VL Article on Hall Groat, Culinary Art Immortalized: From table to wall By Francine Butler, freelance writer

 Culinary Art Immortalized:  From table to wall
By Francine Butler, freelance writer
Culinary chefs understand the importance of presentation and how often have they heard that their food is almost a shame to eat.  New York artist Hall Groat II has married his classical oil painting style with his appreciation of culinary art, specializing in desserts, by capturing them on canvas.  He has been specializing in this genre of art for the last eight years and has avid collectors of this from all over the world.
     Most collectors say they hang them in the kitchen and dining rooms where they evoke a warm welcoming feeling – making company feel at ease along with being aesthetically pleasing.  They are often hung in groups.
San Francisco collector, Terasa Ng, states “I love the chocolate Truffles piece that I purchased; I hung the piece in my kitchen grouped with other chocolate desserts from other artists. The family came over for Thanksgiving and they love the pieces and it has inspired my family to display desserts in their kitchens.”
Another collector in Palm Beach states, “I hung two of the pastry paintings in my kitchen, one below the other.  Not only do the colors in the paintings match the tones in my banquet room but I get the added bonus of having a couple of pastries without putting on weight.”
A prominent collector from Dubai, UAE during the summer of 2014 purchased two of Groat’s major dessert paintings, including lemon meringue pie and a banana split.   The collector states, “Some twenty years ago we travelled a lot to Italy and my husband and kids would always eat a banana split while I would have an expresso. It became a joke that I had to watch the family eat goodies while I saved!”

Many collectors have expressed that they like the colors and how the paintings become a lighthearted topic of conversation during dinner parties at their homes.
    Groat has created a couple hundred dessert paintings since 2006, ranging in size from tiny, six inch slices of cheese cake, all the way to gargantuan forty inch tall jelly-filled donuts.  He has painted nearly every dessert one can imagine, from iconic banana splits and chocolate sundaes to popular culture brands, such as Tastykake cupcakes and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream cones.  “Painting sweets early in the morning will curb your sugar addiction for the rest of the day” the artist claims. His studio drawers are filled with a variety of desserts that have been collected through the years that he uses as props to paint from.  The sugar preserves them quite well.

The artist insists, “Both creating and looking at paintings is cathartic. When people think creatively and keep their minds busy, they often forget that they are hungry. So for your next dessert try taking a bite out of a mouth-watering oil painting of a raspberry tart, rather than being seduced by that fat filled chocolate pie at your local supermarket.

Artspan Artist Spotlight Interview with VL Rees

 When did you realize you loved art and wanted to be an artist?
Before first grade!  I took art classes throughout elementary and high school, dabbled in college and after graduation, then gave it up for nearly 30 years.
Approaching retirement I thought about what I wanted to do after a left the corporate world and realized where my heart was.
It wasn’t easy to pick up a paint brush after a long break but gradually I began to make paintings that I enjoyed and didn’t make me want to cry.

Who has been your mentor, or greatest influence to date?
My first art teacher: Michiko Boorman.  She came to this country after WWII and raised a family while she studied and practiced art.  She taught me the basics in such a supportive way.

Who is another living artist you admire and why?
I’ve yet to a meet an artist in the Triangle who doesn’t inspire me in some way.  That said, I would pick Dan Nelson, plein aire painter extraordinaire.  His work is beautiful and often done under extreme conditions.  I love plein aire paintings but as a mosquito magnet, I don’t aspire to it.

What is your favorite surface to create work on or to work with? Describe it if you make it yourself.
Stretched canvas with a colored ground.

What are your favorite materials to use?
Oil paints.  I especially love using a palette knife for abstracts.  Using Winsor & Newton’s Liquin Impasto gives a great sheen and helps layers adhere to one another.  It also stretches the paint.

How often do you work on your artwork? How many hours a week?
I would like to say every day and sometimes that happens!  Currently I am planning a studio where, for the first time, I will have natural light, HVAC, and plumbing.  Once I’m no longer in “the dungeon”, I hope to devote 40+ hours a week.

What is the one thing you would like to be remembered for?
Personally, that I was there for my family, friends, and colleagues.  As a painter, that I showed the beauty in ordinary objects.

There are many culprits that can crush creativity, such as distractions, self-doubt and fear of failure. What tends to stand in the way of your creativity?
In every painting there comes that “uh oh” moment.  I call it buyer’s remorse.  It’s when you think, “what was I thinking!” for choosing that subject, that size/shape canvas, that color palette, etc.
 
How do you overcome these obstacles?
Practice, practice, practice.  Over the years I’ve learned when to just keep at it and when to put it aside to ponder where I go next.  It’s also helpful to know that one can paint over the real disasters.

What are your inspirations for your work?
The interplay of light and shadow, and looking at everyday objects from a new perspective.

