Interview with Artist Miranda Aschenbrenner

Artist Statement

My work fits into two very different and unrelated categories: realism and abstract. Each style allows me to challenge different parts of my personality. Drawing realistically indulges the side of me that loves detail and is a perfectionist. It challenges me technically and I am always pushing to create more accurate drawings. The abstract works reflect my interest in color and form. I am able to work loosely and fluidly, reacting to the painting as I go. It is sometimes a relief to shift from the tight discipline of realistic drawing to this type of work, but it can be equally relieving to go from these open-ended paintings to getting lost in the details of a drawing.

Q: What medium or mediums do you work with?

A: I love working with traditional drawing media: graphite and charcoal. Graphite is great for tight, accurate drawing, but nothing beats charcoal for loose, gestural sketching!

For my paintings, I use mostly acrylics, but have been experimenting with oils lately as well. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. I enjoy the wonderful texture of oils and its ability to blend, but I love the immediacy of acrylics. In my paintings, I also incorporate other materials like pastels and oil sticks.

Q: How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A: I’ve always been creative and interested in making things, but it wasn’t until late high school that I really developed a passion for art. A friend of mine could draw amazingly well and I wanted to be as good as she was! I taught myself how to draw with a combination of library books and websites.

Q: Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

A: I consider myself to be both self-taught and formally trained. I taught myself the technical side of drawing, practicing shading and proportions. When I went to school, I could already draw and had also experimented some with painting. While earning my degree in Fine Arts, I learned a great deal about theory. I also learned how to push myself creatively, and stepped out of my comfort zone and into the realm of abstract art. Both my own knowledge of drawing and my training is invaluable and informs the work I do today.

Q: Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend?

A: One art supply that I really enjoy is willow charcoal. It’s a much softer charcoal with a velvety smooth texture. It won’t go as dark as other charcoal, or even graphite, but it’s lovely to work with and produces some great drawings.

Q: Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?

A: I work in two very different styles with very different subject matter! I do realistic drawings and I do abstract paintings featuring geometric shapes. For me, each of these is a necessary form of expression. They are related and exist together, but like two sides of the same coin, you’ll never see them both at the same time.

I started my art practice with realistic drawing. This indulges the side of my personality that craves order and predictability. I love the technical challenge of creating a believable, realistic image.

At school, I broke away from the representational image to focus on my obsession with color, form, and space. I find that I can express these ideas better without the contextual meaning an image would bring to my work.

Q: Can you recommend any books videos or other resources that will help new artists?

A: When I first became interested in drawing, and obsessed with drawing portraits, the best books I found were those by Lee Hammond. She does several books about drawing realistic portraits that break the process into easy to manage chunks. Her illustrations clearly demonstrate the ideas she is trying to get across. My drawings hugely improved after reading these books!

Q: How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?

A: My inspiration could come from something as simple as an interesting image or a color combination. I’m constantly driven to create, and experiment, and find new or better ways to express my ideas. Often, when I complete a piece, something within it will suggest a new idea. It could be something that I struggled with, or something that happened by accident, but it provides a new direction for the next piece.

Q: Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?

A: Lee Hammond’s work was a big influence on me when I was starting out because of her incredible skill with the pencil.

Artists that influence my abstract work are Abstract Expressionists like Rothko and Newman, as well as Mondrian. I am drawn to their bold use of color and the way they don’t make any excuses for their picture planes. Their work is paint on canvas, nothing more.

Q: Do you have a website you would like to share?

A: Because I consider my art to be quite separate, I have a website for each. My online gallery is at www.mirandaaschenbrenner.com and features my abstract paintings. My portrait work can be found at www.customportraitsonline.com.

I also have a blog at www.learntoart.com where I regularly post art lessons and tips.

Q: Finally do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?

A: My advice to artists is to get comfortable with themselves and accept their artwork as it is. Don’t feel pressure to paint or draw in a certain way! For a long time, I felt like I should have to choose between my realistic work and my abstract work. I’ve now come to embrace both, realizing that each one challenges me in a different way.

