a portraitist, I’d be on his doorstep. Harvey Dinnerstein is doing figures in pastel that emote classicism, but are ‘right now’ as far as I’m concerned. If we have an era of experientialism now, his figures stare out at us with full and moving presence. Those guys are realists, but that reflects our day - anything goes.”

What was the most difficult project or commission you’ve encountered? “Maybe generating this whole colorist signature has been the most difficult effort for me. It was hard to define, and a little hard staying on topic. Art fairs and gallery shows have caused me to be disciplined about that.”

Can you tell us about any interesting experiences with exhibitions, galleries, collectors or art writers? “Finding and identifying my audience has been an experience. That sounds crass and inartistic, in a way. Some one will slam me for saying this, I’m sure. But, in point of fact, I am slicing off huge segments of the public when I travel my road. The goal is not to broaden anything, but to focus on what my art is. The people who like my art - mostly artists and art professionals - shine a light back for me to see what I have been making.

Writing about my art is one-sided. Even in the social world of blogging. But, taking the art out to the public is not a choice, but a necessity for me. There I get, bit by bit, a type of cognition of what my art actually is, or ‘looks like’. I mean I still have to go into the studio and face the blank paper alone. But, I rely so much on intuitive process that often I never stop to think about meaning or whatever. I just make. Rothko was big on the invigoration - or death - of one’s art out in the public.”

What kind of pricing do you put on your work? Can it be bought from your website directly? “People can get me directly on the phone or by e-mail. Since I don’t put my art in prints, I don’t count on the Internet for much selling. I use it more as a resource for those who want to follow up on me after having seen my originals in person. I have a great deal of antipathy towards the camera, which prints are based on. Maybe there is some of van Gogh’s blood in me. He hated the camera, too.

My art will be at the Karlson/Gray Gallery in Langley, Washington for January. After that, I usually do the Bellevue ArtsFair and the Park City Art Festival. Those are in July and August. Also, the Spokane ArtFest in June is my local venue.

An example of a price for my pastels would be about $800 - $900 for a 13 or 14 inch by about 10 inch piece. I stay
self-consistent by pricing according to size, but I also respond to demand over time. Gallery and fair or in-studio prices are all the same, but the market does change. Get hold of me now while I’m relatively undiscovered!”

What are your interests and dislikes in contemporary art? “My interests are modern authenticity and creativity. But I don’t much care for forced or extravagant abnormality. It was Thomas Hart Benton - maybe in his waning years - who
said that the only thing in art that he really cared about was ‘Thomas Hart Benton’. My art world is 90% what I want
and need to do, and the balance is what I want to see that teaches me.

Flat medium art interests me. New mediums, or non-medium arts don’t interest me much. I mean, pastel is the oldest
medium, isn’t it? I’m thinking about doing an imaginary interview of a cave man who uses ground-up pigment and applies it to rocks. And yet, I still insist that creating the new painting is the center of what artists do. Has every possible picture been painted? Certainly not!”

Thank you Casey for the insights and experiences.

- Giselle Borzov

MICHAEL BARNES Art Nude Photographer

Appreciating the nature of the human being is a core issue of many religions, most art and much of science. In each of these three areas there is a tendency to elevate that knowledge above the other two areas. This itself being a part of human nature. Contemporary art has reflected much of this thought and feeling about human nature, and in that sense has extended art’s messages from prior millenia.

The advent of photography brought an artistic medium that is rich in variety and stylistic expressions. The nude has made a major impact in the portfolios of many photographic artists. Nudity in art is represented so strongly because as a very visual species humans know that the variances of the human body are intriguing and often very beautiful. This visual knowledge is so strong that it has encountered many different taboos in different times and cultures, but it will never lose its primacy, as long as mankind has any memory of a physical, visual world.

There are many artists photographing the nude, and the volume of content that the electronic media carries offers proof of the power of this visual interest in the human form. One photographer and artist who works with the nude, Michael Barnes, is also a leader in selecting other artists’ works for view by the truly international audience of the world wide web. Michael Barnes maintains his own online portfolio with some representative works of the nude that are esthetically superior as well as technically solid. Michael Barnes also writes the Art Nudes Blog, a distinguished and very popular online exhibit of excellent images from many different photographers of the nude. In this sense Michael Barnes contributes twice to the knowledge and appreciation of the nude in photography as an art form.

When I asked Michael for an interview I wanted to ask about his knowledge but also his understanding of the nude from the perspective of an exhibitor of the works of many artist photographers.