VL Studio Vist with Marzena Oberc-Habzda

I was borne in Poland, where I lived in historic city of Krakow. My favorite activity as a child were, drawing, painting or creating figures from clay. I always could be found at my desk consumed by my latest art project. I participated in various art competitions, winning various awards.
My grammar school teacher encouraged me to focus on art as a future career. During high school at Liceum Plastyczne , I studied drawing, painting, sculpture and restoration of historic wall frescoes.
Toward the end of high school I have moved with my family to U.S.  After graduation I attended Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, for continuing education.
I also attended Pair Collage of Art in Hamden, Connecticut. There I studied Graphic Design.
I am captivated, inspired and challenged by various subjects in nature.  My main focus is on nature’s delicate yet powerful beauty, remarkable design and perfect color harmony. I am driven by a need to explore and capture a certain sense of light to evoke desired emotion and inner feeling not easily captured and expressed in words.
I am fascinated with perfect unity, relationship of shapes and harmony of color that nature delivers with such ease and perfection. This creates constant excitement, drive and spontaneous approach to the subject. Inspiration for every painting comes from seeing and experiencing something beautiful, something so captivating that it takes my breath away.
I love painting with acrylics! For health reasons, a while ago, I had to switch from oils to acrylics.
Once I discovered Golden Open Acrylics I never looked back. They offer slower drying time, therefore an ability to be manipulated with ease in order to create oil like appearance. My painting technique does not require  blending of colors, therefore transition from oils was rather quick and easy. I paint with small tiles for color gradually banding them to a desired value, warm or
 cool temperature, manipulating edges and texture to create a desired effect with ease. Because of their quick drying time, acrylics offer instant visual gratification and result. I am representational artist, therefore my painting style requires a specific canvas texture in order to maintain certain control and manipulate the paint to accomplish the desired effect. My favorite painting surface is the Cleassens #13, oil primed , fine weave  linen panel by Sourrce Tek.
Love the gliding ability of Golden Open Acrylics on panel surface. Acrylics allow me to paint faster with very satisfying results. Colors are brilliant, pure and easy to mix and manipulate . The felling I am trying to convey is accomplished in a quick and satisfying manner. I tend to favor cool colors; i.e; blues, purples. My very favorite color now is Naples Yellow.  There are many incredible artists that I admire as most of us do. However there are two artists of the past that made a very strong impression on me when I was still a young child. First one is wonderful Russian painter of late  1800 Ivan Shishkin and the other Franz A. Bischoff. There are so many wonderful artists today that I love and greatly admire, like Richard Schmid, David A. Leffel, Morgan Waistling, Huihan Liu,  Dan Gerhartz, Quang Ho, Sherrie Mc Graw, Karthryn Stats, Jeffery Watts and Scott Tallman Powers just to name a few. I am very gatefull to all of them for there willing to share their knowledge and experiences with the rest of us, therefore helping us become better artists and bystep some of the common mistakes and learning arrors.

Artspan Artist Interview with Jan Sasser

When did you realize you loved art and wanted to be an artist?

I can't recall a time when I wasn't aware I loved art.  Books, music, and visual arts were all valued in my family.  As a child, I loved to draw and was inspired by the sketching of an older sister as well
as my great uncle's amateur painting and sculpting.  When I asked for quality drawing supplies they were given, along with the imperative to treat them with respect and practice basic skills first.

However, family role models made their living in “more practical
ways.  I didn't conceive of art as a career choice until much later in life.  I flirted with the idea of applied art as a young adult, but didn't actually make the move to painting full time til pushing 50, after many years as a social worker.  By that time, the backing and support of an exceptional spouse made the risk more feasible.




Who has been your mentor, or greatest influence to date?

I wouldn't say I've had a mentor per se, though living in Charleston, I've had the luxury of example and interaction with many fine artists.  While few are traditional realists like myself, there is always something to learn from one's masterful use of
color or another's exceptional composition skills.  The generosity of successful artists with technical tips and career advice often amazes me.  I'm grateful to Rick Reinert and others who have nurtured my confidence along the way and “nudged” me at  key moments to shoot for a high profile show or opportunity that paid off.


Who is another living artist you admire and why?

One of several who come immediately to mind is Mary Whyte, a Charleston watercolor artist of international renown.  I've long admired her mastery of watercolor but did not recognize how exceptional she is until seeing a major body of her work recently in her “Working South” exhibition.  Each piece is an evocative gem of dynamic composition, rich color and texture, and masterfully rendered images that   express the character and personality of each worker and workplace environment.  Pieces are all part of a totally coherent and integrated concept.  It's as though she “wrote a book in pictures” that tells the tale of a disappearing way of life and makes you feel you know all the characters.  How can you fail to admire an artist who can do that?




What is your favorite surface to create work on or to work with? Describe it if you make it yourself.

I paint on prestretched primed canvas or linen.  As a slow painter, I find these far too satisfying to be tempted to invest time in making or preparing my own.  I love the “spring” of canvas against my touch.   A good even medium tooth weave interacts beautifully with my brushes and varying strokes to create textural illusions while
still being “flat” enough to allow precise lines and details when needed.