Do the type of art that you’re drawn to, but never stop pushing yourself to try new things!

Interview With Artist David Hunt

Artist Statement

The focus of my work is synonymously related to nature and landscape. It is an investigation of nature, its forms, its sublimate captivation and the paradigm of how we align our position, perceptions and reactions to them.

Predominantly my subjects derive from arboreal environments, which I record with photography, sketch making, and through the internalisation of personal experience. Hence, when we find ourselves in an environment where the realisation of aloneness becomes internalised, there can be various responses. Angst, vulnerability, fear, adrenaline, but paradoxically, these feelings can also be interpreted as vision, freedom, liberation, and excitement. They can be either comforting or discomforting and this to me is a reflection of our individuality…

Q: What medium or mediums do you work with?

A: Currently I am working with various mediums which include but are not limited to: ink, PVA, oil paint, digital imagery on paper, on canvas.

I feel that restricting oneself to a single particular medium denies the artist a degree of creativity which cannot exist without the unpredictable nature of mixing mediums. It is at those times when the medium seems to take over that the artists sense of loosing control is in fact the artist at the height of his creativity.

Q: How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A: My first response to your question is; always. I think that everyone in their early life is an artist, but only a few of these artists learn how to continue being an artist. For me, I knew that I was an artist during my school years and enrolled on as many arts related classes as possible. I finished school at the age of sixteen in 1984, but was discouraged from pursuing a career in art. I became distracted by money and work and became an electronics engineer.

After about six years I felt empty and tired. I tried to fill this emptiness by enrolling on an evening course for advanced level fine art painting in 1990. This helped me but financial commitments meant that I had to continue working in electronics. Another eight years later and I had had enough. I became too disenchanted to continue in electronics.
I knew then that I must explore my potential as an artist, and so 1998 was a turning point in becoming the artist that I am now.

Q: Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

A: My formal training, I suppose, really began in senior school with ‘O’ level Fine Art, Technical Drawing, and Craft Design Technology. As previously mentioned I then later earned an ‘A’ Level in Fine Art Painting on an evening course at college, this is where I was introduced to oil paint.

After my ‘A’ level, any advancement of my knowledge was self taught. I read books but mostly I just experimented with oil paint by trial and error. I soon learned that it is the errors or mistakes that one makes which ultimately advances ones skill. I might have been happy to continue self educating myself, but the reality of the modern art market is that qualifications count when it comes to finding representation in high profile galleries. Some artists manage to carve out an arena of critical debate around their work from being self taught, but in most cases a Degree is beneficial or even essential too an artists career, and so I began my Bachelors Degree with honours in fine art painting and drawing at the University of Northampton in the UK. I am entering my final year and graduate in 2010. I plan on continuing my studies to go on and earn a Masters Degree the following year.

Q: Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend?

A: My painting is at times heavily impasto, and because of this I was studying Frank Auerbach whose painting is perhaps the most extreme form of impasto I know of. I was watching a DVD of Auerbach called ‘In the Studio’, and in one scene I spotted large tins of paint on his studio floor, I could not make out the brand but could see there were drops of colour on a white tin. I wanted to discover what paint Auerbach was using. After extensive googling I eventually found out. The brand is ‘R J Stokes’. . After having found the website, there was a statement about the paint by artist Edward Beale which confirmed that I had to buy the paint. It comes in 5 litre cans, an artists dream; I would recommend this paint to anyone who uses impasto in their painting.

Q: Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?

A: I am not very keen on the use of the word style when it comes to painting. I would rather associate my work to a movement. It is not that I develop my work to become related to any particular movement; it is more a case of my developing work can be associated to our knowledge of these movements. I think it becomes a natural tendency for my paintings too navigate in a loosely synchronised manner, too the artist or artists I am studying at any given time. The Artists I am most deeply involved in studying right now are, John Constable, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter, and Ian McKeever. All these artists have been associated with Romanticism and so by default my work is specific to the ‘style’ or movement of Romanticism and perhaps more specifically The Northern Romantic Tradition’.