How long has your “Art Nudes” blog been online? “My first posts date back to February 2003. At the time, I couldn’t find any blogs dedicated to what I considered true fine art figure photography, so I started my own. It seemed to have filled a need though, because the site immediately started attracting critical praise from people who wrote in to say, ‘At last! This is what I’ve been looking for!’. I’m truly happy to report that there are now several really wonderful blogs that focus on similar subject matter, and seem to have the same emphasis on the quality of the photography rather than on the sexuality of the model. I’m not suggesting that I influenced the creators of those sites, but I seem to have managed to catch the leading edge of the wave of a cultural trend.”

Have you seen any newer trends in photography of the nude in the last 20 years? “There hasn’t been any single trend specific to photographing the nude that has influenced the genre across the board; it’s simply too big a category with a very diverse group of artists. However, there has certainly been massive changes in photography as a whole due to the emergence of the digital revolution. In the world of fine art nudes, this has meant more colour photography in a genre where black & white once equaled art. It also means more manipulation of images. For better of worse, this means that the standards of perfection that were once the stock and trade of magazine covers are now becoming prevalent in fine art photography. It is now extremely easy to make that freckle disappear, or to erase that tattoo that was ruining the symmetry of your composition. I am not passing judgment, only making an observation. I have certainly used those tools in my own work. Photographers have been altering their work for ages, it’s just easier now, and the alterations are more extensive.”

Many people are concerned with drawing some kind of line between “art” and “pornography,” especially when it comes to nudes or erotic poses. Do you have any sort of guidelines as what does or does not delineate these two concepts? “That is the eternal question around nude photography. My guidelines are both instinctual and technical. Basically, my criteria is to look at the photographic merits first, and then weigh it against the intent of the image. If to me, the photographer’s portfolio is primarily about the attractiveness of the models, rather than about creative photography, then it likely won’t make the cut. There’s some amazingly talented glamour photographers out there, but their job is to portray an idealized figure for the purpose of inspiring desire. Fine art photography aspires to something more lofty in my mind.

The internet has really influenced fine art photography in that the visual vernacular of pornography is being increasingly referenced. Sometimes the references are ironic and critical, sometimes celebratory, and sometimes fine art photographers shoot work that is simply pornographic. This is particularly true of ‘fetish’ photography, as it is by nature full of photographic potential. Psychologically, it’s about power relationships, sexual politics, and violence. Visually, it’s got great dark moody themes, shiny latex and all the various accoutrements that go along with it. Nonetheless, I seldom post that type of work, unless the photography is exceptional.”

I understand you’ve recently had some issues with the blog around the definition of pornography? “Yes. My blog was recently put behind an interstitial warning page by Google because someone, somewhere, flagged my blog as having inappropriate content. According to Google’s terms of service, they define it as follows: ‘Pornography and Obscenity: Image and video content that contains nudity, sexually graphic material, or material that is otherwise deemed explicit by Google . . . ‘ Lumping nudity with sexually graphic material is ridiculous. What sort of nudity? Does a baby’s bare bottom in a diaper ad count? Does a naked adult female with arms strategically placed to cover her breasts count? Sadly, according to Google’s policy, anything that elicits a complaint from the most easily offended person can result in the warning page being forced upon you. However, as I indicated in the previous question, this has always been the problem with this type of work. The prevailing attitude is, ‘I can’t define obscene, but I’ll know it when I see it.’ Unfortunately, this results in the most conservative people wielding a great deal of power, and limiting access for the rest of us. You can say it’s just a warning page, but I’ve received several emails from readers in foreign countries that now can’t access the site because it has been flagged as objectionable. Here’s where I’m tempted to go off on a rant about free speech and Libertarianism, but I’ll hold off!”

What newer or emerging photographers do you believe are making good art with nudes? “That’s so difficult to answer! There are so many talented emerging and established artists that I’ve had the opportunity to discover through my blog. In a pinch, I’d have to say visit my blog, and in the permanent links section under ‘Photographers’ is a list of photographers whose work I admire. Many of them I have the privilege of having made friends with via email correspondence, others simply do work that personally inspires me.”

What are some of the most notable reactions you have received to the entries on your ‘Art Nudes’ blog? “The most remarkable reactions I’ve had have not been about photographic entries, but rather to personal ones. When I was going through the recent trouble with Google and then experienced a hacking incident that decimated my traffic, I came very close to throwing in the towel and quitting. The outpouring of support I received via email and in the comments sections was sincerely touching. I felt like Sally Fields doing her infamous Oscar speech, ‘You like me! You really, really like me!’ Seriously, it was wonderful, and because of those reactions I’ll carry on with the blog for the foreseeable future.”