What are your favorite materials to use?

Simply, professional grade Winsor Newton Oils, odorless mineral
spirits for solvent, and refined linseed oil as a medium.  For brushes I like hog bristle for underpainting and certain textures.
I like soft red sables for details, clouds, blending edges, etc.

Do you have a favorite color palette?

My basic palette is:
   
Titanium White, Naples Yellow, Ochre, Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Raw Umber, Rose Madder Genuine,
Cobalt Violet, Cerulean Blue, French Ultramarine, and Ivory Black
(added recently and used “rarely and sparely” in mixes of darkest darks).  Cadmium Red, Gamlin Radiant Red, and Gamlin Radiant Magenta are included occasionally for specific pieces.  Certainly, I could manage well with fewer colors, but find all these useful so
“why not?”

VL Studio Visit with James Loveless

Art has been my passion for as long as I can remember.  I love people and I have relished drawing and painting the figure since my grade school days.  Fortunately, none of those early grammar school portraits are at my website.  My purpose is to create images that are beautiful and historical. My focus is to display Christian, family values and reveal the truth by reflecting historical facts. .  My Bachelor of Fine Art at the Kansas City Art Institute led me to life as a full-time graphic designer and freelance illustrator for over thirty years.  I enjoy the play of light and color in nature and I enjoy telling a good story.

When I am not painting commissioned portraits, or painting plein air, I have cherished having several Native Americans pose for me.  I have been interested in the life of Native Americans because of my ancestry.  My grandfather was a cowboy, horse trainer and rancher in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He was married to my grandmother, who was half-Cherokee and half-African American.  I remember when I was a little boy.  Then, I would ride horseback and sometimes travel to see my grandfather in rodeos in Oklahoma and Arkansas; it was an awesome experience.  Currently, I am researching the history of the relationship between Native Americans and African Americans in the old west.  I have been fortunate to gain the assistance from the Texas Civil War Museum.  Their historians assist me in my quest to insure all the artifacts in my paintings are authentic.  My goal is to have my paintings auctioned successfully at the Coeur d' Alene in Reno, Nevada.

I am a member of the Oil Painters of America and I work in oil paint because I enjoy the flexibility of oils.  I enjoy observing people and I still continue in figure drawing sessions with the live model.  I challenge myself to work more efficiently by writing articles and blogs about different oil painting techniques and attending workshops.  Some of the painters that have influenced me include; Norman Rockwell, Caravaggio, Howard Terpning and Mian Situ.

I hope you enjoy my work!

VL Studio Visit with Milton Wagner

Milton Wagner – Aspen Ironworks
Master Craftsman
www.AspenIronworks.com

 The crisp smell of aspen trees has always reminded me of the Colorado high country cowboy life.  I was born and bred in a small mountain town in southwest Colorado.   The only thing I ever wanted to do was be a cowboy.  My mother had a picture of a three year old me with a rope in my hand chasing after a chicken.  From chickens, I moved on to dogs, calves and occasionally my sister.
I was lucky enough to come from a farming family tree with the occasional cowboy branch.  I grew up on stories told to me by my two favorite cowboy heroes - my great uncle Clem & uncle Henry. Other cowboys I idolized were John Wayne, Louis L’Amour, Tom Mix and the boys from the Ponderosa.

I’ve often been asked why cowboys are my idols and I guess it really boils down to what a cowboy stands for.  The cowboys I was lucky enough to know were loyal, honest and hardworking.  
When I was in high school, I divided my time between metal shop and cow punching for local ranchers. Whenever the ranches needed equipment fixed, I was the go-to person because of my metal-working background.  I learned early on how to use my imagination to envision metal as a great medium.

When I was eighteen, I broke my first horse.  That horse was my best friend and partner in crime for the next 36 years.  Right after high school, I met my lovely wife. While we raised our three children, I worked as an iron worker for money and moonlighted as a cowboy for fun.  In my spare time, I’d gather leftover metal, wood and horseshoes for future art projects.

I started Aspen Ironworks, an eco-friendly metal art studio 15 years ago because I wanted to work for myself & focus more on my art pieces. I work in two main areas - a studio/workshop on the back of my property and under a large oak tree overlooking the horses.  I use the oak tree forge when the weather is too nice to stay indoors.  I use a handmade forge, several pairs of tongs handed down from my grandfather to father and then to me, and two anvils - a 200 pound workshop anvil and an 80 pound vintage farrier anvil which I can transport if I need to.

I started out with individuals cowboys made from leftover rebar and quickly graduated to western scenes.  I thought about what does a cowboy do? A cowboy’s life is simple. Cowboys rope, they ride, and they drink.  My western pieces reflect this lifestyle. I do bar scenes, I do rodeo scenes and I do cattle drive scenes.