As for subject matter, at first glance it might appear from my work that I am working with trees, or more loosely nature. Whilst this is true, I am also very conscious of the investigation of space and time related to nature, how we position ourselves within nature, and how this in turn relates us to the universe. So in a sense my subject matter might be described as an investigation of the sublime. I cannot really conclude this answer as I am deeply involved in my studies in order to understand my subject matter.

Q: Can you recommend any books videos or other resources that will help new artists?

A: I could tell you some of the books I have read, but these books might not be helpful to other artists. Books are an important resource of course and videos too, but my biggest recommendation would have to be, go and see paintings in a gallery or museum. It is just not possible to fully appreciate a work of art in a book reproduction. Go to the museum, and those works which capture your attention the most, read books about those artists. In this way you will soon find genuine influences too your own work.

Q: How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?

A: The source of my ideas is from raising questions as to what I am trying to achieve. My ideas are generated almost from the experience of creating the previous painting. Each painting I do either moves closer or further away from what I am aiming to understand.

I am trying to get to the heart of what Romanticism in painting is. The natural world is a great source of mystery, or at least it has been until recent scientific discovery makes our understanding of nature less mysterious. Artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries saw this awe of nature in landscape and seascape, in the moon, stars and sun. Contemporary artists also can make the connection between the sublime and nature, but I think now that our understanding of the universe is greater than ever before, the source of the sublime must lay in our own personal experience of the universe around us. To me the source of the sublime lay at a point which I call the psychophysical horizon. This is the point at which the physical world transcends into our unconscious.

Q: Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?

A: Yes, besides the ones I mentioned earlier, I also consider Peter Doig, Vincent Van Gogh and Michael porter to have an influence on my work. Peter Doig’s painting is all about the memory of places, I admire the effects he achieves with oil paint and also the scale at which he works, I was lucky enough to see a retrospective of his work at Tate Britain in London earlier this year. Vincent Van Gogh I admire because of his stubborn attitude to painting which, while keeping him from being identified as a master painter during his life time, ultimately proved to be ingenious and to my mind marks him as one of the true master artists of the 19th century. Michael Porter now lives and works in Cornwall. In the early stages of my degree, I studied his work as it was very close to what I was aiming to achieve. I learnt many techniques from watching him work in his studio. I might have to say that Michael Porter is perhaps the artist I have mostly been influenced by.

Q: Do you have a website you would like to share?

A: Yes, my website is http://www.david-hunt.net This website is intended to show some of my most recent work and while I concentrate mainly on painting, I also show some examples of my drawing, photographic and digital practices. If there is anyone interested in purchasing my work in order to help me raise financing for my Masters Degree, or if you have any inquiries regarding my work, please e-mail me at art@david-hunt.net

Q: Finally do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?

A: Firstly enjoy what you do, this seems obvious enough but I think the thing is not to get too comfortable with what you create, I think that to be at your very best creatively, you really need to step out of your comfort zone once in a while, don’t be concerned with making mistakes as these are often responsible for the most interesting work of any artist.

Interview With Artist Sandy Sandy

About Sandy Sandy

Since 1996, Sandy Sandy has been a professional fine artist and has devoted her career to painting full time. After a divorce, she left behind a thriving advertising, illustration and sign company which she owned and operated for seventeen years. Sandy currently works in her spacious art studio from her NJ Pine Barrens home. Here she is inspired by the wildlife that visits her yard daily. A strong connection with animals and nature is evident in her choice of subjects. Her philosophy of “spirit” is woven into her work, where thousands of watercolors have given way to her flowing expressionist style.

Collectors of Sandy’s original paintings can be found throughout Canada and the US. Commissions are always welcomed to create specific works for individuals and organizations such as The NJ Symphony Orchestra. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Illustration from Moore College of Art and Design and attended The Art Institute in Philadelphia. Having studied watercolor with many nationally known watercolor masters including those from the E.A.Whitney, Brandywine and New Hope Schools has given her roots that are strong in the American Art Tradition. Sandy currently provides uplifting, motivational and instructional content in her various free online communities. She also is available for speaking engagements, demonstrations, workshops and classes.