What can you tell photographers that might want to submit their work to your “Art Nudes” blog? “They should read the Art Nudes Blog FAQ to see that they meet the requirements and then simply email me a link to their website using the Contact Art Nudes link on the blog. People should be aware though, that many are submitted, not all are chosen. A nice polite introduction and explanation of why they would like to be featured puts me in a better mood than a simple link submission.”

Michael Barnes, thank you for your viewpoints on photographing the nude. In addition to enjoying your fine work at barnes-photo.com I must say that I admire your philosophic stance on the art of photographing the nude. In my opinion your blog at artnudes.blogspot.com is itself a work of art. Your philosophy and sense of esthetics are very well exhibited there by the exceptional entries of many, many worthy photographers. Your leadership in acquainting viewers worldwide with those esthetics and philosophy is a wonderful phenomenon deserving of the highest recognition.

Giselle Borzov

Etchings by MARCELLE HANSELAAR

Prints are a great way to get involved with collecting from almost any artist who is producing in that medium. The reason is that prints are usually priced well below original, unique works. Prints offer much of what the artist has to express, and in the artist’s inimitable style, making them a good option.

I have been looking at the etchings of Marcelle Hanselaar, images of her etchings can be found at her website portfolio at
http://www.marcellehanselaar.com/. My recent article on the paintings of Marcelle Hanselaar appeared in the Contemporary Art Gallery Magazine, titled “MARCELLE HANSELAAR Expressive Sexual Symbols”. I asked Marcelle for an interview about her art works and her thoughts appear below.

 

 

 

How did you begin in art? “I drew a lot as a child, preferring my self created world to the ‘real’ one. As a teenager I had no idea what I wanted to do, drawing was the only thing I liked - short of telling stories to myself or to my sister when she was half asleep. So, I enrolled at the Royal Academy in The Hague. There I got a taste for possibilities but didn’t like the restraints of the art classes. I dropped out in the second year, became a painters’ model and from then on have been learning from other artists, dead or alive.”

Can you tell us how you progressed through various media and particularly into printmaking? “I am primarily an oil painter. About ten years ago my parents died and to my surprise I was hit by a kind of identity crisis. It is easy to know who or what you don’t want to be like and so with nobody to set myself off against I realized I had to start all over again to find what and who I was, not in comparison to anyone but in a freestanding way. Consequently I started drawing, obsessively and mostly late at night. These drawings became the basis for my etchings. In the beginning my drawings were related to childhood feelings I recalled, quite distorted of course by my grown up perspective. After a couple of years the focus shifted from the past to present experiences. These experiences are transcribed in scenes like theatre stills. The edginess and the tension within ourselves, our past and presents, our disappointments and longings is something I keep coming back to, both in painting and etching.

I never think of what I am going to draw, objects people, places all seems to flow out of my personal image bank. Similar to dream language. My etchings are erotic, expressing the fierce longing to bring the dark uncivilized, hidden and often unacceptable part in us into the light. Etching to me is very much a medium of secrecy, of stark visions and of sharp bitten lines. A medium which suits the unconventional and the hilarious. There is a lot of cross pollination both in technique as in subject between my graphic work and my painting. Painting I do in daylight, I face my canvas standing up, moving my hands and feet all the time like a dancer. Etching and drawing I do in the night, I sit down, knees pulled up, bent over my A4 size paper or plate, my hand and eyes the only bits that move.”

How did you develop your style into its present direction? “Over time my work moved from hard-edged abstract to lyrical abstract to an all out figurative expressionism.”

What kinds of compositional concerns do you respond to? “Tension is essential. The image should be contained in but not confined by the canvas size.”

What will be your next project? “The last 2 years I have been mainly painting, and I just finished fifty paintings and twelve etchings for my next solo show ‘The weight of smoke’ - An eighty page, full-color book/catalogue of the same title will be published in September of 2007. ‘The weight of smoke’ 21 October-26 November 2007, De Queeste Art, Watou, Belgium.
www.dequeeste-art.be. Galerie De Buytensael, Arnhem, NL London dates in 2007-8 to be confirmed.”