I feel my work is unique for three main reasons.  First, my cowboy knowledge is authentic. It's important to me that the story I tell is the right one.  I've been in these situations I craft out of metal.  I've been bucked off a bronco and know which part of the cowboy is last to touch the horse. I've roped cows and know the correct angle of the rope loop. My cowboys hold it at the right angle for roping a cow on the first try. I’ve been on top of the mountain when it's cold and freezing and the only thing you want is a cup of coffee around the campfire. 

Secondly, I believe in doing lifetime work.  I’m putting my name on each of these pieces & I want the people who buy my art to have something that will last them for generations to come. There are metal workers out there who just tack their pieces together and that irritates me. If you're going to do a true work of art, you need to craft it right. Thirdly, I believe in leaving a better world for my children and grandchildren than I had which is why 95% of the materials I use are recycled, reused, or eco-friendly.  I gather used horseshoes from my farrier friends & old metal bits from local farmers and scrap metal shops.  I even have a page on my website for local residents to schedule scrap metal pickups.

Every piece of my art has a unique story.  For example, each mirror used on my bar scenes is a rearview mirror from a scrapped car or truck.  My chuck wagon base is the bottom of an old broken rototiller.  Recently I created a steampunk bug with ball bearings I had received when we replaced a steel ball mill in a gold mine. The ball bearings start out 8 inches in diameter and they roll around and crush up ore to extract the gold.   By the time I got them, they had been worn down to about an inch across. I saw those and thought they would make great eyes.

I'm really excited about a trio art piece I'm working on right now. I've got a cattle drive scene. I've got a chuck wagon, and I’m in the process of designing the campfire scene. After driving the cattle all day, there's nothing more a cowboy wants than to take a load off and grab a cup of coffee around fire. I’ve already decided how to make the fire. I have some discarded copper plating which I will melt down and then beat back up into flames.

Even though I’m retired from day to day ranching, I still get to play cowboy occasionally.  Twice a year I head to Colorado. I help drive my son’s high-altitude grass-fed cattle up onto their mountain grazing lands in the spring and back down in the fall. Driving the cattle among the aspen trees inspires this old cowboy to come home and preserve that vanishing way of life through lasting sculptures.

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
~Francis of Assisi

VL Studio Visit with Carol Jo Smidt

My fascination with the beauty and grace of horses greatly influenced my artistic path. Drawing horses as a 4 year old is my first recollection of my passion for art. My bedroom walls were covered with my pencil drawings of my beloved horses. Hours were spent drawing horses and other animals. It was in kindergarten that I realized others would want my art. Dissatisfied with my work, I took a horse drawing and threw it in the trash can. A classmate reached into the trash and took the drawing because he liked it! Even at that young age, I was amazed that people would want my work!

After high school, I attended the St. Paul School of Art. Fast-forward with me through marriage, a son, 21 addresses in 26 years during my husband’s Navy career, and a BA in Advertising Design from Iowa State University. We finally settled in an equine community outside of Woodbine, a small town in southeast Georgia. I finally could have my beloved horses on our small farm, but although my passion for art was there it still resided deep within and struggled to come fully alive.

After a dozen years as a self-employed graphic designer and periodic dabbling with a paint brush, I learned that my passion for art was to call me back via yet another path. Enrolling in Savannah College of Art and Design and taking a number of graphic design graduate courses, I was finally brought back to my first love. It was on this part of my journey that I realized my need to leave the work and world of graphic design to get back to my first love – the visual arts and my painting!



What is my painting world like today? I recently moved from a small loft on the third floor in our house to my new studio, which is the entire first floor of our house. I set myself on a fairly structured schedule, and I focus on some aspect of my new artist’s life on Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. Many mornings are spent with paperwork and research.  Without a schedule, my painting time would vanish, and I would have a lot of blank canvas! My work is best done with some breaks. I take small vacations, but after a few days, I hear the call of my paints, brushes, and canvases, and I eagerly get back to my easel and pour myself into my paintings.

For me, painting is like working on a puzzle, without the picture on the box to guide me. Most times the answers do not come particularly fast. But by experimenting, nudging here and there, my ideas begin to take form and a new painting comes to life. I normally paint by adding layers over layers. When the paint becomes too wet or my eyes too fatigued by looking at the colors being used, I move on to another painting. I have between 4 to 12 paintings in different stages of completion. 

I’ve heard it said that there is “beauty in the everyday”. I agree. I enjoy painting ordinary subjects with extraordinary colors. My painting subjects are usually animals, but I like the challenge of painting other subjects. Through my painting experiences, I have branched out by creating landscapes, still life, and figurative art.


Wanting to expand beyond oils, I started painting with pastels and gouache. I have grown to love these two new media. Changing my media and changing the size of canvases from ultra-mini to very large helps me move into a new creative arena.

Not wanting to become too comfortable with my art, I strive to continue to learn by trying anything new; subjects, color combinations, techniques, and media. Knowing that you need to discover by doing, I have learned that my “best teacher is my canvas”. I have come to believe that “to learn is to paint” and “to paint is to learn”.