Sandy’s Website: http://www.sandysandy.com/

THE INTERVIEW

Q: What medium or mediums do you work with?

A: With over over 4,000 watercolors, 200 oils and 100 or so acrylics under my belt, I guess you’d have to say that watercolor is my main medium. Recently, I’ve been doing small animal portraits in oils for the Art For Shelter Animals project. I really love the “forgiveness factor” of oils. To me, they are much easier to produce than my watercolors. I work wet-in-wet in watercolor and even after so many paintings, they not always keepers. That’s just the nature of the beast. I must work fast. My timing and technique must be spot on. There is very little room for mistakes. It’s easier to just start over than try to fix most mishaps. Unsuccessful pieces are usually a valuable learning experience, so I don’t sweat it if they don’t turn out as well as I would like. I just redo it! Repetition is the key to mastery!

Q: How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A: Ever since I can remember, I’ve always loved to draw and create. Even before kindergarten, my mother always kept my sister, Denise Bush, and I busy drawing, coloring and making collages. This gave me an advantage over my classmates in arts and crafts. My work was commonly singled out and admired. I don’t believe in talent, but I do believe in aptitude and desire. I have always had an intense interest in art and a very strong desire to work hard and refine my skills.

Q: Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

A: I am a graduate of Moore College of Art and Design with a BFA in illustration. I also attended the Philadelphia Art Institute and community college after graduation to learn computer graphics programs. Over the past fifteen years, I have participated in watercolor workshops given by some of our most accomplished contemporary North American Watercolorists who paint in the Edgar Whitney style. I’m big on self-help books and videos too, but I don’t stray too far from my established style and technique anymore.

Q: Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend?

A: Frank Webb once called me a gadgeteer, but as time goes on, I realize it’s not the supplies or materials that makes the art what it is, as much as it is the person who is using those materials. In art, as in may other aspects of life, less is often more. I have been using Arches 140lb cold press paper for many years.I use the loose sheets (22″ x 30″) and wet both sides in my painting technique. You can see a pictures and descriptions of my palette, paints and brushes here.

Q: Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?

A: Yes, I think all established artists work primarily in a certain style and subject range, be it narrow or varied. I tend to work in a loosely / tight, stylized, expressionistic manor rather than a tight representational one. I don’t see the sense of spending 140 hours on a piece so you can make it look like a photograph. Why not just take a photo and manipulate it on the computer? An artist’s style cannot be bought, borrowed or stolen from someone else. It must come from within and can’t be
rushed. A person’s manner of painting only evolves after many attempts of sight, insight and just “DOING IT”. As Frank Webb said,”It takes many years and acres of paper to become a painter”.

Q: Can you recommend any books videos or other resources that will help new artists?

A: Because I believe learning to draw before you can learn to paint, is paramount, I continue to draw constantly and have been posting a new study daily on Sketching Everyday and Drawing Everyday during the summer for four years now. My favorite book on drawing, which I think every artist should own is “Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain” by Betty Edwards. The book that helped me the most with my wet-in-wet watercolor technique is Tony Couch’s book, “Watercolor, You Can Do It”!

You can see more books from my watercolor library here and here.

Q: How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?

A: My emotions about nature and animals get me excited and inspire me. I think that a work of art is more about how it makes you feel than what it looks like. I try to draw the viewer in by offering a different perspective and leaving out some of the details so that they can complete the story. I love symbolism and the universal language of like minds that it connects. The design principles and elements of value, contrast, hues, patterns, shapes, directions, dominance, repetition, variation and composition all comes into play, mentally and physically. In my art, my ultimate goal is to express some of life’s highest moments and hopefully, even if only occasionally, convey feelings for which there are no words.

Q: Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?

A: My high school art teacher, Dorothy Ponciello, influenced me with a serious and in-depth study and appreciation of art history. I feel fortunate to have gotten such a great base of knowledge early on. Dorothy was also the first “eccentric artist” I ever met. Among other things, she tried to make us cultured and served us grape juice and cookies on special occasions which we pretended was wine and hors d’oeuvres.