Please tell us about your printmaking techniques? “I work on both zinc and copper, always hardground with often quite a harsh bite . Being a painter I love the tonal quality of aquatint which I use in sugarlift or spitbite or in a straight forward layering and scraping til something appears which pleases me. I will try out tonality in line like Seeghers for instance, or build up layers of different kind of aquatints or acid strengths. This is quite experimental, a bit like cooking really, just trying to read the plate to see what is happening. And I draw with charcoal on my proofs to see how to develop the next
installment!”

What kind of tools/light/studio do you prefer? “As a painter I work in daylight only, I have my own studio, very private with a skylight. For painting I need solitude. Printmaking is more social practice. I draw my plates in my studio and then take them to a Print workshop were I bite them.”

What are your sources of inspiration? “My life and the observations of others.”

What other printmakers do you admire? “Goya, Mimmo Paladino, Otto Dix - all the German Expressionists really - Ken Currie, Louise Bourgeois, Bartolomeo dos Santos and the Chapman brothers.”

What was the most difficult project or commission you’ve encountered? “The next painting or etching.”

What are your interests and dislikes in art? “I dislike visual art which has no integrity - art which is made, like adverts, to be attention grabbing but has nothing more to offer. I particularly dislike those audio things at exhibitions, it’s impossible to listen and look at the same time and people stand there blocking your view and only look at the label to check if they are in front of the relevant picture! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I like the illusionary nature of painting and drawing. I love Baroque portrait painting - Velasguez, Rembrandt, Rubens etc. which is sensual and theatrical but where everything is suggested but not revealed. You need to look many times at them and they get more and more rewarding. And the great Beckmann for his merciless vision and sense of composition. I like the mysterious as in Salgado, Oppenheim, Hatoum, Kikki Smith, Bourgeois - all 3D artists - but also painters like Manet, Permeke, Ensor, Dumas, Borremans, Lupertz, Tuymans.”

There is another very good way to see additional works by Marcelle Hanselaar at the Flashfilm.com website.

Thank you Marcelle for the images and your interview. I hope to see the images from your upcoming exhibition. Here’s wishing you continued success.

- Giselle Borzov

Prints and Mixed Media JANE HAMMOND

Printmaking processes have always fascinated me. I was looking at the work of contemporary printmakers to see if any new directions were developing. I saw the work of Jane Hammond, who works in several print media as well as paintings and mixed media.

Jane Hammond has a very interesting portfolio of work, much of which is presented at her website, but also at the websites of ther galleries. I contacted Jane about here work before I wrote this article.

 

 

 

 

 

“. . . in the piece Denomino Duplex -Literally, Naming and Doubleness - I made butterflies and gave them two part Latin names. The piece is a kind of visual poem. All the names are fictional - I have made them up. And on the backside of the piece, with its glossary, you see the poetic association with each butterfly. A black butterfly with white spots might be named, for instance, ‘Crow’ and ‘String of Pearls.’”

“The piece ‘Family Secret/Secret Family’ again uses butterflies. In fact, a comparison of the butterfly maps, Denomino Duplex and this piece could show a person how the same image could have three completely different meanings depending on how it is used in each piece. Each half of this piece consists of a kind of family tree study of eye-color representing two families in which two parents of differing eye colors each have four children of their resulting eye color.” (see above)

Jane Hammond works quite a bit on paper. These works are a combination of acrylic and gouache paint, graphite, rubber
stampings, color copier transfers, linoleum block prints, and ink drawings. Hammond constructs her images from many interests that include astrology, knot diagrams, magic tricks, phrenology, medical illustrations and shadow puppets to name a few. This comlexity of media and subject matter creates a very rich style of work.

Jane’s unique works on paper begin utilize cutouts, Xerox copies, stampings all assembled in a gluing and layering process. The dissimilar elements and fragments are controlled into a unity that develops until the work is completed. Jane Hammond uses this lexicon derived from her interests to provide a meaning from mixed associations that leaves her
statements reading as credible questions in the mind of the viewer.

Shark’s Ink - “Love Laughs” lithograph

 

 

 

 

Jane Hammond is represented in New York by Galerie Lelong. Her work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art, Philip Morris in New York, the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Ohio and the Contemporary Museum of Honolulu. You can currently see the works of Jane hammond at these online exhbits:

http://www.janehammondartist.com/index.html

http://www.gregkucera.com/hammond.htm

Jane has works avaialble at the following galleries: Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, Michigan
Byron C. Cohen Gallery for Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
William Shearburn Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Peltz Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California
Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York
Graystone Contemporary Art, San Francisco, California

- Giselle Borzov