Participating in regional art shows and festivals is one of the ways that I promote my art and to develop relationships with collectors and potential collectors. I belong to a number of local and national art organizations. Painting is a solitary pursuit, and I can easily become a hermit. In addition to getting out of my painting world, it is necessary to have the support from other artists. My contacts with other artists become great learning tools to see their art up close and personal and to get to know the artist behind the painting.

For me, the journey of a painting is part ability, part technique, part intuition, part sweat, and hours of learning from past paintings. The reward and joy of this journey is the painting process and continues to the person who emotionally connects to one of my paintings. Pet paintings of animals that have passed have provided me with some of my most powerful emotional connections. One owner of a loving pet, Savannah, who recently passed shared this: “my sister and brother-in-law had this painting done for us (by me) and it captures her just perfectly!”  This is one of the big reasons I paint!

carol@caroljosmidt.com
www.caroljosmidt.com

VL Studio Visit with JW Burke

Hello and thank you for taking interest in my artwork. I am a self-taught artist who grew up believing art was beyond my capability. When I was 11, my mother bought me a sketchpad and charcoal pencils saying, “Here, I think you are going to be an artist.”

At age 18, I hadn’t discovered my artistic ability. It was 1988; I lived in Carmel, California, working maintenance for a wealthy businessman. I spent my days off roaming the streets partly chasing girls and partly admiring the many incredible galleries. My future would soon be decided for me by a group of peers. As a cruel prank, they poisoned me with a massive LSD overdose. This caused me to suffer severe constant delusions, audio and visual hallucinations, and harbor paranoid delusional thoughts. These mimicked the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. I was unable to maintain my sanity. I lived either homeless, getting in trouble with the law, or in mental health hospitals attempting to regain my sanity. I lived filthy and homeless, begging for change and sleeping in a box. In September of 1997, my delusions drove me to commit two acts of robbery, both without bloodshed. My delusions over the years had convinced me that I was somehow being controlled by, or tortured by, manmade voices. For some unknown reason, sounds emanating from public television or radio subliminally tormented me.

I remember clearly how, upon my arrest, as soon as I was handcuffed and placed in the police car, my delusions stopped – dead quiet. No voices, no hallucinations, no disorientation, just the sound of the car and the static of the police radio. Having spent the past decade tortured in such a way, then to have it immediately stop, did not immediately make me well and whole again. I had to get over a decade’s worth of confusion, emotional, and physiological torture. The task of rebuilding my sanity lay before me while I awoke to the fact that I faced spending the remainder of my life in prison.

I began drawing in my cell to help stabilize, exercise, and restructure my mind against relapse.  Soon I asked myself, “What can you do to save yourself?” “What are your options?” Well, in prison, you have very few ways to succeed, especially in Texas. There are college courses and classes to get your GED. But I needed to think of the long prison term I faced and calculate that into my decision. To become an artist or a writer would allow me two ways to strengthen my mind: 1) teach myself a career that could lead to financial independence, and 2) obtain possible assistance in regaining my freedom. I have always believed in myself. I’ve always wanted to live my life as a good father and husband and hopefully someday, when I pass away, I could do so knowing that I was loved and had loved, as well as done my best to achieve things to be proud of.

In prison they have what is called “The Craft Shop” which is where inmates go to do leather work, artwork or other crafts to possibility earn an income for their families or themselves when they get

out. You must get on a very long waiting list. Out of 4,500 men in my prison only 50 to 80 inmates get in. I’ve waited twelve years, and every time my number comes up, an officer writes a bogus disciplinary case, which bars me from entry. Sometimes the guards and prison officials are just as criminal as the inmates. That’s just how it is and no one seems to be willing or able to change it. For the innocent or repentant man, prison life is hell. For everyone else, it is their chosen environment. In my drawing lessons over the years, I slowly found that any moment I wasn’t drawing was time wasted. My work improved and I found that once I understood how to achieve accuracy in drawing I could create anything, which meant all sorts of excitement and pride of achievement. I work at drawing 10 to 14 hours a day, 7 days per week.

While I create artwork of a variety of subject matter, I especially enjoy creating extremely detailed Westerns depicting ranch scenes, rodeo, or Old West themes. I also enjoy creating wildlife and other works.

I usually work in graphite or colored pencil. The black and white of graphite has the ability to transcend time as well as create realistic textures that work together with detail to make you almost smell the leather, feel the heat of the day, or hear the pounding of hooves. With Western art, more than any other subject, I am able to capture the interest of the viewer, not only because of the great detail, but because it evokes emotions in the form of pride – deep pride earned from hard work, calluses, and lives well lived. This is the greatest payoff for an artist. If you can make someone proud of themselves by what you have created, then you have created something
more than art, something you can be proud of. You have touched people personally.