In college, the instructor that had the most impact on me was New Hope / Brandywine watercolorist, Ranulph Bye . I took instruction from him throughout my college years. I studied watercolor independantly with Mr. Bye one whole year, which ended up being weekly private lessons, often en plein air. You can see some of Ranulph’s work here. While at Moore College of Art, I had three years of illustration classes with well-known children’s book illustrator, Beth Krush, so I’m sure her influence is in me too.

My most profound influence however, has to be Edgar Whitney. I call myself 3rd generation Whitney. He was a a brilliant artist,writer and watercolor instructor. His Eight Principles Of Design revolutionized my approach to painting and design. Discovering him led me to all the other mentors and instructors I have studied with over the past fifteen years. See more about my mentors here .

Q: Do you have a website you would like to share?

A: Like Frank Webb said, “Being involved in art is like being involved in a grand inquiry”. I’m a very curious person, so I often find myself going to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can use and edit. I also love Wikimedia Commons , a database of 4,597,834 freely usable public domain media files to which anyone can contribute. I find continual inspiration from Robert Genn’s Painter’s Keys. I have been a subscriber to Bob’s twice-weekly newsletter for almost ten years.

Q: Finally do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?

A: Keep your brushes wet! There are no short cuts. The only way to get better and find your unique voice, is to do the work. I often say, if someone has average aptitude with a passion for exploration, improvement and growth, they will quickly surpass the individual with lots of “talent”, but a weaker desire. It’s not easy being an artist. One can become disheartened by slow growth, however with strong determined focus and practice, I believe anything is possible.

Interview with Artist Helen Harris

About Helen

Exploring mixed media art has been my quest in recent years. I am a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art ( University of the Arts). A BFA in Graphic Design introduced me to a career in the commercial arts.Freelance and teaching assignments ranging from coloring books to spot illustrations later evolved to include employment in signage and display.

I was born in upstate New York. My childhood exploration of fields,lakes and mountains inspired my early interest in art. While raising three daughters, my interest in painting was never forgotten. Today I exhibits my mixed media paintings at outdoor shows and galleries in the northeast.

Click here to reach Helen’s Website

ARTIST STATEMENT

Fragmented by rock forms,forests and turbulent waters, these multi-layered landscapes,seascapes of mixed media define my work.

Using only calligraphic brush strokes to define detail, the mix of color is splashed through an assortment of watercolor and rice papers,papyrus and fibers.

THE INTERVIEW

Q: What medium or mediums do you work with?

A: I work in watercolor,gouache and acrylic with a mixed media of textures. The textures are usually torn papers of rice banana,bark and papyrus and painted watercolor papers.

Q: How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A: I have been painting professionally since 1974.  A BFA in Graphic Design introduced me to a career in the commercial arts.Freelance and teaching assignments ranging from coloring books to spot illustrations later evolved to include employment in signage and display.

Q: Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

A: I am a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art ( University of the Arts). The public library and North Light Book Club sustained later years of study.

Q: Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend?

A: I use Kilimanjaro 300lb. watercolor paper (available from Cheap Joe’s). I recommend it for anyone using collage techniques. It is very supportive for collaging techniques as well as providing a superb surface for watercolor,gouache and acrylics and requires no stretching.

Q: Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?

A: My subject matters are generally landscapes & seascapes with textural elements enhancing the surface.

Q: Can you recommend any books videos or other resources that will help new artists?

A: I highly recommend the creativity books by Julia Cameron, especially “The Artist’s Way”.  I have found the work of marketing coach Alyson Stanfield helpful in heading an artist in the right direction professionally. Read her book “I’d Rather be in the Studio”

Q: How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?

A: Walks, bike rides ,car rides..anywhere I see the lay of the land. Early in my studies I made a habit of forming a composition of a scene as I passed by .Blinking as if my eye were a camera and capturing that particular moment, the light,a scene, an object, as I passed. Those images, cataloged in my minds eye are then what I draw upon for my later paintings.

Q: Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?

A: Gerald Brommer..collage techniques.

Nita Engle..sparkle & light and freedom in watercolor.

Pat Dews…design,collage

Stephen Quiller..acrylic

Don Getz..watercolor/acrylic

Each of these artist have given me an “ah-ha!” moment that advanced my work.

Q: Do you have a website you would like to share?

A: This link will bring you to  Alyson Stanfield’s marketing site with a free newsletter and information to purchase her book that I recommend to anyone trying to make a living as an artist.

Q: Finally do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?

A: If you treat every painting or line as precious then you show that you are fearful that you will never create again. Paint,draw ..with abandon,everyday!Have at it..it’s only a piece of paper,not brain surgery!

Interview with Artist Leslie Tribolet

About Leslie

Leslie Tribolet lives on Kauai with her husband and her animals. She studied at Santa Barbara Art Institute back in the 70’s, but with pencil as her medium of choice. During her battle with both cervical and breast cancer, she decided to try to learn how to paint for something to do. She dabbled in watercolors and loved them, but seemed that everyone on Kauai was painting with watercolors, and that she found to be boring…..

She was introduced to the Genesis Heat Set Paints in 2007, and loved it because of the ease of finishing her work quickly, without having to wait for the paint to dry and it was “different”. These paints are dried with heat, (heat gun or an oven) which speeds up the process and it is great, especially with living in the humid air of Hawaii. She has always been drawn to ethnic faces, so she decided to try her hand at painting them with these paints, and it worked. She hopes that you enjoy looking at them as much as she enjoys painting them.

Visit Leslie’s Website Today…

Q: What medium or mediums do you work with?

A: I really only used the new Genesis Paints when I paint now. I will dabble with the watercolors when I get bored with same’ol, same’ol. But really like having the ability to paint really fast and Genesis Heat Set Paints allow me to do that.

Q: How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A: I have been involved with art in some form since I was a kid. I attended the Santa Barbara Art Institute when I was 19 for a year and loved it. I drew with pencil in figure and head drawing classes mostly, but did take a couple of sculpture classes where I really had a blast. Someday I hope to get back into sculpting.

Q: Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

A: The only formal training I have had other than the drawing classes at the Institute, is a couple of classes from some local artists here on Kauai. I really am pretty much self taught, learning through trial and error….

Q: Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend?

A: I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn how to paint, to invest in about 6 basic colors of the Genesis Paints. From that you will be able to pretty much make up any color… I would be happy to assist with the information to anyone who wants to know how to start with the Genesis Paints.

Q: Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?

A: I seem to be drawn (no pun intended) to painting people… maybe it was all those drawing classes of people at the Institute. I just find them to be challenging and fun. I will get bored now and then though, and switch over to plants or whatever I want to explore… no good with animals. Too much hair for me and I admire those who can do it! My style is realism. I like to make my paintings look as close as I can to a picture. A lot of people don’t appreciate that technique, but I do. When I go into a gallery, I immediately go over to the realism paintings.

Q: Can you recommend any books videos or other resources that will help new artists?

A: I would recommend to anyone wanting to start to paint, to go to artrenewal.org and explore around the gallery. Wonderful paintings from new to very, very old. I learn a lot just by looking at the way someone painted….

Q: How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?

A: I am inspired by great faces. That is why I like to paint ethnic faces. There is so much more character to an ethnic face. I am not interested in painting some beautiful model with blue eyes and blonde hair…. boring.

Q: Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?

A: I have always been in-love with Norman Rockwell!

Q: Do you have a website you would like to share?

A: My website is : http://www.leslietribolet.com

Q: Finally do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?

A: Advice is to jump in and start painting. I get discouraged when my paintings are in the beginning stages, so I keep in front of me a piece of paper that has this little boy that I painted with photos from the start to finish. The beginning of his painting was awful and I almost gave up. I didn’t, and he turned out to be one of my best paintings in my opinion. I look at that to remind me to KEEP GOING!

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