My portfolio contains many other subjects and media but, at this point, the Western subject matter and graphite medium are my favorites.  My hopes are to create works of art of a quality worthy of being collected by an appreciative audience and to earn my living through my art. Regardless of what

happens, I will continue to grow as an artist and creating art will remain part of my life’s passion. Very recently, a long lost son has been located and besides saving for my freedom someday, I hope to help put him through college and begin saving for my future grandchildren. Anyone wishing to support me in my artistic endeavors should feel free to write a letter of support to the Texas Parole Board.

Thank you again for your interest in and support of my work.

VL Studio Visit with Marcia Baldwin

My first memory of being captured by art was in my grandmothers home in Texas. She was very artistic with quilting and sewing, but at times would take classes in art using mediums such as charcoal and pastel. I remember standing and staring at a charcoal drawing she had done and was framed in her dining room. It captivated me, even as a small child. When we would enjoy a sweet afternoon or morning out on her huge porch, sitting in her double glider, she would sketch small things and give the paper and pencil over to me to try. My favorite subject, even then, was horses. She would encourage me and we would giggle at the funny subjects we came up with.

My mom was the one who first started me painting. She enrolled me in a summer workshop with a noted artist, Louise Sicard, at our Louisiana state museum. Every morning, I would enjoy setting up my small easel and laying out my paints on my palette in anticipation of the famous artist to begin his demonstration and how we would first start on our paintings. It was information of color and brush stroke that I still retrieve in my mind even to this day, even after 50 years. We used oil paints for this workshop, and I am still in love with the smell of turps and oil paints, as much as all those wonderful days during that first workshop.



Mom would take me to our local park next to our lake, full of swamp things, huge pine trees, and gorgeous bald cypress trees with Spanish moss on almost every limb. She would draw and paint in water color the most beautiful scenes and I would try my best to do what she was doing. But the most important thing I learned from these times, was to look and see and try to capture real nature on paper.



I received my Bachelors of Fine Art from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La. in 1974. My most influential instructor was a fine artist/illustrator, Albino Hinahosa. His focus on good design, composition, figurative subject matter, and attention to detail were taught in a loose illustrative style. I incorporate the elements of design, learned in these years with him. Color theory classes infatuated me also and I reflect back on projects using and understanding color, how it affects the viewers eye, the emotions, the movements in a composition and in general how it creates excitement.  I was very pleased to receive the 1974 Illustrator of the Year Award from Louisiana Tech University.



Many years prior to attending college, my first most influential teacher was actually my elementary school principal, Mr. Middleton. He always had special projects going in the arts and I would be right there waiting to be included. One I remember so vividly was huge mosaic murals about the history of Louisiana and those murals still hang prominently in the cafeteria and auditorium of this elementary school. His encouragement to paint and draw garnered my very first award for a regional contest depicting thoughts on beautifying our city. I won a cash award and a spot on a local tv program. I was hooked. I loved being an artist and I was only 9 years old !  Art is so important in our early years and needs to be in our school programs.



I believe, working as an advertising designer, had the most influence on my work today. It was challenging every day, being creative on the spur of the moment. It was fast paced and you had to pay attention to client needs, detail, and incorporate all the elements and principles of design to be successful in this field. I use those skills today in my oil paintings, and paint with bold, fast, strong color and brush strokes. It is on an intuitive level, letting a painting come together through my minds eye.



I welcome commission orders. Some of the collectors of my works of art, return for specific subjects and compositions on commission. We talk by email and by phone and decide on subject, size, and client photos (if needed). Most of the time, requests come in for a painting based on some of my past sold works, and I enjoy those the most. The client will specify a specific size canvas or will ask my opinion on size that I feel is most appropriate for a particular subject. It is always a joy to bring their requests to completion and send the painting to the client for their first “reveal” upon opening their carefully prepared shipping package. I take great pride in every work I send out.



My love of horses goes way back about 56 years, when my mom and dad got our first horse for our family. I have owned and ridden horses ever since and found you could learn something new about them each day and still have much more to learn.  In 1985, I created a video of how to draw the horse anatomy and the simple and short “how to video” was bought by Walt Disney Productions for their study and an up coming animated movie. I was thrilled. In college, I still drew and painted horses, and at one point, one of my professors told me that if I would quit using bold colors and quit drawing and painting horses, I might become a good artist.
This only made me want to explore the horse as a subject more and use even bolder color. The true love of horses, my intense desire to know them and understand their psyche, their anatomy, the look in their eyes and their true desire to please you, has brought me to this point in my painting style when painting horses. It is the awareness of the beauty of this magnificent creature that I want to convey in my paintings. I want viewers to understand how important this gift from God is and the need to protect our wild horses in America and beyond.

VL Featured Artist Dawn Waters Baker

Dawn feels like her first language was beauty. That was how her heart was stirred to art. Born and raised a missionary kid she learned to look for it in the cracks and crevices of lives much harder then her own. In college, she learned how to find her own way to express her heart through painting. Dawn’s husband is a gentle gift who likes quiet as much as she does. They have three kids and with them the quiet left. It birthed a joy found in working on what's important and striving for love in all things.


She likes to think of her work as a “glimpse of the mystery.”  The metaphors of life held in branches, cloud wisps and water.  There is something that compels Dawn to paint, not what is literally seen but what is felt.  For her, the window into the spiritual is nature. It seems to be the image that she is invited to pass through into something much richer and deeper and full of beauty.

Her art is collected by many businesses as well as private owners.  Some of which are: Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas Eye Care Associates, Dallas Baptist University, She currently finished five original drawings for the book, “Why, O God?” published by Crossway books.  She is a member of Artists of Texas. Dawn is affiliated with Mary Tomas Gallery in Dallas Design District, Smith Klein Gallery in Boulder, Colorado and currently with the summer group exhibit at White Stone Gallery in Philadelphia, PA.  Her work has been in National shows including The National Weather Biennale, CIVA Contemporary Images of Mary and Ex Nihilo at Roberts Wesleyan College.  Her work is available internationally through Veritasse based in London, England.

Artspan Artist Spotlight with Jean Howard

When did you realize you loved art and wanted to be an artist?
I don't remember exactly when I first wanted to be an artist. 

Who has been your mentor, or greatest influence to date?
My father was an architect and did some watercolor renderings of his projects.  I think that I always drawing.  When I was 13 he gave me some art books and about that time I knew that I wanted to be an artist. He was my greatest mentor.
Who is another living artist you admire and why?
The artists that I admire are Richard Diebenkorn and Hans Halls. I know that they are dead but I am not influenced as much by today's artists.


What is your favorite surface to create work on or to work with? Describe it if you make it yourself.
I like to work on handmade watercolor paper when I do watercolors and canvas for oils.

 Do you have a favorite color palette?
Not a favorite color palette.
 

How often do you work on your artwork? How many hours a week?   

I work in chunks, solid for awhile and then NOT for awhile.

What are your inspirations for your work?  

I am inspired by things that I see, sometimes unexpectedly.

 What is your favorite color in your closet? 

I don't have a favorite color.  I thought about this question a lot. I am more interested in a relationship between colors. My closet reflects this also.

What book are you reading this week? 

I am reading "behind the beautiful forevers" by Katherine Boo.

What is your favorite food? 

I love lobster.

What color sheets are on your bed right now? 

My sheets are beige.

Do you have a passion or hobby other than painting? What is it? 

My other interests include gardening and duplicate bridge.

Who would you love to paint? 

I love to paint the Ocean.


If you were an animal what would you be and why?      

I would like to be a seagull to fly around the banks of the ocean.

Share something with us that few people know about you.  

I am a very private person.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?  

I would love to live in Laguna Beach.

VL Studio Visit with William Beebe

Art has always been in my blood, but I took a circuitous route in becoming a full-time professional artist.   In my junior year of college I signed up for a portrait painting class hoping to improve my GPA.  Up until then my life had been all about sports.  I had always been a doodler though, drawing in pencil and seeing the world in black and white.  The thought of being an artist never crossed my mind until I discovered the world of oil painting.  My portrait-painting teacher that semester greatly encouraged me and the seed was planted!

After graduating from the University of Maryland with a Studio/Fine Art degree the pragmatic side of me took over.  I was 23 years old, newly married and living in the suburbs of Washington, DC.  I couldn’t find a job in art because I didn’t study graphic arts.  I found myself working as a bookkeeper and then back at the U. of MD for my second degree in Accounting.  Then I spent a year in tax accounting followed by several years as an accountant in private industry.  I never felt like it was my destiny.

In the meantime, my father died suddenly from cancer as my mother was fighting her own long battle with cancer.  My father was the one who had told me to do what makes me happy.  My mother was the one who took me to art galleries and saved my drawings.  They were giving me the gift of developing a life compass.  I was now at a crossroads and that inner compass was pointing me in a new direction. 

My wife, Jen, and I decided to take a much-needed vacation to Maine and it was there that I became inspired to paint!  I came home from that special trip and painted a schooner docked in Boothbay Harbor.  I started painting more, dreaming of living in Maine and painting as a vocation.  Before long we decided to take a leap of faith.

Now I find myself looking back on 24 years of being a full-time artist.  I appreciate every day of “going to work” and am extremely grateful to have been able to pursue my passion of painting for a living. 

The Maine paintings I produced early on ranged from lighthouses, to working waterman scenes, to the small coastal fishing villages and islands.  My work attracted the attention of Mr. Charles Cawley, an avid art collector and the CEO of MBNA, an international credit card company.  He started collecting my work and eventually hired me to become the resident artist for MBNA!

For nine wonderful years I had the honor of having my paintings featured on the cover of MBNA’s quarterly reports.  Along with paintings of their many office buildings around the world, they encouraged me to continue painting Maine scenes for their collection.

Over time I became more narrowly focused on capturing the beauty of the Maine Windjammer fleet.  Hundreds of schooners used to work the Maine waters, hauling lumber and limestone.  I was intrigued by how few of them are left and saddened by the thought that someday they will be gone.  Each ship has a long history, some dating over one hundred years!

Many hours of painting in the smallest of details were spent on each ship.  I wanted to pay tribute to each ship by recording an accurate interpretation of it on canvas to hopefully last for another hundred years.

My maritime paintings have been exhibited in numerous gallery and museum shows throughout the years including the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, ME and at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, OR, where I won a Merit award in the 12th Annual Maritime Art Exhibition.  Additionally my work has been a part of several Marine Masters Exhibitions in Mystic, CT and Thomaston, ME and the 26th Annual International Marine Art Exhibition at the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport.


When we moved to Virginia in 2002, I was a little concerned that I might have trouble finding that same passion for painting that I found in Maine.

Then one day I heard that the state of Virginia had built a replica of an historic wooden pilot schooner named Schooner Virginia.  After doing a little research I found out that it was going to be docked in Portsmouth, VA.  When I walked up the dock and saw the Virginia for the first time I was taken aback.  The tall ship with its beautiful black shiny hull and gold engraved letters on the bow spelling VIRGINIA had grandeur to it. I took hundreds of detail pictures that day in Portsmouth.

I had found new inspiration and immediately started planning a series of paintings featuring the Schooner Virginia.

Every year there is a Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race that begins in Annapolis, MD at the Bay Bridge and continues on down the Bay.  I witnessed and photographed the Virginia and the Pride of Baltimore II in a nose-to-nose race under ideal sailing conditions.  It was a powerful moment for me.

During that race I also photographed the Pride of Baltimore II, the Lettie G. Howard out of New York, and other smaller schooners, which sail the waters of the Chesapeake.

My first painting of the Virginia was a large commissioned piece featuring the tall ship cutting through the dark water with speed and grace.  I was honored when approached by the folks at the Schooner Virginia to have reproduction giclee prints made from this painting to help with their annual fundraiser.  We worked closely with the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, VA to produce these quality prints. 

Subsequently, I completed four more Schooner Virginia paintings in competitive races with sister ships to complete my series.

I’ve discovered that like art, a need to be near the water is in my blood.  Being able to combine the two callings as a maritime artist has turned out to be a dream come true! 

Visual Language Studio Visit with Jenedy Paige

I’m not one of those artists that knew my calling in life from the age of five. I didn’t even try oil painting for the first time until I was a junior in college. I hear people talk about how all artists are just born with ability and I have to laugh. Mine has been a skill that I have developed over just hours and hours of plain old hard work and the prayer of faith.

As a Senior in High School my family moved to a small town in Northern Colorado where I found my dreams of academic grandeur dashed. No AP classes? No Honors program? This led me to signing up for six art classes. There, at a tiny high school in a tiny town, I found an art teacher that truly inspired me. She taught the idea that art was all about communicating a message, and this was news to me, I always thought it was about making something look “real”. The idea of being able to send a message through an image really spoke to my heart, and my passion for art began. I then went on to study at BYU-Idaho, at another small town in southeast Idaho, where I found myself once again inspired by amazing teachers. Though at the bottom of the raw talent pool, I was motivated by an academic scholarship and would go to school at 4:00 am to work before classes began. Little by little, I improved, I was able to keep my scholarship, and graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with a BFA in illustration.


After college my husband and I moved to California where I continued to paint. I joined the Daily Painters craze, and just tried to get more experience behind my belt. I began teaching at a private art school and later would teach out of my own studio. I discovered I loved teaching just as much as I loved painting. I soon became a mother for the first time, and began the careful balance of juggling motherhood, teaching, and painting.

In 2010, I gave birth to my second son. Painting became harder than ever, but I knew that it was always second to being a mother, and I found that as I put my children first, time to paint always seemed to find a way. I learned to tell myself that it was okay if I only got 30 minutes to paint one day that meant I was 30 minutes better today than I was yesterday. I learned that in order to be a mother and an artist, you have to be patient with yourself.

In 2011, after a glorious summer with our two boys in Ensenada, Mexico, I found myself face to face with my worst nightmare. My beautiful three-year-old son was pulled from a pool, and we spent nearly two months in the hospital with him as he fought for his life. Then in November he quietly slipped home to the God that gave him life. What a gift he had been to our family, and what a gift art became to me as I dealt with all the emotions associated with such grief. I found solace in my faith, in my family, and in my painting. So many tears were shed as I tried to find some way to pull all the sorrow from my heart and let it go on a canvas. I found a new appreciation for art that could have come in no
other way. It took some time, but I found the tears began
to dry and the smiles began to return.

We now currently reside in Arizona, and I’m expecting our fourth child. I continue to paint a little bit every day, and try to have as much fun with my kids as I can. I know how fragile life can be, and truly try to soak up every moment. I continue to work as hard as I can, and pray as hard as I can, and look to the future with happy anticipation.

Jenedy Paige
www.jenedypaige.com